by Jacob Rayne
The incident with Guy lay in the back of both Josh and Marsha’s minds, not quite forgotten, but buried deep enough that they didn’t think about it for a long time.
10
Caleb was a week into his second year when he lost his footing and fell down the stairs. Josh saw it happen as he was following his son down to the kitchen.
Caleb fell headfirst, bouncing off every step on the way down. His back twisted at an awkward angle as he landed and his scream of pain tore right through his dad.
‘Caleb,’ he shouted, gently slapping his son’s face to keep him conscious. Caleb’s eyelids flickered but he was out cold.
Josh hastily double-tapped the Z icon in an attempt to bring Caleb round, but the device did not rouse him.
He cursed under his breath. He’d been meaning to repair the loose tread for a while now.
His laziness could end up costing his son his life.
Marsha was out at her mother’s and he was loath to worry her unnecessarily, so he called for an ambulance.
While he waited, he called Laverick’s emergency number. The phone went straight to answerphone. Josh left a quick message to say he was taking Caleb to hospital and hung up.
In the hospital, Caleb still did not regain consciousness. Josh had the device in his pocket, keeping it hidden from the doctors as he did not want them to know that Caleb was a digital child. He felt they would look down on him for taking such a decision.
‘He has severe bruising to his head,’ the doctor said. ‘He needs a CAT scan to make sure there isn’t internal trauma.’
Josh grimaced at the apparent severity of the situation. It didn’t occur to him to tell the doctor about Caleb’s unique biology.
‘There is some external swelling, but no internal damage,’ the doctor informed him after the CAT scan had been completed.
‘Thank Christ for that,’ Josh said.
‘He’s ready to go home,’ the doctor said with a smile.
Josh took Caleb home, pleased when he got in before Marsha. Now that he knew there was nothing majorly wrong he could reassure her. She was a bag of nerves at the best of times, this would have tipped her right over the edge.
As Josh switched on his mobile, he saw that there was a message on his voicemail. He left it for now and tended to Caleb. His son complained that his head was hurting, but Josh knew that the device had a very handy setting for pain management.
He debated whether he should ease Caleb’s suffering or let him get used to the pain. He decided that, since it was his fault his son had fallen, he would numb the pain for him.
He selected the option on the menu and flicked the analgesic slide to three quarters of the way from the top. He waited a moment. Caleb’s pained utterings eased a little.
‘You’ll be fine, son,’ Josh said, ruffling his son’s hair.
As he did so, he heard a strange sizzling sound, and inhaled the stench of burning flesh and hair. He looked at Caleb carefully and saw an arc of bright white sparks coming from inside his right ear. The smell of burning intensified as a small wisp of smoke drifted out.
‘Holy shit, what’s happening?’ Josh asked.
He panicked and double-tapped the Z icon to put Caleb to sleep.
He picked up his phone to call Dr Laverick, but before he did so decided to check his voicemail.
The message was from Dr Laverick and it was a short one. It simply said, ‘You must not let the hospital do any scans on Caleb.’
Josh just stared dumbly at his phone for a while then dialled Dr Laverick’s number.
The doctor answered after a couple of rings. ‘Is everything alright, Mr Walker?’ he asked, startling Josh a little with his prescience.
‘Erm, no not really. I only just got your message.’
Laverick let out a groan that made it clear he was distraught at the news he was about to receive.
‘We just got back from the hospital.’
‘Ah, sweet Jesus.’
‘What’s up?’
‘What is Caleb doing right now?’ The urgency in Laverick’s voice panicked Josh.
‘He’s asleep. I used the remote.’
‘And it worked?’
‘Yes.’
‘Thank Christ.’
‘What’s the problem?’
‘Hopefully nothing. I’m going to come and check Caleb. How long a sleep did you pick?’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘Put it for at least four hours then don’t touch the device. Don’t do anything other than adjust the sleep time. That’s very important.’
‘Is he going to be ok?’
‘I’ll be round as soon as I can.’
The phone cut off abruptly.
Josh quickly checked the sleep settings and nudged the slide up to six hours, just to be on the safe side. He paced the floor while he waited for Laverick to show.
While Josh fretted and wore out the tread on his trainers, Marsha had problems of her own. She had been in the middle of sorting out her mother’s housework when her phone had blared, surprising her with the harsh vibrations from inside the pocket of her stone-pressed Levis.
She saw Cynthia’s name on the screen and smiled as she answered.
The tone of her friend’s voice instantly informed her that this was not a friendly call. ‘Marsha, I’m so sorry to do this, but Guy had a fit. I had to rush him to hospital. They said he’s had a long term brain injury. It must have been caused by Caleb attacking him last year.’
‘Shit, I’m so sorry to hear that.’
‘The doctor recommended I press charges.’
‘Charges? Caleb is only two.’
‘I realise that, but he nearly killed my son. And I saw the control you had for him. He’s one of those bionic kids, isn’t he?’
‘Cynthia… I…’
‘My solicitor will be in touch soon.’
Marsha looked at the phone in her hand like it was a dangerous animal then burst into tears.
