Tyler lay there on the floor for a few seconds before the wounds on his body caused by the accidents began to heal quickly. Everyone there watched in amazement as the blood on his skin began to dry up and the injuries on his body and face began to disappear.

And then, to everyone’s utmost surprise, he got up as if nothing had happened, dusted his shirt, and continued walking his way.

“Are you ok boy?” One of them said, stopping him. “You look like you were hit badly.”

“I’m fine,” Tyler replied. “Thank you,” he told the people gathered there.

Everyone was glad to see that Tyler was ok, even though no one could explain what had just happened. Another woman who had witnessed the accident got out of her car walked up to him and began to speak.

“But still, I think you should at least go to the hospital to see if you have any internal injuries, you know you can never be too sure. Give me your mom’s number, I’ll call her and tell her what happened. Then from there, we’ll report the driver at the police station. Thankfully I can identify the trailer and I think I saw some numbers on his plate. The shameless driver didn’t even bother to stop and check if you were ok.”

“Ok ma’am, thank you,” Tyler said as he followed the woman into her car which was parked on the side of the road. He knew he was fine but just decided to play along to avoid suspicion. Things like this had never been a surprise to him, as he had never had any injuries as a child. He remembered the staff back at the orphanage, when they would always talk about the famous car accident that killed his mother. The rescue team had pulled him out of the wreckage unscratched, there was no way a two-week-old baby could have survived such a tragedy, but he did, his mothers’ body had been burnt into oblivion, while his baby skin remained smooth and unscratched.

Dan had witnessed the accident from a distance but hadn’t gone to where Tyler was. He came out here to look for one of his runaways but went to the accident scene upon seeing people gathered there. Could it be? No, he wouldn’t want to scare the boy by going to meet him. He wanted to be sure that Tyler was the kind that they were looking for, and he knew just what to do to find out.

He took out his phone from his pocket and began to dial a number.

“Hello,” he said after the recipient picked, “I think we found another one.”

***

“Are you ok, honey?” Stella asked running towards him upon seeing Tyler seated in the hospital lobby. Carl followed behind her.

“We came as soon as we heard what had happened,” she continued.

“I’m fine mom, you know my injuries always heal quickly,” Tyler said to her.

“This isn’t a matter of injury Tyler, you got hit by a trailer, you could have died!”

“I know mom, I’m sorry.”

“Why didn’t you take the bus as your mom said?” Carl asked him.

“I didn’t want the other kids to laugh at me,” Tyler replied.

“So, because you don’t want people to laugh at you, you risk your life by walking on the streets alone??? Or you prefer to be laughed at in your grave?”

“That’s enough,” Stella said, turning to Carl. “This is no time to be scolding him. Besides, today is his birthday. Let’s just be glad that he’s ok.”

“So, what did the doctors say?” She asked as she turned back to Tyler.

“As I said, I’m fine mom.”

“Thank goodness nothing happened. The woman who called me, where is she?”

“She went to the police station to report what happened while I was waiting to see the doctor. She says I should go there when I’m done to drop my statement.”

“Ok, let’s head there now,” Stella said, helping him stand up. The three of them left the hospital and Carl drove them off to the police station before heading home.

***

Tyler and his parents had just arrived home from the police station. Mimi greeted them at the door, wishing Tyler a happy birthday as they all entered the house. Jake was upstairs in his room, doing his homework.

And how’s my little princess doing? Carl said as he scooped her upon his shoulder, went into the living room, and took her around the couch like an airplane. Mimi giggled at this gesture as she had always loved the little airplane rides her father gives her.

As Tyler was climbing upstairs to his room, Carl called out to him after dropping Mimi.

“Not so fast, young man. We are still going to talk about what happened today after dinner, and you will join us today, no buts.”

“Yes dad,” he said, before retreating to his room.

After about half an hour later, Stella called them all down for dinner. She and Carl had prepared birthday presents for Tyler, and would give them to him after dinner. As they all sat down to eat, Jake started looking at Tyler with a suspicious eye. Tyler pretended not to notice and just then, Mimi started talking.

“Mom, Dad, Tyler got hit by a truck today.”

Stella and Carl upon hearing this dropped their spoons and turned to Mimi, surprised looks on their faces.

“How did you know about that honey?” Stella asked.

“It’s on the news. Someone got a video of it,” Jake said. “What baffled people the most was that he was unharmed by the accident, that’s why it got so popular, it even had like a million views on YouTube. People were saying that he might be some kind of superman.”

“Oh no,” Carl said, dropping his head. This was the one thing he didn’t like. He just wanted a normal family and the things that had been happening with Tyler lately were far from normal. Very soon people would start thinking that he was some kind of scientific experiment. It was now getting very hard to keep things with him under control. At this point, he didn’t even know what to do again.

After dinner, Carl dismissed everyone, telling Stella to give Tyler his birthday gifts in his room, as the mood had been ruined. Before heading upstairs to his bedroom, his phone began ringing in his pocket and he checked it to see who it was. It had no name on it. Strange, who could be calling him at such a time? He picked it up anyway.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Mr. Dalton,” the caller said.