Bright Future

by Marion Dess

“McGee.” It was her maiden name. Janelle’s maiden name. When Winnie was little, she’d visit her Scottish grandparents’ house, and her grandpa would always wear his kilt whenever Winnie would ask. Her grandpa taught her and her brothers to play the bagpipes, but Derek and Sam would always make fun of Winnie in private – never in front of their grandpa. They respected him, but not their heritage. People would make fun of them if they wore kilts, but Winnie admired it. Her grandpa was proud of being from Edenborough. Winnie dreamed to go one day with him, but now that would never happen.

  “That’s a nice name,” Elaine said. “Where are you from?”

  Winnie bit her lip. “San Diego,” she said, thinking of places she’d visited with Reagan, places she knew well enough if somebody were to ask her. Dallas, Tacoma, Portland, San Diego, Kauai. She wasn’t well travelled. She liked California and Hawaii best, dipping her feet in the ocean in the warmth of the day, cuddling up in the sand with a blanket to watch the sunset. But she couldn’t imagine living in Kauai. It felt like a fairy tale to live on an island that way.

  “Great,” Elaine said with a smile. “You have to know everything about San Diego. Just in case someone asks, in case you run into a Normal that is from there as well.”

  Winnie nodded, but didn’t say anything.

  “I’ll have everything set up by the end of the day. It’ll be all ready for your interview.”

  Winnie walked through the hospital hallways, the heels that Elaine had let her borrow clicking sloppily underneath her feet. She had worn heels last on her wedding day, but quickly kicked them off to dance with Reagan and her family and friends. She wished she had some practice now, as she half-stumbled, half-walked awkwardly down the hallway.

  The Human Resources Department was at the end of the hallway, and she was greeted by a man in scrubs. He was short and wide, but not fat. He wore a smile on his face, and spoke with a thick Jersey accent. “I’ll go let her know you’re here.” He returned and pointed down the hallway after taking his seat at the desk again. “You can go in.”

  Winnie nodded, flashed a smile at the man, and walked into the room, peeking in before entering.

  “Miss McGee?” asked the woman inside. She was tall and slender, towering tall over her desk. Her hair was pulled into a sleek, wet-looking pony tail, and hung long past her shoulders. Her eyes didn’t look up at Winnie as she walked in, but instead kept her eyes on the flat screen computer in front of her.

  Winnie smiled and walked in. “Yes, nice to meet you,” she said, quickly glancing at the name tag, “Grace.” She sat down across from her, her resume, though with a fake name, address, and jobs, in a folder with all the other papers she would need.

  Grace Martin glanced up at Winnie, glasses on the tip of her thin nose. Winnie handed her the resume, and bit the inside of her lip nervously. She watched as Grace read through the resume, and then sat back in her chair.

  “You haven’t worked in over a year. Why is that?”

  Winnie hadn’t changed her timeline, just the places and names, via Elaine who had all of the background information. Winnie sighed. “I had some family matters to attend to,” Winnie said, not completely lying. “My father passed away, and my mother needed some help back home.”

  Grace nodded, but didn’t answer. “Are you ready for another job? No other family matters to take care of?”

  Winnie took a deep breathe. She had no choice, her family was no longer hers to have. They didn’t belong to her the way they had just days ago. “No, ma’am,” she said. “I’m single. No husband, no children. My mother is fine now.” She felt her stomach churn as she spoke.

  None of this was true. “I am one hundred percent committed to my career.”

  “Mhm,” said Grace, not making eye contact. “Well, as long as the background check clears, I think everything’s good here. I’ll give you a call in a few days if we decide to move forward.”

  Winnie nodded and flashed a bright smile at Grace, to convince her. “Thank you so much for your consideration,” Winnie said, the cheesiest line she could imagine saying. She wanted to rewind and take it back. “I look forward to hearing from you.” That was worse. She shook Grace’s hand, and without another word from either of them, Winnie left the room.

  The hallway felt emptier than before as she walked down it, white walls blaring into her eyes as she followed the same wobbly path that had brought her to the HR department. She made her way out into the heat and found Elaine standing outside of her car, looking at her phone.