Laverick’s car screeched into the driveway exactly twenty two minutes after he had gotten off the phone to Josh. He ran up the drive and brayed on the door.
‘Where is he?’ he managed between breaths.
Josh pointed to his son who lay in the corner.
Laverick approached the sleeping child like he was a ticking bomb.
‘What happened?’
‘He fell down the stairs and bumped his head. I took him to the hospital and they put him into the CAT scan machine.’
Laverick winced at this. ‘Has anything happened since then?’
‘Yes, I upped his pain tolerance. After I did that I smelt burning and there were sparks and smoke coming out of one of his ears.’
‘Shit,’ Laverick hissed, failing to conceal his worry. ‘I’ll check him over. I do wish you had read the full instruction manual, Mr Walker. It is very clear that Caleb is not to be subjected to radiation.’
Josh apologised despite himself.
Laverick put a hand to Caleb’s chest first, then felt the back of his neck. ‘Which ear was it?’ he asked.
‘What?’
‘Which ear had the smoke coming out of it?’
‘Right.’
Laverick put his first two fingers to the back of Caleb’s right ear and started counting under his breath. After about thirty seconds he let go and nodded to himself.
‘Where is the device, please?’
Josh handed it to him carefully.
Laverick quickly checked a few things. ‘There has been a mild episode of Caleb’s version of a seizure. He seems fine. Let him wake naturally. Keep a close eye on him for the next ten days. If there are any signs that he is not responding to the device you must call me immediately. I cannot communicate the importance of that.’
‘I understand, but why?’
‘We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it, but he should be fine. It’s just a precaution.’
‘How safe is this technology, Doctor?’
Laverick dodged the question. He w
as let off the hook by Josh’s phone ringing.
‘Hey, honey, what’s the matter?’ Josh answered, hearing the panic in his wife’s tone.
He listened as she told him about the call from Cynthia, reassured her as best he could then hung up.
‘Everything ok?’ Laverick asked.
‘Ah, just that kid that Caleb attacked. His mother is pressing charges.’
‘Against Caleb?’
‘I think so. Marsha said that she knew he was a digital child.’
Laverick frowned. ‘We can’t let her do that. This technology is still in its infancy. Any bad press at this stage could cripple the research.’
Josh frowned. The doctor seemed more bothered about covering his own tracks than anything else. His phone blared in his pocket.
‘Sorry, another emergency,’ Laverick said, rushing out of the door with his phone clamped to his ear.
Josh watched him go, wondering what the hell he and Marsha had got themselves into.
Marsha came home, panic hewn into her features. ‘We can’t go to court,’ she sobbed. ‘They’ll take Caleb off us.’
‘It’ll be fine,’ Josh reassured her.
‘Guy had a fractured skull.’
‘These things happen, darling.’
‘Cynthia sounded so angry. She hates us, Josh.’
‘I doubt that. She’s just looking out for her kid, same as we are.’
He held her until she had calmed down.
‘Is Caleb ok?’
‘Kind of. He fell downstairs. I took him for a scan, which, it seems, is the cardinal sin with a digital child. Laverick has been round. He bollocked me for letting the hospital scan him. He said Caleb seemed ok, but said if it appears the device isn’t working we should call him immediately. He said it was very important.’
‘Things are going wrong here, Josh, and I hate it.’
‘It’ll be fine. Caleb is fine. We just need to keep an eye on him and I’m sure Cynthia will calm down.’
‘She’s a great friend, but she’s stubborn and vindictive. I can’t see her letting this drop.’
Caleb stirred in the corner.
‘Oh, hey, my little man,’ Marsha smiled, hugging him to her.
Caleb looked startled, and still half asleep. He seemed unaware of any of the drama his parents had been through.
‘How are you?’ Josh said.
‘I’m ok,’ Caleb said. He stretched and rubbed his eyes, letting out a huge yawn.
Josh didn’t notice that he had woken two hours early.
11
Marsha eventually calmed down, but she and Josh talked a little more about the problems with Cynthia and the potential legal suit. Caleb listened intently as he played with his train set, a sly smirk on his face.
Laverick called to see how Caleb was doing and sounded relieved when they told him he seemed fine.
‘Just keep an eye on him,’ he said. ‘If it seems he is not responding to the device let me know straight away.’
‘We will do,’ Marsha said.
‘Has there been any more word from your friend who was going to press charges?’ Laverick said.
‘Not yet.’
‘Mrs Walker, you need to talk her out of this, or Caleb could be taken away from you. You don’t want that to happen do you?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Then, please, make sure she doesn’t go ahead with this.’
As she hung up the phone, Marsha was concerned by Laverick’s request.
‘He just doesn’t want to get any bad press,’ Josh said. ‘I can understand it. I think there’s something unsafe about this research though, he seems very cagey about some things.’
‘Yes, he does,’ Marsha said. Like her husband, she was starting to have doubts about the mysterious doctor.
Cynthia was just drifting off to sleep when she heard a noise from Guy’s room. She jolted awake, remembering that her son’s window was open. The last thing she needed was a midnight prowler, especially after all the hassle with the pending legal case against the Walkers.
The poor kid had nightmares enough as it was.
