The Zen Gene

by Mains, Laurie

  “No, I didn’t die, but believe me, for a while there I wanted to. And stop with the Mr. Davies stutter already. He can’t hhhhelp it yyyyya know,” she said.

  They both laughed.

  “It’s okay. The virus I used was modified by someone and it was never a killer; I only use it as a kind of mailman,” he said.

  “A mailman, what kind of dopey virus is that? Does it only strike at Christmas time?” she said and laughed at her joke which he didn’t get.

  “So what do you call this mailman you invented?” she said.

  “Poliomyelitis-Okinawa ribonucleic acid, I call it POrna for short,” he said.

  She looked at him to see if he was kidding and when she saw he was serious she guffawed. She laughed until tears streamed from her eyes and she could hardly catch her breath. When she did, she said “Porno, you called your invention Porno?” She hooted again and bent over holding her stomach because she was laughing so hard it was starting to hurt.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked.

  She had laughed so hard she needed to pee. In between hoots she asked him where the washroom was. He was torn because he did not want her wandering around inside the factory alone but he wanted to check temperatures again before Andrea got home. He only had about ten minutes before he would need to leave. He did not have time to show her where the washroom was so he told her to grab a flashlight.

  “It’s dark inside,” he said

  She made a face when he said that. She did not like the sound of it but she badly needed to pee and she grabbed one of the flashlights piled on the counter top and turned to go.

  “Try it,” he said.

  She tried it and the battery was dead and she tried another and another until she found one that worked. By this time she needed to find the washroom in a big hurry but before he would tell her where it was he made her promise not to raise a lot of dust. He also handed her a small electric lamp to take with her to test any outlets she found in the washroom.

  Though he had been working and playing inside the building for years he never once ventured into the women’s washroom. It was one of Andrea’s rules she taught him when he was a kid, and though he was desperate for an electrical source, he would not break the rule. Before she left he warned her not to go near lab four with the duct tape on the door. He made her promise.

  When she returned from the washroom he noticed she cleaned the tear smudges from her cheeks. When he asked about power in the women’s washroom he was not surprised when she shook her head. “And there’s no water either,” she said a little peeved that he failed to mention this important detail.

  “Thanks for trying. I have to go now Andrea will be back soon.”

  As they were leaving she said, “How do you know it works?”

  “What?”

  “So this Porno of yours, how do you know it works?” she said.

  “It’s POrna and I tried it.”

  “You tried it?” she said.

  “Yes.”

  “You tried it on yourself and because you haven’t started a war you think it works?” she said wondering how anyone could be that dense.

  “Not on me.”

  “So who did you try it on?” she said.

  “Katie Peters.”

  She looked at his face to see if he was joking.

  “Tyler what are you talking about?” her voice was hushed with concern. “Did you do something to Katie?”

  “I put POrna on her,” he said thinking she would find it funny because she laughed before.

  “Tyler, listen to me. Did you do something to that girl?” she said. Her voice was serious and she was not smiling anymore.

  “Yes. I saw her going to the pool and I put POrna on her shoulder when she bumped into me.”

  “Oh my God,” she said backing away from him. “That’s why you were asking me all those questions about her.”

  “Yes.”

  What on earth did he do to Katie? An alarming realization dawned on her. Mike Peters will kill him if he did something to her.

  “Oh my God.”

  Chapter 6

  Andi?

  September 23

  CFB Naden

  9:00 am

  It was morning of his second day in British Columbia and he was already sick of military food. He was picking at his breakfast in the Officer’s Mess when a different woman came to get him. This one was wearing a name tag that read “Jones” on her uniform blouse and she came to tell him Colonel Western had called an emergency meeting.

  When he arrived at the meeting there were two other people in the room along with Western. He saw the other men before but had not been introduced to them and he noticed he was not being introduced this time. The conference room in was in the sub-basement of a concrete building designated C Con. The room was windowless and it had a creepy confined feeling.

  “We’ve discovered an outside connection,” Western said jumping right in. “Last July there was an incident involving Sergeant Peters’ daughter. She came down with a high fever after swimming at a public pool.” Western was looking at him as he spoke.

  “They took her to Royal Jubilee Emergency where she was hospitalized for three days. They treated her for high fever and delirium associated with exposure to the polio virus.”

  He noticed that Western was still staring at him and seemed to be waiting for a response so he complied and gave him a ’so what’ shrug.

  “She was swimming,” he continued,” with a friend and the friend reported she witnessed an older boy putting something on the Peters’ girl in the pool. Sergeant Peters dismissed it at the time because his daughter considered this friend and her story to be unreliable.

  Our people interviewed the daughter and the other girl; the girlfriend clearly recalled the incident though Ms. Peters remained doubtful about the whole thing. The boy was identified as a sixteen-year-old Tyler Worthy. He lives with his mother in a rented house in the West Shore area of Victoria.”

  Western stopped talking and he looked up and noticed he was staring at him again. The pause and staring continued for some time and he was becoming uncomfortable.

