What Tomorrow May Bring

by Tony Bertauski

  “You got a way cooler Cleaving ceremony than we did,” Tristan says. “That is a stunning dress.”

  “We’re very happy for you is what Tristan means to say,” Briella pipes in. “But I’m a little confused. Where’s Blake? How’d you end up Cleaved to Ethan?”

  “Blake’s gone.” I try not to let my voice crack over it. “And Ethan is great. I love him. It’s all good.”

  “Where’d Blake go?” Tristan asks. “And why doesn’t anyone ever say goodbye when they leave?”

  “He left the city. And I’m sorry he didn’t say goodbye. He must not have had the chance.” I didn’t get a goodbye either. Once he made his decision they probably didn’t give him that option. Or they did, and he chose not to take it and have to explain himself. I just can’t talk about Blake any more on my Cleaving day. It’s still too fresh and raw.

  “Speaking of leaving the city…” Vienna Darcton inserts herself into our conversation. “I have an important announcement to make. Everyone gather around.” She’s wired with a microphone and starts to speak.

  “Thanks to everyone for joining us on this momentous occasion. We’ve witnessed the Cleaving of two pure blooded descendants of the Originals. As in the beginning, Dark and Light have been reunited in the same sacred garden at the very altar where their ancestors Cleaved.” She lets the tidbit soak in. A great fable, but I’m not buying that the garden has been here for thousands of years. Given the extreme weather on Thera, how’d they keep the garden alive before they had the technology available to preserve it? How can they prove that the altar was the same one used by the Originals, assuming the Originals even existed as the story was passed down?

  “You young Cleaved couples are lucky. You’re carrying Original seed in you, and like with any seed, room must be given to grow and flourish. The Original seed must be spread forth across Theran soil. Each couple will henceforth be transferred to another glorious Theran city this night. I compel you to raise these children with great care to be Thera’s future leaders. You’ll be escorted directly from here to your ships. I wish you great speed and health on your journeys. Please say your farewells, and then proceed to the far door where you’ll check in and be assigned an escort.”

  Now, that gets a reaction from the crowd as the news takes hold. They’re all leaving and being dispersed to different Theran cities—cities they probably didn’t even know existed. They line up to say their farewells to me and each other. Ethan holds me upright as I watch my unborn children slip away.

  The hardest partings are with Briella and Tristan who, once again, hold no memories of our collective past and with my brother and Leila. I make promises I’ll likely never be able to keep about seeing them again.

  “It’s all good, big sis,” Jared whispers in my ear as he hugs me tight.

  “Yeah, it’s all good,” I respond.

  The teary farewells behind us, everyone dispersed to the far ends of Thera, Ethan and I return to his home in bright sunlight. Some rather risqué lingerie has been laid out for me on the bed, I’m sure to encourage us to consummate our Cleaving as quickly as possible. How’d this happen again? I’m not even eighteen, and I’m Cleaved to a guy I love, but who’ll have to leave for his third year of law school shortly after we consummate the deal. I’m terrified.

  “We should wait to do this,” Ethan says to me, reading my mind. “In fact, my mother insists. She waived the decree for immediate consummation. Our Cleave will stand whether we do or not. She thought we…or you…might need some time to digest everything that has happened and be ready.” Maybe my Cleave-in-law is not as bad as I thought. I try not to let my relief be too apparent.

  “You’d do that for me?” I ask. My heart’s racing. “I love you, Ethan. I really do. But, we haven’t even had a chance to date for real…there’s so much I still don’t know about you. I want to know everything.”

  “I’d do anything for you; give you anything in my power, so this is nothing.” He kisses me gently on the lips. He picks up the lingerie and adds with a smirk, “It’s not that I don’t want this. I want you, Kira. But when we do consummate our Cleave, I want you to want it every bit as much as I do.”

  I nod and ask, “Are you still leaving? For law school?”

  “Yes.” He wraps his arms around me and buries his head in my neck.

  “Can I come?” I ask.

  “Unfortunately, no. My mother says you have training to complete here on Thera before we can be together on Earth. It’s going to kill me to be away from you. I hope you know how much I love you.” He lifts his head up and reminds me how I became smitten early on by his blue eyes and dark lashes. “I’ll visit as often as I can.”

