Chapter Five
Bethany asked Pilara, “Cuántos años tienes?”
“Diecisiete.” She said nervously. Pilara was very uneasy. Bethany’s Spanish wasn’t very strong, and her explanation of the experiment was patchy and overly simple. Bethany was unable to answer Pilara’s questions very well. Consequently, Pilara wasn’t really sure what the Madher’s wanted. She assumed since they were wealthy, they had many unusual things that needed tending to, and this was just another one.
Heather offered, “Here Pilara, drink this, it is relaxing.” She handed her a glass of wine.
“Gracias, Señora.” Pilara smiled and drained the glass. She felt the liquid warming her. The wine contained a mild sedative. Pilara became slightly drowsy and malleable.
Bethany noticed the shift in her behavior and found it odd. “Mom, really, what the fuck is going on?”
Heather helped Pilara walk over to the elevator platform. Bethany followed them. Heather smiled at her daughter, but her expression was wooden. Her eyes were hard. “We are doing something very important, today.”
“I don’t think Pilara has any clue what’s going on. She’s not a fucking slave, mom.” Bethany pulled her phone out and dialed 911, but didn’t start the call.
Heather hissed, “What are you doing, Bethany? That is nonsense.” She shouted, “Charlie, get over here!”
Charles Madher trotted out of the control room. He said, “We need to see if it works on everyone, or if it’s specific to our family. Maybe it’s something genetic.”
Bethany said, “You can’t just experiment on people, Dad. What the fuck, mom, are you fucking Nazis? Shit. You drugged our 17 year old maid like she’s your property. That’s completely twisted.” She opened the little gate of the elevator platform and reached for Pilara’s arm. Heather swatted her hand away.
Charlie said flatly, “What are you doing Bethany?”
“You can’t do this. It’s wrong. I’ll take her back home.”
“No.” Charlie said. “This is happening.”
“I’ll call the police!” Bethany insisted.
Heather was getting angry. “Go ahead. Do it.”
Bethany hadn’t ever seen her mom genuinely in a rage. Her face was ugly and hard. Rather than back down she dialed 911.
“911 What is your emergency.” She heard.
“My parents drugged our seventeen year old maid against her will. We’re in a warehouse at 33 Oxbow Road.”
“Stay on the line please.” The dispatcher said.
A few minutes passed, then Charlie’s cell phone rang. He answered it and said, “No! There’s no problem. My daughter is just pissy today.” He laughed. “Alright, Chief. Sorry to be a bother. Say hello to the kids for me.”
He hung up the call and Bethany closed the 911 call on her phone. She felt sick. Her father led her back to the lounge and put her on the couch. He said, “This is bigger than you, me, or Pilara. She is fortunate to be playing a part in something of cosmic significance.”
“No she’s not.” Bethany said. “Neither am I.”
Charlie sighed, “I’m sorry you feel that way, but don’t you see how amazing the world actually is? I wish you felt empowered as we do. Perhaps you’re not ready to be involved in our project.” His eyes were flat. He said, “Or…. Perhaps you could be our conscience, prevent us from being too swayed by the fire of these ideas...”
Bethany nodded. “Well, stop this until you can adequately explain what you’re doing to Pilara. She needs to be informed. I couldn’t do it, well enough. She’s just my age, Dad, and she hasn’t had much experience. You’re preying on her.”
Bethany couldn’t read his expression. His face was rigid. He beckoned to Heather. “She’s right. Bring Pilara over here.”
Heather sighed angrily and led Pilara over to the lounge. She sat her down in an armchair and eyed Bethany coldly. Charlie said to her, “Bethany has a point. We need to get a better translator here before we proceed. It’s easy enough.”
Heather collected her thoughts. She said, “Alright. Alright. You’re right. We got carried away. Call someone. Make it quick.”
Charlie wandered off to the corner of the warehouse and made a call. He announced, “He’ll be here shortly and we’ll get this sorted out.”
There was a knock on the door and Charlie let the man in. It was their gardener, James. He spoke fluent spanish. He was a mild mannered, extremely relaxed man. He had dark skin and white curly, short trimmed hair and a closely trimmed beard and moustache. He was wearing a tan sweatshirt and khaki cargo pants.
Bethany’s face brightened, she felt an ally had joined her. She gave him a hug. “Hello James. It’s good to see you.”
James smiled at her and nodded. He said, “Let’s all go sit down.”
Charlie explained, “We need to make her understand. We can use this machine to help her learn to speak fluent English. It will be painless and an amazing experience. She had questions that Bethany couldn’t answer in Spanish.”
James spoke with Pilara. She was still drowsy, but they fell into a discussion. After a few minutes, she was chuckling and seemed unconcerned. Bethany was placated, but still didn’t feel comfortable.
Heather said to Bethany, “You went over there and you’re totally fine. Why are you so worried?”
Bethany shrugged and said, “Something seems off about this. You’re acting weird.”
Heather said, “I think I’m just not used to you being this recalcitrant.”
Bethany felt the unease building as Charlie led Pilara into the reflector. He tapped on the screen of his phone and Bach’s Sheep May Safely Graze started playing over the sound system in the warehouse. He left Pilara in the reflector and rode the elevator back to the ground.
Pilara drifted off almost to sleep and found herself floating in a warm salty bath supported by many hands. Indistinct, blurry faces floated above her. She spoke, “How will I learn English?”