  Elaine looked up, meeting Winnie’s eyes, and smiled. “So, how’d it go?” Winnie shook her head. “I don’t think she liked me,” she said.

  “Oh, come on. Grace is great.” “You know her? Is she – one of us?”

  “No, but I’ve known her for a while.” “Does she know?”

  Elaine shook her head. “You’ll be fine. We look just like everybody else, honey. Nobody has ever questioned my humanity.” Elaine headed to the driver’s side and climbed inside.

  Winnie didn’t follow right away. She starred back at the hospital, and felt uneasy. Things usually went well for her. She was offered the first job she’d applied for after nursing school, but this felt different. She remembered her interview clearly, and how she’d been offered the job on the spot. This interview wasn’t nearly as smooth, and Winnie didn’t feel confident.

  Elaine rolled the window down. “You comin’, honey?”

  Winnie looked down at her and nodded. She climbed inside, and buckled her seatbelt. “Where are we going, again?”

  “Lunch with some of my girls,” she said. “They’re like us.”

  Lunch consisted of an old fashioned diner in Times Square, busy and a line out the door. But like everything else since Winnie had been in New York, Elaine had a solution. There was a group of women in a large red booth near the back of the diner. Four women surrounded each other, smiling, laughing. One waved Elaine and Winnie over, and they moved closer to each other to make room.

  Winnie followed behind Elaine quietly, head down, and bit her bottom lip nervously.

  “Hi Lana,” smiled one of the women. She had dark red lips and dark brown short hair.

  Her almost black eyes were surrounded by even darker eyelashes, and her cheeks had deep dimples. “Is this our new friend?” She had a cheerful voice and her face was inviting despite it’s dark features.

  “Lana?” Winnie asked quietly.

  “I don’t go by Elaine, not anymore. Just to you.”

  Winnie nodded. “Should I be…Rose?” she whispered. “Up to you,” she replied over her shoulder.

  “I’m Macy,” the woman with the dark features said, sticking out her hand.

  “Giselle,” said a blonde woman with blue eyes, freckles, and a large nose that made her look like Barbra Streisand.

  “Lily,” said a smiling girl with perfect teeth, thick eye brows, and a square jaw.

  “Marianna,” the last one said, a young girl with a darker complexion than the rest and curly black hair, pink lips, and a scarf around her neck.

  Winnie smiled at them. “Nice to meet you all,” she said quietly. “I’m – Rose.” She felt unnatural saying this, and wondered if the others felt the same. Were these their real names? Were they all Immortal? How long had they been Immortal? How long had they looked so young, so sweet, so beautiful? But for some reason, they seemed hardened. There was something behind each and every one of their smiles that wasn’t completely genuine.

  “Lana, did you hear that Lee is moving away?” Giselle’s voice was nasally, which might’ve been because of her Streisand nose. Winnie tried not to judge; she could tell that the group was filled with women who liked to gossip. Winnie had never been a part of a group like this.

  “What?” Elaine furrowed her eyebrows. “Nobody told me.” Winnie could sense her anger. Elaine was in charge of the organization, so this had to be run by her. And obviously nobody had informed her. “She can’t just up and le
ave without my permission.”

  Marianna rolled her eyes, but held her tongue. Winnie studied her for a minute, looking at the scarf around her neck. It was nearly 80 degrees outside, hardly cold enough to wear a scarf.

  She guessed it had something to do with her death. She didn’t want anybody to ask her about her death or family, so she kept her thoughts to herself.

  Giselle leaned over the table. “I heard she met someone.”

  “We all meet someone,” Marianna said through a thick Spanish accent. “Yeah, but none of us are stupid enough to follow through,” Macy butted in. “I might be,” Giselle grinned, “If he offered me the world.”

  Elaine sat up straight. “Ladies, calm down. You do realize who you’re talking to?” “Oh, you’re a big softy, Lana,” Giselle smiled, waving her hand in the air dismissively. “You don’t know me well enough,” Elaine replied, crossing her arms.