  “Colonel, I’m sorry but I’m not following this. What has this to do with your soldier problem? Maybe this boy did do something to the girl, but so what? I admit the polio connection is interesting but polio cannot create this problem we are seeing in your men. None of this tracks. I think you are making an error pursuing that line of investigation.”

  Western regarded him with an unreadable blank stare and as he watched his face it looked like the Colonel was trying to come to a decision about something.

  “Dr. Mann, there is another reason we wanted your help with this problem. It turns out you are acquainted with this boy’s mother.”

  Western was watching his face waiting to gauge his reaction to this news. The others in the room were also watching him.

  “Acquainted? What does that mean? Is she a colleague or something?” he asked. He did not like the way this thing was going, it was obvious he was set up but he still did not know why.

  “Andrea Gayle Worthington.” Western said the name watching his reaction.

  “Andi?”

  His eyes bore the unmistakable inward look of someone recalling a memory from a long time ago and that, unfortunately, was not the reaction he was hoping to see. He was looking for signs of guilt not the innocent surprise he saw now. The doctor did not attempt to deny knowing the woman which was, as far as he was concerned, almost certain proof he was not in on it. He was no actor and this was no act. Clearly Dr. Mann was not involved and his reaction proved it.

  “She changed her surname to Worthy after she left a marriage that turned bad. Her ex-husband was a drug addict and according to Ministry documents tried to kill her while on a drug rampage. She suffered injuries from the assault and the ex is now in prison. It appears she was not willing to take a chance that he would find her when he got out so she and the kid took off.

  This happen
ed in Montreal fourteen years ago and she has been keeping a low profile in Victoria ever since. She works as a cashier in a local grocery store and neither she nor her son has any presence in police, family services, or court records.”

  “Murphy,” he nodded at the taller of the two men in the room, “followed a hunch to see if she changed her name. That was how we connected her to you by tracing back through her name change to her marriage and then U of T. and that is where your name popped up,” he said.

  He glared at Western, “You’ve known about this connection all along and that’s the real reason you brought me out here.” He shook his head in disgust at this pointless subterfuge. “I have not seen Andi Worthington for years. It’s true we dated for a while but we split up many years ago. That was great detective work Colonel you definitely nailed my ass on this one.”

  Western’s face darkened.

  “Doctor Mann, you must admit it is a strange coincidence, you being the aggression guy and your girlfriend’s son being the delivery boy, wouldn’t you agree?”

  “First of all Colonel, I am not the ‘aggression guy’ as you like to call it. I stopped that research long ago mainly because of people like you. Yes, it is a coincidence that I know the boy’s mother but I have never met him and wouldn’t know him if I saw him. Please listen carefully to what I am saying Colonel Western, I did not create a virus that suppresses murderous aggression but if I could create such a thing I definitely would. The reason I have not created it is the same reason no one else has, it is simply not possible.”

  He watched as Western stood up and walked around the table to where he was sitting and for a brief instant he thought the man was going to strike him. He definitely looked like he was ready to hit someone.

  “I don’t think you understand the situation here Doctor Mann. You are not getting the big picture. The fact that you know this woman is enough for most reasonable people to assume you had something to do with this.”

  He considered Western’s words and their implications for a moment and then gave him a sympathetic smile.

  “I can see your problem Colonel you need to blame someone. I would consider it a singular honour to accept responsibility for putting an end to aggression. That is not such a bad way to be remembered.” He laughed at the look of discomfort on the Colonel’s face. “The only reason I don’t walk out of here right now is I’m interested, as a scientist, in discovering what has caused this problem. Who knows? Maybe the world is about to become a less violent place. No more armies, war, or murder. Wouldn’t that be a refreshing change for humanity?”

  Western stood up and walked over to the door and put his hand on the knob. “How would you feel about making contact with the boy’s mother?” he said.

  He had to hand it to the guy he never gives up. The idea of seeing Andi again after all these years made him uneasy. There was no scientific basis for wasting any time on this kid thing. It was a complete wrong turn and he wondered why Western was suggesting this reunion with her. He an uneasy feeling the Colonel was once again holding something back.

  “I’m sorry Colonel but I’m not interested. You are wasting your time with this polio thing.”

  “There is something else you don’t know Doctor Mann. The boy’s father is Julian Froste,” he said.

  He was getting out of his chair but stopped when he heard the name. When he and Andi were both attending the University of Toronto Froste was a twenty-three-year-old French national living in Canada attending U of T on an international scholarship. He was famous on campus as a math genius of the first order.

  “So Froste is this boy’s father and he is now in prison?”

  “No. The boy’s stepfather is in prison. No one knows where Froste is he never returned to France he simply dropped off the grid. We think he might be using the boy but for what purpose we don’t know. Look at your friend Jonas sometimes people with big brains do poorly in the real world. If Froste is involved in this you have to agree that it is much more likely a mind like his could come up with an anti-aggression virus,” Western said.

