by Dan Glover
She did everything Lily asked of her in part to atone for her sins against the woman whom she came to love and perhaps even worship. Karen understood she was not now nor had she ever been the equal of the Ladies of the Lake, neither physically nor intellectually. All her work was for one purpose only: to impress and perhaps gain some small sense of approval from Ladies Lily and Lauren.
At times Karen felt like a servile slave, like a dog bouncing with joy at seeing her masters, groveling at the feet of those who she adored yet feared simultaneously. She recalled those same emotions affecting her relationship with her parents, how she never felt good enough even when she was hired by the prestigious CDC right out of medical school.
"I've been offered a position working for the government, mother. It pays very well so I can help you and father out with your expenses."
"Don’t go making any grand plans, little missy. I just hope you're able to hold onto that job, Karen. When your employers discover how impractical and unreliable you are, they're sure to let you go. All those years in medical school will have been a complete waste, just like I always told you. Your poor father will be so disappointed... of course, not that that is anything new."
"Is father there, mother? May I talk with him for a couple minutes?"
"He's watching the football game in the living room. You know how he is about his Manchester United. Besides, you'll only get his hopes up telling him about a job you're bound to lose anyway, Karen. You know how you can never keep your mind on anything for longer than ten minutes. It's better not to bother him now."
Karen remembered how the old hate surfaced as she hung up the phone yet she hadn’t the courage to confront her bitch of a mother. Even now, she found herself thinking how proud her father would have been to see the work she had done over the last hundred years.
"Are you gods?"
She remembered one of the two little girls she insisted on rescuing—Mindy was her name—murmuring the words while gazing up at the Ladies that long ago day when the world of people passed away and their only hope for salvation lay with the creature whom Karen kept hostage for so long.
In the presence of Lily and Lauren she felt just like Mindy did that day. Karen could never explain it. Maybe the play of light that day caught the silhouette of the Ladies just right or perhaps the sun shining off the undulating waves of the ocean played a trick on her senses, but she often wondered the same thing: were they gods?
She was an atheist. No, that wasn’t quite right. Karen neither believed nor disbelieved in a higher power. She had no time for such nonsense. To her, science held all the answers to the riddle that was the universe. Her part in the world was to unravel each thread of unknowing and attempt to weave them all back into a single fabric to cloak the fear she felt staring into the bottomless abyss of doom.
Now there was no death but by stupidity.
Lily could heal broken bones with a gentle touch. Karen witnessed that which she might have hailed as miracles in a long ago yesterday but now she took such feats for granted. She watched her visage in the mirror become more comely with the passing of years rather than the matronly aging that she heretofore expected.
Though she anticipated living a thousand years or more Karen often discovered impatience flavoring her days with a bitter relish. The more she learned the more there was to study. One answer opened the door to a million more questions. Her knowledge only informed her on how much she didn’t know.
"May I ask you something, Dr. Karen?"
"Of course you can, Amanda. Ask me anything."
"Why did you decide to become a doctor?"
The girl hung around the laboratory all the time, ever since the death of Marilyn. Sometimes, Karen wondered if Amanda was attempting to make up for killing her old friend and lover. The girl reminded Karen of someone she recognized from the dim recesses of yesterday, not a pretty girl by any stretch of the imagination but with a sharp mind, an eagerness for learning, and a penchant for doing what needed to be done.
When Natalia told them about Amanda shooting Marilyn, Karen was incensed with the girl. If she had been in front of her at the time, Karen wasn’t at all sure the girl would still be alive today. Yet she had only herself to blame in the end.
Karen had always felt guilty for using Marilyn to remove those little irritants in her own life, men who caused her problems and whose deaths no one grieved too heavily. She wondered if that might have had some small influence on Marilyn committing such atrocities against her and the Ladies.
"I suppose that I wanted to help others, Amanda. Becoming a doctor seemed like a way to do that. Now I am not so sure I'm even needed."
"Why do you say that, Dr. Karen?"
"No one ever gets sick with the Ladies around. If someone is injured Lily and Lauren can heal them far faster than my medicine will work. Compared to such magic in the world, my knowledge seems a poor second."
"You helped Natalia have a baby boy, though, and Maon and Sileas too. They couldn’t do that without you, Dr. Karen. You have magic too."
"Thank you, Amanda. You're right. I'm good at helping others have babies."
"I want to lend you a hand. I'd make a good helper."
"Well, that's certainly commendable, Amanda. I'm not sure I need an assistant, however."
"My mother used to tell me how people would have to do all different kinds of work to earn money. She said how when she was a little girl she remembered her mother always yelling at her father for not having a job and how they'd have to beg for food and sometimes they'd get thrown out of where they were living and have to stay with people she didn’t know. She told me how her mother used to have to do jobs she hated in order for the kids to have something to eat. The people her mother worked for would give her money. I never understood what she meant, though."
"Yes, that is how the world used to be, Amanda. Money was a means of exchanging labor for goods. People would work and get paid and that enabled them to buy the things they needed. But what does that have to do with you becoming my assistant?"
