Chapter – 13
Jael was alone in her room. Completely alone, apart from King, her podgy long-haired tabby, named after the long-dead civil rights leader. Being an activist took up a great deal of time leaving very little for socialising and making friends, or even lovers. You lived it. The job entailed meeting a lot of different people but they just passed through and there simply was not the time to establish relationships. It was kind of lonely. But you got used to it. There was the routine of living such a solitary life that stopped you thinking about it too much. After a day spent rushing here and there, to busy meetings or hectic press conferences, it was hard to come in to an empty apartment with no-one to share the day with, to come down with, to unwind. It felt like suddenly walking into a vacuum. So she had King.
Cats were, of course, a rare luxury, given the food shortages and living space problems. They were strictly registered. All had to have a full veterinary back-up and were compulsorily spayed. The restrictions were draconian and the fees were astronomical, but it was worth it.
As all cat owners knew, if they took the trouble to form any relationship with their pets, cats were superior beings. True, they were fickle and aloof, manipulative and often spiteful, but there was no denying their superiority. They could judge character on first sight. Somehow, just being with King, stroking his long fur, seemed to relax her and put everything back in perspective.
Snuggled up on the easycush with King purring on her lap, the world did not seem such a bad place. Even the horrors of the news were bearable.
“Consumer groups are pressing for the government to force manufacturers to publish relevant average pollutant levels on all food products.” The bland commentator announced over scenes of shoppers milling around in a huge supermarket complex. ‘Good for them’ Jael thought, grinning to herself. Who said progress wasn’t being made?
“This follows revelations concerning dangerous levels of radioactive isotopes in some varieties of naturally grown fruit and vegetables.”
‘Oh, typical,’ Jael observed. ‘When it hits the expensive end of the market, natural products, they make a fuss.’
“The consumer groups are sure that this is just the tip of a sinister ice-berg. They are demanding reassurance that rumours of a huge range of carcinogens and other dangerous chemicals are not lurking in their food.”
The room was suddenly full of close-ups of glistening, healthy fruit and vegetables obviously destined for the tables of the rich.
“A government spokesperson was not available for comment but it appears that there are no immediate plans to implement such a scheme.”
The serious face of the commentator filled the whole of Jael’s room.
“There wouldn’t be, would there?” Jael muttered back sarcastically to the unresponsive woman, while scratching King in his favourite place, just behind his ear. This caused him to roll on his back, rubbing the sides of his head and face ecstatically on her thighs.
So the government was not going to act. That was to be expected. At least the pressure was beginning. It was a step in the right direction and showed that they were beginning to target the right areas and get their message across. Very satisfying.
It had been her idea to release the information about the poisons in the food, along with a suggestion about monitoring levels. It was good to see it being taken up. It was all just a question of who you approached and which group you targeted. If things continued like this then eventually the government was going to be forced into doing something about it.
Earl and the others were wrong. Publicity could change things. It just needed the momentum. It took a lot of energy to get the ball rolling but once in motion it was impossible to stop.
But was it quick enough to stop Dippa?
Long ages seem to have passed, though the reality of time had no meaning as one moment eased into the next with little change to denote its passing. There were no oases of difference to measure where time had danced its little jigs. Nothing to look back to. Nothing new. For Elspin the only changes were bedded in the subtle interplay of nuance. Her universe was one long sameness. She had no landmarks to look back on; to hang memories on. Here was a great endless ocean of subtle variation inhabited by herself alone. No-one to watch, to learn from, to share with. Just adapting to a lazy, flowing, drifting life.
Her world was serene and she was already gaining control over it.
In Earl’s mind he was just trying to be reasonable.
“Oh but I have got a choice!” Jael insisted, her voice icy cold with menace. “There are options!” Right now she looked as if she might just enjoy a job which involved biting the heads off rats. “Just because that stupid bitch is crazy doesn’t mean we all have to join in! You know as well as I do that that…. that….. that repulsive, twisted monstrosity ………… she just wants to do it anyway! Even if they shut it all down she’ll push and push and push until she gets her excuse! She’d get off on it! It’s probably the only way she can get a buzz! Hey!! Good-bye humanity! HA! HA! HA! The crazy messed up bitch!!”
