The Mirror Apocalypse

by John Ayang

  “What do you mean?” he asked, startled.

  “Nothing,” Jennifer replied, slyly putting a finger on her lips to sign him to be quiet, while darting a glance in Crystal’s direction. She then rubbed her stomach gently to give a nonverbal meaning of her statement to Cletus McCarthy and, then, quickly changed the subject at the same time. “He usually drinks a Coke, Crysie. Bring him a Coke.”

  “No, Crysie. Don’t bring any drinks. I’m still full from the late lunch we had,” he said, looking at Jennifer with mixed emotions.

  “Auntie Jennifer, can I turn on the TV?” Crystal asked, turning it on without waiting for permission.

  “Oh, sure, Crysie,” Jennifer indulged her. “A Harry Potter DVD’s in the drive, if you wanna watch it.”

  “Crysie, give us a few minutes,” Cletus McCarthy said, beckoning Jennifer, who followed him into her bedroom. He was glad that Crystal had the TV volume loud enough to give them privacy.

  “Okay, I know what you want to know,” Jennifer said, preemptively. “I’m pregnant. I should have had my period three weeks ago. I missed it. When I tested it this morning, it was positive, but don’t worry. I’m not putting it on you. I want the baby, and I’m very happy and so excited about it. I promise I won’t let anybody know it’s yours. I’ll…”

  “Shshsh! Can you just shut up for a minute?” Cletus McCarthy whispered fiercely. “Don’t give yourself verbal diarrhea. I’m so happy to hear the good news! I’m so excited to learn I can, and will, be a father. Do you know what that would mean for me and my family? It would mean the cycle of infertility is broken, and we can quit being a family of hopeless adopters and adoptees, and that would mean that even though I came from a test tube….”

  “Okay, hold on, Cletus Nicholas McCarthy,” Jennifer interrupted, amused at his childlike excitement. “Who’s suffering now from verbal diarrhea?”

  Cletus McCarthy pulled himself together, realizing he was carried away, and replied, “Certain things are contagious. As a nurse, you should know about these things. And, by the way, don’t you conceive any devious plans to steal my baby by letting on that I am not the father.”

  “Alright, take a hold of yourself,” Jennifer said, herself too excited to stand still. “I thought you would be mad at me for taking in, and would be embarrassed about what people might say if they knew about it, having just resigned from the priesthood.”

  “Fuck people!” Cletus replied, mildly startling Jennifer, who thought his first curse words were both so awkward and so cute at the same time. “The couple who sued me had tried to have a baby for twelve years. And here I am, tripping on it without expending any effort. What blessing could be better than that?” He looked so excited his eyes were almost sparkling in the dim light of the bedroom.

  Jennifer was so excited, too, and, cocking her head slightly to one side, looked straight at him, drinking in his joy with every fiber of her being. She resolved there and then that if he should ask to marry her, she would give him her all. Oblivious of the current moment, she was about to throw her arms around him and drown him in kisses when Crystal saved the situation.

  “Auntie, Jenny, it’s not Harry Potter. It’s a video of a training class on CPR,” she shouted from the sitting room.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” she replied, moving in that direction. “I forgot I took it out and put in the CPR demo CD. Harry Potter should be on the coffee table.”

  They trooped out of the bedroom, poker-faced, barely succeeding in hiding their excitement. Jennifer retrieved the elusive DVD from a stack on the coffee table and handed it to Crystal.

  “Oh, there it is,” Crystal said, taking the DVD to put it in the player.

  “Are you sure you want to watch that right now?” Cletus McCarthy asked, drawing her attention to the time. “Jenny’s leaving for work. Unless you want to stay behind and house sit for her.”

  “I’m taking it. I won’t watch it now. Auntie Jenny, can I take it? I’ll return it, I swear.”

  “Okay, Crysie. Just return it when you’ve watched it,” Jennifer said. “Don’t swear an oath. It’s unbecoming of a lady. You are a young lady now, remember?”

  “I’m so sorry, Auntie.”

  “Crysie, if I were you, I wouldn’t take that DVD,” Cletus McCarthy dissuaded. “Your finals start in a couple of weeks.”

  “I know,” Crystal replied, with a whine. “Can I just watch it one time?”

