Encompassing Reality

by Richard Lord

  She began crying again, “I thought you had!”

  Renfield ran his fingers through her hair as he said, “I know. I’m sorry. You’ve done well without me, from what I saw out there on the road.”

  Tomorrow sobered from her somber and said, “It’s for Phillip.”

  “The martyr?” Renfield asked.

  “No, the man. He was a man and he gave up his chance to live there so that others would be able to. That is a great thing, Adam. Don’t mock me.” Tomorrow began wiping away her own tears.

  Adam reached out a finger to his chin and drew a circle on it with her own saline. Then he leaned to here and kissed her. She was angry and sad, but she loved the feel of him kissing her and she reciprocated with fervor that grew in to deep passion a cacophony of thoughts and a drive.

  When the sun came up, she looked down at her naked body and then for her clothes. She wasn’t sure how late she had slept. She forgot there were no clocks where they were. “Adam, I have to go back. The kids are graduating today!”

  Adam raised his head and looked at her body as she dressed. “I know.” Then he jumped up and grabbed her from behind and whispered in her ear with a slight moan to his voice, “We have time.”

  Tomorrow turned and pulled him to her even stronger than he was pulling her to him. She dropped the clothes she was putting on and put her mouth to his. He pushed at her face with his mouth and then he tripped her, but as she was falling to the ground he kept hold of her and at the last second twisted his body to land under hers. She could feel him and knew she should take care of him immediately and her mind raced to how great that would feel. The two toyed with each other slightly and then they embraced fully. They took plenty of time.

  Later, Tomorrow peered up at the spot above the river where she could see under the trees and noted the sun’s position. She relaxed and reached behind herself. Pulling at him.

  In the river Adam said, “So, I have news.”

  Tomorrow moved upstream to him with passion still burning in her eyes. “Oh? Go on.”

  “Well, so far what I know is…” Renfield found it impossible to talk with her tongue in his mouth. He gave in to the next round, but as time went on he pulled her from him and said, “You do realize that what time it is here is irrelevant to when we get there. But I don’t like to mess with it, by habit. So let’s go get dressed.”

  The two of them made their way to the bank of the river and Renfield made a point to turn away from her while she dressed, this time. While he adorned he said to her, “Anyway, we’re not family.” Then he lowered his voice and said out loud, “Yet.” Then he added in a normal tone, “At least not by general accepted notions of such.”

  Tomorrow was on his back in an instant! She kissed him and said, “That explains a lot! You certainly were much freer with me! Personally the only reason I cared was that it was important to you. I like the you with answers! You’re kind of sexy!” She rubbed her knuckles into his head and ground her hips into his back as she laughed.

  “Yeah, yeah. Let’s go graduate some brats!” Then Renfield clicked and they were in her room. He noted the three chairs but satin the one she originally had.

  “So you don’t like my new chairs?” Tomorrow said as she started the process of undressing so she could get into her formal wear for the ceremony she had prepared.

  “I’m impressed you have good taste. However, always buy chairs in sets of four or six. It’s a tradition thing.” Renfield grinned at her.

  “Oh it is? Why is that?” She looked at him as she reached around her own body to be sure that she had the fasteners straight on the garments that no one would see but Adam. She understood the concept and it was only proper that she wore them underneath her clothes. She had wondered at why before, but understanding she was now older than the last time she saw Adam she understood why women wore such things.

  “I don’t know. Usually when you get the explanation that something g is a tradition it’s because the person telling you that has no clue either.” Adam replies.

  Tomorrow looks at the hairpin in her hand and throws it at him. “And I’ve always thought you had all the answers.”

  “I do. I just can’t remember them all at once!” Adam says and then dodges the next hairpin. “I’ll be back in a moment. I promise!” Adam clicks.

  Tomorrow gets a sinking feeling in her gut but then she realizes she can’t slow down. She stares at the clock and knows she doesn’t have much time to spare, regardless of what Adam does, she feels very much responsible for the ceremony.