“Yeah, but do you think that Dippa would listen to us? To anybody? You said it. She’s one crazy bitch. She………..”
“I don’t care if she’ll listen!!” Jael exploded again. “I don’t fucking care!! She is mad!! Wacko!! Four legs short of a race horse!! She wants to kill everyone!! The idea suddenly seemed to become real. She actually wanted to kill everyone. She wanted heaps of dead bodies in the cities. She wanted them dead. She wanted to imagine them dying. To her it wasn’t a horror. She got off on it. The thought was sobering. It sent cold fingers running down both their backs. “She wants stopping!!” Jael said with cold determination. “She has to be stopped!!” Her mind seemed to turn inward as she contemplated what Dippa was actually going to do. ” I cannot believe we’ve allowed it to get to this! We knew about it and we did not stop her!”
“She thinks it makes sense,” Earl murmured lamely, trying to think how the whole thing must look from inside Dippa’s head. It was just possible, if you divorced yourself from thinking about your friends and relatives dying like that. If you accepted all the billions of innocents perishing with the guilty. It was possible to see some logic. If you accepted that human beings had no long-term future on the planet and were just busy dragging everything else down with them. At least this way everything else got a chance. There was some perverted logic to it. It was not something he really felt like defending. He did not want to die. It was just that he did not like being pushed around and told what to think. She was crazy but…. What was the alternative. “This publicity crap, and even the bombing campaign, I mean, they’re not going to do much, are they? Not if we’re honest. IntSol won’t change. They’ll just pay lip service to it. But deep down I don’t really think they’ll change. I wouldn’t go as far as Dippa, of course, wiping everyone out. But it’s gonna take something drastic to achieve anything. All the problem comes down…………..”
“BULLSHIT!!” Jael shouted with nuclear force, blood vessels bulging. “I cannot believe you are talking such utter BULLSHIT!! How!! HOW can you even begin to come out with such utter SHIT!!”
“Well, look, “Earl protested uncomfortably.”It’s people that are to blame. She’s only………..”
“Shut it! You fool! I thought you had more sense! You imbecile!” Her fiery eyes burned into him and he could see she was utterly bewildered at the stance he was taking. She could not understand how he could possibly be spouting such stupidity. She had to wrest control of her emotions before she was able to continue.
“You can’t just do away with people,” she said, trying to be reasonable, to appeal to the warm human being she knew him to be. He could not really be taking this ridiculous line. Dippa – yes. But not Earl. Not really. “You can’t, Earl. You can’t just sentence everyone to death! Poor little babies. The good and the kind. You and me and everyone we know. You can’t have them all dying some horrendous, terrible death, just because there is a tiny minority of bastards who just don’t care. Bastards like Rikson who can’t see how important it is, how beautiful it is. You can’t consign all of humanity to death because of him, can you?”
“Screwing it up?” Earl questioned. “They’re not just screwing it up! They’re destroying everything! They are poisoning the whole fucking planet! If we leave it any longer there won’t be anything left to save! We can’t simply………..”
“Yes! Yes, I know,” Jael interrupted, becoming more rational. “I know all that. But that does not give you the right to wipe the whole race off the face of the planet!”
“Drastic times require drastic measures!” Earl pontificated, becoming bolder as Jael’s anger subsided.
“Look Earl, I know you can’t really be serious,” Jael said, refusing to allow him to get to her any more. She looked around rather balefully at the damage she had done. Then looked up at the ceiling as if petitioning some unseen God to come to her aid. The fury had passed. It was obvious the screaming was not going to get through to Earl but then, neither was the logic. It seemed everything she did only succeeded in making him take some contrary stand. The silly fool. He just had to oppose her.
