The Biggerers

by Amy Lilwall

Isabel pulled herself into Watty as the doctor’s gaze landed on and took off from different parts of her body. He blinked and reached into his inside pocket.

  ‘If you’d ever be interested in helping me…’

  ‘No. I don’t think so.’ Drew strode towards him.

  The doctor held his palms in the air.

  ‘Why not?’ Isabel snapped and they all looked towards her. ‘Do you mean that I could work for you?’

  Dr Hector’s face opened up. ‘Yes, yes! I mean, we could certainly come to some sort of arrangement.’

  ‘Isabel—’ Drew started. ‘And would I see other scientists?’

  ‘Ab-absolutely,’ he stuttered. ‘Although only a select few.’

  ‘Give me your card,’ she said, ignoring Drew’s scowl. ‘I’ll think about it.’

  CHAPTER 15

  Bonbon watched Jinx as she looked through the bars on the little cage they’d been put in. ‘How did you do that?’ she said.

  Jinx looked at her. ‘What?’

  ‘How did you say “no” like that?’

  Jinx shrugged and craned her neck again towards the opened door of the van. ‘He’s going to be alright, Jinx.’

  Jinx’s mouth wobbled.

  ‘We’ll see him soon.’

  Her head flicked back around so she could look straight at Bonbon. ‘Do you really think so?’

  Bonbon pulled herself closer to Jinx and put her arms around her. ‘I think they’re just going to make him better. That’s a good thing, isn’t it?’

  Jinx thought about this for a long time before she said: ‘It is a good thing. I don’t think he was very well at all.’ She sat fiddling with her toes for a few minutes, still thinking about Chips getting better, then asked: ‘Where do you think we’re going, Bonbon?’

  Bonbon shivered, then thought how awful it would have been if Jinx had gone to wherever they were going all on her own. ‘Let’s not think about that until we get there.’

  * * *

  Isabel perched on the edge of the worktop with a cake-mixture-smeared ramekin on her lap. Watty vibrated next to her, gritting his teeth as he whisked buttercream and peered over his glasses at the recipe in his notebook. She’d been dragging her finger around the ramekin and plunging it into her mouth, gazing down at Jasper as she sucked on her tongue, and ignoring Watty. ‘I’ve definitely given you too much cake mixture,’ he panted. You probably shouldn’t eat it all.’ Drew had shuffled in from the study and told them over his glasses that he’d probably be looking at ten years if he turned himself in.

  ‘But ten years is for cloning! You didn’t clone me.’

  ‘No. I didn’t. But my toes were in cloning territory when I modified your nucleus. We had very serious regulations to abide by. All the modified embryos were intended to be destroyed and I took one home and grew it into a baby. They’d see it as… as growing a mutant. Sorry, Quail. But that’s why these regulations are in place, to prevent that kind of thing. They may even have been more lenient with me if I’d have replanted you into a real uterus, but the fact that you were grown in a fake womb has added to the, um, Frankensteinesque quality in all of this.’

  Isabel stared into the ramekin and thought for a moment. ‘He’ll keep quiet, won’t he?’

  Drew took his glasses off. ‘It’s not him I’m worried about, Quail.’

  ‘What are you worried about?’

  ‘Ten years isn’t that long, you know.’

  They jumped as Watty slammed the bowl down on the table and turned to face Drew, communicating a warning look that brimmed with words of past conversations. If Drew were to do this, two years would be reasonable; five would be the absolute cut-off point, but ten? Watty stared for a moment, then let his face go blank. ‘This is separating,’ he said. ‘I’m going to take it outside.’ And he went.

  ‘Why did Watty go?’

  ‘Quail, you know what he’s like about his buttercream.’

  ‘I’m not ten years old any more.’

  Drew looked at his socks. ‘It doesn’t matter; even if I didn’t have to take Watty’s feelings into consideration, there’s no way I’d let you go to prison.’

  Drew smiled. ‘Don’t let’s decide anything now…’

  ‘What’s to think about?’

  ‘Isabel; ten years of being a prisoner, compared to a whole lifetime, is really no big deal. Think of everything you could do! You could go to vet school, you could make friends…

  ‘—.’

