Return

by Corrie Brundage

  “Mom!” Lulu called when she saw me, and I waved with what I hoped was enthusiasm. She rushed over, showing none of the clumsiness that had plagued me my entire two lives. Her waifish friend stayed close to her side, and Lulu was intent on introducing me.

  “This is Caitlin, and we’re best friends. Can she spend the night soon?” I was delighted that my daughter had made a fast friend and assured her they could have a play date soon. A chilly voice came from behind us, and I turned to see who had spoken, my stomach dropping like a mossy stone in a turbulent pond. It was Kendra, alone and free from her usual pack.

  “I see your daughter has made at least one friend. I hear she’s quite the unique addition to the campus.” Kendra slicked a lock of silvery hair behind her ear and narrowed her icy blue eyes, assessing me from head to toe. What she saw was obviously lacking. I cleared my throat, and with what I hoped was confidence, replied, “Yes well, she takes after her father in that regard. As long as people are willing to set aside their misconceptions about her, they find she’s quite a delight.” Kendra grinned at this, a predator surveying its lunch. I ducked my head, embarrassed at her scrutiny.

  “Come on, Little Owl, say good-bye to Caitlin.” Lulu obeyed, reaching out to hug her new friend. I was touched at the affection she showed the other child, but Kendra seemed unmoved.

  “Ta ta, Dr. Brice,” Came her cool farewell, and I breathed a sigh of relief as she turned to find her nanny.

  “Mom, why do you let that lady talk to you that way?” Lulu asked, her usual perceptive self.

  “What way, Owl?” I asked, feigning innocence. Jack and I had taught her how to stand up to bullies on her own; she didn’t need to think her mother was falling prey to an adult bully.

  “Never mind. Hey, I taught our class bunny how to sit and fetch!” At this bit of news, I cringed. I hoped her teacher hadn’t noticed, but I didn’t admonish Lulu for what came naturally to her. She knew full well our abilities needed to remain a secret.

  Changing the subject as deftly as my daughter just had, I brought up ideas for dinner.

  “What do you think daddy will want?” I asked, and Lulu was happily preoccupied with this quandary on the train ride home to our two-story condo. I’d go to the shop Nick had described and buy the little device that would tell me what Jack is up to. As if worrying over the state of my marriage wasn’t enough, I was now worried about the state of the world. I hoped that these skirmishes being reported elsewhere in the world would go unnoticed by the alien race that had re-created the very world we now inhabited.

  CHAPTER SIX

  I watched Jack woodenly down his bowl of cereal, trying to keep my gaze from being too obvious. I had placed the tracking device in his dish this morning before he had risen. Getting ahold of it had been an ordeal all its own. The shop was in a part of the city that I had never been to before. It wasn’t seedy per se, nothing in Origin truly was. Things were too new and generally safe. But the Obedience Officers were more present in this part of town, and I’d kept my long stride at an even faster than usual pace as I found the store and encountered the overtly creepy salesperson who ran it. His eyes hadn’t left my body the entire time I’d been there, openly ogling my limbs and even reaching out to try to touch my hair at one point. I’d bought the tracking device, and he had been gleeful when I’d stuttered to explain why I was purchasing it. I had made up a story about using it on one of the sick animals I was tending to in the jungle, but he’d somehow guessed it was for my possibly philandering mate, probably because that was its most common application. I declined a tutorial on how it would work, knowing Nick would show me, and had gotten out of there as fast as I could. Now, here I was, the next morning, nervous at the possibilities of what the little chip would show me.

  “I’ll be late tonight, kid. Meeting with some other doctors at the clinic, we’re redoing some of our imaging systems,” Jack said, finishing his cereal and chugging the remaining dregs of his coffee. My palms were wet with anxiety, and I knew he was lying. I only smiled in response, finishing my own coffee.

  “I’ll pick Lulu up after school then. We’re going to teach Charlie how to sign some basic sentences about food today. It should be really interesting.” I hoped I wasn’t babbling, but Jack didn’t notice. He had rings around his eyes and stubble from neglecting his morning shave. Yet his sleep had been like the dearly departed and I wondered if he was sick. Maybe that would explain his behavior, and he didn’t want to tell Lulu and me he had something horrible, like cancer …

  I swept the morbid thoughts off the table of my brain and stood to kiss Jack good-bye. Lulu had already gone into school with Caitlin and her parents, and I had been relieved and grateful that there was another kindly couple open and willing to befriend our family. Caitlin’s parents were researchers at the Facility, and so they fully understood our past and didn’t discriminate against us based on our notoriety. I was even prouder of my daughter for having picked a friend whose family was so progressive.