“Earl,” she implored earnestly. “There’s drastic and there’s drastic. Surely, no sane person can really consider killing all those billions of people. That just isn’t sane. It’s like some ultimate fascist night-mare. I know you Earl. You are not mad. You can’t really be serious in supporting this mad scheme.”
“Oh yes, fascist is it?” Earl retorted, getting bolder, and choosing to ignore the central argument and pick up on semantics as a focus for his counter-offensive. “How can you call something like that fascist? ……… You obviously don’t know what the word means. This isn’t some group setting itself up as superior, deciding………”
“You don’t think there’s anything arrogant or superior about deciding the fate of tens of billions of lesser human beings?” Jael interrupted, beginning to bristle again. “Just don’t lecture me on fascism! I think I know what fascism is!”
“Fascism is about setting up a few fat-cats to organise everything to screw everyone else!” Earl retorted, aggressively prodding his finger at her. “Fascism is about some fucking elite, like Muller and Rikson for starters, exploiting everyone else and not giving a shit! Fascism is how………..”
“Fascism is about killing a whole bunch of innocent people just because you happen to think you know more than they do!!” She shrieked directly into his face. “A small group of people who think they have the right!! Understand more!! CARE MORE!!! Have the right to kill!! That’s what fascist is!! You can’t get more fucking elitist than that!!”
Earl lost a little of his self-assurance. It was indeed hard to defend something as idiotic as releasing a virus to kill everyone. Dippa was a nut. And at the bottom line he did not really believe it. It was really quite inconceivable. But Jael obviously believed it.
“I for one,” Jael pressed home the attack. “Don’t believe that fucking imbecile Dippa knows fuck-all about anything!! She’s one twisted up shit with a hot grudge and a suicide wish! And I don’t think that some sorry little bitch with a mangled up mind is in any position to make decisions that will sentence every fucking human being on this planet to some gruesome death!!”
“So what are you going to do about it?” Earl responded angrily. “Call up Muller’s goons to come and lock her up? Dear Mr Rheem, I happen to know where they are keeping the jolly little virus?”
“If I have to!” She stormed. “I will if I have to! I tell you, Earl, I’m not going to just sit back and let it happen! Dippa has to be stopped and if nobody else will do it then it will have to be me!” Her face was stony, glinting with determination as they both stood in the silence left by her words. The awareness was slowly dawning on her that what she had said was true. She was going to have to take responsibility and actually do something about it. It was too important to be left to chance. She was going to have to stop Dippa.
Earl could see she meant it.
It smacked of betrayal. But no. There was no betrayal in this. The woman was crazy. If she was left to her own devices she would not stop at black-mail, she was going to let the virus out. It was too horrifying to comprehend. The air went out of her as if someone had punctured her dreams.
“Oh Jeez……,” She gasped, feeling so hot and giddy that she thought she might collapse. “Come on Earl. Don’t fight me on this. She has to be stopped.”
“And how do you propose to do that?”
“I don’t know,” Jael said, shaking her head. “I haven’t thought it through yet. But I will. It has to be done!”
Earl stared back at her in disbelief. She meant it. And he was just beginning to see that he just might end up helping her do it.
“What the hell are you still doing in your dressing gown?” Jarvid exclaimed as he slumped against the wall in disbelief. Beads of sweat glistened on the lined brown skin of his forehead, his hair stuck out in straggly tufts looking totally and uncharacteristically dishevelled, his hands trembling and his eyes wide. He had literally burst through the door without giving the panel time to slide aside following a bungled attempt at presenting his code and retinal I.D.
Mphebe watched the comic performance with amusement. It was so utterly unlike any state she had ever seen Jarvid in before. Amusement …. the banished emotion. She shook her head, turned and punched in a number to the dispenser. She turned to face him as she waited.
He continued to stare at her. She was wearing her most comfortable loafers and a dressing gown. It went up at the front in its efforts to contain the huge expansion of her belly.
“What are you doing?” He asked in bewilderment.
