by CW Johnson
“I- I’m with- I’m with Mallory,” the shadow said, slowly moving into the light. A shy, small figure of a girl appeared with one hand over her stomach, the other hand covering her chin. She was staring at Pete.
“Come in.” Michael said.
The girl slowly walked into the apartment, never taking her eyes off Pete. Pete stared back, confused.
“Yes, this is Peter,” Michael said.
The girl’s dark, unblinking eyes, huge and oval, stared up at Pete. A quivering hand covered her mouth. She was slight of figure, small and petite. Her flawless, olive skin and black hair suggested an Indian, possibly oriental background.
“Peter, this is Sarah.”
Pete mechanically offered to shake her hand.
Michael laughed, put his hand on her shoulder and gently nudged her towards Pete. “This is Peter.”
She dropped her eyes and shook his hand. “I can’t believe I’m finally meeting you.”
Brother Michael continued laughing at Pete’s bewildered face. Finally, he said, “I can see you two are a little confused by this sudden turn of events…let me explain. The reason these ladies are so enamored with the two of you, and vice versa, is that you have all been made that way. The father has altered them from birth for you and you alone. And, you’ll find that you have been altered in such a way that these women find you irresistible as well. This is the way it was with Adam and Eve. They were specifically made for one another. For instance, when I look at you, Barney, I see a big, odd-looking man with rotten teeth and a big nose.”
Mallory whirled and flashed a black look at Michael.
“But Mallory thinks your big nose is incredibly sexy. She never understood why, but she’s been attracted to large noses her entire life.”
Mallory looked up at Barney, apparently looking for flaws.
Michael turned his attention to Pete. “To me, Peter is a small, unassuming man with big ears. Sarah, on the other hand, thinks Peter looks like Jessie Espinosa.”
Sarah looked up at Pete. “Jessie Espinosa wishes he was as handsome as Pete.”
Pete flushed.
“These two girls have been looking for you their entire lives,” Michael continued, “and you’ve been looking for them, you just didn’t know it. You’ll find you are all perfectly suited to each others’ needs.”
Pete put his hands in his pocket and glanced at Sarah. Mallory gently reached and took hold of Barney’s hand.
“Well, I’m spent,” Michael said. “It’s off to bed for me.” He turned, walked to his bedroom and closed the door.
Malory smiled up at Barney and squeezed his hand. Barney glanced at her then fixed his eyes back on the blank wall in front of him.
Mallory finally spoke, breaking the long uncomfortable silence. “I can’t believe I finally found you.”
Barney looked at her, bewildered. “How did you find me?”
“Brother Michael got in touch with me and explained it all. It was so strange, I spent my entire life missing you, yet I hadn’t even met you. I knew exactly what I wanted in a man and no one out there was even close…until now.” She smiled.
“Me too,” Sarah said, standing close to Pete. “Brother Michael found me too and here I am. He set us up in an apartment on the other side of the complex a little less than a week ago, then invited us over this evening, told us to come at exactly 6:47, not a minute sooner or later. Isn’t that strange? It’s funny,” she continued, looking into Pete’s eyes, “I knew who you were the moment I saw you.”
The bedroom door opened. Michael appeared at the door, dressed in a white bath robe. “Remember this, brothers, the father is capable of wonderful things. He knows how to take care of his children. But never forget, the father has given, and the father can just as easily take it all away.”
~~~
The Delta IV rockets had pushed the payloads into space two days earlier. Now, all eight remaining solid rocket boosters floated precariously in eight separate orbits.
Two days prior, about 45 minutes after launch, Edmonton’s orbital maneuvering engines fired to round out the orbit at about 350 miles. During the first 48 hours following the launch, the Trawler commander executed a series of maneuvers designed to slowly close in on the orbiting solid rocket boosters. At around fifty miles apart, they were traveling relatively close to one another, considering each SRB carried over a million pounds of solid rocket propellant.