  “Froste was brilliant and yes if anyone could it would be someone like him. But he was a mathematician not a biologist and I still don’t believe what you are suggesting is even possible. There are too many variables to deal with when considering the biology of aggression,” he said.

  “Will you go and talk to the mom?” Western was pushing hard to close the deal and he wondered why. He thought it over while Western and the others watched and waited for him to make a decision. He was curious about the real reason he wanted him to see Andi. The idea that her son was somehow involved in all this was nonsense and a complete waste of time but it was the thought of seeing Andi again that was working away on his resolve.

  She was the woman who broke his heart and he was not sure if he could stand the pain of seeing her again or if he could trust himself to be an adult about it when or if he discovered the reason she dumped him all those years ago. He was surprised how much it still hurt to think about her.

  He did not believe Western about any of this because, so far, nothing he told him was true. He made up his mind to do it because he once had strong feelings for Andi and Western was after her son. He was not sure if what he was feeling was love or hate but deep down he knew he needed to find out why she left him.

  “I will see her if for no other reason than to eliminate her kid from your shit list.”

  “Don’t give me that Doc. You wouldn’t miss this for the world. You are in this until the bitter end because now you have to know if it is true or not. Admit it,” he said.

  He looked away from him and grunted his agreement. It was true enough he was hooked on the problem but he was not happy about having it continually pointed out to him. He wanted to know what was going on and if Andi was his connection to continue working on the problem, so be it. He was not happy about working for Western but for now he would go along with the program.

  Chapter 7

  Old Wounds

  Andi had always been tall and slender with bright elegant eyes. She was still slim but she moved with a life worn heaviness and her beautiful eyes were flat and lifeless. He suspected it was the result of her life choices. It can’t be easy being a single parent these days, he thought.

  He watched her from the corner of his eye as he loitered in the frozen food section glancing over his shoulder as he pretended to shop for frozen lamb pieces. She looked wonderful to his eyes and he feared he had not aged quite as well and he was screwing up the courage to approach her. The mere sight of her made his palms sweat. She did not notice him, she didn’t seem to notice anyone; she was mechanical and absent in her actions as she performed her tasks.

  Her hair was short and darker than he remembered, he saw what appeared to be part of a tattoo on her neck above the tan collar of her Ralph’s Food Market smock. That’s new, he thought, but corrected himself, for all he knew the tattoo was many years old. He watched her give another lifeless smile to a customer. He wondered what kind of hell she’d been through in the years since they were together.

  How did Andi, who used to be so full of life and eager for knowledge, end up this way? When they hung out together at university and then later, when they saw each other more seriously, she had been a free-spirited girl with a sharp mind and wicked sense of humour. Their time together was mostly wonderful but he remembered how occasionally a shadow would overtake her for a day or two.

  When he asked her about it she alluded to, but never explained, some difficult family situation. It was obvious that, whatever it was, it affected her deeply but he, being young and self-absorbed, was incapable of meaningfully probing this area of her life.

  His palms had turned cold and clammy standing by the cooler watching her. A sure sign, he thought, that this was going to end badly. On his way to see her, after picking up a rental car and receiving instructions on how to find the store, he tried to convince himself that he was doing this for Andi and her son. He knew it wasn’
t true. This was for his benefit alone plain and simple. After all these years he still wanted to know why she rejected him.

  Andi’s House

  Five hours after his less than convincing acting debut at Ralph’s, he pretended to run into her by chance while in Victoria for a science conference, he was standing beside Andi in her kitchen. She was surprised to see him at the store and distant at first but she took her lunch break early and they talked for thirty minutes in the coffee shop next door. Getting up to return to work she said goodbye but stopped and looking back at him she smiled and invited him to dinner to meet her son Tyler.

  The house at the end of Taylor Road was small, peaceful, and homey looking with vines growing over the front porch and a frayed rope swing under an ancient maple tree in the side yard.

  There were only two other houses on the quiet semi-rural street and he could imagine her son playing ball hockey on the empty road. It looked like the kind of place a kid could grow up and have a happy secure childhood. As he approached the front door he wondered if Tyler was that happy kid or the unknowing dupe of a sick and angry father.

  “I’m glad you stopped to say hi Lee. It’s been a long time,” she said. Andi’s voice was as warm and intimate as he remembered and she looked the same as when they were together and in some ways better. She wore the same French perfume it was light and flowery and when he closed his eyes he was back in Toronto. Dinner was over and they were standing in her kitchen shoulder to shoulder cleaning the dishes like they did in his tiny apartment in Toronto.

  “I am too,” he said but he could not bring himself to look at her, he felt guilty about deceiving her. He realized this was likely to end badly but for the moment at least he was enjoying this time together.

  They talked non-stop through dinner catching up on each other’s lives and there was a lull in the conversation. The silence made him acutely aware of the growing ache he felt. He needed to say something to take his mind off the memory-pain of losing her and he spoke in a halting voice, “I felt bad that we never-”