  “You know, I never even thought of that,” Jennifer said. “Don’t take it, Crysie. I promise to give it to you immediately after your exam.’

  “Oh, man!” Crystal whined, then grudgingly dropped the DVD on the table and trudged to the door in silent protest.

  “Mom would have taken it from you anyways,” Cletus McCarthy said. And turned to follow her out. He stopped and kissed Jennifer on the cheek. The latter reciprocated and held for a fraction of a second longer than necessary.

  “Oh, by the way,” he said, turning around at the door. “I am visiting Dr. Horacek on Friday the 22nd, for three weeks. I promised to spend the Easter with him. But Sunday, March 17, I am taking you on a trip to Galveston for the day. You are not working Sunday, are you?”

  “Nope,” Jennifer replied. “Am all yours on Sunday, the seventeenth.”

  “I asked him to wait till school is out in June so I can go with him, he refused,” Crystal said, plaintively. “And now, he’ll be going to Galveston Bay without me. Nobody pays attention to me anymore. Every one of my requests is always turned down.”

  “Oh, Crysie,” Jennifer replied. “Don’t say that. We all pay attention to you. We just want you to give a final push on your academic work so you graduate in the top of your class.”

  “Crysie, you can’t just idle away precious study time,” Cletus said.

  “I’m not idling away time. I just want to hang out with you,” she whined.

  “Okay, just face your finals and graduate tops, and you can hang out with me as you like. You can even hang down my neck and swing like a koala,” Cletus threw in some bit of humor to cheer her up.

  A spurt of laughter escaped Crystal. “Funny,” she said.

  “You will hang out with me until you are nauseated,” Cletus McCarthy pursued.

  “Then I will puke, clean it up, and hang out with you again,” Crystal retorted, impertinently.

  “Funny,” Cletus McCarthy said in turn, and watched his younger sister stalk defiantly toward the car. Her worship of him was beginning to be a nuisance, and he didn’t want to encourage it to the extent that it would make her dependent and needy. He resolved to devise a way to forestall that.

  “Jenny, I’ll talk to you later,” he said, moving toward the car also. “Let me drop off this cranky lass for her mom before she becomes uncontrollable. I’m not practiced in handling adolescent tantrums.”

  Jennifer chuckled quietly and watched brother and sister drive off. Then she turned into the house to dress up for work. She understood Crystal perfectly well. Believing oneself to be alone, and then suddenly having a brother who had attained such a high status in society, and still has a higher prospect, was a lot for her to handle. She wanted to bask in the euphoria of it all as fully as she could. She wanted to enjoy her brother so much that she would sometimes act spoiled. It was very uncanny how Cletus McCarthy turned out to be such a controversial figure, but at the same time, such a star in the family that every person naturally felt drawn to him. Hannah and Stephen McCarthy doted on him, Barbara and Dr. Horacek swooned over him with awe and wonder, Crystal Horacek worshipped her big brother to delirium, and Fr. Charles Polanski was almost driven nuts by the thought that he was losing a friend. Then, Jennifer, herself….

  Jennifer shook her head to dislodge the revelry from her mind. She didn’t want to think about the nature of her relationship with him. It defied words. And, the little ‘thing’ that was growing inside her…Was it going to be a boy
or a girl? It was not yet time to determine by ultrasound. She wondered what life would be for her as Mrs. Jennifer McCarthy, if he should ask her to marry him. She had always related to him, loosely though, as a cousin until he was outed. And then their first lovemaking erased all traces of that and set the stage for a new kind of relationship, which was as yet to be defined. But judging from his excitement at the news of her pregnancy, she believed she knew what that new relationship would be. She smiled and picked up her handbag and left for work.

  Galveston, Texas

  Sunday, March 17, 2013

  CLETUS NICHOLAS MCCARTHY did ask Jennifer to marry her. Though, she had nursed the hope of one day being asked that question, she had not thought it was going to be so soon and so abruptly. Of course, he had carefully planned it and hid it from her so that the surprise would be all the sweeter. After learning from Jennifer that he was going to be a father, it took him only a couple of days to make the decision. He had immediately confided in his parents, Hannah and Stephen, who were initially alarmed at the prospect.