  ‘And you’d become more independent, you know? Watty and I aren’t going to be around forever…’

  ‘Stop!’ Isabel interrupted. ‘You’re not going anywhere. And that’s final.’ She put the ramekin next to her and lined her feet up over Jasper’s back. ‘I don’t think Jas can take me jumping on him any more. Get me down, please, so I can stomp off.’

  * * *

  A clattering noise woke Bonbon. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, feeling her whole body rise and fall in time to clicking footsteps striking the ground. She looked at Jinx who was still sleeping next to her. The footsteps stopped and they were put on the ground.

  ‘Hey, Carol,’ said a she-one’s voice.

  ‘Hello, Rosy,’ said a different voice that she recognized.

  ‘Got another one?’

  ‘Another two.’

  ‘Communication?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Got their records?’

  ‘It’s all in there.’

  ‘Thanks. Do you need it back tonight or are you clocking off now?’

  ‘You can keep it until the morning, I don’t need it.’

  ‘Great. Take them down to Waiting, Len’ll come an’ see to them after his break.’

  ‘Buzz me in?’

  ‘Yep.’

  Bonbon felt the cage swinging again and watched through the bars as the ground disappeared.

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘See you.’

  They stood swinging in front of what looked like a wall. There was a loud buzz, the wall split in two and they walked right through it. Bonbon felt the cage being lifted higher before it was set down again onto a surface. The clicky footsteps walked away, the zjwooom noise of the door closed them outside and there was silence. Bonbon looked down at Jinx; should she wake her up? No, no… Better let her sleep through this.

  Bonbon hugged her knees with shaky hands. Her eyes rested on a stripe in the wall that was probably the edge of a door, although she couldn’t see the other edge because the wall of the cage blocked it out. She thought about moving right up close to the bars to get a better look but her arms would not stop hugging her knees. Oh, please wake up, Jinx; please wake up.

  After a while, the stripe in the wall opened up in the same way that the first door had. She had been right. A shadow slid across the wall then fell away when there was no more wall to slide on, as if it were crawling across the floor and transforming itself into the head that now appeared at the bars of the cage. Bonbon tried to squeal but instead only felt herself breathe in quickly. The head was completely white apart from a black glass window that covered the eyes, and grey lines, like the bars of her own cage, which criss-crossed over the mouth.

  ‘Hmmm,’ said the mouth through the criss-crossed lines. ‘You’re a bit frightened, aren’t you?’

  Bonbon jammed her eyes shut.

  ‘Well, at least you’ve got your friend with you. Most littlers come here alone.’

  Bonbon thought that this was very true; if she’d had to come alone, after everything that had happened at the doctor’s, she would be dying by now, she was sure. She opened her eyes. The head was still there, waiting for her to… to do something. ‘That’s better,’ it said, then seemed to go off to a different part of the room. It had only wanted her to open her eyes, phew… She heard things making clanking noises as they were picked up and put down again and banged against each other before the head reappeared, just as suddenly as the first time.

  ‘Right,’ it said. ‘There are two ways of testing what I’d like
to test now. I need you to demonstrate your level of communication. You can forget everything your owner told you about not communicating in public because none of that matters any more. Do you understand?’

  Bonbon looked at the floor.

  ‘You see, that’s the part where you tell me if you’ve understood or not, and this is the first way of testing you. The second way is rather nasty, I’m afraid.’

  Her eyes snapped upwards. The cage door opened and a white hand came inside holding a tube thing that looked like the tube Jinx had used to carry flakes in. The hand held the tube over the sole of Jinx’s sleeping foot, put its thumb over the end and pressed down. The thing clicked and Jinx woke up, her mouth trying to scream but nothing coming out, she scrambled to the back far corner of the cage and squashed herself into it, holding her foot and rubbing at it. Bonbon looked at the thing. It glistened with little sharp points that had jumped out of it when the hand had pressed the button. One of her feet crossed itself over the other one, protectively.

  ‘I’m sorry, I really don’t like doing that, it’s just I need to leave in half an hour and it’s much quicker this way…’

  Bonbon looked over at Jinx who sat in the corner shaking. She turned back to the head, her lips wobbling.

  ‘I really am sorry.’

  ‘—.’

  ‘It won’t do her any harm, I promise.’ The head tilted so it could see towards the back of the cage. ‘It won’t do you any harm,’ it said again. ‘Trembling lips; interesting. Can you cry in front of your owner?’