  Adam reaches for her hand. “You look stunning!”

  Tomorrow turns to him. “Oh the lords! Your hair!” She reaches out to his head to feel his hair and then looks down and takes a step back, “That suit! Your better attired than the most refined man in Shang-tu!” Then Tomorrow narrows her eyes at him and turns sideways to him.

  Adam bows to one knee and says, “May I be your escort for the ceremony, m’lady?”

  Tomorrow looks down at him and pulls his handkerchief from his chest picket and slaps him with it. Then she stuffs it back in to the pocket unfolded. She turns her back to him and he pulls up her gown and down on her panties and then plants a kiss on her right butt cheek. “Please m’lady?”

  She turns to him and rolls he eyes. “You’re silly. I would be upset if you didn’t attend.”

  “Did you plan an after-party?” Renfield asks.

  “No. Should I have? I am still not good with custom. I know I should pay better attention, but all of the books I read, well none of them mention after-party.” Tomorrow eyes grow a worrying look that is quickly ascending to panic.

  “Tomorrow, that’s why they call it an after party. It’s impolite to right down anything that happens in a history book. Some did that sort of thing to Andrew Jackson. Although it’s questionable if he defined the difference between a ceremony and an after party.” Renfield’s right eye narrowed as he considered that thought.

  “Who?” Tomorrow had never heard him reference that name before.

  “Unimportant. But I will point out if you didn’t plan one, then that’s good, you can be blamed from it. Judging from what I know of the personalities, Tina went to Marla and they already have it planned together. Not to steal your thunder, but because you provided them an opportunity. I’m fairly certain they were glad you didn’t rob them of the chance to have fun with it.” Renfield grinned at her.

  Tomorrow just looked off blankly and then at the clock and said, “Oh, let’s go! It begins with a speech I have to make! This is going to be fun! I get to introduce you to so many of the people I’ve met! They’re going to love you! Not as much as me. But…” He face flushed and she looked at Adam.

  “Oh yes, where are my thoughts.” Adam stood next to her and held his arm out for her to take hold of it above the elbow. Then he reached fro her hands to show her what was the traditional manner in which a lady holds a man’s arm at a formal event. “When raised, your hands should be around my arm above the elbow. When my arm is lowered your hands should be around my arm below the elbow.”

  “Oh. That isn’t mentioned. Odd. That’s how I remember holding your arm when we were in the desert. It seems to me that most of the things I did there are not considered proper here.” Tomorrow commented.

  “Just don’t pee in camp during the ceremony and you’ll do fine. You’re a natural!” Renfield kisses her on the cheek thinking of how much he has missed her energy and zest. Then he clicks before she can respond.

  A few hours later Tomorrow looks at Adam and asks, “Are you staying this time?”

  “Before I answer that, I have some questions of my own. I saw Marla whisper in your ear. Yes, I could hear her thoughts so it was clearly about the after-party. Are you going?” Adam looks at his own feet while he awaits the response.

  “It sounds like fun! Sure, I’m in. They have games planned and apparently most of them involve drinking the good stuff that was stored all year. They really appreciated this that
much! I did a good job Adam!” She leans over and kisses him. “Thank you and thank you!” She says as she plants another on his cheek. “I’ve got to go give the kids my personal congratulations. I can hear them wondering why I haven’t done so already.”

  “Okay, I’ll be here.” Adam responds as she leaps up and begins to walk away. He watches her and notes how much she has changed over the years. He considers that instead of coming down from the high of her, for so many years, his love of her has only grown. He smiles and looks at his feet and thinks to himself. “And what I have I accomplished? Nice shoes, I guess.” Then he grins.

  “Adam, you’re thinking about something.” He hears Tomorrow and looks up.

  “Ahh, did you find the kids?” Adam opens his eyes realizing he had nodded off and then he is alert. He notes how much longer it was taking for him to get back to an alert state of mind. “Never mind. They are happy and socializing and you took care of what you needed to. I was kind of in a daze for a while longer than I thought, I guess.” Renfield begins to stand and then feeling he wasn’t ready, he blocks his mind to Tomorrow and pulls her hand to sit next to him.

