Transient - Complete Book One (Episodes 1 - 4) (Transient Serial) Read online

  She turned the water off and dried herself, then slipped into a t-shirt and sweatpants and came downstairs.

  “Don’t take any pictures,”she announced on her way down.

  “But we have to,”her father said. His cell phone camera was already capturing the moment.“It’s your birthday, and you’re only sixteen once.”

  Thank goodness…

  There was cake on the table already cut into slices and passed around on small plates with forks beside them. It looked like chocolate cake. The usual. There were three kinds of ice cream.

  “Which one would you like?”her mother asked, with the ice cream scooper in hand ready for combat.

  “Peanut butter chocolate.”

  Her mother dished up the ice cream, and everyone sat around the table. The TV was off, and Carl had cleared away his homework. He seemed to be happy about the distraction from homework to the birthday celebration, even if the presents weren’t his.

  “You’ll never guess what I got you, sis.”

  “I don’t have to guess,”Rae teased.“I can just open it.”

  She grabbed the present with the sloppiest wrapping job. That was Carl’s gift, she guessed and his scrawl on the wrapping paper confirmed it. To sis, from bro.

  “Can I open the presents now?”

  “If you want to,”her father said.

  He and her mother exchanged a look. Something important passed between them.

  What was that about?

  She opened the small box that Carl had given her.

  “Carl picked it out himself.”

  Inside the box was a bracelet, a blue bangle.“Thank you, Carl.”

  “Do you like it?”he asked eagerly.

  “It’s perfect,”Rae said, and put the bracelet on, then showed it to her mom and to her dad for the cell phone video he was taking.“It’ll go with all my clothes. Thanks, Carl.”

  “Told ya, mom.”

  “You did good Carl.”

  “Okay,”her mother said.“This one’s from me.”She handed Rae a box. Inside was a new cell phone, an upgrade from the kind she already had.

  Rae found that amusing. She thinks my phone doesn’t work.

  She’d gotten out of the habit of picking up calls from her mom, who always called at the exact wrong moment, and was always happy to hear from Rae when she called back, because of course she had been without exception,‘worried sick.’

  “Thanks Mom,”she said, giving it some energy.“I really need a new phone.”

  “I know and this one has a lot of new features, but you can talk to your dad about that, because it’s not really my thing, but happy birthday honey, I love you so much.”

  Her mother got up and circled the table and kissed Rae on the forehead and on the cheek, and hugged her just a little too tight and a little too long.

  Rae’s birthday meant a lot to her mom. Rae was the oldest, and she’d heard it was a difficult labor with a lot of worry and tension, and her mother always cried at Rae’s birthdays because her daughter was healthy, and giving birth to Rae was she said, the best thing she’d ever done. Though she didn’t say that when Carl was around.

  “There’s another one under the table,”he dad pointed out.“Honey, can you get that? I’m filming.”

  “Sure thing.”Rae’s mother reached under the table.

  The present from her father was much larger, and a bit heavier. It was the size of a hardback book and about the same weight, but she knew her father wouldn’t buy her a real book, not at this age, so it must be a tablet computer, which is what Rae had asked for, and when she opened it, she discovered she was right.

  “Thanks Dad. It’s just what I wanted.”She didn’t have to fake any excitement this time. All her friends had tablet computers and so did the teachers, and pretty much everyone she knew except Carl. And now she had her own.

  She hugged her dad even though he was still filming, and she saw that he was getting a little misty-eyed, so she kissed him on his stubbly check and let him go so he could get it all on digital.

  Lastly her mother took two envelopes from the side table. She handed the small one to Rae first, who opened it. Inside was a gift card for the mall in the amount of $100.

  “That’s from both of us. Especially your father.”

  “This is great, thank you.”

  Last came the larger envelope. Rae’s mother clutched it tightly in her hand.“Before I give this one to you honey, I just want to explain something. You don’t have to open it.”

  “What do you mean?”she asked, frowning in confusion.

  “It’s yours to keep. You don’t have to open it. You can destroy it if you like. Or hold on to it. It’s your choice.”

  Rae got a terrible feeling. Something in her spine was warning her of danger. Whatever was in that envelope, it was something important but scary. Her mother looked worried - not so much worried about the present, but Rae’s response.

  Her mother held the envelope out, and Rae gave the envelope a shake. Her mom’s hand was trembling.“We’re giving you this because we love you, and want the best for you.”

  Rae took the envelope and turned it over. On the front was an OBK corporate logo. The recognition made her breath catch.

  No…

  The Lakeb-Oberkampf Test—developed by Dr. Lakeb and Dr. Oberkampf, founders of OBK—was the official term for what everyone called the cryptograph. The Lifespan test.

  Her face whitened.“What is this?”

  “If you want to know, you’ll have to open it,”her father said his voice falsely cheery.

  “My appointment? Is this my appointment at the test center, because we already talked about -”

  “No honey,”her mother interjected.“It’s not the appointment.”

  Her father murmured the next words softly.“It’s the results.”

  The results?

