The Great Altruist

by Z. D. Robinson

  James nodded for support but hardly believed his father's words without reservation. It wasn't fair for him to take his father's side just yet. Who knows what details of their conversation James's father was leaving out, particularly the stuff he said! Nevertheless, James began to understand why there was so little respect in their relationship, especially if what his father said was true. "What do you think is wrong?"

  "It just feels like she hates men. She hates her father, she doesn't respect me - the only man she ever says anything good about is her stepfather!"

  My mother has a stepfather? James thought. "Then what are you marrying her for?" he blurted again, followed by another swift kick to his chest from the woman in his pocket.

  "I have to go through with it," his father said. "If I bail out now, I'll let everyone down."

  "How would you let people down by not getting married?" Another kick.

  "They'd say I'm being irresponsible and immature. I just want people to think of me as a grown man already."

  "Do you really think people would think you're being immature if you go through with marrying the wrong woman?" Another hard kick. James could tell that Genesis was using her unusual strength to make her point.

  "She's not the wrong woman, Greg,” his father said as he pushed his beer glass away from him. “She's just got some problems."

  "It's your decision."

  James's father nodded and looked at his watch. "I gotta run," he said. "Look, thanks for your concern and all, but who knows? Maybe after we're married and all the stress of the wedding is over, things will work themselves out."

  “I hope so.”

  His father stood up and left his future son alone at the bar. James finished off his beer and set it down on the table. A moment later, he felt a strong pinch on his breast and looked down at the scowling woman peeking out of his coat.

  "Can I speak with you in private?" she demanded.

  James got up from the bar and went to the restrooms. As he walked through the bathroom door, he took a deep breath and got prepared for the onslaught of scolding about to hit.

  Once certain the room was empty and the door closed, Genesis stormed out of his pocket as if it was filled with poison. "Are you crazy?" she shouted.

  "Calm down. He didn't fall for it. It'll be okay."

  "What do you mean, he didn't fall for it? Were you trying to ruin everything?"

  "Of course not."

  "You're getting too close to causing a paradox! I never should have gone along with this."

  "I'm sorry. I got carried away."

  “Carried away?” she yelled. She turned from James and shook her head back and forth out of frustration. “I knew you couldn’t be trusted with this,” she whispered to herself. She thought she had learned from losing Jadzia, but she clearly hadn’t. She thought she could stand against his begging. But he wasn’t the problem; her heart – the part that was falling in love with him – was the problem.

  “That’s unfair!” he said, unaware she wasn’t referring to him.

  She turned around and flew within inches of his face. He felt scared and took a step back as she approached. “No, let me tell you what’s unfair, James. You promised me we would discuss what to say together. Before you say it!"

  She backed down and flew over to the window. She stared at the moon and noticed the storm clouds gather as she attempted to calm herself down. Finally, she turned around, wiped a tear from her eye, and placed her hands on her hips. "What I gave you before, James, was to help you fix your own mistake. I gave that to you out of a sacred duty. But what I give you now is not just a chance to save your family. I'm giving you my complete trust. Remember that the next time you feel like getting yourself killed. My powers are at your disposal, but I am selfish about one thing.”

  “What?” he asked.

  She hesitated. “You. These past few months, James, I…” she turned away for a moment and wiped another tear from her eye. “I've come to see you as more than my friend. I know because of my size, we can never be together, but I want to be with you as long as I can.”

  James extended his hand and let her swoop down and rest in his palm. He gently stroked her cheek. “And I you. I've felt that way for some time now.”

  “Good,” she said. “Then you'll understand if I'm scared of losing you.”

  “Of course. I'll do better.”

  “I know watching all this is hard for you. But you can’t be so reckless.”

  He nodded. "I really hope what my father said isn't true."

  “I’m sure there’s more to what happened. There always is.” She drifted closer to him and rested on his shoulder. She watched his hands shake as the impact of his journey took its toll on his nerves. She knew he was sincere when he wanted to learn more of his parent's past, but he was learning too much at once - he wasn't ready to face all the secrets his family had spent years burying away.

  “This is none of my business,” he said clutching his head.

  “Maybe.” She knew there was no convincing him to stop now though. "I did think it was weird what he said about your mother and her stepfather. I wonder why she only speaks well of him?"

  "I'd like to find out why that is."

  "Right now?" she asked, preparing herself to leave.

