by M. A Casey
“Dad, what happened, are you okay?" I asked in a scared voice.
“I’m fine now Hayln,” he said still in pain.
Zeke helped him drink the water, then stood by my side with his arm around me. “He’ll be okay Hayl’s, just give your Mum a chance to fix him up.” I knew he was right.
I sat back and watched Mum take my father’s shirt off to assess his wounds. There was bad bruising down his left side. My mother felt the bruised ribs and my father flinched as she examined him.
“You’d better have some of this,” she said as she handed him the bourbon bottle. “It will probably hurt when I tape you up.”
Emin helped her as she tightly taped his ribs and then bandaged his midsection. I realized as I watched her tend to him that I had never seen using her skills before. She was a nurse when she met my father, but gave that away when she married him. I must admit watching her now, it was hard not to be impressed.
Mum had done all she could for him with our limited medical supplies but was quite happy with her work as she put the ice pack on his ribs.
“Zeke could you come with me for a minute,” she said. “I’d like your help with something.”
I watched them walk out of the room then turned back to face my father. He reached out to Emin and I, we came forward to hold his hands.
“I am so glad to see you both,” he said.
“Were glad your home Dad, you gave us a scare,” Emin said to him.
From behind me I could hear Zeke getting upset, I got up, kissing my father’s hand and told him I would be right back. I walked into the kitchen just as my mother was asking Zeke to leave.
“What’s going on Mum?” I asked not understanding what was happening.
“I just asked Zeke if he would give us some time alone with your father to sort a few things out,” she said.
“And I was explaining to your mother that I wasn’t going anywhere unless you knew, and were okay with it,” he said defiantly.
“Zeke is family,” I said to my mother trying not to raise my voice too loudly.
“I know that Hayln, but I need your father to explain a few things to you and your brother alone,” she said adamantly. “If either of you would like to confide in Zeke after that, I will understand, but for now, I think it needs to be just us.”
I thought about this for a moment and then looked at Zeke. “Will you come back?” I asked almost begging.
“Of course,” he said smiling at me. “How about I go get something for lunch, and I will be back in an hour or so?” He looked to my mother to see if that would be enough time, she nodded.
“Okay, but not too long,” I said.
He stood and smiled at me a minute more. I could have been mistaken, but I think he wanted to reach out to me. However, with my mother there watching he grabbed Emin’s keys from the bench, turned and left.
My mother and I went back into the lounge room, I knelt beside my father and she put her hand on his forehead.
“You have more color in your face now,” she commented.
“Was everything okay in there?” Emin asked her.
“Yes, Zeke has just gone to get a few things for me while we talk to your father,” she said calmly. “We are going to be honest with each other about everything, once and for all.”
I looked at my father’s face, he looked ashamed. “I guess I should have told you both this years ago, but I was only trying to protect you – all of you, but there’s no going back now,” he said.
“Could you please start with what’s happened over the last couple of days?” I asked him.
I wasn’t sure if I was quite ready hear stories about my family just yet, but I thought this was a decent enough place to start, and he seemed to agree.
“Well, on Friday I got a visit from Able Crowson my old partner, but I guess you figured that out by now,” he said looking at me, I nodded so he continued.
“He came to ask me questions about the last project we were working on. He told me that we were both in danger and that I needed to help him, or they might hurt my family,” he explained.
“I don’t understand Dad who are they, and what danger?” I asked him terribly confused.
“Hayln, it might be better if you just let your father tell the whole story first,” my mother said, so I was quiet while he continued.
“Able and I made a tremendously important discovery before you were born Hayln, one that could have possibly changed the world significantly. But once we found the true extent of its potential I knew we couldn’t make it public. If it fell into the wrong hands it could be… disastrous.”
“Of course, this is where Able and I disagreed. He saw the potential to be famous and make a lot of money, I saw how it could be abused. I was told by our lab assistant that she overheard him making plans to talk to someone at a government level about our work. I had just about finished having the basement converted to a lab so I moved everything here without Able’s knowledge. On the Monday, he arrived back in the lab with a government official named Spencer, he demanded to see all our findings and lab work on the project. So I lied, I told him I knew nothing about it, that we had been doing no such work and that Able was just looking for easy money by way of a government contract. Spencer was furious, but still went through the lab checking for any sign of our work. He even questioned our lab assistant who denied knowing anything about Able’s claims and then he left – irate.”
“His fury, was nothing compared to Able’s though, he couldn’t believe I had betrayed him that way. He cut all ties with me, promising to continue the work himself. I hadn’t seen or heard from him until Friday,” he took another drink of water before he continued.
“He said after he left all those years ago, he made numerous efforts to replicate what we had achieved in our lab without success. After a few years, he gave up and went to work in a lab in King’s Valley. He had put it all behind him until this week when he had a visit from Spencer, he told him that they had evidence of our work being a success, and he needed him to develop it further for the government. Able explained that he had been trying to achieve it himself for years but wasn’t able to, but Spencer didn’t believe him. He told him to find our entire lab work from years ago and that he would be back to collect him in a few days. Spencer then went on to say that Able was being watched and that his life depended on him getting the information he wanted, and he left – that’s when he came to visit me.”