  Bonbon stared.

  The head stared back, then repeated: ‘Can you cry in front of your owner?’

  Bonbon didn’t know what ‘owner’ meant but she knew he wanted her to clap. She clapped twice. The only person she could really cry in front of was Jinx.

  ‘We have established communication. Thank you.’ The man appeared to be tapping at something that was too far below the cage for Bonbon to see. ‘Let us communicate with one clap for “yes” and two for “no”. Is that the system that you are used to? If it is, clap once now.’

  Bonbon clapped.

  ‘And you, erm…’ He looked down at the thing he was tapping then looked back. ‘Jinx?’

  Jinx’s eyes rolled upwards, in one glistening movement like wet snails falling over. Her mouth closed so she could swallow, then opened again and hung like that until he had to re-ask his question. Nothing. With her legs curled round to one side, she rubbed her foot slowly and stared.

  ‘Can she communicate?’ he asked Bonbon.

  Bonbon held both hands in the air to clap, then hesitated.

  ‘Can she?’

  Again, she hesitated.

  The mask sighed and up came the hand with the horrid pricky thing. Both of them jumped; Bonbon flung herself to the back of the cage over Jinx, clapping her hands together, clap, clap, clap, clap, as the thing came towards them.

  ‘Is that a “yes” or a “no”?’ he asked, retracting the pricky thing.

  Two claps.

  ‘Now listen; there is a reason why you are both here.’ The body seemed to slide backwards and then stand up so that all they could see was a stomach. ‘I’m going to leave the room for a moment so that you can talk about that reason; when I come back I will ask you the question again.’

  They watched as the stomach turned and left the room, the door swooshing open and then shut again. Bonbon hummed in her throat to check her voice. It worked; he had gone.

  ‘Jinx, listen; you have to clap.’

  ‘Where are we? What was that horrible thing?’ Jinx’s voice was all shaky, her eyes fixed on the cage door.

  ‘Jinx, look at me! Look at me, Jinx?’

  Jinx’s eyes turned towards Bonbon.

  ‘You have to clap, Jinx. If you clap then he won’t hurt you with that thing.’

  ‘But we’re not supposed to clap…’ She looked away again.

  ‘We’re not supposed to clap because otherwise we’ll get taken away. We’ve been taken away, Jinx. That’s why we’re here!’

  ‘But that means if I don’t clap, I might get to go home.’

  Bonbon stared at Jinx. ‘No, Jinx. They already heard you speak…’

  ‘I don’t want to clap, Bonbon.’

  ‘But I have. I’ve clapped! Even if they did send you home, they’d keep me.’

  Jinx’s eyes snapped back. ‘No, they won’t, Bonbon. Don’t say that.’

  ‘Yes, they would! And they’ll poke you with that thing again and again…’

  ‘If they let me go, I can come back and save you.’

  Achy clouds formed behind Bonbon’s eyes. She scrunched them shut and thought of the moment in Chips’s he-one’s house when Jinx had cried out and Bonbon had clapped just to be with her.

  ‘Bonbon?’ Jinx put one of her hands over Bonbon’s.

  Bonbon looked up. ‘Yes?’

  ‘I’m not going to…’ but her voice disappeared inside her throat.

  The door swooshed open again and the head appeared at the cage. ‘Have you had time to talk?’

  Bonbon looked at Jinx, then back at the head. She clapped once.

  ‘Good. Jinx, I’m going to ask you again. Can you communicate?’

  Jinx stared back at the head and pressed her lips together.

  ‘Jinx?’

  Jinx’s arms wove around her knees.

  A hand appeared next to the head with the pricky thing again. Jinx watched as it approached her shin. ‘I’m sorry. I just need you to co-operate, Jinx.’ He pressed the thing and it struck her leg with a click. She tipped backwards then onto her side, cradling her leg to her chest.

  The head sighed loudly again through its metal mesh as it looked back down towards the thing it was tapping. A buzzing sound could be heard. Then another voice.

  ‘Hey, Len.’

  ‘Hi, Jeff,’ said the head. ‘I was wondering, I’ve got a bit of a case down here; has stubbornness been a characteristic of any Batch Twentys so far?’

  ‘It’s not a characteristic of Batch Twenty, Len.’