  "No. I want to know what my father meant about letting everyone down if he bailed out of the marriage. He always told me not to care what people think!" James didn't want to believe his father's best pieces of wisdom were culled from his own mistakes. Deep down, he hoped his father was the sort of man that learned without walking through every door on his own. All his life, James was convinced that the perception his father created of being strong and wise was true. As he saw more and more of his parents, he saw just how human they both were. He just wished it didn't take finding out the terrible skeletons from their past for him to get it. “I would like to know where he learned to care more about what other people think than his happiness."

  "Where did you learn not to care?"

  "From him."

  "Then maybe we should start with his father."

  "On one condition," he began. "Make sure I'm not my grandmother."

  She laughed. "Naturally."

  They disappeared a moment later.

  Chapter 6

  James came out of the stream and saw a strange-looking but still familiar room. It looked like his sister's room but with older decor. He soon realized on looking in the mirror that he was indeed in his sister's room – only thirty years earlier. He was living in the body of his father's sister, his Aunt Mary.

  "You've gone too far this time," James said to Genesis in a teenage girl's voice. "Although I figured this would have to happen eventually. I only have so many male relatives."

  "Isn’t this every guy’s dream: to live as a woman for a day?"

  "Normally I wouldn't mind," he said as he looked at his breasts, "but isn’t this a little creepy to you?"

  "Very," she said, laughing.

  "I’m going to get you back for this,” he said. “Let's just do what we came to do and get out of here. I don't want to be here any longer than I have to."

  Downstairs at the kitchen table sat James's grandfather, Curtis, who James had never met before. The man was stoic and cold, an icy grin stretched across his face as he read the newspaper. He appeared mean, his temperament caustic, and when his eyes darted around the room, he appeared sinister.

  James's father eventually came home from work and joined the family for dinner. Curtis responded with only a shake of the head and resumed his newspaper reading. A moment later, he said: "How was your day, son?" He hardly lifted his gaze from the newspaper.

  "Same as always."

  Curtis looked up from the paper and glanced over his son's appearance as he ate. "Why is your tie loose?"

  James's father straightened his tie and tightened the knot. "Sorry," he mumbled.

  "You didn't wear your tie like that at work, did you?"

  He let out a sigh.
"It was hurting me."

  Curtis stood up suddenly and smacked his son across the face, sending him to the floor. "Don't you ever answer me in that tone again!"

  James sat frightened at the display of violence. His father cowered on the floor as Curtis stood over him with a raised fist. "I don't care what people think!" his father screamed.

  "But you must!” Curtis said. “How many times have I told you? You have to dress with respect for yourself!"

  James's grandmother, Betty, did nothing. She stopped eating naturally, but she did nothing to defend her son. James sat in his chair and was already prepared to jump in if his father was struck again. When his muscles twitched, Genesis – who was hiding in James's blouse pocket – gave him a gentle nudge to stay put. James relaxed and watched as his father began to cry.

  "I didn't mean it! I'm sorry!" he yelled.

  "You need to care what people think about you," Curtis, trying to calm down as he approached his son and stooped down on one knee.

  "But why?" James's father said as he sat up on the floor.

  "Because no one respects anything anymore. Why should anyone take you seriously if you don't care what people think? That's something you’re going to have to learn eventually, whether you like it or not."

  His father dried his eyes and wiped his nose on his sleeve. "Okay," his father answered obediently.

  Curtis stood up over his son with a menacing pose, like a bear hovering over a defeated prey. "Good."

  His son nodded and hung his head.

  "Now go upstairs and clean up."

  James's father hurried to his room and closed the door behind him as softly as he could. He didn't want to give any impression he slammed it.

  James sat silently and tried to finish his dinner. He wanted to tell his grandfather that he was wrong. He wanted to explain how that kind of thinking would affect his father's life. He knew Genesis would never forgive him if he intervened without her permission.

  After dinner, James went upstairs to his aunt's room and let Genesis climb out of the pocket. She immediately climbed to the windowsill.

  "Thank you for controlling your temper down there. I know that must have been hard to watch," she said.

  "Hard to watch? I had no idea my father was beat like that! And did you see my grandmother? She just sat there and watched like this happens every day."

  "Maybe it does," she said.

  "Why can't I just have a normal family?" James wondered.

  She sat down and shook her head from side to side, not knowing exactly what to say. "I don't think anyone does," she said finally.

  "At least now I can see why my father went through with marrying my mother. I'd be scared to break it off too! My father probably thought he’d be killed.”