  “You don’t want to go the party, do you?” Tomorrow looks at him and sits down.

  Renfield musters his strength aware it is waning and he pushes himself out of his hair into a standing position in from of her. “Nonsense! It’s to celebrate you as much as what the kids accomplished! You were the one who taught them, Tomorrow.” He looks around noticing that most of the crowd has dispersed. Some invited to the party others just going home and a strange mixture of the two.

  She smiles up to him and again he kneels to her. “Tomorrow, this next promise I mean.” He fumbles in his pocket.

  “I know you mean your promises Adam. I’m curious about something?” She says.

  Adam hears her thinking about her mother and the fact that she doesn’t know her father. “What’s that?”

  “I’ve told you almost everything about my mother. You’ve never talked about the people who raised you. You simply said you were adopted, they were good to you and you went to college thanks to them. That’s not a lot to say about the people who raised you and you talk about a lot of things.” Tomorrow pointed out.

  “Oh. I keep that simplistic. Not much to say.”

  “Why not?” Tomorrow pressed.

  “After college, I think I only went back a few times. They got what they wanted.” Adam explained.

  “What did they get?” Tomorrow asked.

  “They got a real boy.” Adam laughed as he looked up at the sun.

  She grabbed his thumb and said, “Go on, real man. Tell me what you mean by that!”

  “Well, they were geneticists. They met because they had the same condition, but because they both had the same condition they were both fixated on genetics. They didn’t want to risk having a child of their own. They realized that they could use some of my genes with their own to fix the error in a child that would mostly be their own two sets of genes combined, but with mine as the patch work that fixed the problems. I’m not sure you would understand all of this. I’ll explain another time. You would have to know about genetics to understand.” Adam looked at the chair he was previously in. While her hand was still holding his thumb he reclaimed the seat. “Plus, I really don’t have much memory of either of them. I don’t even remember their faces, nor do I care.”

  “You can be annoying Adam, we have books and I am the teacher, so I read. How many times do I have to say stop treating me like I am stupid.” Tomorrow pushes his thumb back towards his wrist.

  “For one, that actually hurts. Please stop. Second, I told you I don’t know what you know. We experienced different things, so I am not treating you as stupid. I merely lack knowing what things you know and don’t and yes, I make assumptions sometimes.” Adam, looked hat her hand as it eased on his thumb.

  “Is that why you began clicking? Because you realized you were being treated like Stephen treated the synths?” Tomorrow asked.

  “I never thought about it that way. Maybe. That was a long time ago.” Adam brushed her hand.

  “Not for you. Every second of your life you can go back to. That is amazing! But I can see why it would be hard to choose. However, they are the people who raised you, so have you never been back?”

  Adam shook his head as he looked down at her feet for a change of scenery. “Nice shoes.”

  “Adam, answer me.” Tomorrow began pushing on his thumb again.

  Adam grinned at her and said, “I’ve been tortured before. I don’t like it, but if you want me walking around with a bad hand, I’ll endure the pain.”

  “Stop it. You’ll heal in a day even if I were to do it. You already know I won’t.” Tomorrow kisses his lips lightly. “Answer me, though.”

  Adam looks down and notes to himself that she still hadn’t relieved the pressure she is putting on his thumb. “Who are they to me? Really? They had no choice. They had to send me to college or look bad amongst their own community. Flatly, they were done with me once they had their own. I was a responsibility to them. It’s that simple.”

  “So in a way though, wouldn’t that mean he’s your brother, even by blood considering he has some of your genes.” Tomorrow asks. “Have you ever visited him since college?”

  “Wait rewind, say that again!” Adam stands and pulls his hand free of her grasp and puts it to his chin while he listens closely for her to repeat herself.

