The Only Ones (16 page)

Then somebody calls her. They say should they put us on a truck but Dr. Martinez said no. No. Don’t go on a truck. Wait here. Then she went somewhere. Then we just walked out of triage by ourself. I don’t know why they let us.

She just left the door open and we walked out. We headed further east.

We walked way out on the Expressway, passing bodies on the road. I kept heading for the City Line, walking. I was trying to get away from the Pandy. Instead of getting away, I carried Ani right into what they called the epicenter. They swept us in quarantine. They call it Creedmoor. When they let us out, Ani’s five months old. Still alive.

So, we had that in common.

I was too.

v

Let me say a little about quarantine, which maybe you heard of or even went in once. But if you don’t know what it is, I can tell you how it works, or worked back then, in Queens. They seal you in like it is jail. I never been in jail but heard when you are in it, you can’t go out.

The way it’s not like jail, if you’re outside when they seal it, you can’t go in. Your kid could be in there, your Parent, whoever, you can’t go in with them. They have to stay locked up in quarantine till everyone who is going to die dies. Sometimes they have a doctor in there. Sometimes the doctor dies too.

When everyone is finished dying, wait two more weeks. Then who is left could go. Now all you have to do is stay alive the regular way, and there is smoke and dust and antiPatho spray, and they put you on trucks to some kind of Center but the trucks are commandeered and you are on Union Turnpike, which is a mess. Rickshaws, bikes, more trucks, cops in bubble suits, and everywhere, crowds on foot, running and shoving. You want food? Get on a line. Want shelter? Get on a line. Watch out for vigilantes. Watch out for stampedes. They are stampeding so they don’t get swept in quarantine.

Now, if you were in quarantine, you get a certificate, what they call hard Proof, you were in quarantine and are still alive. They put it on a plexi card, in case they can’t read your regular ID because the Boards don’t work or whatever. Maybe this certificate will keep you out of quarantine next time. If you want to stay out of quarantine, hold it high.

Well, let me tell you, the first time we went in quarantine, I was so scared. Even the second time. I was really scared what will happen to Ani in there, with everybody dying.

You are probably thinking, wait. Second time? And I got certificates to keep us out? Might do something stupid? How stupid can you get?

Well, here is something maybe you don’t know about quarantine. If you have a kid, they put you in a special room. If you don’t have a kid, you share a room. If you have a kid, you have your own room. They lock you in. But they leave food at the door. Maybe they leave clothes. How stupid is that? The truth is, in quarantine, it was the first time since the Queensbridge basement I had a square meal.

The next part of our life, we spent in quarantine. We moved from quarantine to quarantine. Metropolitan Avenue. Harry Van Arsdale Drive. We didn’t get anything. Except food. Clothes, shelter. Proofs.

Sometimes they quarantine a building. Study what building got body bags coming out. Go in before it’s sealed. Even if it’s just a few units where the body bags come from, a lot of times they quarantine the whole building. You can stay there for a month, maybe six weeks. You get another Proof when they let you leave. If you want to go back in quarantine and got a Proof? Hide it good.

Watch which way the stampede’s going. Then go the other way.

She spent her first Christmas in quarantine. They put a toy in a bag on the door. It is candy.

In one of these quarantine rooms, in Metropolitan Avenue, Ani started to crawl. Backward.

They let us hear the News. A quarter of a million dead in Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn. So far. No message Board though. No vidPhone. It’s for security.

Around the time she began to crawl forward, they let us move to a Resettlement, what they call, Resettlement, at Flushing Meadow Park, which was a little different. We still can’t go in or out, but it’s more like living somewhere regular, and people don’t die. You sleep in pods, what they call, honeycomb pods, around a transition Zone, where you could practice, you know, being exposed to others, see what happened. They have a yard. They let us grow potatoes in the yard. Which I enjoyed. Ani enjoyed it too. The way you grow potatoes, you put what they call the eye of the potatoes in the ground, and it makes single Donor viables, which are gene for gene the living replica of the potato. And which was ethical, because it was Nature, and because they are plants.

Ani enjoyed the potato area. She even stood up in the field. Then she fell down again, in the potatoes. She got pretty dirty too.

