A New Start

by Morris Fenris

  “Arthur?” she whispered, her eyes fluttering open.

  “Hi, baby,” he said, offering her the cup of water. She glanced at it, and tried to sit up a bit, to take a sip. He assisted best he could, propping up pillows and moving blankets until she was comfortable.

  Finally, she seemed fully awake. He wrapped his arms around her as comfortably as he could, burying his face in her neck and breathing in the scent of her. Underneath the smell of medicine and sterile equipment and illness, he could smell her familiar scent. Immediately, the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach receded, as she wrapped her arms around him.

  They didn’t say a word, didn’t let go for what seemed like hours. They shifted and shifted again, until he was on the bed beside her, her small body in his arms, careful not to tangle the wires. Such a short time ago, he would have been worried about the appropriateness of this, but now, he worried about nothing.

  “I missed you,” he said, simply, as she looked up at him.

  “I missed you too,” she replied. “But you could have called.”

  “I did, many times,” he said, looking around, but her phone was nowhere to be seen. She winced.

  “Right. The phone interferes with the heart monitor, so it’s outside. What day is it? I must have slept three days away.”

  “It’s Christmas Eve,” he said, gently laying a kiss on her forehead.

  “Oh,” she seemed to be thinking this over. “My God. You must be freaking out.”

  He laughed, but there was pain in it, and finally, the tears spilled down his cheek.

  “Yes.”

  She snuggled deeper into his chest, enjoying his touch.

  “It’s okay. You’re here now.”

  “But how long are you here for, my love?” he asked quietly.

  She was silent for a moment. “At least until Christmas.”

  Looking up to meet his eyes again, she arched her neck and he brought his head down.

  Their lips met, and he tried to be as gentle as possible. But the kiss seemed to bring life back into her, and some color returned to her cheeks as she kissed him, pressing as close to him as she could.

  It wasn’t long, she didn’t have the strength for it to be long, and when she pulled back, her eyes fell on the teddy bear on the floor.

  “Is that for me? How in the world did you get that here? For that matter, how did you get here?”

  “That’s for you,” he said, pulling the blanket up tighter around her as she shivered. “It’s quite a story.”

  “I’ve got time,” she replied, and that made him laugh, actually laugh. He held her tight, laying kisses on her face periodically as he told her about his day, only pausing once or twice for the word. And although she lay quiet and still, listening, he could still see the sparkle in her eye. He could see she was still the same girl who walked through the doorway without fear when he was newly awakened, her touch just as gentle and her mind just as open.

  “You’re insane,” she blurted at the end of his story. “A plane? How did you handle a plane?”

  “I thought of you,” he said, squeezing her hand. “I thought of you and what might happen if I didn’t see you before …”

  “Arthur, hush,” she lay her head back onto his chest. “You’re here now. You made it. Let’s not talk about it.”

  “Are you afraid?” he asked, and she sighed.

  “I don’t know. I feel like I should be … and yet … I’m not. I’ve been through such hell with this disease. It’s painful and inconvenient and awful. It’s ruined a lot of things for me, and I can’t wait for it to be over.”

  “And the boy warrior out there?”

  She sighed.

  “Tony is … just as afraid as I am, I think. He’s my best friend, Arthur, and I thought I was in love with him. But I didn’t know love. Not until …”

  She glanced up at him, biting her lip. He squeezed her tighter, his heart overflowing with love for her as well.

  “And you think he won’t adhere to your wishes?”

  “I don’t know,” she sighed, closing her eyes. “I don’t know. But I told him it’s all I want for Christmas, and you have to honor someone’s Christmas list.”

  Arthur glanced down at her, plucking a thread off the scarf on her head.

  “You’re beautiful, you know that?”

  She looked surprised.

  “I look like shit.”

  “No, you don’t,” he replied. “You have nothing special on, no makeup, no primping, nothing, and your beauty still shines. Particularly because it comes from in here,” he touched her chest, gently. “A soul, a human soul. That is perhaps the most beautiful thing of all.”

  She smiled.

  “You’ve been practicing your language. It’s gotten good.”

  “I needed to be able to tell you how I felt,” he replied. “I needed to. I couldn’t have you slip away without that.”

  She looked like she might cry for a minute, and then pulled the blanket over him as well.

  “Are you staying then?”

  “As long as I need to. As long as I can.”

  “Good,” she stifled a yawn. “Because apparently I’m lazy and need to nap some more. But when we wake up, it’ll be the best thing ever.”

  “What?” he asked, laying his head on the pillow beside her. “Besides waking up beside you?”

  “It’ll be Christmas morning,” she said, a little smile on her lips. “And I’m so glad I get to experience it with you.”

  Their faces, inches from each other, kissed again, a deep and passionate kiss that spoke volumes to each other. Arthur felt warm, and eventually sleepy, as her breathing changed. She fell into sleep. He didn’t shift from his position, holding her tightly.

  Twice the door opened, and the kindly doctor stuck his head in, checking her vitals, and making notes without disturbing them.

  “Please,” Arthur said, softly to him. “Tell me the truth.”