  “I said, he’s got some of your genes and the same people raised you, so…”

  Adam cut her off. “I’ll be back.” He clicked and Tomorrow sighed in frustration.

  She stood up and began heading to the party without him. She thinks to herself, “I should have known. Plus, he didn’t want to go anyway.”

  CHAPTER 27

  “I can do more in one day than most people in a lifetime, but what have I done with a lifetime of days like that?” -- from the Book of Brian

  “Asshole! What are you doing back. And how do you know when I’m even here?”

  “I actually didn’t, but whatever.” Renfield hands him another ‘lunch bag’. “Same routine as last time and I’ll have my answer and not ask again. Hmm, well maybe one or two more times. Run the new one against both of the old ones. There shouldn’t be a record of either, unless someone flagged the files for some reason.”

  “Yeah, great handiwork. Whatever, man. Go. Same time frame. I suppose bureaucracy is in your favor.” Brady picks up the bag. He looks at Renfield and says, “If you enter my office and I’m not here don’t go digging through it. That’s rude!”

  “I didn’t the last time. You had the folder sitting out. I saw what you wrote on it and knew it had to be what I needed. I don’t rifle through your office, Brady. I could care less where you hide your candy bars.”

  Brady nods, “Okay, I’ll write the same thing on the other because the look on your face means you want it ASAP. But it’s going through the same channels, so there will be a wait. I’m sticking to SOP on these. If something goes awry, it’s not going to be my problem. I suspect you appreciate that, considering you are the one who was so insistent I keep my position.”

  Renfield looked at Brady. The number of thoughts racing through Renfield’s head were getting close to the exploding point, but he stopped all of them and responded, “Yeah, thanks.” Then he clicked.

  Brady swiveled his chair around while staring at the acoustic tile ceiling above him and said to it, “By the way, nice suit. What’s the occasion?” Then he let out a deep breath of air he didn’t realize he was holding.

  When Renfield appeared on the other end of his venture he was standing in the same place. Brady was not in his office. He looked down at the desk and there was the folder. He grabbed it and clicked again.

  He enjoyed the sound of the river and it did help him relax. He pulled out all of his the papers with all of the markers on it. He laid them all out side by side and then continued to switch which ones were above and which wer
e below each other. He noted a sequence he remembered from when he was young. It was his part of his own deoxyribonucleic code. He checked again. He knew it would be in the other one, since it was specifically chosen for that person. But he noted it, more or less was the same in the other two. There was a wider variance than he had hoped for between the other two. He cursed the trees at the thought of seeing Brady again. He decided to do his own Detective work for a while and clicked.

  He watched Johnson get in his own personal vehicle and he marked that in his mind. Then he clicked ahead as it moved. He bumped a man on the sidewalk who was merely walking his dog. He saw the man launch into the air due to the inertia of the impact and he clicked to the man while he was still airborne, pulled him down, clicked to the leash, put it back in the man’s hand and said, “Excuse me, I’m in a rush.” Not waiting around for the strange look, he started moving in the direction the car was last headed. He began listening intently for Johnson’s thoughts through the haze of being open to so many minds. Then he heard it, “What do you want?”

  It was clear. It had never been clear before. “You have two sons, they die, just to be clear, so I hope you have another heir to your throne.” Then Renfield projected the image of a toilet to him.

  “I don’t believe you. I can’t move forward anymore, but I’m guessing that means you can’t either.” Johnson responds. “So you couldn’t know that. Why don’t you find a hobby.”

  “Wow, no one taught you and they had me in their hands to observe. Foolishly they concentrated on you before knowing what they were making.” Renfield aims back.

  “You’re a piece of crap. You don’t even remember what I dragged you in for because it hasn’t happened for you yet. Just the part where you’re behind bars and then it goes forward from there. Right Adam? That’s a detail you never mention to anyone which is why I have so much fun with you.” Johnson takes a right turn.

  Renfield sees the reflection of the red light swirling on the buildings in front of him. He begins to click but nothing is and that’s all.