“Just dialling a sausage sandwich,” Mphebe trilled, looking relaxed and smiling reassuringly at the utterly distraught figure of her husband Jarvid.
“But you should be ready,” he returned, not quite understanding what was going on here. “I rushed back as soon as I heard. I left the conference. Why aren’t you ready?”
Mphebe took the steaming sandwich from the dispenser and took a huge bite before ambling across to him and casually wrapping her long arms around his neck. She kissed him while retaining a mocking smile on her lips.
He stood there shocked.
It was like meeting an old friend you hadn’t seen for a long while. She was Mphebe again. All the anxieties of the long fraught months had melted away. He hadn’t really understood how much she had changed from the fun-loving girl he had married such a short time ago. He had been living with a stranger. A lump came to his throat and his eyes moistened. He felt he wanted to hug her and never let her go again. The huge lump of her gravid abdomen came between them and suddenly they were collapsing into each other laughing.
Suddenly realising he pulled her back at arms-length. “What on Earth are you doing eating?” He asked, panicking again. What if she needed anaesthetic? What if something went wrong? Surely eating was not a good idea?
“I am hungry,” she murmured reassuringly. “I’m going to need some energy you know. Come on Jarvid……… it’ll be alright.”
“Good God, Mphebe. I’ve been rushing like a madman.” “There’s no rush, dear. There’s plenty of time yet.”
“But how often are the contractions?” He was beginning to relax again, thrown not so much by the imminent birth as the transformation in Mphebe. Her relaxed, almost playful state had calmed him down.
She took another bite of the sandwich and grinned at him, then grabbed him tight and stopped chewing as another contraction gripped her with a pain that made her wince.
“Phew!” she gasped. “That was a tough one.” She finished chewing, swallowed and took another big bite.
“How often?” He repeated.
“Oh,” she sighed, studying the chronometer and chewing. “Well, I guess they’re down to about every five minutes or so.” She gestured in an offhand manner and took another bite.
“Whaaaat!” Jarvid exclaimed, the panic leaping like water out of a broken damn and threatening to sweep him away. His stomach dropped away and he could only gulp air in a poor imitation of a fish out of water. “Whaat,” he repeated as he sought something more meaningful to say whilst his mind churned through her words and refused to accept what it was hearing. She could not mean five minutes. Not here. In dressing gown, with a sandwich. Not five minutes. “But ………….. but…… Mphebe. Winston said for us to come in when they reached ten minutes! Five is almost there! You aren’t anywhere near ready!”
There wasn’t time to get to the hospital. It was almost happening.
“Don’t fuss so,” Mphebe chided. “It’s a long way off yet. Come on Jarvid. There’s nothing to be worried about. People have been doing it for tens of thousands of years without hospitals and doctors. It’s perfectly natural. It’s just having a baby. That’s all.” She took another bite of the sandwich and ambled off towards the bedroom.
“Here,” she gasped, leaning in the doorway. “Feel this.”
He rushed over to her. She took his hands and pressed them around her over the bulge of her stomach. He ran his hands over her with amazement. It had become as hard as rock. She dipped her head and concentrated on the pain as the contraction passed through.
She disentangled herself and moved into the bedroom.
“We must hurry,” Jarvid urged, with a note of pleading entering his voice.
She smiled back at him. “Alright, alright. Don’t panic. I’ve got most things packed. It’ll just take me a few minutes to get some things together, I’ll quickly get dressed and we’ll be off. Alright?”
He managed a wan, nervous smile. He was in shock. It was not just the fact that the birth was actually at hand as much as the change in Mphebe. She was back to her old self. It should have made him happy. It was what he had wanted. But now, at this moment of birth, it just filled him with even greater trepidation.
“Don’t worry Jarvid. Winston’s got the best facilities in the world. It’ll be alright. Nothing can go wrong.”
“I can’t help worrying,” Jarvid replied lamely. She had been so despondent he had expected her to become worse and here she was relaxed and almost gleeful. It did not make sense.
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