  “How can you leave? I wish you could just defer your last year of law school until I can return with you.”

  “I wish I could, too.” He bites the corner of his lip and looks at me through his curly mess of eyelashes. “Were you disappointed? That it was me and not Blake?” The mention of Blake’s name is like a razor to my wrists which shows on my face.

  “I feel terrible about Blake, but no, I am happy it was you. It’s still hard, though.” Tears fill my eyes. I don’t want to hurt him but can’t hide my own hurt.

  Ethan invites me to lie down next to him on the bed. I melt into his embrace and enjoy his tender kisses and comfort until he falls asleep. For hours, I lay awake, stroking his hair, trying to wrap my head around all the events that have transpired since I agreed to take the SCI Test.

  After being left to ourselves for less than twelve hours, we’re both escorted, again by armed security detail, to the main city lab. Our doctor greets us and ushers us into a procedure room. Once I’m undressed and in a medical gown, the armed guards join us.

  “What’s going on?” Ethan asks.

  “Now that the two of you are Cleaved, it is time for our Mother and Father of Thera to become literal parents,” the doctor says.

  Ethan jumps up and gets in the doctor’s face. “Are you kidding me? We’ve only been Cleaved a night.” The guards draw their weapons, release the safeties, and point them at us. That doesn’t stop Ethan from continuing his protest. “Why do you feel it necessary to do this by gunpoint? Lab rape has become the norm? Where’s my mother? Does she know about this?” Maybe he does have a backbone after all?

  “Yes, in fact, she ordered it,” the doctor responds. “Now, the procedure is quite simple and should only take a few minutes.” I bite my lip and hold back the tears.

  Ethan’s not taking the news so well. His protest is making the armed guards more anxious and angry. They push him back onto his chair. One of the men holds his arms and puts him in cuffs while the other puts a gun to his head.

  “It’s okay, Ethan,” I say to him before addressing the doctor. “Please just tell me that it’s my own child I’ll be carrying.”

  “Yes,” the doctor tells me. I settle back on the exam table and let the doctor do his bidding. Lab rape indeed. I’ll be an eighteen-year-old mother just like my friends. And my Cleave won’t even be there to help me with my pregnancy. While he has his head in law reviews, I’ll be puking my guts out and getting as fat as an elephant. He probably won’t even want me by the time he returns from law school.

  When it’s all over, the doctor addresses us. “Excellent. That went smoothly, so the embryos should take.”

  “Embryos?” Ethan and I ask in unison. “There are more than one?”

  “There’s only about a ninety percent chance they’ll both take, but there were two set aside for you,” the doctor explains.

  “Who’s the father?” I ask. “You created embryos using both Ethan and Blake as fathers in that lab of yours.”

  “I believe there is one from each father,” the doctor says. “That’s what we’d been requested to implant. You know, in case Ethan’s offspring has uh, medical difficulties.”

  Forget waiting until the pregnancy takes, I lean over the table and puke on the doctor’s shoes. He deserves it. If my Cleave-in-law were here,
I’d puke on hers as well. The consolation of their perverted act is that I’ll be carrying pieces of both the men I love for the next nine months.

  Muffled voices awaken me. I freshen up in the bathroom to try to alleviate my puffy eyes. I’d cried myself to sleep. Who’s here, I wonder? I slip out of the bedroom, still in my daygown, and towards the hushed conversation happening in the kitchen. Once I hear who is speaking, I delay my entrance.

  “Your Uncle Henry wants to see you at Headquarters. Immediately,” Vienna says.

  “I don’t want to leave Kira. She’s upset. I’m upset.” Ethan responds to his mother, “You had no right to impregnate her, much less with babies from two different fathers.”

  “I have the right to do as I see fit for Thera’s future. And, I determined that both brothers deserve to have their progeny born by the Mother of Thera. As the grandmother to these babies, I see it as only fair. Besides, would you deprive Kira children if you’re not able to have…healthy children?”