  “Son, couldn’t you let one scandal die down before you start another?” Hannah had asked, half chiding and half exasperated.

  “No, Mom,” Cletus replied with a note of humor in his voice. “I always enjoy the cascading effect of things. Get it all out up front in one package, let the public feast on it to their hearts’ content, and then have peace. By the way, I don’t consider asking the mother of my child to marry me a scandal. Not marrying her would be the scandal.” Put in that light, Hannah McCarthy was robbed of further protest, but she was still squirming visibly and seemed irked that her husband was very calm about their son’s decision.

  “Well, just having everything happen bang, bang, bang makes me nervous. First, you got sued and exposed for being IVF-conceived, then you went and quit the priesthood before you told your shadow about it. And now…” she broke off, agitated, and addressed her husband, somewhat querulously, “Honey, you haven’t said anything.”

  “Calm down, honey,” Stephen replied. “Yes, I haven’t said anything because, for one, we saw it coming, and besides, Jennifer and Cletus are adults. If they have decided in that direction, we need to respect it.”

  “You saw it coming?” Hannah asked, looking incredulous and miffed at the same time.

  “Yeah. Didn’t you? How else would you interpret the constant teasing battles?” Stephen asked in turn, chuckling incredulously too. “It stuck out a mile, honey! They’ve been in love for years!”

  “Alright, alright,” Cletus raised his hand as though he was going to flag off a race. “Mom, Dad, calm down. Let there be peace. It’s a decision that I have carefully thought out, though I haven’t shared it with Jennifer yet…and don’t any of you dare let her know before I do, either!”

  “Lord have mercy!” Stephen said. “Son, we will not, or, let me speak for myself: I would never let the cat out of the bag. My mouth is sealed.” He joined his thumb and forefinger and made a zipping sign across his mouth.

  “Well, I don’t know,” Hannah said, fidgeting. “I know Jennifer is pregnant, but I think you are moving too fast.”

  “Mom!” Cletus called, a shade too loud. “She is not just pregnant. She is pregnant with my baby. And I am going to marry her so that my child will be legitimately born. Maybe that way we can begin a new chapter for the McCarthy family and move from being a bunch of adopters and adoptees to being regular people.”

  His vehemence made his mother wince and recoil. Then she quickly left the sitting room and hurried up the stairs. Cletus knew he had said something hurtful. Relenting immediately, he bolted from his chair and made to go after her to apologize. Hs father stood up promptly and blocked him before he could make it to the stairs.

  “Don’t. Leave it to me. Let me handle this.” Then he jogged up the stairs, stopped halfway, and said, “Son, don’t worry about it. She’ll be alright. Just go to your room and rest.”

  Cletus vacillated for a few seconds and eventually decided to follow his dad’s advice. He went to his room feeling slightly dejected. He had recently begun to be a bit snappy at his mother whenever they spoke and she seemed to disagree with him. His slightly raised voice of the last few minutes and his mother’s reaction made him suspect that she might think he hadn’t forgiven her, and the thought of her possibly harboring that feeling crushed him. Knowing Hannah very well, he believed she was, probably, sobbing quietly in her room. He lay tossing about and awake that evening for a long time. Eventually, he decided he would apologize to her first thing in the morning.

  As his dad had assured him, Hannah was her usual self the following morning. She welcomed him downstairs with a delicious breakfast of French toast, grits and scrambled eggs, and dismissed his apology with a wave of the hand, telling him she had thought over the whole thing and concluded that he was right. She was just being a fretting mother too attached to her son.

  “I need to get me a big pair of scissors,” she said, suddenly feigning seriousness.

  “For what?” Cletus asked, innocently curious.

  “To cut you off from my apron strings and let you be a man,” she replied, looking at him as though he should have known that himself without being told. Her sudden humor cracked both men, son and dad, up. “Well, am only being a mother,” she added and joined in the laughter.

  Breakfast was good and the McCarthy family of three huddled around the table had a good time. Cletus seized the chance and the good atmosphere to inform his parents of his plans to visit Dr. Horacek for two weeks. He would be back in Houston after Easter week. Both parents had no objection. They even approved, thinking that a change of environment for a little while would be good for him.

