[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
"Honey? What's the matter with you? What are you feeling? How long have you
had a fever? Talk to me."
"I'm not exactly sick, Frannie. I've just been working real hard," Max said.
I must have had a puzzled look on my face.
"Labor," she said. "Labor is hard work. I had some babies!"
I gasped when I finally understood. I think I almost fainted. "Oh, Max, why
didn't you tell me? Oh, Max, sweetheart. Oh, Max, oh God, Max."
She shrugged and then said, "I wanted this to be private. But I'm really glad
you're here, Frannie. Just us two girls."
"Just the two of us," I promised.
Now I stared at a miracle never before seen in this world, at least I didn't
expect so. My God! Snuggled right up to Max's body, lying in the crook of her
arm, were two magnificent human eggs. Oh, Max.
The eggs were quite large, the shells ivory white with a pearly pink sheen.
They looked to be three or four pounds, and the sight of them made me weak
with tenderness.
I imagined Max's precious babies inside the eggs, their arms and legs tucked
in the fetal position. Two beautiful babies with wings.
"You're going to be a mother," I whispered. "This is so beautiful." Then I
started to choke up.
"They're mine with Ozymandias," Max said, still whispering. "I have to keep
them warm. I don't know why I know that, but I do. Oh, I wish Oz were here to
see this."
Page 146
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
[368] I reached out and gently put my arms around Max, holding her, calling
her name. I felt tears rolling down my cheeks.
Max's face was so joyful and radiant, so full of hope, and then she whispered,
"Aren't they just the most beautiful things? Isn't life a miracle sometimes?
"Okay, you can call the other kids now. And Kit. This is gonna blow all their
minds, isn't it? I'm going to be a mother."
108 OVER THE NEXT few weeks Max began to learn real honest-to-God patience for
the first time in her life. She was going to be a mom, and she'd need it. It
was so quiet in her part of the house that she sometimes thought she might be
going a little mad. Going, going, gone.
Her mind was frayed from being alone too much, watching and nursing her eggs
every minute, thinking about Oz constantly, missing him so much that it hurt.
Constantly and forever.
But she had good reason to be extra-watchful and careful. She was going to be
a mother, and her children were going to be very special. Of course, Max knew,
just about every mother felt that same way.
She was all cozied up in bed, re-reading The Hobbit by candlelight, when she
heard a creak coming from the deck right outside her bedroom window.
[370] Strange.
What was that?
Perhaps the low, steady whistle of the wind had frightened an animal. There
were plenty of critters out there, skittering here and there in the woods. If
anything, her superior hearing was better than ever.
She touched the eggs with her fingertips, one, two.
Buckle my shoe.
Going, going, gone.
Max couldn't take her eyes off the two eggs. The babies were growing bigger
day by day. They were also starting to move now. She could see their shapes
pressed up against the shells. That got her every time. She was going to be a
mom.
Max blew out the candle, lay very still, and listened again. She heard the
same funny creak again!
Probably nothing.
Probably...
It was like the sound of a branch or the wind pushing at the deck, but there
were no overhanging branches out there, were there?
No, the creak was more like a damn footstep. Out on the deck.
A footstep she was imagining in her head? A boogeyman footstep? A fantasy
footstep?
Page 147
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Max held her breath and listened closely again. This was too dopey for words.
Finally, she slipped out of bed. Even dopier.
She moved three paces to the window, waited, then parted the white eyelet
curtains Frannie had made for her. She looked out onto the second-story deck.
Then Max jumped back.
[371] She was staring into another pair of eyes!
Eyes she knew. And hated. A face she knew. And hated. Yes, it's me, the mouth
formed words. Hel-lo, Max. I've come for you.
The window broke inward as a gloved fist smashed through it. Shattered glass
rained around her. Then Dr. Ethan Kane-Harold Hauer burst into the room, and
she knew this just had to be a dream, like really bad simulated reality.
But it wasn't.
He was alive.
He was in her bedroom. He had come for her and the eggs.
109 "GET OUT OF HERE!" Max shrieked.
But Hauer grabbed her around the waist and threw her backward toward the bed.
He had a scalpel in his hand. And he was strong-much more so than normal men.
He wasn't normal.
Of course he wasn't! He had made himself over; he was the first to experience
Resurrection; he was the new Frankenstein.
Max twisted her body as she fell, to avoid the pillow nest she'd made for her
babies. She just missed crushing the eggs!
When she lifted her head, there was a sharp blade pressing into her throat.
Hauer's free hand covered her nose and mouth. He was suffocating her. Did he
even know how strong he was?
"Why, hello, Max. So nice to see you again, dear girl. Yes, I'm alive. You
killed a clone, Max, not me. Of course, you probably know that."
[373] Then he warned, "Don't you dare move, you fine-feathered freak. Don't
even think of screaming for help because I'll kill them, too. In the blink of
an eye. Fight me and I'll kill you. You'll die without seeing your babies.
You're smart. You understand me. Don't you?"
Max nodded. Her lungs were aching. She needed air. Hauer finally took his hand
from Max's mouth and she actually growled, a sound she'd never ever made
before.
"You're the freak. Godless creep. What do you want?"
"Well, I've come for a few of my papers, which Frances Jane apparently swiped.
And the eggs, of course. I've come for your eggs, Max."
"You can't have them," Max hissed. "I'll die first."
Hauer shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me. You die, you live. Either way, I
Page 148
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
have your precious eggs. I am Harold Hauer. Not a clone. Do you know why I'm
here, Max? Do you know why I kept you alive all this time? Want to know the
big secret? You're even bigger than Resurrection. Really and truly you are.
These eggs were more important than anything I've done. I've seen the future,
Max, and it flies!"
Max couldn't speak at first. Finally, she understood why she'd been kept
alive. I've seen the future, and it flies!
"You're a sick ghoul," she finally said.
Then Max found herself making the terrible growling sound again. What was that
noise anyway? Her way of protecting the eggs?
"You're incorrigible, hopeless. I should have done this at the Hospital. Die,
you little twit."
"I don't feel like it!" Max shouted. She kicked out and sent the doctor
reeling against her dresser.
He recovered quickly, though. Bearlike, he shook himself [374] off. And
laughed, just as that robot's head had laughed when it hung down, broken, on
the airport runway. The same laugh, note for note.
He cursed and felt around for the scalpel in the darkened room. Found it in a
fold of the scatter rug.
"Dead or alive?" he asked as he showed Max the sharp blade. "It's your
choice."
"I choose my babies," said Max.
She spread her wings, making a wall of feathers and bone between Hauer and her
eggs. "Get out of here! Get out of here now," she screamed. "I'll kill you,
Hauer! Kane! Whatever your name is, you creepy bastard! Get away from my
babies!"
He rushed her, and Max sidestepped the attack. Barely. He was quick, too.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]