  “Do you even know my condition will create unhealthy children? Why do you continue to punish me for something I have zero control over? After all, if my condition is genetic, then blame yourself or my father, not me!” This, I agree with him on. His parent’s—and the SCI’s—obsession with genetically perfect Original children is Hitler-esque in nature.

  “Regardless, we need to ensure that Kira is able to have healthy children,” she says.

  “Why not let someone else mother and raise Blake’s child?” Ethan asks. “Why does Kira have to give birth to his baby?” Men. Of course, that’s what is bothering Ethan at this point. Not that the doctors implanted the babies against my will, but that I’m carrying Blake’s child.

  “I think you’re worrying over nothing. You got the girl, so be happy and deal with it.” Vienna’s voice is cold. “It will all work out.”

  “A line was crossed, Mother. I won’t soon forget or forgive.”

  Ugh. I decide I’m in no mood for Cleave-in-law time. I quietly return to the bedroom and climb under the covers. The reminder that I’ve got two embryos implanted in me gets the tears flowing. A few minutes later, Ethan comes in to let me know he needs to run over to Headquarters and will be back soon. He’s in shorts and a tank…he must have been planning a workout when his demented mother arrived.

  “What’s wrong?” he asks upon seeing my tear-stained face.

  “Can we talk when you get back?” I need to ask him all the questions swirling through my mind. After the Cleaving, I feel much closer to Ethan, but there’s still so much I need to know.

  “Oh, Kira. I have to go, but I’ll be back as quickly as possible. I love you. We’ll work through all of this. I promise. Trust me.”

  Ethan leans in and kisses away my tears and then trails his lips to mine. He parts my lips with his tongue and gently, but passionately, makes me forget what I was so stressed about. I pull him atop me and return his kisses with enthusiasm. I peel his shirt off, so that I can rub his muscular chest and abdomen. We’re both on fire, and I suddenly desire to consummate our Cleaving. I want to be fully his. To indicate I’m ready, I pull off my daygown. His eyes go dark with desire.

  “Are you sure?” he asks.

  “Yes. I don’t want to wait another minute.” If I wait, I’ll change my mind.

  And then a knock at the bedroom door with “Ethan, honey, Uncle Henry is waiting. And, Kira, I made you breakfast,” throws a big bucket-o-ice-water on our moment. I scramble to find clothes as Ethan does the same. I wouldn’t put it past that woman to barge in on us.

  “I’m so sorry, Kira. I thought she’d left. You…are amazing. I’ll be back soon.”

  One more passionate kiss, fully clothed, and he’s out the door. After breakfast, my Cleave-in-Law sticks around to do dishes and make small talk. About a half hour in, she drops a huge bomb on me.

  “Ethan’s not coming back,” she tells me. “He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s returning to school earlier than expected.”

  “What?” I throw the dishrag on the counter and turn to look at her. “Why?” I need to talk to him and take care of other unfinished business.

  “I wanted to make sure you didn’t finalize your Cleaving. I don’t trust that you could spend twenty-four hours a night for four nights together without doing so.” She’s probably right about that. “As Ethan told you, I waived the decree that you had to consummate your Cleaving within twenty-four hours. But, what he doesn’t realize is why I did that.”

  “I’d appreciate it if you told me why.” I feel a huge lump in my throat. I doubt I’ll like her twisted rationale.

  “Let’s just say that I, as Senior Ten, would prefer to wait until the babies are born before rubber-stamping your Cleaving as a permanent thing. If Ethan is unable to father healthy babies, I want the option to revoke the Cleaving and reassign you to Blake. Because Blake will return, Kira, to take his rightful place as the heir of Thera, whether he realizes it yet or not.” Reassign me? Like switching Cleaves is no different that changing jobs. Blake would never agree to her terms in a billion years.

  I’m flabbergasted at the gall of this woman. There’s no end to her evil designs. If I give birth to a defective child, my Cleave-in-Law will toss Ethan aside and re-Cleave me to Blake. I have my poker face on. She, of all people, can never know that I hate her with every fiber of my being. I want her to be surprised when, despite Blake being gone, that I find out a way to cripple the SCI’s mega-portal myself.

  “How could you do that to your own son?”

