Carola Dibbell - The Only Ones

We’re brushing up against the bushes he hit that first time, driving in the dark. This time it’s in the sun.

“Why would I do that?”

“Well!” he coughed. “To patch you up for Host.”

“You know that’s never going to happen.”

“G provide the egg with nothing in it.”

riive me a break, I.”

We’re back on the regular county road.

“And if what you did today does make, you know, viables that work?” I went on. “And they are the only ones you ever get?”

He waited awhile to speak, going down the regular road. “Well, Rini drives a hard bargain. But she does have an open mind.”

“It won’t be her mitochondria,” I said.

“I, will you give me a fucking break?”

I didn’t say anything until we’re on the big road that goes to the Terminal. Then I say what I was thinking, and I think he was thinking it too. “So you think if they work, what you made today, she will want them to be her kid? Even if it’s not her mitochondria or what she discussed?”

He got to fix the shade in front of him, because we are driving right into the sun. “I think she will.”

I guess I thought so too.

So that’s it.

I went home a different way, across the river at Newburgh on a bridge they let you cross on, then down through the Bronx. Because of Mumbai cautions, they hose you with Hygiene spray at the Bronx city line, then again at Queens, where it is really hot and smells worse than ever. I walked carrying my winter things in the bag Janet fixed for me, all the way from Flushing Main Street past the burnt houses and caution tape that is always on Northern Boulevard to where I had been living, near Powell’s Cove on a little side street half burnt to the ground where no one lived but me. The little side street seemed different. I don’t know why it did. I was still the only one who lived on it. I was still the only one in my whole great big empty house. It seemed different.

The city seemed different too. Of course, there are new Mumbai cautions at Zone crossings and extra checkpoints and barricades, but I thought it’s possible, what’s different was me.

I checked for messages regular like Rauden said. I mainly used the 14 thAvenue Board across Flushing Bay from the old airport, but got nothing for so long, I tried the Board on Flushing Main Street that sometimes works a little better, and bingo. It’s one of those messages that come with a talking vid of guess who? Rini Jaffur, going ballistic.

“This is not what we discussed! This is not what we discussed!”

And that’s how I found out it worked.

ii

It must be early September when I got this deCon job in Forest Hills. By now, I been doing Openings and deCon ever since I took the Interview at Iron Triangle Bazaar and passed with flying colors. I used my Bonus on the bubble suit they make you wear even though I don’t need it because I am a Sylvain goddamn hardy, but no one in Queens knows what that is. I even had enough coupons left to buy a fancy bag to carry the bubble suit around in. The pay is good. I already moved from my old neighborhood and have been crashing in an empty unit in Flushing near a few people and even stores, not those stupid food and water Lockers you got to use in Powell’s Cove. I’m off the Mound. I really got a different life.

So, I’m just walking around Forest Hills with my fancy bag, when it hits me, hey! Why not see if the Austin Street Board works? The Zone North Boards been down all August, and I have not got any message from the Farm since Rini Jaffur. I tried every Board I knew—14 thAvenue, Flushing Main Street,! Clean them really good! otof mitochondria even Little Neck. Nothing worked. It’s Queens. But this Board looks pretty good. I swiped my ID in a slot, the screen lit up, and what is this? Four messages in a row.

1. Get back to me.

2. Something happened.

3. I! Will you fucking contact me? You need to get your ass up to the Farm ASA goddamn P.

4. There will be a Bonus.

Well, I just jumped on the first hybro I could make and head up to the Farm.

It didn’t leave till the next morning. I spent the night in a bin in Jersey, by the river checkpoint. Well, I spent worse nights.

By the way, in case you think I did it for the Bonus, I didn’t need that Bonus. I got a good job now. I just wanted to see what’s going to happen.

Janet Delize met me at the Terminal. She said Rauden’s at some DVM emergency in Shinhopple, and she told me all the news on the way to the Farm. She had a new hairdo. Bernie is in jail in Johnson City. They got another shady OBGYN, in Port Jervis. They found a virgin Host for Rini that Bernie had checked out before he went to jail, but by the time they followed up, she wasn’t a virgin any more and didn’t want the work anyhow, so Rini said she will be the Host herself, that way she can be sure the Host won’t run off with the kid.

By now we’re back at the Farm, where I forgot how windy it is, and Rauden is already waiting in the truck. “Let’s go, I,” he yells, and off we roll to Port Jervis like I never even left, with him picking up where Janet stopped.

The new shady OBGYN implanted Rini with the four viables Rauden made my last day at the Farm. Rini went into shock. They pulled her through, but Rauden could only talk her out of trying again because he ran out of viables. While he mixed up a new batch, he researched some details about the Dearborn hardy Compatibility anomaly and found out that sort of hardy could be toxic to anyone who didn’t have Compatibility to her. It looks like the new viables have that same anomaly. And he gives me that look he used to give when I can’t understand a word — do you agree?

I agree!

He goes on, what if you’re the only one who has Compatibility to them?

I agree.

Then I’m the only one who could be the Host. Nine months, all expenses. He researched how to patch my uterus that way Bernie said is risky. The new OBGYN will try it out.

The new shady OBGYN lived in a house off the main road and worked from an office over his garage. He laid me on a table and scraped tissue from my uterus. It was invasive. We drove back to the Farm in the dark and Rauden waited till we got there to call Rini with the new plan. She hit the roof — this is not what we discussed, Inez will run off with the child. But she got over it. Rauden said he knew she would.

He thawed out two of the new viables, mixed them with the tissue scrapings, and he will culture them. This is a little hard to follow but Rauden says I don’t need to follow, I just need to go with him back to Port Jervis in ten days on an empty stomach, lay down on the table where they stuff what he mixed up into me, and stay on my back for three days, but when I stood up, everything fell out. I lost a lot of blood and passed out. When I came to, Rauden was on his Mobile yelling, “Fuck you, Rini! She could have bled out!”

Like that is really going to happen.

We drove back to the Farm.

Still to find a working BoardHe going to could g, it didn’t work.

I was pretty sure I will get sent back to Queens once I could walk but Rauden said stick around, now I already made the trip. We could run another Harvest.

Well, maybe you are starting to think Rini was right. I got no character. No self-esteem. I blew off a good job in Queens just because I want to see what’s going to happen. First of all, I didn’t mention this but Opening is boring, and deCon is worse. And by the way, Rini got so much self-esteem, she was ready to go into shock twice just so she could Host her own child, and wait till you hear what she got in mind to do now.

“Rini, are you out of your goddamn mind?” I was sleeping the Port Jervis thing off on the sofa when Rauden woke me up screaming at her on the phone. “I may be out of my depth here but while I’ve heard it’s always a challenge to be a good mother I’d have to guess offhand IT IS FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE IF YOU’RE DEAD!”