Surprise

"Rick, is that you?" she asked, but she already knew. She just wanted to hear his voice.

"Yeah, it's me, Mom," he said and she wrapped her arms around him. She praised God over and over sobbing at the same time.

The music stopped and a hundred people gathered around. Rick noticed his sister Lydia and Davy-Jake hanging back. His mother finally let him go and the crowd started welcoming him but then Sheriff Dan Diamond dragged him inside the metal tool shed. He stationed Judson Hawkingson outside to keep everyone including Sara out. He shut the door and started interrogating Rick.

"Are you really Rick Machado?"

"Yes, it's me." After just a few seconds inside the shed Rick was sweating profusely.

"Why do you have blue eyes now?" Dan asked.

"They're contacts. I had to change my appearance to fool the biometric scanners." Rick tried to get them out but had difficulty because he had left them in too many days. He finally got them both out and looked his new father-in-law in the eye. Dan grunted and continued.

"Did they give you any injections? Were you exposed to any sick animals? We have to know if they exposed you to any diseases that might infect the rest of us."

"No and no, I wasn't exposed to anything like that." Rick sat down on the seat of the riding lawn mower.

"You didn't go through any kind of transgenic procedure?" Dan asked.