  All of that had happened a week previously. And now, here he was sitting in the pews of Sacred Heart Church, incognito, with Jennifer at his side, waiting for Mass to begin. He didn’t feel particularly awkward now as he had the first day he attended Mass as a layman at the Sacred Heart Church in Conroe. He was beginning to get comfortable with his newfound status after having been at Mass in different churches every weekend since he became a layman. He had decided not to visit the same church more than once in case he should be recognized, although he had changed his hairstyle to disguise his appearance. And since he was always in civilian clothes now, his ruse worked. It almost amused him how easy it was for him to be hiding in plain sight. He stole a secretive side glance at Jennifer, who was also slyly feasting her eyes on the rich Victorian architecture of the church. Painted snow white and accentuated with gold linings, the walls and ornately sculpted pillars were a sight to behold. The stained-glass windows were artfully done with a million tiny pieces, all fitting into one another to produce a master piece of delightful impression. The entire edifice commanded an aura of simplicity and elegance, of innocence and complexity. And Cletus McCarthy got lured into a philosophical dream world. He mused on how the crafts, artworks, and structures produced by man had always tended to be an extrapolation of himself. Humans can be complex and yet look innocent in appearance, stately in bearing, and still be quite moronic. This combination of opposites had dogged man’s nature since his creation and, perhaps, would continue….

  The bell rang to signify the entrance of the Mass retinue. Cletus McCarthy’s thoughts were interrupted as the Choir Director announced the processional hymn of the day.

  “Good morning, brothers and sisters in Christ. Our entrance hymn is: There’s a wideness in God’s mercy. Please stand to welcome our celebrant and ministers of the Mass.” The title of the song had a very assuring and peaceful effect on Cletus McCarthy. He opened his hymn book and sang along with the congregation in full throated baritone, harmonized beautifully by Jennifer’s soprano.

  It seemed like every aspect of the liturgy of the day was chosen or choreographed to suit his life situation. “A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah,” the lector stated. “Thus says the Lord…”

  C
letus McCarthy scrambled for half a minute to get the correct page of the reading in the missal before remembering to abide by his own teaching to his congregation when he was a priest. “Always look up with attention at the reader and get the proclamation direct,” he used to exhort them. He smiled ruefully at himself for so quickly forgetting.

  “…Remember not the events of the past, things of long ago consider not. See, I am doing something new.”

  ‘Of course, God was doing something new in his life,’ he thought. ‘I am beginning life again as a regular and common lay man. Besides, I am expecting a baby, a child of my own who after he is born, nobody will shame because of his manner of conception.

  “In the desert, I make a way,” the reader continued in the same flat and somber tone that is characteristic of readers at worship services. “In the waste land rivers….”

  The Responsorial Psalm celebrated the theme of deliverance, and Cletus McCarthy believed he was being delivered from a paradoxical life that would have been very stifling for him. And when he listened to Paul in the second reading saying he forgets what lay behind and strains for what lies ahead, that did it for Cletus McCarthy. He now understood fully what members of his congregation always meant when they would say it was important for them to feel fed at a Mass they attended. He felt fully fed and ready to take on the world. He did not take Holy Communion, even though he had confessed the previous day. He denied himself the opportunity in order to be in solidarity with Jennifer, who had indicated earlier that she would not receive Holy Communion.

  Post-Mass lunch at Famous Crabs ‘N Shrimps was unusually delicious. Cletus and Jennifer ate and laughed zestfully. They occupied themselves with small talk about seafood, about fishing, and about spring time. He carefully directed the conversation away from themselves and made what happened next a sweet surprise to Jennifer. A troop of three waiters and two waitresses walked in line toward their table bearing aloft a well-decorated platter of white cheesecake with three small lighted candles stuck into it. They stopped at the table and began immediately serenading Jennifer with Happy Birthday to You. She was so overjoyed that in her effort to get up and hug Cletus, she accidentally knocked over his iced tea glass and spilled it all down the front of his shirt and pants. He looked like he’s had an accident that he hadn’t had since he was a small child. Cletus was so amused that he started laughing so hard that the waiters and waitresses joined in. Members of neighboring tables couldn’t help but join the free laughter, especially as Cletus looked up and quipped, “Reminds me when I used to wet my bed, many years ago.”