One of the last two boosters launched was trailing all of the others and was currently floating just aft of the Edmonton’s port bow. Trawler Commander John Lee Gunnarson was at the helm.
About an hour earlier he had crossed within 600 feet directly beneath the SRB, crossing an imaginary line known as the R-Bar running from the solid rocket booster towards earth. He then flew a half circle around, crossing its direction of travel. This dangerous maneuver was necessary to reach a point about 250 feet directly above the SRB. Gunnarson then slowly moved down the R-bar towards the SRB. He completed the rendezvous by placing the edge of the Edmonton’s payload bay within 10 feet of the explosive packed missile.
Just prior to the rendezvous, Payload Commander Elisabeth Jiang had opened the 60-foot-long, 15-foot-wide payload bay doors and was preparing to unfold the Trawler Remote Manipulator System known as Canadarm, a fifty foot long robotic arm.
At Jiang’s prompting, the Canadarm’s upper arm boom slowly rose up and out of the bus-sized payload bay. Once the upper arm boom had reached optimum pitch, she maneuvered the shoulder yaw mechanism, rolling the Canadarm’s elbow boom into perfect alignment with the adjacent orbiting SRB. She slowly edged the elbow boom within a dangerous four feet of the floating bomb. This allowed her to maneuver the pitch of the wrist boom into place directly in front of, and within two feet of the missile.
The end effector, a specially designed grapple fixture consisting of a three-wire snare mechanism, located at the end of the Canadarm, was then used to snag one of three pre-placed Curvic couplings installed in the nose of the SRB.
At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Mission Control, the onboard camera recorded the completely successful, expertly orchestrated docking of the first SRB. Cheers went up worldwide.
The crew of the Edmonton would now tether the SRB and tow it on to the next one in line where the entire process would start all over again. If all went well, the Edmonton would be safely towing the entire group of solid rocket boosters towards the international space station within its scheduled sixteen days.
~~~
Blaze had done exactly as the president asked and showed up at his office early on the morning after the explosion had taken place. He’d done it all again the next morning and the next.
The morning traffic jams had returned, suggesting that everyone else had taken the president’s plea to heart as well.
The entire Patch Rankin building was abuzz with talk of the mission. Blaze had settled into his routine, which mostly consisted of keeping everyone up to date on the latest news regarding the Vinces cloning project. Very little took place that Blaze wasn’t aware of, and he had recently become aware of an especially troubling piece of information.
He had just taken a sip of coffee when his secretary buzzed him. “Yes, KaLee?”
“Father Millyard is here to see you.”
“Send him in,” Blaze said, moving to straighten his desk.
Father Randall Millyard’s principal function was that of liaison between Blaze and Bishop Hickie. The Pope had condemned human cloning early on and although Father Millyard, Blaze and Bishop Hickie were all still officially clergymen, the church itself was completely unaware of their involvement. If something went wrong and the church discovered their association with the Vinces, the three men would all but certainly be excommunicated and their illegal activity exposed. The public would be informed that elected officials and even a Supreme Court justice had been involved. The scandal would rock both the religious and political worlds. As a result, the entire project was covert, to say the least.
“Father Jenkins,” Millyard said, offering his hand. “How have you been holding up under these extraordinary circumstances?”
“I was very comforted by the President’s press conference,” Blaze said. “I’m confident everything will work out. Please have a seat,” Blaze motioned without standing, “and how about you?”
“Me and mine are coping,” Millyard said. “Did you know my sister went to school with Elisabeth Jiang?”
“From the Trawler?”
“Yes, they’re still close friends; in fact I’ve met her little daughter Emily personally.”
“Really?” Blaze said. “You probably couldn’t get near the poor child now.”
“Yes, that’s true, poor little thing. The press and paparazzi keep her and her family completely under siege these days.”
“I wonder if her mother knows.” Blaze said.
“I doubt it. I think she’s pretty intent on the mission at hand.”
Blaze reached for his coffee cup. “How’s your family? Didn’t you have a Niece in med school?”