  “Girls, c’mon,” Lily spoke up finally. She was taller than the rest of them, but she shrunk down to their level when she spoke. “Lana, just talk to Lee and see what’s going through her mind. She knows the dangers but she’s in love. She just needs to be reminded, before something goes wrong the way it always does. Now, can we get to know our new friend, or shall we continue to gossip?”

  Giselle smiled. “So, is that your real name?” she said, turning her attention to Winnie.

  She had begun to dislike Giselle already. She bit her lip, the way she always did. Reagan had always made fun of her for it, despite how much she knew he loved it.

  “That’s rude,” Marianna fought back. “Maybe she doesn’t want to tell anybody. Maybe she’s trying to separate herself from her old self.”

  “For the record,” Lily butted in, “Lily is my real name.”

  “Same,” Giselle said, leaning back against the booth and crossing her arms over her chest dejectedly.

  Winnie looked around at the others, and Macy and Marianna nodded at her.

  “We have different names to the public, but here we are safe, I promise,” Macy said. She reached across the table and placed her hand gently on Winnie’s forearm.

  Winnie sucked on her bottom lip and nodded. “My real name’s Winnie,” she said softly.

  Elaine smiled. “We may seem a little much at times,” she said, glancing mostly at

  Giselle, “but we look out for each other. It’s the number one thing that I encourage everybody to do. We only have each other, if we follow the rules. So I’ve got to make sure you’re safe, comfortable, as happy as I can make you.”

  Marianna sighed. “It’s not always easy, but Lana does her best. Not everybody succeeds, as I’m sure she has told you, but nobody can help everybody. Do you trust us?”

  Winnie knew she did. She could see that they would look out for her. Their honesty was welcoming. “Mhm,” she said.

  She was silent the rest of lunch, listening to them talk. She studied them each. Giselle was the loudest of the group, the one who enjoyed her own voice the most. Winnie wondered how she had gone so long without somebody trying to off her with her loud mouth, and how Elaine considered her one of her closest friends. Marianna was the quietest one, who sat much like Winnie with her mouth shut, sipping a mug of black coffee. Lily and Macy equally tried to outwit Giselle, but there was no doing so. Elaine hadn’t been so present. Her eyes kept drifting to her phone.

  “I think I have some things to take care of,” Elaine said. Her cheeks were red and she looked frustrated. “Winnie, would you like to come with me?”

  Marianna moved forward, leaning over the table. “I can give her a ride home, if you want,” she said. Her voice was soft and rich, and Winnie wanted to know more.

  Elaine and Winnie shared a glance, and then Elaine nodded. “That is kind of you.

  Thanks,” she said. She stood up, and the four women exchanged hugs with each other.

  Winnie followed the four out silently, and watched Giselle and Macy take off down the subway. Next, Lily and Elaine climbed into their separate cars and drove off, leaving Marianna and Winnie alone.

  “Why did you want to talk to me?” Winnie asked, knowing there was no other reason that a stranger would want to drive her home, especially when she could’ve gotten home on her own.

  Marianna was adjusting the scarf around her neck when she stopped and starred up at Winnie. Marianna was about two inches shorter than her. “I know what it’s like to find out what you are and not believe it,” she said. “I just thought maybe I could help you out.”

  “Look, I’m here, in New York, not with my family. Clearly I believe something,” Winnie said, feeling defensive. She hated people talking to her as if she were a child.

  Marianna began to walk toward her car, a small, two-door Jeep. “Get in,” she said.

  Winnie followed, now curious about what Marianna was going to tell her. She climbed inside and shut the door. “You all talk about this Immortal thing out in the open so freely, like there aren’t people trying to kidnap you,” she said. “How am I supposed to completely believe this?”

  “We know people who’ve been taken, Winnie,” she said. “Some of us have seen it happen. We aren’t making it up.”

  Winnie was the type who needed to see it for herself, but she let Marianna continue to talk.

  “Haven’t you seen it? Seen something? Why are you here?” Winnie bit her lip. “How did you know?”