When no one was dying any more, they put us on trucks and sent us back to Flushing.

She didn’t remember Flushing at all. Well, it was hard to see what it even looked like, because of so much smoke. A lot of buildings were burnt down. Our old unit was gone too, the one with the balcony. A lot of streets are roped off.

They had a shelter on Bowne Street, in case your home was burnt or sealed. It’s not a quarantine. You could come and go. You had to show your Proof, then they gave you a cot. They had meals too. They had a working Board and when I did upDate, it is one week till Ani’s birthday. So she is almost one year old. Man! She was still alive.

When the shelter people saw Ani, they put us in a room all to ourself, just like in quarantine. When we went on the street though, everyone noticed us. I tried to keep quiet but we stood out. There wasn’t many kids to start, and so many had died. I mean, you would see people just staring at their hands, like they were lucky to still have hands. Just staring at a tree, a plant, like they were lucky to see anything. Imagine what they think seeing a baby. Once when we went out to find a Board that worked, a little group began to stand behind us and clap.

She was very cute.

She got a thin body and a big round, round head. You can be sure someone will tell me I should put a hat on her head. I should put different shoes on her feet. She is too cold! She is too hot! Man! How do they know these things? It was interesting though.

She didn’t talk at all. She just sort of peeped, like an Endangered. Well, I guess she is.

If you hold her hand, she takes a few steps. Otherwise, she falls down. She held my hand.

Her brows go up, like, not surprised but, you know, how worried looks? She looked worried. Maybe she got it from me, I worried so much. I was less worried now than before. She was still alive. She was almost one year old, and I was still alive. I was pretty sure my own mother had been dead almost one year when I was almost one, myself. My birth mother. Like Rauden said, I wasn’t Ani’s birth mother. If Ani’s me, I’m Cissy Fardo. She gets me for nine more years, till I die in a fire, when she is ten. We could deal with that then.

I found a working Board and reached Rauden! He said thank God we’re still alive! He wanted to hear all about the quarantines. He told us to come straight up to the Farm and posted tickets. With credit I still have left from Rini I bought crackers and drink for the trip. We went up on Ani’s birthday! We had to go up through the Bronx and cross the Newburgh bridge. We had to wait in line to get a hybro, because so many people were on the way out. Our Proofs got us through all the Zones though. Ani enjoyed the hybro. I was very happy to see Rauden, and Janet Delize, and the others, and the Farm. Janet even had a gift for Ani. It is a Bonnet. It almost fits. I was very proud to show off Ani, who was still alive. Rauden was proud too.

I had missed the Farm. I missed Rauden. He was very excited about the Proofs. We had four each. He was on the Board right away, for clients. We got a track record now. We got Proofs.

And that is just one thing that’s different this time.

vi

The first ones were from Santa Sofya. We met them at a safe house in Dwaarkill, because Rauden worried they would come back to the Farm and steal Ani and me if they know where it is. I was worried too, but what I worried was, Rauden will sell Ani to them but he said no. No. Don’t worry. She’s more valuable to keep around. She
is
the track record. She’s the goddamn Proof!

Well, I did not know where Santa Sofya is or what they had there but everyone thought my genes and Ani’s would not get it and Rauden sold them fourteen frozen viables and threw in some bottles of my blood they could use for the Compatibility, which who knows if it will work but that’s their problem. Henry made them a copy of my code ID that he sent down from Albany. He was up there fixing gizmos and systems because Albany needed all the help it could get, after Mumbai. It is a mess. We don’t even have to worry would any Inspector come around. They are too busy fixing up the mess. We don’t even have to worry will the K of L raid us because they took a hit when Mumbai jumped species and wiped their horses out! We just have to worry, will other buyers come.

Which they didn’t.

I mean you always do a lot of waiting in this business. Remember how long it took to hook up with Rini? And the outreach is always tricky because you have to watch your language in a public post, even now everybody’s so busy just being alive.

Still.

It’s almost June and after the Santa Sofya brokers, nobody else called.

“Junior?”

It’s a sunny day. Ani, me, and Janet Delize are on the orange sofa, watching a TV program called
Fresh Start,
about life after Mumbai that people used to watch back then if their TV worked.

