The Late Bloomer

by Falkin, Mark;

  [sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]

  I was opening the store that morning, right? But that morning turned out to be what it was and so I didn’t go in at the usual time. I mean, Eric and Sarah Jane were standing in my yard and my parents were gone and the TV news freaking out and—[deep quick sigh] you remember.

  KGM: No, I don’t. Remember? I saw nothing, no footage of anything. Nothing except for a little of this guy on Univision in Spanish before the camera tilted over. All I got was…hearsay. From you and Bass and Mr. Fleming. I told you this.

  KJL: Anyway, I texted you and went there because that felt safe to me. Being back in that storeroom, listening to the radio until you got there. That felt safe. And I just grabbed one of those tests kits, shoved it into the pocket of my fatigue shorts, and I don’t know, I just . . .

  KGM: As the world was falling apart you shoplifted a pregnancy test.

  KJL: It’s like I knew I’d need it. You know? I know you know what the intuition felt like.

  [sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]

  You’re nodding. Besides, you know I’d been having dreams too, mostly in the summer. They stopped after around July Fourth or so, but, I just knew that I’d be pregnant in the fall and that it would be important to know right away. That’s all I knew.

  KGM: Huh. June dreams, you say?

  KJL: Yes, mostly. Same time as you, huh?

  KGM: Filled with doom, the future?

  KJL: The future, yes. Doom…not really. Not scary. About being pregnant.

  KGM: Mine were. Wrote a short story based on the way it made me feel.

  KJL: A story called…?

  KGM: The Late Bloomers.

  KJL: Shit.

  [sound of door swinging open; scratching footfalls; outside sounds disappear]

  KGM: Those tests any good? I mean, they cost a dollar. You’re ignoring me. You’re giving me a look.

  KJL: Here we are. Home sweet home.

  KGM: Where’s the food?

  KJL: Oh, here, this way. Usually they leave me something at the front door.

  KGM: Maggie, stay.

  KGM: [whispering] There’s a few cars in that parking lot.

  KJL: Uh-huh. Why are you whispering?

  KGM: We could do it. Drive back to Utopia. Perfect place.

  KJL: Keys?

  KGM: You seen kids go anywhere near the cars?

  KJL: No. But I don’t watch them twenty-four seven.

  KGM: The dying didn’t take their car keys.

  KJL: Say we make it to the parking lot. You know they’re going to stop us. They stopped me every time I even feigned running off, day and night. They just appear. You know this.

  KGM: I know, I know.

  KJL: They want us here, Kevin. It’s their world.

  KGM: Kodie, we can’t stay here. You can’t live out your pregnancy here. Give birth here. Raise the child in a natural history museum eating packets of charred fish?

  KJL: I don’t see a rational choice. I’ve done nothing but think about this since I’ve been here and lucid enough to think. I’ve gone through different scenarios. You being here included.

  KGM: But did you ever plug into your formula that I have this gun? And Maggie? She owes me and she knows it.

  KJL: You’re looking at her. What happened between you two?

  KGM: Later.

  KJL: Kevin, you’re wasting time trying.

  KGM: Did you see what was happening down there tonight?

  KJL: You mean the flaming whales and all that?

  KGM: Yeah, all that. Have they ever lit whales on fire since you’ve been here?

  KJL: Not that I’ve seen. I’ve been in here quite a bit.

  KGM: I didn’t see any burnt ones down there today.

  KJL: Maybe they did on some night when I was asleep up here and they burned it completely and dumped the rest in the bay.

  KGM: Why are you so resistant? You’re defending them again. Their apologist.

  KJL: I don’t—

  KGM: But you are, you do. At every turn.

  KJL: You’re overreacting. I don’t like this any more than you do. Yes, of course, I’d love to escape but I’m just trying to be reasonable. It’s impossible, Kevin.

  [long pause]

  KGM: Johnny tell you that? You’re nodding. What else?

  KJL: Nothing.

  KGM: What else has he told you?

  KJL: Nothing . . .

  KGM: It’s not nothing. What are you so afraid to tell me? [pause] Why are you…?

  KJL: They won’t let us leave, Kevin.

  KGM: You’ve already said that. You’re being so evasive.

  KJL: I’m not.