  Checking my bag to make sure I had my personal computer that would be tracking not only Charlie’s progress today but also Jack’s activities, I walked to the train, my legs heavy with dread. Try not to think about what might happen, I told myself. It’s probably not nearly as bad as you think it is. Up on the platform, I scanned my ID card alongside the waiting train, its sleek exterior seeming to mock my inner turmoil. All the passengers looked relaxed and focused on their days ahead, and I envied them their general sense of well-being. A projection screen was showing the morning news, up above the heads of the commuters. This was nothing noteworthy; the news in Origin was on 24/7. But today I paid even closer attention, and it seemed the infighting between citizens over a rigged election that had broken out on Continent Four had grown exponentially in the two days since it had first been reported. All I could hope was that they didn’t have access to the new weapons technology that was being developed in Facilities around the world. I sat rigid in my soft seat, and the passenger next to me smiled kindly as if he knew I must be tense about something. I really needed to get ahold of myself, I thought. I couldn’t keep seeing gloom and doom in every little thing.

  I disembarked the train and found my little electric car waiting below the platform. Driving into the station, I let myself enjoy the open windows, breathing in the scent of verdant life and hearing the calls of the wildlife I so dearly loved. I always felt at home here in the forest, but I felt a pang at the thought I wouldn’t be going to my ocean cove any time soon. We needed a vacation, and I wanted Lulu to see the place that had become such a big part of our lives and had once been a part of my dream life. A drop of moisture fell on my arm, and I looked up into the patches of sky that showed through the canopy. I needed to hurry and get to work with Charlie, but I had to admit to myself, I wanted Nick to walk me through the tracking device program on my computer more than anything. I felt badly about this. My work should take precedence. I doubted Jack was spending any time at his job thinking or worrying about me.

  I hurried up the log steps to the observation station and upon entering saw that the rest of my team had yet to arrive. I crossed the slatted floor to the console and began setting up today’s instructional tutorial for Charlie. I decided I’d go out and track down her community alone; that way when the rest of team showed up I’d have the little bonobo all ready for recording data. I grabbed my binoculars hanging from the wall and went back out into the cool, humid green. I stood and listened carefully with my enhanced hearing, and my sharp eyes took in the tracks of the bonobos. I knew exactly where they were, and the walk would be short. More droplets of rain fell on my skin, and I turned my face upward to catch some of the sweet water on my tongue. I lengthened my stride, wading through the low foliage and enjoying the flight of some brightly colored birds when they heard me approach. I made the calls the bonobos would recognize as a greeting, and heard some of their own in reply. Rounding a crest on the forest floor, I saw the troop relaxing and a few of them copulating in their f
avorite clearing. It was common for bonobos to resolve any conflict with lovemaking, and their joyous antics didn’t embarrass me. I called out for Charlie, and made the hand signal that was her name. Her brown head popped up, and she broke away from her mother to approach me. I had yet to have any serious conflict with the bonobos, and my relationship with them was as close to idyllic as any could be with a wild animals. They were my evolutionary cousins, sharing 98.5 percent of my DNA, and so I treated them as equals, and they knew and appreciated this. Charlie happily made the sign for fruit, and I knew today would be productive. She moved slowly through the brush alongside me, but when I made the sign for fruit back at her, she picked up her pace, her long arms pulling her along.

  Back at the station, I saw the others’ cars parked alongside mine, and I called out to them as Charlie and I went up the steps.

  “Hey, Mina. Thanks for going out to get Charlie this morning. Nick overslept this morning,” Marilyn explained. I noticed she’d found time to apply her make-up in a new and fetching way atop her perfect mocha skin. I smiled, not at all jealous of their domestic bliss. Elizabeth was at the console, ready to go. I rarely asked her about her personal life, but I hoped she’d find someone soon. The terror of the Eaters had never really faded for her.

  “Nick, could I talk to you a minute?” I asked him, and his astute gaze took in the worry that was apparent on my face.

  “Sure, what’s up?” He had been a solid rock for us all during the horrors five years ago, and he was still that reassuring presence. Looking around to make sure the girls were occupied with Charlie, I took out my personal computer.

  “I got the device. And … Jack ate it. I need you to show me how to use the program, I think I installed it properly but the shopkeeper who sold it to me was kind of creepy.”

  Nick smiled at that, and took my computer from me.

  “It’s really simple. Like most everything, it’s run by voice command.

  So just call up the file, and it will show you Jack’s exact location anywhere in the world.”