“To tell you the truth, I wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not. I thought he could still be trying to make money out of our findings, so obviously I didn’t tell him anything. I hardly slept Friday night going over it in my head and then I remembered a break in we had when your mother was extremely early into her pregnancy with Hayln. I came home to find the back door forced open, nothing was taken except for one sample of our work. I assumed it was Able of course, but I knew that without the rest of our samples or findings, he wouldn’t be able to achieve anything on his own. He was a good scientist, but he didn’t have my knowledge or natural abilities in this field – so I wasn’t worried.”
“But once I had remembered, I knew that this must be how they found out that we were successful in our work and that Able must be telling to truth, so I decided I had to go to King’s Valley to see him.”
He paused for a moment, looking almost scared, my mother held his hand and nodded for him to continue.
“I found him almost beside himself in his apartment, he was waiting for Spencer to arrive at any moment, and he had no idea what he was going to do. I confronted him about the break in, but he denied knowing anything about it and I believed him after seeing his face, though he did agree that this must be how they knew about our work. It was only a minute later that Spencer arrived, he was more than happy to see I had found my there as well. He explained to me what they wanted, from Able and now me. It was exactly what I'd feared from the beginning. I explained that what they wanted us to do was more than likely impossible, but he w
ouldn’t listen. They started beating us both, taking turns with who they tortured, trying to find out what they needed. Able was much worse off than I was and I couldn’t stand it any longer. I told them that Able didn’t know anymore, that I had all the information from our old lab, and that only I could achieve what they wanted - if it was possible at all. He told me that my life was depending on this being the truth. He then gave his college – the one who dropped me off here, a signal. Then he took out a gun and killed Able, right in front of me.”
We all gasped out loud. “Able’s dead?” My mother whispered.
“Yes,” my father responded slowly and then looked at my mother and continued.
“Evelyn, Spencer told me that he knew all about Hayln and that they’d been watching all of us for months. He said I had to return home, get my research and cut all my ties here. They will be back in 48 hours when I will be taken to their labs to finish their work. He said I'd be allowed to leave once my work is complete – but after seeing what they did to Able I doubt it,” he said shaking his head slowly.
“Ethan no,” my mother pleaded. “This can’t happen.”
“That’s not all Evelyn, I have to bring Hayln too,” he spoke as if he was truly in pain now.
My pulse was racing to quickly I had no idea what this meant, and I couldn’t speak, so it was Emin who asked the next question.
“What do they know about Hayln Dad?” Emin said his voice shaking a little.
“They know what I did years ago,” he said, not actually answering the question.
“Keep going Ethan, they need to hear the rest,” my mother urged still holding his hand for support.
He took a deep breath and so did I knowing somehow this was about to get worse.
“Able and I had created a chemical strain of DNA which could be attached to ours. Initially we had designed this to strengthen the immune system, but it exceeded our expectations making it nearly impossible to get sick. We were thrilled of course, and then we made a colossal lapse of judgment. We started to trial it on human cell samples, mine and Able’s. It wasn’t long after we started these trials that we started discovering some side effects on our original tests. It seemed the chemical design not only strengthened the immune system but also the natural abilities of our test subjects.”
“We conducted the first tests on rabbit’s, and we soon found that they were jumping not hopping, and they could chew through just about anything. This is when I knew we couldn’t release our findings so I hid them here, including our own samples. Once Able left the lab, I kept working here at home, trying to separate the two outcomes without success. I also discovered something else.”
“I'd been working on our personal samples, and with some extra efforts, I found that when added to sperm it also took the place of the oocyte, the female germ cell or egg, and created an embryo,” he whispered as he spoke now barely getting his words out.
“I was spending all my time in the lab and your mother was stressed. She had just found out she was pregnant and she needed me here with her and Emin, but I couldn’t let this go. I was in the lab late one night when she came down, crying in pain and holding her abdomen, I knew she was having a miscarriage. She was hysterical so I sedated her in the hope I could stop it before it was too late, but I couldn’t.”
“I knew this would devastate her, and I knew I was to blame,” he said. The pain and guilt in his face was sickening. It was like watching someone being tortured, listening to him relive this part of his life but he continued.
“If I had just let it go when she asked me – I was the one who created all the stress, it was my fault, and I had to fix it. So I implanted the embryo with my DNA into your mother. When she woke up, I told her that I'd been able to stop the miscarriage with the sedation. She was so happy she believed me without much convincing and agreed to the bed rest I had suggested as well. We continued with plenty of rest until the first ultrasound. I didn’t even know if what I had done had worked, but when I saw the monitor I knew that it had. The rest of the pregnancy was perfectly normal including the birth and I never told your mother anything about what I had done.” He looked at my mother as if he was in agony.