  The first time he asked, Dr. Hever only shook his head.

  “The only thing I ask of you is that you let Tony in when the time comes, to say his goodbyes.”

  “Of course,” Arthur nodded. “Of course.”

  He had seen death many times. Seen ones who were nowhere near as sick as Annalise, just slip away. It baffled him that she could be so sick, so listless and still live. It almost seemed cruel to keep her alive. In his day, someone this sick would be granted peace. Someone half as sick as Annalise would be given last rites. How cruel modernity was to be able to prolong this.

  But the second time, the doctor’s expression was perplexed.

  “What is it?” Arthur’s heart leapt into his mouth, fearful that he would lose Annalise now and forever.

  “Her vital signs are … rising. And her fever is breaking,” he shook his head in surprise, and went to a drawer, pulling out vials. “I need to take some blood from her, to test and see what’s happening. Are you able to stand it, if I pull blood?”

  “My cravings are quite controlled,” Arthur replied. “But will it hurt her?”

  Dr. Hever smiled.

  “Hold her hand, and she won’t even notice. I’ll take these right to the hospital and be back by morning.”

  He was true to his word. Arthur heard him come back in, and heard the house start to awaken around dawn. But he didn’t dare run out to ask for the results, for he was too fascinated by what was happening in the room.

  The color had returned to Annalise’s cheeks and she opened her eyes, bright and full of life, as the sun came in. He wasn’t sure, in her state last night, that she would ever look at him again, but she did with a smile.

  “It’s Christmas,” she said, sitting up slowly. He was quick to guide her, making sure she didn’t move too fast.

  “Annalise, relax,” he said, and she shook her head.

  “You don’t understand. We have to go out to the tree. Will you take me there?”

  “Yes, dear,” he replied, and she laughed at the typical response. Her body fe
lt fragile, her bones clear under his grip, as he helped her up. But unlike last night, he could feel strength in her fragile state, her blood pumping, her heart pounding, as if it were trying to break through a barrier.

  Slowly, he helped her out the door to where the rest of the family was gathered. And to his amazement, saw his brothers standing by the tree with the Hever family.

  “What the …” he said in shock, and Gregory turned to him, his arm around Rosa, a closeness they didn’t normally exhibit.

  “Well, it’s Christmas, brother. We couldn’t be separated.”

  The presents under the tree were wrapped neatly in shining paper, alongside two families mingling with smiling faces. Tony approached Annalise carefully, his wounds still raw from their fight, but she gave him a hug before going back to Arthur’s arms.

  “My apologies, my Lord, for my harsh words yesterday,” he said, evenly. “My head was not clear.”

  “I know the feeling well,” Arthur replied, helping Annalise to settle on the couch, unsure of how she wanted to proceed. This was, after all, the man she had carried on with for years, and he wasn’t sure what their status was. But she leaned against Arthur, taking his hand, and kissing him on the cheek, and he got his answer.

  “Before we open presents, because you children never seem to grow up,” Dr. Hever smiled at his adoptive family, “there’s something that needs to be said.”

  The others turned their attention to him, and he raised a mug of coffee in a toast.

  “When Gregory came to us requesting Annalise, we were fearful of the idea, of the very notion. But we had no idea where that path would lead us. I’m so glad that you, my princes, are able to join us in sharing this special day. I know that Annalise’s mortality has become quite a concern over the last few days. Everything happens for a reason, and this reason was to bring us together, to be with family and the ones we love. The Hevers and the Bugressons have clashed many times over the years, but here, perhaps, that feud ends.” He took a deep breath. “This morning, I went to the hospital to spin your blood, Annalise, because your vitals rose during the night. What I found surprised me.”

  She squeezed Arthur’s hand, shaking at the news.

  “The last round of chemo appears to have started to work, a bit retroactively. While the cancer cells are still prominent, they are fewer and far between now. As well,” he smiled at Rosa, the only other human in the room. “Rosa agreed to be tested this morning for bone marrow, and, it’s a Christmas miracle. She’s a match.”

  Annalise gasped, bringing her hand to her mouth. Arthur turned to her confused, and she offered him an explanation as she did many times before. But this was the greatest explanation of all.

  “A bone marrow match cures cancer. Not just puts it into remission, but it cures it.”

  “What?” Arthur’s jaw dropped, and he looked to Gregory, whose eyes were twinkling. “This is true?”

  “What humans can do for one another is a miracle, in this modern age, Arthur. It appears your story with Annalise is not in its final chapter.”

  “You’ll be fine?” Arthur turned back to her, and she kissed him full on the mouth, in front of everyone, her smile wide.

  “Merry Christmas, Arthur,” she replied, and he wrapped his arms around her, unbelieving.

  When she had first walked into the room, he didn’t want to live, didn’t want to be what he was. The modern world was horrible, and offered awful alternatives. But now, he thanked the gods for modernity. They had saved Annalise. They had given them a Christmas Miracle.

  Maybe the modern age wasn’t so awful after all. And maybe, he’d give it a try, as long as she was by his side to teach him.