“Yes…Birdie… but she’s run off, I’m afraid.”
“Run off?”
“She left school. I think she had difficulty dealing with the pressure. At any rate, the family is looking for her.”
“She’ll turn up and probably return to school,” Blaze said. “Chances are, she just needed a little time to re-group.”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
After a pause Blaze said, “so, any news from the Bishop?”
“Oh yes.” Millyard reached for his brief case, opened the latch and produced several printed pages along with a check. “The Vinces have approved your request for additional funds, and the Bishop sent you a personal note as well. Do you think the extra funds will be necessary?”
“I certainly hope not,” Blaze said. “It’s obvious we have to beef up our surveillance. I hate to do it. Despite my initial objections they both seem to be good kids in their own way. I pray we won’t have to intervene.”
~~~
“This is incredible,” Maria said, stepping out of her car.
Todd walked to the front of Maria’s yellow Volkswagen and retrieved a bulky picnic basket from the trunk.
The spot was shady and cool, surrounded by thick forest. Just in front and below them, was an ancient asphalt road that disappeared into the vast cool waters of the Cumberland River. A dilapidated old sign read, ‘Public Boat launch,’ but no one else was around. The wide, slow moving river made a soft, hypnotic trickling sound as it leisurely meandered on its way.
Off in the distance birds sang as Todd searched for the perfect spot for lunch. He threw a blanket and a couple of enormous, over-stuffed pillows under the shady canopy of a prehistoric looking ash tree. Maria followed him but he wouldn’t let her sit down.
“One minute,” he said, holding his hands out, “hold up just a sec.” He bounded off towards the car and quickly returned with a couple of small folding chairs.
“Oh you are so swee—”
“No, wait,” Todd said, “just one more sec.” He turned, and sprinted back to the car, returned with a small table and pushed it in front of the chairs. “Go on ahead, and sit down. I’ll be right back.” He ran off again towards the car.
“What are you doing, you nutcase?” Maria caterwauled, laughing.
“I’ll be right there!” he yelled back. “Go on now, sit down.”
He returned with a vase filled with softball sized yellow carnations in a green fern bed, highlighted with clouds of tiny, white baby’s-breath sprouts. Under his arm, he carried a tablecloth and candelabra, complete with two sky-blue candles. Maria giggled as he threw the tablecloth over the table, placed the flower arrangement just so, and found the perfect place for the candelabra. “Where did you find room in the car for all this stuff?”
“Be right back.” he said, ignoring her question.
“Hey,” she called after him, as he disappeared in the direction of the car, “when are we gonna’ eat—” She erupted with laughter mid-sentence.
He had returned with a bottle of Merlot and two sparkling wine glasses. It was the black tux top, thrown over the tee shirt and knee-high shorts, together with the small white towel, strategically placed over his left forearm that struck her as so funny.
He moved stoically to her side and placed the glass in front of her, wrapped the towel around the wine bottle, tilted his head slightly to the left and filled her glass half full. Maria was laughing so hard she could hardly breathe. Todd stood by disapprovingly with one eyebrow piously raised. Finally, she pulled it together enough to sit up straight, lift her glass, roll it in a counterclockwise circle, and sniff. She all but laughed again when she looked up into Todd’s intensely serious, crooked face but instead managed to produce her most bored expression.
“Waiter,” she said, monotone, “I think you misunderstood me. I ordered wine. You must have thought I said anti-freeze.”
Todd lost control of his face and started grinning.
Maria laughed so hard she spilled her wine. “You are sooo crazy.”
Todd pulled out an overgrown wicker-looking lunch box, complete with two latching doors.
“Where did you ever find that?” Maria said. “It looks like Toto’s little thingy in that Wizard of Oz movie.”
Todd smiled and pulled a bucket of Lucky Fried Chicken from deep within the basket.
Maria laughed again.