  The head sighed again. ‘I know that, but have you had any cases reported of refusal to communicate?’

  ‘A few. Yes.’

  ‘Even after the pins?’

  ‘It’s rare but it does happen. You got a non-co-operator there?’

  ‘I’m not sure if I have or if she genuinely cannot communicate.’

  ‘I’d be wary…’

  ‘Thing is, she was brought in with another. They live together.’

  ‘Really? That’s unusual.’

  ‘Yeah… So I just wanted to know, am I allowed to strike the other one to get her to talk?’

  ‘Um… I’m gonna look that up for you, Len. I’m pretty sure it’s not allowed, though. Hang on a second.’

  Len’s white head turned back to the cage as muttering and tapping could be heard at the end of the line. Bonbon could just make out a nice smile through the grey criss-crosses. It made her heart slow down a little, for some reason… Why was he wearing such scary clothes? She was sure that everything would be nicer if she could see his face properly. He looked at his own hands as he twizzled the horrid pricky thing around and around in his fingers.

  ‘Nope, Len. Not allowed.’

  Len nodded once. ‘Can’t inflict pain upon a co-operating party, right?’

  ‘You got it.’

  ‘Does that mean I can’t separate them?’

  ‘Um… It says nothing about emotional pain so, yes; you can.’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘I’ll leave that up to you.’

  ‘Right. Thanks, Jeff.’

  There was a click and the conversation ended.

  ‘I have to leave soon. Jinx, I’m gonna see you tomorrow, and I really need you to co-operate, okay?’

  Jinx said nothing. She was now sitting upright and had both her arms tight around Bonbon. There was no way that nasty white head wouldn’t separate them.

  The head seemed to contemplate them, then it looked to the
left and thought for a moment. ‘Bonbon?’ it said finally, looking back.

  Bonbon clapped once immediately.

  ‘I won’t separate you this evening. However, you have to talk some sense into her, okay?’

  Bonbon held her hands up but didn’t clap. Yes, she’d understood but, no, it probably wasn’t going to be okay.

  ‘And Jinx? If you want to stay in the same cage as Bonbon, you really have to step it up. Don’t think for one minute that we’ll let you go home if you don’t show any signs of communication.’ He snapped off his gloves in time to ‘signs’ and ‘communication’. ‘Hasn’t happened to anyone so far; usually, once you’re here, it’s for keeps, I’m afraid.’ He got up from his chair, picked up the thing he’d been tapping and bleeped it against the wall.

  ‘Good job, Len Eight!’ said the wall. ‘See you at eight thirty-seven tomorrow in room R.’

  ‘Room R,’ Len repeated to himself. ‘Bye, you two.’ He fanned his fingers at them then left through the swooshy door.

  Jinx’s cuddle relaxed and she let her head flop onto Bonbon’s shoulder. Bonbon opened her mouth to speak but another swoosh followed by footsteps interrupted her. She felt Jinx’s head lifting from her shoulder just as the cage was swung up into the air, turned and travelled to an opening in the wall. Once inside, they were set down again on the floor. ‘Going down,’ said a voice as the whole room seemed to move.

  ‘They said they’d let me know in a week; do you think they’ll give her back to me?’

  Susan bit her lip and looked towards the window. It seemed like now was a good time to put her arm around the old lady’s shoulders. ‘I’m really not sure,’ she said. ‘They said the same thing to me.’

  ‘But that would be…’ Mrs Lucas’s eyes darted around the room, searching for what ‘that’ would be. ‘Monstrous!’ she said eventually. ‘After calling them out to find her they’d just take her away again?’ She clapped her hands together underneath her chin, shaking her head so slightly it was as if it were trembling.

  ‘I’m going to call them every day; don’t you worry. I’ve already had the president of the LOG on the phone…’

  Mrs Lucas’s eyes flicked up. ‘Really? And what did she say?’

  ‘She’s noted everything that happened. She said that they were perfectly entitled to take Chips away… And as far as their “communication rule” goes, they were “entitled” to take Bonbon and Jinx away.’ Susan winced at herself for curling her fingers into quotation marks. ‘But, anyway… Where was I? Oh yes! As long as Blankey hasn’t shown any signs of communication they can’t simply take her away because you are elderly. Not just like that, anyway.’