  [long pause]

  They just won’t. I’m afraid for my baby. If we try to leave, they’ll—

  KGM: Kill us?

  KJL: [sigh] I don’t know what they’ll do.

  KGM: You know something, Kodie. The fact that you won’t even tell me…[long pause]

  The night I arrive, they light the whales on fire. They dance around the fires. They sing and hum like I’ve never heard them do before. It’s not in my head like before. Because it’s not for us. It’s for them. They’re celebrating. It’s the freaking Whos in Whoville down there.

  [long pause; distant sounds of singing-humming]

  KJL: Maybe you really are their savior, Kevin.

  KGM: I’m really tired of that conversation. Dead horse, dead end. They don’t need me.

  KJL: Okay. [sigh] What Johnny said was…he said you can help them remember.

  KGM: I’ll help them over a damned bridge. Yes yes.

  KJL: Won’t you even consider that? I mean, that’s why I asked you about Bastian’s ghost. Can you even consider it? Something that’s beyond reason? Kevin, this whole experience, that morning, the world dying off as it has. That’s not something you or I or Dr. Jespers or anybody would’ve thought possible. So why can’t you? You came here on a kayak for days and days. Don’t tell me you don’t somewhat get this.

  KGM: Is that what Johnny wants you to do? Talk me into it?

  KJL: How can I possibly talk you into it? [long pause]

  KGM: Whales on fire. They dance. Celebration. That thing, out on the water….

  KJL: I haven’t seen anything. What are you talking about?

  KGM: Something’s happening tomorrow. I know it. It’s—

  KJL: What? What are you talking about?

  KGM: It’s the thing I can’t see, they haven’t let me see.

  KJL: What what what?

  KGM: What Simon was talking about. Tomorrow’s the beginning.

  KJL: The beginning.

  KGM: Before I saw you running up the pier, I was looking at the drilling platform out there thinking I saw something on it.

  KJL: On it.

  KGM: Yeah. Something really big that moved.

  KJL: Moved.

  KGM: When I looked at it through the binoculars, nothing there. Just the platform, a rig coming up out of it.

  KJL: So what’s the—

  KGM: When I look out there again with just my eyes, I see it. Sitting there. I’ve been seeing it, iterations of it, since the morning of.

  KJL: Kevin, it’s, what? A mile out there in the open ocean.

  KGM: Something there.

  [long pause]

  KGM: Remember that morning? Bass naked with the gun? You’re nodding. Right before he turned to shoot that boy at the door, do you remember what happened?

  KJL: You were talking to him, telling him to put the gun down.

  KGM: Well, yes, but more specifically. After that. You’re shaking your head. Everything went black for a moment. Remember that? Not just clouds but like a f
ull eclipse.

  KJL: I…remember turning my head to the door because of that boy there. I remember screaming. His face…moved.

  KGM: You don’t remember that wink of darkness?

  KJL: Huh-uh. I can’t really—

  KGM: Well I do. And whatever it was that made it dark moved quickly away, then Bass shot the boy through the door. Whatever that was that blocked out the sun for that brief moment, that’s what’s out there on that platform watching us like the weasel watches the hen.

  KJL: I don’t know what to say, Kevin.

  KGM: [quietly, recounting to himself] Always indirectly, I see it. Saw its tail on the trail. Saw its shadow riding the wave. Saw it at MoPac, standing on the other side of the train cars. On Forty-Fifth behind the kids. Now it’s out there.

  KJL: You’ve not told me any of this.

  KGM: I didn’t want to believe it. If I admitted seeing it to you, it’d’ve seemed real.

  KJL: Kevin.

  KGM: It waits.

  KJL: For what?

  KGM: The beginning.

  KJL: Kevin . . .

  KGM: What, Kodie? Won’t you even consider it?

  KJL: Okay, okay. Point taken.

  KGM: The dark smiling teeth. This is its lieutenant. Kodie. I know you know what I’m talking about. You won’t look at me.

  KGM: [quick whispering] You’re here. Now I’m here. A million of them are here. They’ve been waiting. They could have taken us out at any time. At any time at all.

  KJL: You’re scaring me, Kevin. Blink, Kevin.

  KGM: Time’s on their side.

