Embrace, Cherish, and Love

Digital photographs and videos sprang up from the mobile device. In three dimensional, full color display, the names and ages of the young children in West Virginia appeared. It was like a panoply of joy and youth sprung up from the cell phone. The children didn’t look downtrodden or sad or impoverished despite the conditions that showed in other pictures of Appalachia. Acorn colored Redmond Stratton furrowed his brow. He and his white wife Glenda singled out a boy with cerulean eyes and a little girl with flaxen blonde hair.

“We would love to meet them, Case.” He motioned to his assistant for the helicopter. The aircraft lifted from its position on the Stratton estate in Hockessin, Delaware. The flight to West Virginia allowed the Strattons to experience a calmness and a clear-headedness.

“You know that there’s going to be backlash,” Case said.

“I’ve built a company from a $10,000 loan to $20 billion in profits. The reprisal that I experienced from that will be nothing like the hatred that I had experienced in building my company.”

The enterprise which Stratton spoke of concerned gourmet meals for active duty warriors in the field. The sales took off when the private company covered the costs that the government didn’t want to pay for ready to eat steak, lobster and caviar. Champagne was not included. But this excursion proved to be a fantastic one for Stratton. He and his wife had always wanted to adopt. So this presented the optimum opportunity for them to embrace, cherish, and love two children even if they were not their offspring.

The helicopter landed. Stratton helped Glenda out of the aircraft. The two met up with the director of the adoption agency, Carruthers Bas.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both. Please come right this way,” Bas said.

Children ran back and forth, but upon hearing footsteps and seeing Bas’s face, they all ceased their actions and stood completely still. They stared.

“Mr. and Mrs. Stratton, I would like you to meet Collier and Alexina.”

The two children bowed and curtsied, respectively.

“You’ll just need to sign some digital documents and you’ll both be on your way,” Bas said.

Upon completion of the forms, the Strattons took with them Collier and Alexina to live in Hockessin.

Before they were to leave, some of the staff hurled insults at the billionaire family and intimated mystified curses upon them. Stratton and Glenda shrugged off such vicious displays and entered the helicopter with their children tagging along.

“You’re going to love Delaware,” Glenda told Collier and Alexina. “There’s so much to learn and explore there.”

Collier just looked out the window while Alexina played with her doll.

Once the helicopter landed at the Stratton residence, the blended family disembarked to bad news. Digital screens all over blared how the Stratton's had adopted two white babies and never consulted with their parents. The television tabloids and news shows cropped up, already denouncing the mixed unit.

Stratton received a call. It was from a reporter named Eric Earick.

“Tell me Mr. Stratton, why did you adopt these children?”

“I did it out of pure selfishness. Why would I go all the way to Africa and pick up some kids when there are children in this country who are in desperate need of nourishment, shelter, clothing, and most importantly, love? My wife and I are not only financially ready to meet the challenges of raising children, but we possess the mental wherewithal to meet the rigors that child rearing brings. You can say that a black man shouldn’t raise white babies all you want. The fact remains that I am positioned to allow these children to want for nothing and to receive the best care and attention that my family can muster.”

Earick, stunned by Stratton’s answer, didn’t really know what to make of it. He wondered what he would tell his boss.

“Print it just as he said it,” Delaware Times editor Rhodes Coyle said. “It’ll be sensational.”

After the internet had lambasted the Strattons and threatened to boycott his business, Stratton Gourmet Field Foods, Inc. Stratton knew that he had made the right decision.