  Rae tried to process that, but it didn’t make any sense.

  “What do you mean? What results?”

  “The results of the test of course,”Carl blurted out, like she was stupid for not understanding.

  “But I didn’t take the test…”

  Carl continued.“We went to the clinic after school. You missed it but it was boring. We had to wait around for like an hour.”

  Rae stared at her mother, her heart pounding and blood pulsing in her ears. She was getting hot all over and something wasn’t right, something was terribly wrong, and everyone in the room knew what it was but her.“Mom? What happened at the clinic? What did you do?”

  Her mother brought her hand to her mouth, and her eyes grew tight and watery.

  “I’m sorry, but it was the right thing. The only thing.”

  They did it without me…

  Rae didn’t know how, but somehow the clinic had taken the test without her. Taken her cryptograph.

  But that was impossible.

  “I didn’t give them a sample,”she argued.“I didn’t give any blood. Without a blood sample, there’s no DNA. You have to go in and give a blood sample, right? That’s what everyone does.”

  “You can pee too,”Carl said.“Into a cup. They said you can just pee and they don’t have to stick you with a needle, but it’s easier with blood.”

  “I didn’t pee into a cup,”Rae protested.“I didn’t give a urine sample or a blood sample, so there’s no way they could—“

  “Hair,”her father said softly.“They can do it now with hair.”

  “You took...my hair?”

  “There was some on your pillow,”he said looking a little shamefaced.“When we called the clinic this morning to cancel, they told us there was another way and it was easy and if we brought them a hair sample, the cryptograph would still be good, and they could do it without your even being in the clinic. They have to do that sometimes for other patients. It’s a new test, but the results are the same; they just don’t tell people about it unless there’s a problem.”

  “I’m not a problem!”

  “You’re our child,
sweetie, and we love you. Your mother’s right. That’s why we did it. Because we love you so much.”

  “You didn’t have my permission.”

  “They don’t need it,”Carl said.“Because we’re kids.”

  “Because I’m a minor…”She whispered, understanding.

  Her father nodded.“That’s right honey. Legally, that’s right. It was our decision all along. We didn’t know that, didn’t even think about that until we talked to them on the phone, but they said you were a minor, and if we brought them a sample of your hair they could do the test in an hour and have the results ready the same day. They said you didn’t have to open the envelope. But now it’s all legal, and we don’t have to deal with this in January and honey, we did you a favor.”

  “A favor?”Rae realized she was shouting now, though she didn’t want to raise her voice. It just came out that way. And she didn’t usually yell at her parents, but if ever they deserved it, they deserved it now.“You took my hair, a piece of mybody, and put it in a machine that just spits out some result…that just vomits up my destiny? You did that without asking and without telling me, and behind my back? After I said no. I said no. We talked about it this morning, and I said no! And now, it wasn’t even my choice to make, because even though I’m sixteen, I still don’t get to make my own decisions—“

  “You don’t have to open it…”

  “I don’t wantto open it!”Rae slammed the envelope down on the table.“I didn’t even want it to exist and now it’s here, and this is my birthday present? I should burn it. Just burn it.”

  “If you want to…”her father said, backtracking now.

  Her mother added,“We don’t know what’s inside. We didn’t ask, and they didn’t tell us and they didn’t show us or anything. No one knows.”

  “The lab knows.”

  Her father nodded.“Yes. I suppose the lab knows.”

  “And the government knows,”Carl pointed out.

  “Those records are all sealed, honey. Even if you weren’t a minor, they couldn’t give out your results without authorization.”

  The government knows…

  The world had suddenly turned on its axis.

  Rae grabbed the envelope off the table, and ran up the stairs.

  Much later, she sat on her bed, staring at the envelope.

  It was past midnight and she couldn’t sleep. She’d put it in the trash earlier, but had gotten out of bed to retrieve it. Then she’d put it on her desk under the thick dictionary. Then in the closet. Now it was on her bed.

  Rae sat on top of her covers, just staring at it. The light was off, but moonlight fell from the window and it was enough to read by.

  If she wanted to.

  I don’t want to.

  But she couldn’t sleep either. An answer was in that envelope. It was the answer to a question Rae didn’t want to ask, but everyone had been asking for her, and now she had the reply locked inside on a sheet of paper.

  Her eyes were dry. She’d cried enough today. She’d cried with Logan, in front of her family, alone in bed and the tears had exhausted her. She felt wrung out, squeezed of all emotion, dead inside.

  Dead.

  That’s what the trouble was. She didn’t want to know her lifespan, her expiration date, appointment with eternity. It would come whether she knew about it or not.

  Maybe Logan was right, she thought, trying to work it out in her head. He knew his future, at least how long it would last in this life. He could plan for that. It would affect what decisions he made, that much was clear. Logan wanted a life with someone, wanted someone to be around and grow old with him.

  Like his father couldn’t.

  If Rae’s envelope held the wrong answer, it meant Logan might reject her. Others would too. If she only had say, a few years to live she would never marry. No one would hire her for a job. She would never be able to vote. Everyone would treat her as a nuisance, a useless member of society. She’d be Transient. Just hanging around on the fringes, waiting to die like every other Transient. What kind of life was that?