One of the blurry faces spoke to her and she understood him but realized they were speaking directly to each other without uttering words, “Relax, child. Drink.” He held a dull metal bowl to her lips.
The fluid was syrupy sweet, like cough medicine. He reassured her, “Doesn’t the water feel warm and inviting? What would it be like to be the water? It would be delightful.”
“To be the water, hmmmm,” She was feeling very sleepy. She felt warmth all through her body, then nothing as she dissolved into the pool.
There was a jocularity among the group. Hobbes cupped his hand and drank from the pool. He sparkled and glowed. His face warmed in color from gray to skin tones. He laughed, “Tastes like refried beans!”
Bethany’s great-great-grandfather laughed, then climbed into the pool. He said, “How strange?! I will have a vagina!”
Bethany’s grandfather allowed himself to sink into the pool. He perceived his foot being caught in a powerful suction, then he gasped and sat up. Bethany’s grandfather, newly clothed in Pilar’s body examined his new accommodation. Pilara’s body was young and strong and her skin was firm and toned and bronze colored. “This is very interesting.” he spoke, but he still had a spanish accent. The syllables felt strange in his mouth. He announced, “I still have an accent. It must be the muscle memory.”
Charles led Pilara to the platform. Pilara called out in English, “Hello! This is really amazing. I can speak English now! Actually I think I forgot Spanish entirely.” She sounded like a bad actor imitating herself.
Bethany was puzzled. Pilara carried herself differently. Her walk was wrong. Bethany looked carefully at Pilara’s face. “Are you alright? You seem, wrong.”
Charlie and Heather froze trying to maintain a poker face. Charlie asked, “Bethany, what is it you sense?”
Bethany walked around Pilara. She said, “I don’t really know.”
James eyed Pilara, he asked her, “¿Qué pasó chica? Estás bien?”
Pilara stared at him blankly and she laughed and put a hand over her mouth a
s if responding coyly. “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Spanish anymore. It is a miracle!”
Bethany said flatly, “Whatever your experiment did, it didn’t do it very well. I’m very sorry I couldn’t stop them, Pilara. I hope you get better.” She turned to her mother and father and said, “I’m done with this thing.” She waved a hand at the reflector. She added bluntly, “In fact, if being a Madher is a job, I quit.” Bethany walked out of the building.
Charlie sighed and said, “That’s really unfortunate.”
James patted Charlie’s shoulder and offered, “I’ll try to talk to her.” He trotted out of the building after Bethany. She was walking down the driveway toward the road. He called after her, “You want a lift?”
She said heavily, “Yeah. I’ll see if I can crash with my friend Gretchen. can you give me a ride to her house? It might be way out of the way for you, though.”
He nodded and spun his keys on his finger, “Hop in.”
He drove an old Toyota pickup that was an indistinct brown/gray/green color. The passenger door squeaked when she opened it. She smiled at the squeak and luxuriated in the stitched up upholstery.
She said, “On second thought, if you could just drop me at home, that’d be really cool. I think I’ll grab a few things, hop on my Vespa and just see where I end up.”
He laughed, “No shit? You sound serious. It’s winter! That’s going to be a cold trip.”
She nodded, “Yeah, I felt like this for a long time. Something’s off about my family, bad juju. I wonder if I was adopted or have a different father or something. Maybe it’s just all that money--it’s just bad for your soul.”
James looked at her, “Hard to tell from looking. Well, if you’re actually doing it, you probably need to take some time to prepare. Get as much cash or valuables as you can and don’t look back. If they want to find you, they’ll track you down easy.”
She sighed. “I don’t think I need to go into hiding, I mean are they going to kidnap me? I’ll let them know where I am, I just don’t want to be around that thing. Didn’t that seem weird to you? Something was totally wrong with Pilara.”
He laughed deeply, “Maybe it will wear off. I don’t know how a machine that teaches people English in a few minutes is supposed to work! You might be overreacting. Maybe give it a few days.”
She sat back in the seat and looked out the window. The midwinter sun was like a weak lamp behind a gauze curtain of clouds. “Something’s up with mom, too. She was really weird today.”
James shook his finger, “That I’ll concede. Your father’s always business. Always a little chilly. I don’t think I’ve seen your mom that way before.”
He dropped her off at the mansion. She trotted up the staircase to her bedroom. She looked around and realized she’d done her best to cover every square inch of the walls with pictures of living things. She had a wall of pictures of interesting ancient trees. The floor was covered with a bamboo mat. She flopped onto her bed. She could feel the inertia closing in on her. It was just so easy to continue to coast along.
She hadn’t prepared herself to be independent at all. She lived within the bubble of Madherland. Her parents had always subtly encouraged her to stay inside the bubble and adopt their point of view. It was not going to be easy to leave. On a whim she scrolled through her list of contacts for Tracy’s phone number. She texted her: “Hey, long time no speak, what’s up roomie?”
After a few minutes, she wondered if the number was still active, so she sent an email, then she got a text from Tracy’s new number. “Hey! How Crazy! How are you?”
Bethany wrote back, “I know this is outta nowhere, but could I crash with you for a while? Parents weird.”
Tracy responded, “Sure. That’ll be a blast from the past!”
Bethany wrote back, “Groovy! Can I come now?”
Tracy responded, “No problem, whenever! CU.”
The Chardon Chronicles: Season Two --- The Winter Page 57