  KJL: Are you awake? You’re sleep-talking. Kevin, wake up.

  KGM: Whatever’s out there, it’s not just out there on that platform. It’s everywhere. It’s vast. Like what Jespers was saying. [sound of ripping Velcro, zippers, paper shuffling] “This thing (his word) hides in plain sight like dark matter in space. It’s there, it’s so everything, so everywhere that we geneticists don’t think to see it. We don’t know it’s there, like a fish doesn’t know it’s in water.” On the platform out there it shimmers. Like it’s there but it’s not.

  KJL: Hey. Enough now.

  KGM: Like the white stuff. It’s always been within us. Hasn’t it?

  KJL: Kevin. Please, let’s sleep.

  KGM: Dark side of the helix. [whispering] Cerca, cerca, cerca.

  [whispering, talking to himself, to the recorder; sounds of footsteps, KGM pacing the floor]

  KGM: My God—the kids have been trying to tell me all along. Johnny was trying to tell me. Because I did know. I wouldn’t admit it. I took those feelings and bent them into fiction. I absolutely knew, and I did nothing. [more pacing sounds]

  I ask you, dear reader, what was I supposed to do? I mean, tell Mom, the school counselor, Mr. English? Tell them what? That I’m having vivid visions, dreams, my brother mumbles things to me when he sleepwalks and pees on the floor which I clean up so he’s not embarrassed, and because of these things I’m certain the world is ending soon, like right around Halloween sometime? Pffft. They’d’ve put me on psychotropics faster than you can say “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor”.

  You just tried to say that fast didn’t you? That’s why I like you. You’re hanging in with me, more than anybody.

  Maggie? What? C’mere. Lie down. You feel it. Don’t you, girl? My anxiety, that they stir in their sleep.

  KGM: [voice panicked, whispering] Kodie. Kodie. They didn’t pick me to save them. They didn’t pick me.

  KJL: Hmmm? What are you talking about now? You’re sleep-walking again. Come back to bed.

  KGM: No! [still whispering] Kodie. That thing out there. They’re doing its bidding now. I’ve felt all along that they’re conflicted. Professor Fleming, is this why you didn’t want me to know about Jespers’s work? “The dark side of the helix” isn’t just a turn of phrase, is it? You knew if I knew…I’d know too much.

  KJL: Why do you keep waking me up? I thought you said—

  [sound of skin slapping skin]

  KJL: Hey! Why’d you do that? That hurt.

  KGM: Gotta wake up. We’ve got to get out of here. Before dawn breaks. It’s their float zone. They’re not as…aware just before dawn breaks. I’ve watched them. They go into this collective REM sleep spasm thing. We can get away. [sound of Velcro ripping; metal snapping] We’ve got this glock, this dog.

  KJL: What are you doing?

  KGM: I’ve been thinking. Maybe the old world picked me, picked us. Like Fleming and Jespers tried to tell us—we’ve got the conch, we’re supposed to keep the flame of the old world. We’re supposed to save us, but not by staying here. You and me, Eve. We’ve got to try. You’re nodding. You know I’m right.

  KJL: Okay. [voice broken; sniffling]

  KGM: C’mon. We can do it. Yeah? Okay? You okay? I need you.

  [sniffling loud and close to the microphone; scratching sounds29]

  Dear reader, her face is buried in my chest and she’s nodding her head. This is when you go awwww.

  [KJL laughs quietly, sounding loud in the microphone]

  [sounds of sirens; very loud]30

  KGM: The sounds! The kids are—

  KJL: —same as the morning of . . .

  [sounds of running footfalls; heavy breathing; dog barking]

  KJL: Same sounds! What is that?!

  KGM: Coming from out there!

  [the loud siren-like sounds31 augment; the recording becomes unclear; their voices indecipherable]

  [sounds of running footfalls; heavy breathing]

  KGM: The kids are…the sounds! This is…good! They’re totally confused right now.

  KJL: Kevin, look out!

  [sound of gunshots] pop pop pop pop

  KGM: Maggie! Go!

  [sound of dog barking; those sounds continuing but receding]

  [squealing sounds; dog barking maniacally in the distance; siren-like sounds continuing]

  [sounds of fast footfalls]

  KGM: [breathing heavily] God, listen to that. They’re shrieking! [sounds of children; sounds of car door opening; car32 door chiming] This one’s got keys! Get in! Get in! Get in!