"You wouldn’t have to give me anything. And I already have a place to stay and plenty to eat. Plus I've been reading up on the kind of work you do. Please give me a chance, Dr. Karen."
"Let me think about it, Amanda."
"Okay. I'll be here tomorrow."
Karen watched the girl skip away dirty blonde hair bouncing with each leap. It was clear Amanda wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She couldn't help but notice the girl seemed to grow more attractive with the movement of the years too. She wondered if beauty was another one of the silent influences that the Ladies conferred upon human beings who stayed beside them.
Though Amanda was two hundred and eighty years old—one of the first daughters of the People to be born after the Great Dying—Karen could not help but think of her as a girl. Her exuberance and youthful appearance combined to make her seem like a perpetual teenager.
Being around the girl was soothing, somehow. Despite the still simmering anger for the murder of Marilyn, Karen found herself looking forward to seeing Amanda again tomorrow. Her reticence at cultivating an assistant blossomed into anticipation; having someone to share in the investigation of the mysteries of life was her long-unspoken dream.
Money... she hadn’t thought of that term in centuries.
Chapter 4—Roses are Forever
Lauren sensed the future through each tiny twisting whorl of her flowers.
Her many-colored roses seemed particularly sweet and vibrant this year, as if portending a change for the better. Though she loved all blossoming plants her roses represented an ancient sorrow she unabashedly embraced deep within her heart.
Though she thought of him every day she rarely spoke his name aloud. Little things would remind her of him. Often times Nate made a gesture she remembered him making and though he had been gone for centuries his memory came rushing back.
Witnessing the growth of the People did nothing to alleviate that sense of loss which spoke a
new to her each morning. Knowing Nate was as much a son to her as to Natalia lent a useless sort of balm to her hurt, like an unguent applied to something badly broken and never again to be healed. She wondered if it was a mistake to lend Karen the use of her genetic material but quickly chased the notion away.
Nate was a marvel in his own right.
"I'd like to perform an experiment, Lady Lauren. May I draw a vial of your blood?"
Karen came to her as Lauren was busy dawdling in her garden. She spent most of spring planting and nourishing the flowers which seemed to draw their will to live from Lauren as much as she needed them to endure the endless tragedies of life.
"What is this experiment you are working upon, dear Karen?"
Lauren asked the question more as a polite way of continuing the discussion knowing she hadn’t the expertise of the doctor nor did she care to. Indeed, medical practitioners were unknown among her species. Karen and Marilyn were the first such beings Lauren had met.
"Amanda has given me an idea that I would like to run with. It has to do with helping Sileas conceive another child. I believe there may be an agent in your blood which if we can isolate it may help to engender a high quality embryo."
"Ah... Amanda is becoming quite a woman, is she not?"
"She is full of surprises, Lady Lauren."
Lauren stood up going to Karen with her arm outstretched while rolling up her sleeve.
"Of course you may have what you wish, sweet one. My, but you are gorgeous today. I fear you are making my roses red with envy. Now... are you ready for that vial of blood?"
"No, I didn’t bring the necessary equipment with me just now. I apologize. I thought you might come by the laboratory later, Lady Lauren."
Karen stuttered and blushed the way she often did anytime someone spoke of her beauty, as if she was unsure if they were being truthful or simply being nice. Lauren wished to take her and hold her, to reassure her... but she feared where that might lead.
"Please allow me to complete my work here. I will be along directly, darling doctor."
"Thank you, my Lady... for everything."
Kneeling down to her work once again Lauren watched Karen walk away with more of a bounce in her step and a wiggle in her hips than she had heretofore noticed. Lauren noted how—as all the members of the People had done—Karen blossomed ever more beautiful as the decades went by. She saw Kirk developing traits she thought impossible for the man five decades ago: honesty, trustworthiness, intelligence, and a penchant for being a hard worker.
Natalia was a wonder. An extremely gorgeous woman when Lauren first met her on that long ago day in the little stone cabin on the shore of Lake Baikal, Natalia now exuded an intense sexuality that was obviously evident to all who encountered her. Her diminutive features—but for her intensely red hair—and diamond blue eyes mirrored Lauren's.
Since Lily and Nate became lovers Lauren had spent each night lovingly wrapped up in Natalia's arms. Perhaps it was this close proximity that lent Natalia more of whatever it was Lauren gave to the People: strength, freedom from sickness, and an agelessness that seemed unending. Physically the two of them resembled each other enough to be sisters.
Lily on the other hand was a good thirty centimeters taller than Lauren and Natalia with sparkling blonde hair cascading to her waist and emerald green eyes that glowed in the dark. Nate and Lily made a striking couple with each of them standing over two meters tall. Nate's habit of wearing his hair long persisted though his was dark like his two mothers, Natalia and Lauren, and his eyes a delicate china blue.
Having trimmed off the old growth from her roses and added mulch along with fertilizer she noticed the begonias needed thinning as did the irises. Those tender moments engendered a love of not only for her plants but for the People too: they were but meddling moronic creatures stumbling through a dimmed world of their own making, never taking advantage of the one thing offered by the Ladies: time.