  James sat down on his aunt's bed and lay back on her pillow. He stared up at the ceiling which was covered with tiny fluorescent stars that glowed as the sun set. "I don't suppose you could just brainwash him or something, could you?"

  "Which one?" she asked.

  "How about everyone?"

  "No," she giggled. "I have no such powers."

  He looked over to the window and watched Genesis look at the rising moon. "I really don't know what to do anymore,” he said. “It feels like the deeper I probe, the more messed up my family gets."

  She nodded sympathetically. "Perhaps some secrets should be kept."

  "Maybe you're right," he said, feeling defeated.

  "So what now?" she asked as she landed on the pillow and lied down next to him.

  "I'd like to see my mother actually."

  "Back home?"

  "No. Right here. She should be fourteen now. I want to see her before we leave."

  "Why?"

  "Because I want to go home having one last pleasant memory of my parents."

  “I understand,” she said. “Do you want to go now?”

  Just then, his grandmother, Betty, called from downstairs. “Mary!” she cried. “It’s time to take a shower.”

  It occurred to James that there were indeed some secrets that needed to be kept: his aunt’s body being one of them. “Sure thing,” he said to his grandmother. Then to Genesis, he whispered: “Right now, please.”

  "No problem."

  A few seconds later, James was no longer in a woman's body.

  When James’s consciousness came to, he was in another strange place he had never seen before. Genesis was sound asleep on a pillow (using her powers to find someone in James's extended family always seemed to drain her). Across the room from her was a full-length mirror, which James examined carefully. He couldn't recognize the man he saw, although James was decidedly glad to be back in the body of a man even if it was one he didn’t know.

  Genesis woke up and after stretching, she flew over to James and sat on his shoulder as he stared into the mirror puzzled.

  "I'm assuming you don't recognize yourself?" she asked.

  "Not exactly. Who am I?"

  "I'm not sure. I tried to find a relative that lived close to your mother. Whoever you are lived very close to her. At least from what I could gather from the stream."

  "Well, it must be someone I never met because I've never even seen a picture of this guy."

  The phone rang a moment later.

  "Should I answer it?" he asked.

  "Just be careful what you say."

  James nodded to her as he picked up the phone. "Hello?" he said in yet another unfamiliar voice.

  "Hi, Robert, this is Liz," said the voice of a middle-aged woman.

  Liz, James thought, remembering a moment later that his grandmother's name was Elizabeth. "Oh, hi Liz."

  "Are you still going to look after Becky today?"

  "Um, sure," he agreed.

  "Good. She's just leaving now. I'll pick her up this afternoon if that's okay?"

  "Okay," he said as his grandmother hung up the phone. "What is my mother coming over here for?" he said to Genesis.

  "You never had a babysitter?"

  "Yeah, but my mother's the oldest of three. What does she need a sitter for?"

  Genesis shrugged her shoulders.

  "Now what?"

  "Get ready to meet her, I guess."

  James was scared. He was in the body of someone he never knew. He didn't know how to behave, and worse, he was worried of doing or saying something that might change the future. He had not had such an active role in the lives of his parents since the incident in the bar, which could have ended in disaster if his father was any less obtuse. "Well I never met this person. How am I supposed to act?"

  "Just follow your mother's lead," she advised. "But be careful. Something here feels weird."

  "What do you mean?"

  Genesis never got to answer his question. A second later, there was a knock at the door. He got up to answer it while Genesis found a place to hide and ducked out of sight. He was anxious to see his mother again. And not because he didn't know what to say when he met her but because there were few pictures of her at this age - he didn't even know what she looked like.

  He opened the door to reveal a stunning blond-haired girl. "Hi," was all he could say to her.

  "Hi," she replied back, her voice revealing her true age. She kissed him on the cheek and walked through the door. "Do you mind if I use the bathroom?" she asked. James nodded. He watched his mother walk to the bathroom and close the door behind her.

  "So how is school?" James shouted through the bathroom door, trying to find something to say.

  His mother sighed loudly to signal her displeasure. "You're not going to ask me about that again, are you?"

  "Oh, I'm sorry," he tried to cover. "I didn't know it was such a sore spot."

  "I just wish you'd stop thinking of me as a little kid!" she shouted back.

  Well you are only fourteen, James thought. The bathroom door cracked opened behind him.

  The time for the last of his family's secrets to be revealed had arrived. As James turned around to face his mother, she was
standing in the doorway of the bathroom – wearing nothing but a seductive smile.

  "Oh my God," James said beneath his breath.

  James's mother walked toward him and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him close and pressing her body against his.