  KJL: Why are they shrieking like that?

  KGM: I don’t know! [sound of car door slamming shut; car door chiming]

  KJL: Oh, shit! [sound of car door slamming shut; car door chiming stops; engine starting up; engine stalling] There they are! Oh, Jesus! They’re coming. Hurry!

  KGM: Trying. Engine’s cold. Car’s been sitting here. [sound of car engine turning over] Okay!

  KJL: Kevinnnn!

  KGM: Okay okay okay. [sound of engine starting] Here we go.

  KJL: Here they come—!

  KGM: [sound of car put into gear] Look! Maggie’s heading them off! Look at her! Oh, man, look at her—

  [sounds of dog barking] [sounds of engine revving; tires squealing] [siren-sound continuing]

  KJL: Go go go go go!

  [sounds of dog barks receding]

  KJL: Careful. More of them. Bound to be. They’ll try to get in front of us.

  [sounds of engine revving; tires squealing]

  KGM: Look. Maggie’s got them. Down on the beach. They’re not… We’re gonna make it!

  [sounds of car engine; tires squealing; acceleration]

  KJL: We’re going to…oh my God it’s…they’re not…there’s not enough of them! Ha-haaaaa!

  [sounds of car engine; tires squealing; acceleration; heavy breathing; coughing]

  KGM: No no no no no. They’re [sound cuts in and out; knocking sounds] the road. We’re on Sixth. We’ve got to turn into town. Aw, shit! Can’t go west!

  KJL: Why?

  KGM: River’s flooded all up and down there. Gotta go east for bit, then cut back. Hold on. Gotta U-y.

  [sou
nds of tires screeching; acceleration]

  KGM: More up there. Dammit. We’ve got to—

  KJL: Turn down—

  KGM: I can’t do that! I—

  KJL: Go!

  KGM: Gotta ditch and hide before they get here.

  KJL: Look look look. Pull in, pull in.

  KGM: Good idea.

  [sounds of tires squealing; engine turning off; car doors opening; car door chime]

  [sounds of footfalls]

  [sound of a roaring33 and slam]

  KJL: Where should we go?

  KGM: In there.

  [sounds of car doors slamming]

  [sound of interior door opening; footfalls]

  KJL: They saw us. [sounds of heavy breathing of two people]

  KGM: No they didn’t. Let’s just stay here awhile. [sounds of heavy breathing of two people]

  KJL: They did.

  [sounds of heavy breathing of two people]

  KGM: FYI, it’s back on.34

  KJL: Uh, okay. Not really a priority right now, Kevin.

  KGM: Let’s recap for dear reader.

  KJL: Let’s not. Let’s get out of here.

  KGM: Real quick. Okay. We’ve been in this oil-smelling office since this morning. Blinds shut. Hunkered down and still.

  KJL: We napped.

  KGM: You napped.

  KJL: I napped. I’m a little bit preggers. Sleepy.

  KGM: They didn’t even come up this street. I sat here and thought about everything again, how things relate. You remember all those copies of Lord of the Flies Jespers had?

  KJL: Yeah.

  KGM: Remember that Bible citation on his board?

  KJL: Yep. Matthew 16:23. Uh, something like get behind me, Satan. You don’t have God in mind, only things of men.

  KGM: Yeah, something like that. You know what “lord of the flies” translates to in Greek and Hebrew?

  KJL: Waiting for you to tell me.

  KGM: Beelzebub.

  KJL: Dammit. Get behind me Beelzebub. Don’t remember learning that in ninth grade. [pause] So, you’re saying Jespers…what? He’s a scientist.

  KGM: Dunno. He was reaching, he was having premonitions, putting puzzle pieces together, looking outside of science. All scientific discovery starts with wild what ifs, right? What I was saying about Grandma Lucille earlier? I just wrote an extra credit essay on Lord of the Flies, a story about children all alone, no adults; just wrote that story about late bloomers based on vivid dreams of me and you and Bass looking at a sea of kids; Johnny’s night terrors; I go up to Mount Bonnell apropos to nothing that morning. Me, you, Bass, Fleming. No—