  “They are both my sons. And you will be thrilled to know that both have seats on the Ten. Henry is discussing this with Ethan right now. Of course, with Ethan at law school and Blake sowing his wild oats in Exile, I’ll manage their votes for now. But both will rise to their destiny.” She gives me a look of satisfaction at her triumph that makes me want to take a kitchen cleaver to her. Ethan and Blake will be members of the Ten?

  “Neither of them would ever agree to that,” I say with indignation.

  “I think you’d be surprised at what people will do when the opportunity for power is dangled in front of them. How well do you really know either of them, Kira? How do you know Ethan hasn’t wanted this all along? Or that Blake won’t see the opportunity to change the fate of the Exilers and Second Chancers with a seat on the Ten? How much do you know at all about the true purposes behind what the SCI does?” She runs her fingers across the kitchen knives, just daring me to try to get past her for one.

  “That’s ridiculous. They’re not like you,” I respond but, this time, without any oomph behind it. She’s right. Depending on how it’s presented to them, either one could jump at the opportunity and get sucked right into the institution that stands for everything I despise. But maybe they could get me access to the mega-portal? Gah. Now even I’m getting lured. I mentally slap myself.

  “We’ll see, won’t we? And, Kira, you’re not to mention this conversation to Ethan. Ever. Or he dies. Is that clear enough for you? And if that’s not enough motivation, please don’t forget your other loved ones who are still here on Thera.” She’d so easily ignore our previous agreement and would have her own sons killed? Any redeeming value I thought this woman had just disappeared.

  This is one time I wish that I’d been raised to know a God. Don’t people with faith get through hard things easier? I mean, they can pray or whatever and isn’t that supposed to give them some sort of peace? Oh well. Won’t do me any good here on this God-forsaken planet where we’re all forbidden to speak to or about God anyway.

  “Will I get to see Ethan at all? Or is he simply gone for the next nine months—my entire pregnancy?” I ask. “You didn’t let me say goodbye. We had so much to discuss.” And do. I think back to how close we came to consummating our Cleave, and a jolt of desire hits me hard. Nine months suddenly seems like an eternity.

  “I think that if we can come to an understanding about this matter, we’ll allow some limited visitation. The terms are simple. One, keep your mouth
shut. Two, under no circumstances can you consummate the Cleave before you have my approval. Got it?” It’s another easy choice. I follow the rules, and Ethan, Blake, my parents, and brother live.

  “I understand, and I agree to your terms. So, in the meantime, what do I do? Will I be trained in the ‘family business’ and as a Daynighter, as promised, or is that on hold, too? Or perhaps you’d like me to sit around and get fat?”

  “At least for the immediate future, you’ll be able to proceed with your studies while your pregnancy is monitored. I’ve arranged for some excellent care…outside Garden City.” Like I need a reminder about the pregnancy. I’m in denial and just waiting for some time to myself to have a complete mental breakdown over my situation.

  “What?” I start to hyperventilate a little. If I leave Garden City, it will be pretty difficult to figure out a way to take out the mega-portal.

  “Yes. We’ll leave here shortly to go to the port, so that I can drop you off.”

  “Where am I going?” I ask. “Why would you send me away?”

  “It’s for your safety, my dear. There are reports of some renewed activity with the Exilers outside Garden City. A few of the Militants escaped and are hoping to convince the other Exilers to join their cause.” She reaches out to grasp my arm. “You’ll be in good hands. I promise. I don’t want to take any risks with your life, or the lives of those you are carrying. You and your children are a target for these people, Kira. They think that if they’re able to get to you that they can cause the Theran government harm.”

  “You think the Exilers would try to kill me?” I ask. “I don’t believe that.” Not if Blake is with them. Plus, even if a few Militants escaped, there are over ten thousand decent Exilers who will never join the Militants’ cause after hearing from Blake what happened.

  “If they get desperate, yes, they could try to kill you. Or kidnap you. Or torture you. Who knows what they are capable of.” She’s exaggerating to rationalize her actions, but I pretend to be fearful for my own life. I know that Vienna really wants me out of Garden City, so that Blake—and Ethan—won’t know where I am. That thought does scare me, far more than any threat from a few Militant Exilers.