  And if she lived another fifty years?

  Logan would like that. That’s what he wanted and then maybe they could have something together. Two Constants sharing a long and fulfilled life, afforded every opportunity, and sharing love, companionship, (perhaps marriage?) through many years and decades. Didn’t everyone dream of that?

  Though not necessarily with Logan of course - the same would be true of any boy Rae dated. Boys would treat her differently based on her cryptograph result. Was she a short-term fling to be tossed around among the jocks, or worthy of a long-term love affair, a mother to children, a grandmother, a great-great-grandmother even. It was possible. Anything was possible.

  Until she opened the envelope.

  Open it, she urged herself.

  And Rae did.

  Chapter 7

  Clutching the document in her hand, she went downstairs.

  The reading lamp in the living room was on and she saw her mother asleep in the leather recliner in sweat pants and a tee shirt, snoring lightly, a romance novel open on her chest.

  Rae went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of cold water from the dispenser on the fridge. She returned to the living room and sat on the sofa across from her mother. She didn’t say anything for a while, just simply watched her sleeping.

  I have to tell her.

  Telling her mother–anyone–would change everything. She had opened the sealed envelope, and had found out her lifespan and expiration date. She could not now unread what she had read.

  But no else knew. Not yet.

  Rae could go on pretending that she’d never opened it, that she had never discovered the truth. She wondered if her parents would let it go at that, content in the knowledge that they had done their civic duty, obeyed the law and had gotten their daughter tested. As long as the government knew the results, maybe that would be enough for her mom and dad.

  It won’t.

  Even if her mom never asked, she would wonder and worry. That’s what the cryptograph was all about, wasn’t it? Taking the worry out of life…out of death.

  Calming the fear of mortality, robbing it of its mystery, its power to terrorize. And through the magic of modern science turn death into a single mark on the calendar, something to look forward to, perhaps even celebrate.

  There were endless benefits to the system, Rae knew. She’d heard of people throwing death parties the week before expiration date. One of her mom’s friends, Elizabeth had done that. Mom and Elizabeth had been friends from elementary school but had grown apart for many years before reconnecting on social media. That’s where her mom heard the news about Elizabeth and how she got invited to the‘departure celebrations.’

  Rae’s mom and dad had dressed up in their formal best, as if going to their high school reunion. And to hear her mother tell it, it hadbeen a reunion of sorts. Hundreds of Elizabeth’s school friends had turned out for the event to say their goodbyes, yes, but also to celebrate her life. There had been a video collage, photos on the wall, and presentations of the many wonderful things Elizabeth had done with her life. She had become a police officer, and raised two kids, both of whom were about Rae’s age, though they hadn’t grown up in California but Arizona, where they lived now.

  The night of the departure celebration, Rae’s mother had come home in tears, though her parents both agreed they were glad they went, happy to celebrate the life of a friend. It was much better, they insisted, to say goodbye to the living like that than do it the old way in a funeral home or a church memorial, with tears falling onto the cold, dry corpse of a loved one, so much left unsaid.

  Now there were no loose ends. Few goodbyes were left unsaid. People had a chance to forgive old grievances, heal old wounds, and make amends. Before it was too late.

  Much better.

  So if she didn’t tell her mom the results of her cryptograph, Rae would be denying her parents that comfort. They would worry. Of
course they would. And when Rae’s time came, there would be much more than sadness. There would be shock and rage and despair.

  I can’t put them through that.

  She felt strange watching her mother sleep. It was peaceful, and oddly comforting. She knew that when she was a baby, her mother would watch her sleeping for hours.

  Is this what it was like?

  A wave of sadness welled up inside her, and she felt tears on her cheeks again. She’d promised not to cry, but now she couldn’t help it.

  I’ll never be a mother…

  It was still possible, she knew, biologically possible. There was still time, enough time really but—

  Who would have a child with me? And why anyone have one just to leave it behind?

  Health care too would be out of the question. And college. And a job. And voting. So many things. Once the news got out, doors would immediately close and Rae’s life would change completely.

  She’d seen it happen to so many others.

  And now me.

  She reached for a box of tissues on the coffee table, but her hands were trembling now, and when she yanked on the top layer, the box tipped over and fell on the floor landing between the sofa and the coffee table. She had to get on her hands and knees to retrieve it, and when she looked up her mother was awake, her eyes open and full of questions.

  “Rae, honey?”

  Rae tried to speak but no words came out. She wiped her eyes but the tears were coming too fast. She stood up and her mother saw the open envelope clutched in her hands.

  “Oh baby...”her mother began.

  “Mom—”

  And then they were standing together, and her mother’s arms were tight around Rae, and they were both crying and saying nothing, but feeling everything and hoping the wave would pass. But the tears went on and Rae put her helpless arms around her mother, and the envelope fell to the floor, but that didn’t matter. It was just a piece of paper and she had opened it and read it, and now everything had changed.