He fished around, until he had found, and placed, the entire meal of fried chicken, biscuits, mashed potatoes, corn and coleslaw on the table.
As he busied himself, Maria smiled at him. A soft summer breeze gently swirled her hair around her face. “This is wonderful,” she said quietly. “I love this place…but—”
“But what?” Todd said.
“I’m sorry, you’re being so sweet.”
“What is it?”
“I can’t drink the wine, in case you haven’t noticed...” She leaned towards him, rolling her hand over her noticeably protruding belly, “I’m great with child.”
“Oh,” Todd hollered, slapping his palm against his forehead, “I’m the worst dad.”
“It’s ok,” Maria said. “I have my bottled water.”
“I blew it—I wanted it to be perfect.”
“No, it’s wonderful—”
“Oh, but wait,” Todd said, looking up, “now I remember.” He reached for the wine bottle and pointed at the label. “Check it,” he said, grinning, “It’s non-alcoholic.”
Maria smiled and put her hand on Todd’s arm. “This is perfect. You are the sweetest person in the world.”
Todd flushed and looked away. “I just wanted to celebrate our viability. Nearly eight months…if the baby were to be born now, chances are good he’d survive.”
“I’ve never been this happy,” she said.
Todd’s eyes widened. “Don’t move.”
“What?” Maria asked, frowning.
“Shh…turn around…slowly.”
“Wha--”
“Quietly turn around,” Todd whispered, pointing behind her.
She slowly turned. Just over her left shoulder a large grey squirrel clung to the trunk of their shade tree. Maria gasped. “It’s beautiful.” It was so close Maria could have reached out and touched it.
“Maybe it’s hungry,” Todd whispered. “Give it some of your chicken.”
“Squirrels don’t eat meat, do they?”
“Oh yeah, give him some of your bread.”
Maria broke off a piece of bread and gingerly pushed it towards the squirrel. It looked at her warily, reached out with its front paws and took the bread from her hand. It jostled the bread and quickly bounded up the tree.
“That was awesome,” Maria said. “Have you ever seen a squirrel do that before?”
“It probably gets fed here a bunch,” Todd said, before sipping his wine.
Maria picked up a piece of chicken and began pulling the meat off the bone with a plastic fork
.
“Do you remember the night you were so upset?” Todd said, after a short pause.
“The night the rocket blew up? I sure do, my hair is only just getting back to normal.”
“You remember what you said?”
“Honestly I really don’t remember much about that night. When I saw that thing blow apart on TV—I thought it was all over for us.”
“A lot of folks did,” Todd said, reaching for a chicken wing. “The roads were practically empty that night. The traffic lights weren’t even working.”
“What were you and Father Jenkins talking about?”
“Oh let’s see, us mostly.”
“Us?”
“Well, sort of.”
“You never told me how you happened to run into him.”
“I was just driving around and saw him sitting in a car parked on the side of the road.”
“What were you doing driving around? I thought you had gone for snacks?”
“Uh… I just, felt like taking a little drive.”
Maria studied his face for a moment. “You don’t have to lie.”
“No, it’s true. He was just sitting there—”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Don’t be mad,” he said. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you that night.”
“I know. It’s just that, that was such a strange night. I remember going out on the front lawn hoping to see you drive up at any moment. It was so odd. There wasn’t a soul; no cars, no dogs barking anywhere. Even the crickets were quiet that night. To be honest,” she continued, shrugging, “I thought you had left the baby and me.”
Todd reached for her hand. “Not a chance.”
She smiled. “I was kinda mean to you that day.”
After a moment, she returned to her meal.
“Now that you mention it,” Todd said thoughtfully, “Father Jenkins did say something sort of out there.”
“He did?” she said, biting at a chicken leg, “What about?”
“He said something that bothered me a little.”
She looked up from her chicken leg and raised an eyebrow. “What did he say?”
“If there was something that really bothered you—about me, you’d just tell me, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course,” she said.
“There wouldn’t be a need to go through a third party would there?”