She scowled into the dark, wishing, not for the first time, that her husband was with her. He had been a mean son of a bitch, but that would come in handy if there was a prowler. The one time she’d seen him in a fight with someone other than herself, he’d shattered a bouncer’s jaw with a single left hook. His hard man persona had been one of the things that had initially attracted her to him.
She was tenacious, but was shitting herself at the idea of an intruder in her home. It set the responsibility of defending her son squarely at her feet.
She groaned, wishing she had something that would make a good weapon close to hand. Her hair straighteners were the closest thing she could find.
She was torn between turning the light on and maintaining the element of surprise over the intruder.
In the end, she kept the light off as she crept across to her bedroom door. The darkness made everything surreal and terrifying. Every dark shape was a hidden psychopath until further inspection proved otherwise. Her heartbeat echoed in her ears as her breath fought its way in and out of her lungs.
Guy’s bedroom door was open by a few inches. The light from his nightlight cast the room in a dim glow that was more a curse than a blessing. With a little light, it was easy to see shadows, to imagine twisted things lurking.
She saw her sleeping son. Nothing obviously seemed to have disturbed him, he was sleeping peacefully for a change. Poor fucker couldn’t last the night without a nightmare since the incident at Marsha’s.
Growing in courage, she flicked on Guy’s light, brandishing the straighteners like a baseball bat in case the intruder charged her to avoid his cover being blown.
Nothing happened. She scanned the room, looking for anything that appeared out of place. She saw nothing until she reached the window sill. A few of Guy’s toys were overturned. The curtain was flapping in the breeze from the open window. Suddenly it all made sense; the curtain had knocked the toys over.
Relief flooded into her like water into a drought victim.
She tiptoed out of the room, knocking off the light to avoid disturbing her sleeping son. She checked the rest of the house just to be on the safe side, but found no intruders.
Despite this, she couldn’t settle when she tried to sleep. The terror she’d felt at the thought of an interloper kept her wide awake. The images of Caleb remorselessly choking the life out of her helpless son attacked her like punches.
She knew that she wouldn’t sleep like this, so she drew a hot bath and got a couple of beers out of the fridge. Alcoholic amnesiac, she thought with a smile.
She made the bath extra bubbly, figuring she needed all the relaxation she could get after recent events.
‘Hey, this might be nice,’ she said, realising how little time she got to herself these days. She brought in the tiny TV from the spare room and carefully placed it on the window sill above the bath.
After running an extension lead to the socket on the landing and plugging the TV in, she rushed to turn down the volume as Match of the Day started to blare. Last thing she needed was to wake Guy.
She picked out a repeat of Sex in the City and settled back into the bubbles, a cold bottle of Bud in her hand.
‘I’ll have to do this more often,’ she smiled to herself. This was nice. Well worth being woken up for.
She was so intent on the TV that she didn’t hear the muffled cries from Guy’s room. Didn’t hear the footsteps coming along the hall towards the bathroom. Didn’t see the bathroom door being edged open by a tiny, blood-smeared hand.
Finally, Cynthia caught the movement of the bathroom door in her peripheral vision. She started, dropping the bottle into the mass of white bubbles that surrounded her midriff.
‘Jesus Christ, Guy, you scared me,’ she laughed.
She sat up, covering her bare, bubble-covered breasts with her right arm while her left hand hid the dark triang
le of hair between her legs.
A small figure stood in the doorway, but it wasn’t Guy.
‘Caleb, what are you doing here?’ she asked.
The situation was so surreal that she felt she must be in a nightmare, but the sickly feeling in her belly made her aware that this was really happening. Caleb’s face was set in a grimace. She let out a little scream as she noticed the blood that dripped from his hands onto the marble floor tiles.
When she realised the blood belonged to Guy, she was too frightened to move. Caleb drew closer, moving slowly towards the window sill.
She realised his intent and let out a weak cry. What the hell am I doing? He’s only two, she thought with self-scorn. She got out of the bath and ran at him.
Caleb shoved her with a force that belied his tiny frame, sending her skidding backwards. The room wobbled a little as her head pounded into the edge of the bath.
Caleb stepped towards her, his bloody hands reaching for her throat. She kicked out, catching him in the face and the body, but he took the blows without a flicker of distress.
His eyes blazed into her, seemingly pinning her to the spot. She lashed out a final time, feeling his lips mash against his teeth, seeing dark spots of blood appear on his chin.
He dived for her, his arms outstretched, seeking her throat. His tiny fingers dug into her windpipe and squeezed, exerting a pressure that was as unbelievable as it was painful.
The confusion at a two year old kid doing this made the situation all the more terrifying. Cynthia clawed at Caleb’s hands, scoring trails of blood in his forearms.
His face twisted into a horrid mask of hate and his hands clamped in ever tighter.
She managed to turn, to reach into the frothing water and grab the beer bottle she had dropped. She thrust this back over her shoulder, feeling a satisfying thud as it bounced off the top of Caleb’s head.
He let out a pained grunt at this and his hands relaxed a little. She took the chance and grabbed one of his thumbs and wrenched it outwards. It broke with a sickening crack, hanging at a right angle to its usual position.