Lauren considered finishing the work now but she sensed Karen might be waiting. She caught an unexpected note of impatience in the doctor's voice. Karen reminded Lauren of a school girl rushing through her work in a grand attempt to impress her head mistress.
She couldn't imagine what Karen desired to extract from her blood but she hurried inside to wash up before the visit to the laboratory in back of the castle. The building was meticulously clean and unlike Orchardton Hall it was quiet. Lauren saw the doctor working with her back to her so not to startle her she spoke when entering the room.
"Hello lovely Karen. I am all yours. Tell me more about these grand experiments of yours."
"We're still working on the problem of your descendants reproducing beyond one child. You and Lady Lily are able to conceive but one time and this trait must be dominant. It is passed onto your offspring, both male and female. Maon and Sileas were able to have but one child. Now they are sterile.
"I believe I can remedy this situation but I require access to a male of your species, Lady Lauren. I hoped I could extract the required genetic material from the bones Lady Lily brought up from the ossuaries under Lake Baikal. So far this process has failed.
"I don’t mean to sound insensitive, Lady Lauren, but Natalia once mentioned you gave birth to a son. Forgive me if I am dredging up memories better left dormant."
"I think of my son all the time, dearest Karen. You have nothing to be sorry for. Please go on."
"When a female of our species gives birth, cells from the child remain within the mother's body for the remainder of her life. I am eager to learn if your species carries this same trait."
"Let us both discover the truth in this, darling Karen."
Lauren couldn’t hate Natalia for sharing such private information with Karen yet at the same time she realized how her confidence had been misguided. During the centuries she had spent with Natalia, Lauren came to think of her as a sister, someone to whom she might confide her deepest and darkest secrets.
Now, she recognized her mistake. Natalia was human. Lauren had all but forgotten that... love had clouded her better judgment. She made a vow that such a thing wouldn’t happen again. If need by, she would isolate herself from Natalia even though the pain of parting would mirror death.
Normally Lauren preferred spending time with only a chosen few. She rarely spoke to any of the People other than Natalia and Karen. She understood that rumors abounded concerning her hatred for human beings but she cared so little about it that she had never defended her feelings.
"I think that truth will do wonders for both our species, Lady Lauren. Thank you. Now, please look that way."
Karen pointed to the window and as Lauren looked away she felt the needle's bite as it slid into her arm.
Chapter 5—Below the Surface
It was an easy jaunt from Old England to the continental coast.
Alpin—telling himself that he was as strong a swimmer as Ena though in truth she bested him each time they raced—moved under the water with the grace of a dolphin coupled with the power of a great white. Neither of them had a need to surface for they breathed the salt water as easily as air.
His grandfather Nate cautioned them not to take any unnecessary risks. The ocean was full of predatory sharks just waiting to take a bite of them. Grandfather Nate did not swim the seas, however, so he did not understand. He preferred the fresh water of Lake Baikal.
Alpin didn’t remember when he began communicating with the ocean-going creatures. He only knew that he could direct their actions with his willpower. The depths held no concern for him nor did the underwater currents frighten him though the silent whirlpools could easily pull weaker swimmers to their deaths.
"We should begin storing clothing on this side. I feel weird walking around with nothing on. Don't look!"
The air quickly chilled his body when they emerged from the sea though he dried quickly in the sunshine. Ena was shy once out of the water. Clothing only served to weigh them down under the water, however. He averted his eyes from her a
s she waded to the shore wrapping her body in a towel she carried in a water-proof bag tied to her midsection.
He wanted to tell her how beautiful she was but he knew it would only further embarrass her. Ena didn’t act like that when they made the swim with dad and mom so he had seen his sister nude all the time. It was only when they were alone together that she seemed to become timid and was prone to cower behind a façade of clothing.
"You're not my real sister, you know."
He was angry with her over some forgotten slight. Alpin knew the words were a mistake as soon as he uttered them. He shouldn’t be the one to tell Ena of their family history. But when he spilled the secret she stomped her foot as her dark eyes flashed and she demanded to know the whole truth.
"What do you mean? We have the same mother and father."
"Just forget I said anything."
"Alpin, no... you know something I don’t. Tell me why we're not really brother and sister."
He was four years old when Ena was born. Alpin grew faster and his intellect matured far more quickly compared to children of the People. One night when he was supposed to be in bed sleeping but he couldn’t get his eyes to close he sauntered from his bedroom down the stairs to the gigantic parlor where he overheard a conversation between his dad and mother concerning the new baby and how she was destined to help repopulate the earth.
"We must allow her to make her own choices, Maon."
His mother sounded perturbed about how assumptions had been made concerning the baby without consulting the girl herself.
"I agree, Sileas. When she grows into a woman she will plot her own path."
"What if she doesn’t like Alpin? Perhaps they will not bond the way we hope. Or perhaps being so close they will think of one another as brother and sister rather than potential lovers."