  “Tracker,” I said, and there was a map of Origin immediately in front of me. My heart began to beat in anticipation of what I was about to see, and I didn’t want Nick to see me like this. Sensing this, he put his hand on my shoulder reassuringly, and went back to help the girls with today’s curriculum. I stood for a moment, leaning against the log wall, watching the little red dot that signified Jack moving through the exact location of where his clinic was. He was at work, and there was nothing out of the ordinary there. He hadn’t lied, and I began to feel relieved. I’d keep an eye on it all day, though. There was plenty of time for him to go elsewhere.

  We were all so intent on Charlie’s progress that several hours passed before I remembered to check my computer again. The others were laughing at the faces Charlie was making in response to being taught how to ask to go to the bathroom, and I broke away from the group to look at the screen. What I saw froze my blood. The red dot had moved away from the clinic at some point and into a part of the city I had never been to before, but I had heard it existed. My mouth dry, I called Nick over to my side. The girls stopped what they were doing when they saw the look on my face. I was pretty sure I was paler than usual.

  “Can … can you tell me where in Origin this is?” I wanted confirmation that this place was what I thought it was. I handed my computer over to him, trying to keep my arm from trembling. He looked at it briefly, frowned, looked up at me, then returned his gaze to the screen. Marilyn came over, curious. Elizabeth kept her eyes on the console, but I could tell she was alert to my distress.

  “It’s the Eros District,” Marilyn offered, looking over Nick’s shoulder. “Who do we know that would go there of all places? That’s where prostitution is legal.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  After the Travelers left with the Director in tow, the Origin Council decided Originals needed a place to cater to their vices; a sort of controlled environment where humans could be … human. As long as it didn’t cause violence or harm to another Original, it was legal. The Eros District not only had legalized prostitution but sold recreational drugs that people could enjoy in what resembled opium dens from millennia long past. There were also sport venues that featured a style of fighting like that of martial arts and plenty of gambling and betting parlors. The legal age to visit was eighteen, but young Originals often went there to defy their parents’ orders. Obedience Officers were frequently required to haul the offending teens home to their worried parents after drunken nights spent indulging in all the District had to offer. And here was Jack, amidst it all. My team was stunned when I told them I was going there immediately to see if I could catch Jack in the act.

  “You really need to take one of us with you,” Marilyn pleaded, and Nick agreed.

  “Mina can handle herself,” came Elizabeth’s reply, her eyes grave. To me she said, “Just keep your head down while you’re there, no one will bother you. Be safe.” I swallowed, my throat still dry from the gut punch that had come when I realized Jack was probably being unfaithful.

  I tore through the jungles, leaving my team for the day. I was handling my little car very poorly, but I wanted to get on a train as soon as possible. I had to get to Jack before he left Eros. I looked at my computer every minute, tracking his movements. He hadn’t left what appeared to be a café of some sort. Who he was with, I didn’t know. I thought maybe this could be innocent, perhaps he was meeting a patient who couldn’t come into the clinic for some reason. In his other life, he had attended to poor, dying people of all races and cultures, often risking his life for theirs. It was entirely possible, I told myself, but my heart told me something else. There were several specific reasons to go to the Eros District, and his behavior lately had indicated he was preoccupied with something serious. And so I boarded a train, recalling the directions Nick had hastily given me. I had no idea what to expect once I got there, or even if I would confront Jack once I saw him.

  The afternoon light was glinting off the interior windows, and although the train sped through the city at a dizzying rate, I still caught glimpses of the buildings as I approached my destination. Each tower was covered in solar panels, which in turn powered the city. They were still gleaming and new, hulking above the rail system like earthbound gods standing guard, but the atmosphere began to change. It wasn’t that anything became overtly shady, but I somehow sensed the tinge of danger and seduction that signaled I was now in the Eros District. I looked at my computer once more, and saw Jack was still in the café. My heart was racing now, and I made a distracted attempt to slow it with some of the control my new body afforded me. I disembarked the train with several other passengers; all avoided eye contact with one another. This was rare for Originals, and indicated to me I was entering a forbidden territory people would prefer to ignore and not be seen in. I inhaled, trying to detect the change I had sensed in the air. The wafting scent of urine reached my nostrils, and I crinkled my nose. Someone, probably drunk, had used the platform as a urinal. But other than that assault on my senses, it was a train platform like any other. I did notice that the people who had gotten off the train with me hurried away, heads down and shoulders hunched for privacy. I walked a little more slowly, the dread building up inside me like a wave, a watery surge similar to the one that had swept me away to my first death. Reliving my drowning was not something I needed to linger on here, and I had to be on my guard despite the increased Obedience Officers’ presence. I noticed one lounging along the side of the escalators, and he looked bored. I kept my face open and friendly, hoping he wouldn’t notice anything out of the ordinary about me. He glanced in my direction, then went back to looking at his computer. As I went down the escalators, I heard a catcall. A rough looking man in a dirty tunic set was at the bottom, gazing up at me. His bald head glinted in the light of an open storefront that appeared to sell drug paraphernalia. I’d gotten plenty of heckling during my years in Manhattan, and I kept my face disinterested and the set of
my shoulders relaxed. I walked past him, and his rough voice called out after me, “How much, gorgeous?”