“It was when you were about to go to school Hayln, your mother took you for your immunizations, and while she was there she asked to do some extra tests, one of these was a DNA test. Your mother knew straight away with her training what the results meant and confronted me that night, and I finally told her the truth. Which is why she left – she had every reason to, I betrayed her horribly,” he said with his head in his hands and then he stopped.
No-one spoke for a moment – we were all speechless. Then my father continued almost eager to finish now.
“I have a plan though, not long after the divorce I bought a small house in the middle of nowhere, in case a situation like this ever arose, that is where you three are going to go – immediately.”
“What about you?” My mother asked apprehensively.
“I have to go with them Evelyn, it’s the only chance you three have of getting out of here,” he said desperately.
My mother was shaking her head as if she didn’t agree, but she didn’t say anything. I was still frozen in place by what I had just heard. Emin was pacing around my father, tense and troubled.
“So what are you saying Dad…. that Hayln isn’t my sister? Emin yelled at him.
“Technically Emin she is your half-sister, I am her father, but she has no biological mother,” he said slowly.
Both my parents were watching me now trying to gauge my reaction – I still couldn’t move.
“And what, now you expect the three of us to leave our lives, run away to the middle of nowhere and leave you here to be killed!” Emin explained furiously.
“Emin, it is our only chance,” my father said softly.
But it was my turn now, it had built up inside of me, and I could no longer control it, my life had just been turned upside down.
“SO I AM AN EXPERIMENT!” I exploded, but I didn’t give him a chance to explain. “Not only that, I'm the reason this family was ripped apart.” Tears were starting to build in my eyes now.
“Hayln, you have to understand something, I have had to live the last seventeen years of my life knowing I betrayed your mother in the worse possible way,” he said as he reached for my hand, but I didn’t respond to him. “But not once have I ever regretted my decision, do you hear me Hayln, not once.”
I started backing away from him, wanting to escape everything I was hearing. He tried to sit up, but my mother restrained him.
“Hayln, we have to work out how to get you out of here, it is not safe.”
That was the last straw, I had to leave to go anywhere but here, so I headed for the door.
“Hayln, don’t leave,” Emin pleaded but I started running.
I opened the door and was on the grass before I noticed his van and Zeke walking towards me.
“Hayln, what’s wrong?” he pleaded.
But I couldn’t stop, I knew Emin would make me come back inside if I did, so I kept running. I heard Zeke calling out behind me, but I kept running as fast as I could, trying to erase everything that just happened.
Plans
I must have run at least 20 blocks, because I ended up in front of the school. It was too early yet for classes to be over, but I thought it would be a good place to be on my own for a while until Tyler came out. I sat down on a park bench across the road from the school bus stop to rest and noticed I was hardly even out of breath.
I tried to go over everything that had happened, to try to make sense of it - but was that even possible? I had hoped everything would be all right once Dad got home, but it was worse than ever. My father had been tortured by people who want to imprison both him and me, indefinitely. He expects the rest of the family to run and hide in some remote location without him and leave our lives behind us. And not to mention that I am some lab project that ripped our family apart.
I though
t about the science of what I had just learnt and couldn’t help but to be amazed and appalled at the same time. What my father had achieved was unbelievable, yet here I sit, created without a biological mother. I remembered other things he said this afternoon about my immune system and natural abilities. Now that I think of it, I honestly can’t remember ever getting sick, not once, not even a headache. I remember Emin having the chicken pox, numerous colds and flu’s, vomiting, even the measles I think but I’ve never had any of them. It really was astonishing, this discovery could alleviate most minor illnesses, and then what about major ones like cancer, had they done tests on that too?
I had so many questions, but I centered back to my own experiences for a moment and thought about my natural abilities. Obviously my talents for science and math have been enhanced but what else. I considered that for a moment. I had always thought apart from my inherited abilities, that I was fairly average, but have I ever genuinely applied myself to anything else? Most of my life has been following in my father’s footsteps, sport, art, dancing has never interested me, but what if I made an effort, would I excel in them too? Probably not I thought, as I would have to have a natural talent first. But then I remembered running twenty blocks here without breaking a sweat so maybe there was more I could do.
I was brought back to reality by the sound of the school bell signaling the end of class. I refocused trying to watch for Tyler. As I watched everyone coming out I thought of how uncomplicated my life was a few days ago and now here I am waiting for my best friend who wants to be my boyfriend, trying to figure out a way to tell him that I am some sort of genetic mutation.
I see Tyler’s blonde hair bobbing above the other students so I stand up to get his attention. He picks up the pace once he sees me and comes across the road trying to read my expression.
“I’ve been thinking about you all day, is your Dad alright?” he asked concerned.
“Dad’s fine for the moment,” I answered carefully.
“What does that mean, what happened?” He said as we both sat back down on the park bench.