“Junior,” Janet calls to Rauden, who is in back, “you should take a look at this.”

This week
Fresh Start
featured Parents whose kid died from Mumbai but they saved the skin and want to clone him—nobody but us ever said nuclear Transfer. But it was pretty much what Rauden does, whatever you call it. These Parents are so mad with grief, they didn’t care if it’s a crime against nature or ethical or what. They just miss their kid.

Rauden called to Janet, “Turn that shit off.”

Janet said turn it off himself.

Rauden came in and turned the TV off. Then he went back to the Box Room.

Janet went after him. “Oh too busy to look?”

Rauden said, “That is necrophiliac shit! Those Parents think they can bring their dead kid back to life. That’s not how it works!” and he went down the hall.

Janet followed. “What’s the difference? It’s a business Opportunity.”

“The difference is,” Rauden said, and his voice is getting louder, “I only work with hardy product,” but I have to deal with Ani for a minute. She went to the TV and is hitting it so hard I’m afraid she will break it. She really liked TV and would watch it day and night if she could, even though Janet is on my case about fresh air.

By the time I get back to the doorway where I was trying to hear what they’re saying, Rauden is yelling at Janet, “Unique? You don’t know the meaning of the word! I work with hardy product! That’s what buyers goddamn come to me for!”

Janet said oh she really noticed that. She really noticed so many buyers came, we’re turning hundreds away. Like, buyers are just coming in droves!

Rauden came up front wheezing so hard he is almost falling and pulled the TV plug out. Ani started to cry. I just picked her up and we went outside in the sun and stood on the dirt road under those trees out there until things quiet down. I could hear them yelling even from here.

They already had one really big fight the first day we got here, about where Ani and me should stay. He said with Janet. Janet said well that is easy for him to say—it is a lot of extra work, and he was like, oh really? He didn’t notice her doing so much extra work. She was like, no, he didn’t notice anything—he did not ever stop to think what if he has an emergency? Say, Daisy 5’s time comes and he’s gone for days? Then Janet will have to deal with everything. “Why don’t they go stay with you at the clinic,” she said, “if they are so important to you?”

“Oh give me a goddamn break,” Rauden said. “Sook is already going to throw me out because I took so much time off last year. I suppose we could put them in the trailer.” Janet said you can’t keep a child there. I don’t know why not. I don’t want to ask. She does not want us on the orange sofa, someone could walk right in on us. The rec room will not work because it got expensive equipment—what if Ani gets up in the night and broke something? She never broke anything! I keep an eye on her! And by the way, she keeps an eye on me—follows me around all day and night. I can’t even get beefed up for a new Harvest without her pulling on my arm so hard Rauden could hardly get the needle in my vein.

He was hitting the bottle quite a bit.

When Henry came down from Albany to help during the Harvest, he fixed us up an empty room near the kitchen, where Ani and me could sleep, with a special gate so she won’t escape in the night and break something. He also showed me how to check the generators and systems, if Rauden goes away. That kills two birds with one stone, whatever it even means. Henry was very nice to Ani. He even brought her a toy, which she enjoyed but would not let him touch her. She won’t let anyone touch her but me. I have to touch her all the time and when I go off to the new shady OBGYN in Callicoon for the Harvest, she makes such a racket they are thinking of giving her a shot herself. It was a really bad Harvest, just two eggs.

Rauden got drunk.

“Bro!” Henry told him. “Don’t be depressed. You already made history! Someone will call!” Then he went back to Albany. But he was right.

Someone did call the next day. From Buffalo.

So, we’re off to Dwaarkill to meet this broker in the safe house in June. He looked at Ani. He looked at me. Checked our vitals, studied all the Proofs. Then he looked at Ani very hard. Thirteen months old. Still alive. He says he will call and goes off in a van.

Janet said don’t hold our breath and Rauden got that look like he is going to hit something, but he just took a deep breath and got in the truck, and we all squeezed in the front with Ani sleeping on my lap and drive back to the Farm in the late afternoon and been driving maybe five minutes when Janet goes, “If he wants to go through the whole shebang, he’s gonna think, why not get something special for it?”