  “It’s hard for people like you and I to just believe,” she said. “My husband was killed because I didn’t believe.”

  Winnie held her breathe as she listened to Marianna. She couldn’t imagine what she’d feel if Reagan or Elizabeth died because of her.

  “I’ve been this way for 200 years,” she said. “I knew something was wrong with me, but I didn’t have anybody like you to tell me what it was. It wasn’t the Trackers for me, but my village in Mexico. This was long before we had the internet, or anything to get the word out. So what happened just became a legend around my parts. I had been killed in a river accident and I came back.”

  Winnie watched as the light turned red, and Marianna stopped the car. “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “And I was just like you, Winnie,” she said. “I was stubborn, and I went home. Our son had returned from work and he saw me with my husband, and he went mad. He thought I was a ghost, and was frightened, and the neighbors heard his yells. They came over, and they found us, and thought I was some sort of witch. They wanted to kill me, and they tried. I woke up again, and my husband was dead beside me. You can’t imagine what that’s like. I’m happy you didn’t have to go through that.” Marianna had pulled to the side of the street and parked her car. “This is where I live,” she said.

  Winnie tilted her head at her. “Why are you Elaine’s minion then? Why aren’t you in charge?”

  Marianna laughed, revealing a set of large white teeth. “Come in, we’ll talk some more.”

  Winnie followed her up the three flights of stairs to Marianna’s apartment. It was furnished with eclectic pieces of colorful furniture, with a red and yellow print couch and Spanish art on the walls. It smelt like jalapenos.

  “I don’t want to be in charge. 200 years is a long time, and I don’t think I’ve ever found that calling that Elaine talks about. The one that’s supposed to find you because you’ve become Immortal,” she said.

  “Don’t you have something you love?” she asked. She said this like she wouldn’t rather be with Reagan and Elizabeth, like she wouldn’t rather get to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with her mother and brothers, regardless of how crazy they made her. She loved being a nurse, and was excited to work again if she got the job, but she would give anything to get to watch her daughter grow up.

  Chapter 3

  Winnie watched as Marianna sat silently, thinking. “It changes. Like I said, 200 years is a long time. Right now, I’m a photographer. In ten years, I’ll probably change again.”

  Winnie didn’t think she was good at any
thing besides being a nurse. She moved to sit on the couch with Marianna. “How did you find out that you were good at it?”

  Marianna looked at Winnie seriously, but shrugged. “I’ve had a lot of time to try new things. Would you like some coffee?”

  Winnie shook her head. She couldn’t drink coffee, at least when she was alive she couldn’t. It kept her up at night, no matter what time of day she drank it. And Reagan knew that she needed her sleep, so he took away the coffee machine even though he loved it. “You can have some, though,” she said, politely.

  “Winnie, that’s an interesting name. Is that why you decided to change it?” Marianna asked from the kitchen as she brewed a new batch of coffee.

  “How do you drink so much coffee? Doesn’t it make you anxious?”

  “Nothing scares me anymore,” she said. She took off her scarf and hung it on the hook next to the front door.

  Winnie had known before that the scarf had something to do with her death. Beneath the scarf, Marianna’s neck had a raised jagged scar that went from one collarbone to the other. It didn’t look as prominent as Winnie’s, but Winnie’s was brand new. “Can I – can I ask what happened?” Winnie bit her bottom lip, then shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. That was rude. You don’t have to tell me. I’m sure it’s painful to talk about.”

  “You don’t think that hundreds of people have asked before?” Marianna asked, sitting next to Winnie with her coffee.

  “I didn’t think about it,” she said.

  “When I fled Mexico and became a citizen in the 1915, people were always worried about it. They were always asking. How did I live through that? How did it happen? Was I alright? I started wearing high neck dresses and ascots, and finally scarves when they became popular.”

  Winnie nodded. She didn’t want people to ask her. She couldn’t imagine her reaction if somebody were to ask what the scar on her chest was. Would she have to come up with a lie for it? What would she say? It was very obviously a gunshot wound, in a place that would kill a regular person. Technically, it killed her.