  Bonus Story 3: Mina More

  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

  2 Corinthians 3:17-18

  * * *

  Chapter 1

  Okay, so you want everything. Right from the beginning? This could take a while.

  Well, to get to the very beginning you probably have to go back about fourteen years. I was twenty-four and, weirdly enough, working for a subsidiary of Cyberlife Systems called Microsoft. Yeah, they dealt with most of the software side of a lot of CyberV.

  I was just one of many ‘system technicians’ working on the base line systems of the Oceania Architecture. That doesn’t mean I was in Oceania, of course, all the server sites are held here in the UK. Not that it really mattered where the servers were being held for the sort of update work we were do-

  …You’re really not too interested in those sorts of details, are you?

  So, it was this great open-plan office which I’m pretty sure they had modelled on a prison sweatshop. Cyberlife like to paint themselves as some sort of radical freeing force for humanity, always did, but as you know existence inside the Cyberlife fold is all about boundaries and conformity.

  My boundaries were about twenty centimetres beyond my right elbow, the same beyond my left and about a metre forward of my nose. Sometimes I’d go to stretch and accidentally rap the knuckles of both hands against either side of my little cell.

  I really was in the Cyberlife fold back then, too. I didn’t have this place and I’d finally made the jump out of living at home, the easiest way to do that being a Cyberlife apartment on site. Oh yeah, no shit, I was one of the drones filing down the super nerd highways of the Clyst St. Mary complex from one kind of cell to another.

  Huh…? Yeah, yeah it was here in ‘Sector 9G’ as most people call it, I’ve lived here all my life – I’m sure I must have told you that. Well… never mind.

  So where was I? Right… so there I was being a good little worker bee, working away hard in my own little cell of the great honeycomb. To my left sat Antony, the goddamn biggest guy you’ve ever seen in your life. I swear, two-ten if he was a centimetre, and broad with it as well. And the poor guy got the same size cubicle as everyone else. I really don’t know how he did it – I spent every day feeling so claustrophobic in mine. Of course, it probably wasn’t just the size of my work space which caused that.

  Antony was a real nice guy and we sort of shared a sense of humour – or, at least a bit of a one – so we were work buddies in that way that you almost feel close to that person at work every day, but when you take it out of the workplace you take away all the reasons that friendship had to exist. Of course, I suppose you’ve never had the chance to experience that; don’t worry, these convenient friendships are not the worst thing in life you could miss out on.

  To my right was Wendy, possibly the most masculine woman ever to have existed. Honestly, I’m amazed that scientists didn’t try and study her – see if they could isolate the tomboy gene.

  Then again, maybe they did, because one Monday morning me and Antony came in to find Wendy gone. No warning at all, and all we could find out was that she had transferred to the research complex up in Sector 1B. How fucking weird is that? I mean, as if she’s going to suddenly change her job and move three-hundred and fifty odd kilometres away without telling the people she sat next to at work. Boy, that’s always creeped me out to this day.

  But, anyway, I was soon to put thoughts of Wendy to the back of my mind…

  Wendy’s cubicle was only empty for two days; on the third morning Antony and I came in to find Natalie in her place. Natalie couldn’t have been more different to Wendy if scientists had isolated the tomboy gene, created its antithesis and given it form. Where Wendy was as big as me – but with far superior upper body strength – Natalie was a diminutive one fifty-five and slender everywhere but on the behind and the chest.

  Don’t look at me like that! You want the real story or the EU approved version? Very well then…

  She had long, blonde hair that looked like it took more looking after than a new born baby and an interpretation of smart casual that
just…

  Okay, okay, I’m moving on.

  But, as you might expect, she was as ditzy as shit. Lovely, totally sweet and innocent, but not so much an air head as a ‘helium head’. You know... a head so far up in the clouds that it threatened to break free of the Earth’s atmosphere. And I don’t know, maybe I was a bit prejudiced, you know, with an oversimplified picture of the world, but I couldn’t quite equate this girl who thought that crampons were for bad period pains with someone who was a more talented coder than I would ever be. And I was a real nerd.

  Yep, ha-ha… real funny.

  And this really intrigued me. Of course, for ‘intrigued’, read ‘any flimsy excuse to fancy her that meant I didn’t have to face the fact that it was about looks’. Oh yeah, I used to be all man, baby.

  So me, Antony and Nat became a new little work posse. A little gang that would sit in the corner of the lunch hall and quietly bitch about Microsoft and Cyberlife, competing with each other to find the funniest way to deride our employers so we could avoid facing up to the fact that all of us depended upon sucking from the oily corporate tit for our continued existence. Or that’s how I liked to see it, at least.

  Actually, it was probably more a case of me and Antony competing to make Nat laugh harder than the other one did. But God did I love those days; they were so simple in a way. And I was in love, too; in love for all the wrong reasons… and it felt great.

  That X-mas our section went out in town for our work X-mas party. After a few hours, the whole group was breaking up and either going home, or onto whichever bar or club they normally frequented. I didn’t normally frequent anywhere, but me, Antony, and Nat ended up at this tatty upstairs club just off the High Street Complex… Um, the name had something to do with broken glass. Yeah, real inviting name.