Mark Falkin - The Late Bloomer

KJL: Oh, they always leave me something. I’ve eaten a whole lot of flame-broiled fish. And sometimes fruit. Good, too. They can cook, the mutes.

KGM: Fruit? Where they getting that?

KJL: Don’t know. South Texas. Lots of agriculture down here.

KGM: It’s November. There’s nothing on trees right now. Harvests are way over.

KJL: Dunno.

KGM: What, they’ve raided grocery stores and farm storage? Not very new world of them.

KJL: Dunno.

KGM: How are they surviving? Where are they crapping?

KJL: Oh, well, that’s over there. The stone-age mutes at least know a thing or two about pits and fire.

KGM: You don’t say.

KJL: How do you mean?

KGM: The bodies.

KJL: Really?

KGM: Big ones, outside the cities. I watched them doing it.

[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]

KJL: Doubt they’ll leave a care package for Maggie.

KGM: Yeah, doubt that. Let’s walk.

[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying; sounds of footfalls on sand, on rock, sandy shoes scratching on cement]

KGM: You sure it’s mine?

KJL: Kevin.

[scratching on cement stops; sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]

Yes.

KGM: Nobody else even possible?

KJL: No. Stop it. Turn that off.

KGM: Hold on. Let’s keep it rolling for the record. ’Case I gotta go to court to fight paternity and child support.

KJL: Kevin …

KGM: She said with anger.

KJL: [sighs]

KGM: How far along?

KJL: We did it once. Rainy day at my place. That long.

KGM: How… do you know?

[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]

KJL: I just know.

KGM: Well, I mean, how? Did the kids take you to a drugstore to get a pregnancy test kit?

KJL: No.

KGM: So, how? Explain it to me. The assumed father must know these things.

[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]

KJL: I’ve been pregnant before.

KGM: Oh—

KJL: Yeah.

KGM: So, you just, know.

KJL: Yeah. They’ve been taking extra special care of me because of it, I think. They know. Kids know a mother. It’s in their body language. A general genuflecting.

KGM: It’s only been a few weeks. Can you really be so sure?

KJL: Brutal morning sickness.

KGM: You’ve been spending your days with whale carcasses. Could make you wanna barf.

KJL: I’m craving stuff I don’t like. For example, you know I’m a vegetarian. But I’m wanting steak. Werewolf-hungry for it. I’m peeing a lot, shortness of breath, tits hurt. Missed my period. Let’s see, what else?

KGM: Okay, all right. Condom failure, huh?

KJL: It happens. Also, get this. That morning, the day of, when you came to find me at the store, besides the baseball bat, the other thing I had in my hand was a pregnancy test.

[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]

I was opening the store that morning, right? But that morning turned out to be what it was and so I didn’t go in at the usual time. I mean, Eric and Sarah Jane were standing in my yard and my parents were gone and the TV news freaking out and—[deep quick sigh] you remember.

KGM: No, I don’t. Remember? I saw nothing, no footage of anything. Nothing except for a little of this guy on Univision in Spanish before the camera tilted over. All I got was… hearsay. From you and Bass and Mr. Fleming. I told you this.

KJL: Anyway, I texted you and went there because that felt safe to me. Being back in that storeroom, listening to the radio until you got there. That felt safe. And I just grabbed one of those tests kits, shoved it into the pocket of my fatigue shorts, and I don’t know, I just…

KGM: As the world was falling apart you shoplifted a pregnancy test.

KJL: It’s like I knew I’d need it. You know? I know you know what the intuition felt like.

[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]

You’re nodding. Besides, you know I’d been having dreams too, mostly in the summer. They stopped after around July Fourth or so, but, I just knew that I’d be pregnant in the fall and that it would be important to know right away. That’s all I knew.

KGM: Huh. June dreams, you say?

KJL: Yes, mostly. Same time as you, huh?

KGM: Filled with doom, the future?

KJL: The future, yes. Doom… not really. Not scary. About being pregnant.

KGM: Mine were. Wrote a short story based on the way it made me feel.

KJL: A story called…?

KGM: The Late Bloomers .

KJL: Shit .

[sound of door swinging open; scratching footfalls; outside sounds disappear]

KGM: Those tests any good? I mean, they cost a dollar. You’re ignoring me. You’re giving me a look.

KJL: Here we are. Home sweet home.

KGM: Where’s the food?

KJL: Oh, here, this way. Usually they leave me something at the front door.

KGM: Maggie, stay.

KGM: [whispering] There’s a few cars in that parking lot.

KJL: Uh-huh. Why are you whispering?

KGM: We could do it. Drive back to Utopia. Perfect place.

KJL: Keys?

KGM: You seen kids go anywhere near the cars?

KJL: No. But I don’t watch them twenty-four seven.

KGM: The dying didn’t take their car keys.

KJL: Say we make it to the parking lot. You know they’re going to stop us. They stopped me every time I even feigned running off, day and night. They just appear. You know this.

KGM: I know, I know.

KJL: They want us here, Kevin. It’s their world.

KGM: Kodie, we can’t stay here. You can’t live out your pregnancy here. Give birth here. Raise the child in a natural history museum eating packets of charred fish?

KJL: I don’t see a rational choice. I’ve done nothing but think about this since I’ve been here and lucid enough to think. I’ve gone through different scenarios. You being here included.

KGM: But did you ever plug into your formula that I have this gun? And Maggie? She owes me and she knows it.

KJL: You’re looking at her. What happened between you two?

KGM: Later.

KJL: Kevin, you’re wasting time trying.

KGM: Did you see what was happening down there tonight?

KJL: You mean the flaming whales and all that?

KGM: Yeah, all that. Have they ever lit whales on fire since you’ve been here?

KJL: Not that I’ve seen. I’ve been in here quite a bit.

KGM: I didn’t see any burnt ones down there today.

KJL: Maybe they did on some night when I was asleep up here and they burned it completely and dumped the rest in the bay.

KGM: Why are you so resistant? You’re defending them again. Their apologist.

KJL: I don’t—

KGM: But you are, you do. At every turn.

KJL: You’re overreacting. I don’t like this any more than you do. Yes, of course, I’d love to escape but I’m just trying to be reasonable. It’s impossible, Kevin.

[long pause]

KGM: Johnny tell you that? You’re nodding. What else?

KJL: Nothing.

KGM: What else has he told you?

KJL: Nothing…

KGM: It’s not nothing. What are you so afraid to tell me? [pause] Why are you…?

KJL: They won’t let us leave, Kevin.

KGM: You’ve already said that. You’re being so evasive.

KJL: I’m not.

[long pause]

They just won’t. I’m afraid for my baby. If we try to leave, they’ll—

KGM: Kill us?

KJL: [sigh] I don’t know what they’ll do.

KGM: You know something, Kodie. The fact that you won’t even tell me… [long pause]

The night I arrive, they light the whales on fire. They dance around the fires. They sing and hum like I’ve never heard them do before. It’s not in my head like before. Because it’s not for us. It’s for them. They’re celebrating. It’s the freaking Whos in Whoville down there.