  Realizing he thought I was a prostitute, I hurried along the walkway, keeping my head down. A little band of University boys passed by, drunkenly singing a lewd song. I avoided them, dodging to the side as one boy bent over to heave the contents of his stomach. An Obedience Officer appeared then and ushered them toward the train platform. I kept walking, trying not to look too closely at the stores. Some of the windows had women in them, and they were beautiful and dangerous looking. One of them leaned forward to tap the glass as I passed, and a flashing blue light lit up her face. Her grin looked feral, and I did my best to appear brave at her obvious invitation. The tones of my communicator went off, and I debated not answering. Instead I stopped for a moment to pull it out of my tunic pocket, and answered in hushed tones. It was Marilyn, checking on me.

  “You really shouldn’t be there alone, Mina. Are you sure you’re ok?”

  “I’m fine, I’m on my way to the café where Jack is, and I don’t know what I’ll do once I see him,” I whispered back, both relieved and annoyed that my team was so concerned.

  “Just … see what he’s doing and get out of there, ok? Call us if you need anything.” She was biting her lip, and I realized she was just as nervous as I was.

  “I promise,” I replied, and logged off. I was getting close to my destination, and taking Marilyn’s advice, began walking along the edge of the storefronts so that I wasn’t as visible on the walkway. I hopped over a puddle of what looked like vomit, and maneuvered out of the way of a street vendor selling tickets to a fight. The light here was somehow muted, as if it knew this was where secrets came to hide. I longed to be back in the forests with Charlie, breathing in the sunshine. Checking my computer one more time, I located the café several hundred feet ahead. Looking around to make sure no one was watching me, I began moving toward it in a slouched position. My height made me even more conspicuous, and I had decided not to confront Jack upon seeing him. I still had hope he was with a disenfranchised patient, and accusing him of something else would not only embarrass both of us but break the trust we’d developed over the years. The scents of food began to reach my nose, and my stomach grumbled. It never seemed to care what emotional state I was in; I was always ready to eat. A low din of conversation came over the sounds of raucous music playing nearby. I heard shouts within the cacophony and thought it must be a skirmish of some kind going on. Slouching even lower, I got close enough to see some open-air tables covered with quaint red umbrellas. This restaurant was certainly attempting to look respectable. Waiters in white tunics bustled between patrons seated in patches of sunlight, and I could almost imagine this was an entirely normal scene. But some of the women were ornately made-up escorts accompanied by their clients. My searching eyes fell on the back of Jack’s head; he was at one of the tables with someone else. I couldn’t make out whom, so I shifted to my right and more onto the walkway. No one had noticed me yet, and I prayed for it to stay that way. My view was still obscured by other patrons, but Jack was leaning in to talk to whomever he was with, and his hands rested on the white tablecloth in front of him. The conversation was intense, that much I could make out. But who was he with? I took another couple of steps, straightening up slightly to better see. And there, in a shaft of sunlight, was the face of the woman I had hoped to never see again. Her hair was clean and shiny; when last I saw it, it was full of dirt and leaves. Her skin was clear and perfect, no longer smudged with dirt and blood. And she was fully clothed, although her sumptuous curves I had once seen naked were still apparent through the fabric. It was the woman who had been sleeping beside Jack when my team had come upon his pack of fellow Eaters in the jungle, that night we had darted them all and taken Jack out of the forest and to the Facility, where he could be treated. His arm had been thrown over her and their obvious intimacy had sent a jagged shard through my heart. I hadn’t questioned him much about her afterward, after things had gone back to normal and he had seemed to be coping with his terrifying experience. But a small fragment of my ever-worrying mind had wondered if she had ever truly gone away. And here she was, her copper hair falling over her sculpted cheekbones, leaning in to convey something secret and intimate to my husband, the love of both my lives. Her full pink lips parted in a smile, and I saw Jack’s hand move to rest on hers. It was more than I could bear.