Carola Dibbell - The Only Ones

He lifts his head up and put the hands down. In the lantern light I could see his eyes trying to follow this. Then they change. “You were megadosed on hormones to maximize an egg Harvest.”

“It broke.”

“Your ovary,” he goes.

“Then they went in to fix it and, well, the surgeon should do it but he died, so the Tech had to but really messed things up.”

He sat a long time on the bench then said, “Who did this to you?”

“New Life labs.”

“New Life? ” He’s like somebody poked him with a stick. “You worked with New Life? In that SOTA Dome in Pennsylvania? But — they have incredibly high standards. They’re major players in the Life Industry. That’s gotta count as some kind of Proof.” He pulled himself up. “Come on, I.”

He went somewhere in the dark. He came back and put, I think it is wood, in front of the truck, tells me to push while he starts the motor. Then I climbed in beside him and off we went, driving, driving all night till we come to a house which had a lot of levels and is shiny, with green covers on everything, and they put me in the basement. I stay there for two days till it is time to beef me up from Bernie’s kit.

I had been beefed up before. In Pennsylvania, like I told Rauden, but also on some different boat. Not Flora May. They give you shots and pills and you puff up. It is not invasive.

The house he took me to is Janet Delize’s house, and in the basement they have a cot. They have a window you could see out of if you stood on a chair. Which I did. Well what is this? It is a cow. I had seen pictures of a cow. This cow just goes walking by, with a bell.

And here is what I mean, you never know what will happen. I had done this before. Shots, pills, puff up, all of it.

I never saw a cow though.

v

They did it in the RV in the woods somewhere, in the rain. I woke up very zonked on the orange sofa, with Rauden wheeling by in some kind of chair and saying in a voice I never heard, “Now you’re the genius, bro. But tell me this. How’s somebody going to spring for just two eggs of unknown origin, no antibodies, no Proofs except some very funky software drama, and there is a very reasonable chance her eggs are subpar?”

That’s how I got the news the Harvest didn’t work.

I hear that same voice a lot, the next hour or so, and Rauden’s voice too, both of them saying things like, we could try the Esperanza network. Bro, they are looking for white. Dude, she’s a goddamn Sylvain hardy. But no one knows what that is! I’m trying conventional IVF with her ova and some of Sylvain’s frozen hardy sperm. And, more than once, I hear Rauden’s regular voice, like this, “Forget it, Henry. I’m not running that test.”

When I woke up next, the one in the wheelchair is serving a hot meal that is red and yellow. “Give some to her, Henry,” the regular Rauden said.

“Ok, bro.”

So that. I tell you that.Thon in Bucharest.

It’s still raining.

Rauden put the News on. “Dear God.”

It’s the new thing Bernie talked about, starting up in Mumbai, India. It is confirmed in Karachi and possible in Bandar.

Henry did not wear overalls like his bro, but a check shirt and has to wipe the yellow and red stuff off it after he ate. He also got it in his beard. “What about Parvi’s friend from Toronto? You’ve had some dealings with her, right?”

Rauden had took off his boots and wore, like, sandals over socks. “Rini Jaffur, right. What a piece of work. Tragic situation. She had something else in mind. Still, I guess it’s worth a shot.

“Out of reach,” he said, when he came back from the Box Room. “She’s in fucking quarantine. In Sydney, Australia.”

“It got that far?”

“Just prophylactic, I’d say. Panic.” He went to Lab 3 to check the thing he’s mixing with the hardy sperm from Sylvain’s freezers. If it works, that will be easier to pitch than a solo egg.

By the time he comes back, the TV News is saying it’s official, it is a Pandemic. Mumbai Pandy. They name it from where it starts. There are new cases in Pune and Sholapur.

The two of them just sit and stare at the TV.

Henry said, “Reminds me of the first Big One — remember? Watching the News with Dad, talking about the numbers.”

Rauden goes, “Dad said, the Plague had better numbers than this motherfucker.”

“He was crying while he watched.”

On TV, they are saying it got to Trincomalee. Rangoon. It already is in Karachi.

“That’s what it was like hearing the names of all those places in Queens,” says Henry. “Jamaica. Hollis. St. Albans. JFK. Flushing Airport. Powell’s Cove.”

Then they both turned to look at me. Oh, man. Now these guys are crying. Both of them. A long time they looked at me, with tears, until I look away out the window, where it’s still night and still raining.

Then Rauden says to Henry, “Well! She’s never known anything else.” Then he went off to Lab 3.

I heard of it though.

I heard of the Big One. Everybody did. Not just in Queens. Everybody in the whole world heard of it. It just started in Queens. Then it went everywhere else.

Rauden came back saying, “Didn’t work.”

The phone rang.

While Henry and me bring the food things to this little kitchen behind Lab 3, we heard Rauden yell at Rini Jaffur from the Box Room. “Rini! No one is saying you didn’t love your daughters. You’ve had a terrible, terrible loss. But please! Give this some thought.”

He came back shaking his head and talking in a funny voice. “This was not what we discussed! This was not what we discussed! And Henry,” he says to his bro, and is, like, almost giggling, “wait till you hear what she thinks we discussed.”

Henry wheels off to a corner with him and they whisper.

Henry goes, “No way.”

“I will say this for the woman. She has an open mind. She was convinced I could bring it off. Well! I probably could.”

Ok, here I want to say, if you don’t understand this part, don’t worry, you will. Later, you will.

They just got very still. They stared at me. They stared at each other. Rauden put his hand on his head and even sagged, like somebody socked him. “Whoa!” he said.

Henry said, “Dude!”

Rauden goes, “Solve the egg problem real good. Plus! How pure would those genes be!”

What I’m saying is, this is really important. I just don’t know what it means. Half what these guys say, I don’t know what it means. Half what I say, they don’t know what I mean either.

Rauden is wheezing, even though he sat down in a chair. When he can breathe he goes, “Okay. I’m on it! I’m pitching Rini right now.” He came back saying, “Out of reach.”

Now they both sit down in the front room and look at me. Then they both started to giggle again. I’m just like, keep my eyes on Mumbai News. I mean, they are falling over, giggling.

“Bro!” goes Henry. “We have to get some better Proofs.”

Rauden says, “Don’t start, Henry.”

It is getting light. Still raining. Henry is in the Box Room, doing research. “This test is a seal-tight Proof. Sounds like what Bernie meant.”

“I’m not doing it.”

“It works.”

Rauden had been in front with me, but now he goes to the Box Room door and yells, “You know why? They put the girl in a bubble and expose her directly to unbelievable shit. If she’s still alive when they pull her out, it works. I messed with this girl enough.”

“Bro! How much better will it be for her to go back to goddamn Queens?”

“I’m not risking her goddamn life!” And Rauden storms off.

They are getting on my nerves.

Morning. Still raining.

Henry is not giving up. “How about this one? Hmm. That’s a very nutty name.”