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ProCreate: Short fiction

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Category: Scattershooting,Ramblings & Life

Via: broliver-thesquirrel-stagnasty • 11 years ago • 14 comments

Here it is hot off of my mind: A bit of a distraction for a thursday evening.....

ProCreate

I was waking up, sometimes a long process that, though the end results were a necessary part of my day, didnt seem as enjoyable as the prior hours of slumber even though they were beyond memory.

Slapping the alarm clock, I struggled upright, cursing the evil thing that had disturbed my in-between state of delicious euphoria. Damn thing, I muttered groggily as I rubbed my eyes, glancing at the red digits that were telling me it was indeed time to arise.

The smell of freshly brewed coffee tickled my nose and started the running of a biological checklist as I entered the kitchen, triggering a rumble from my belly, distended from seven months of pregnancy. You are hungry, arent you my little pigger? I said as I poured myself a cup of coffee and made my way to the fridge for some type of sustenance. What do you want for breakfast?

There was no craving of any particular type of food, so I prepared and ate our breakfast while listening to the radios hum of morning news and trash, listening distractedly to the litany of things wrong with our country while I planned my day.

I was trying to figure out just how I was going to do all that was expected of me today, when the electronic boing of a communication touched my awareness. I clicked on the screen and saw that yet another event had been added to my calendar. Thoughts of how I let myself get drawn into this situation were tumbling around my head as my cell phone rang. Crap. Must be really important, I said as I answered the call from the same person who had just IMd me.

Jackie, glad that you are near your phone, came the voice of my editor/agent, I have a lead on a story that I thought would be right up your alley.

Does it involve a spa, Drew? I asked. If it doesnt, then I am wondering what could be so important that you would call at six thirty in the morning? I mean, what world shaking event cant wait?

I had met Drew the year before at a writers convention, and he was so impressed at my ability to paint accurate pictures in my reporting of the oftentimes-abstract scientific ideas that we formed a professional relationship right away, to our mutual benefit. We had also formed a relationship on more intimate terms, but that fizzled after a couple of months. It was only after the boom and bust cycle that seems to be a permanent fixture in my life that I found that I was pregnant.

On this revelation, much to his credit, Drew manned up and offered to marry me. I think that he was slightly offended when I laughed in his face.

Are you Kidding me? I asked incredulously. We know that we arent really compatible in a marriage type of way. We both need our freedom. We both need space that the other would want or be envious of. Besides, I dont really think that I will keep it. This is the twenty first century, after all. I know that you are trying to do the right thing, but I tell you what I will let you help raise it if I do not abort. At least your money will be welcome. Being seen and used solely as a fiduciary benefactor had not been his idea or intention and I could tell the thought of being used as such was not appealing to him. But such is life.

Truth be known, I wasnt happy about the prospect either. I had no room in my world for a child. I was extremely active, only twenty-six and not really ready to settle down. The reality of a child seemed daunting and very much constricting on my social and professional life, especially now that I had met Drew and been introduced to a higher level of pay for my writing. How could a child possibly fit into that structure, or rather, lack of structure?

My grandmother was the reason that I didnt abort. I was talking about it with her, listing all of the reasons why a child was not the right thing for me at the time, going on about how I was not ready, about how a child would be an impediment, and Gramma was just listening to my venting of frustration. Just listening. When I had spent myself of the energy required for this tirade, she gave me a hug.

You know, I was just sixteen when I had your mother, she said, And I was considering having an abortion. It wasnt as available back then, but the stigma of an unwed mother was much greater as was getting an abortion. Her eyes misted with that look of someone seeing far into the past. 1964. The country was going through some upheaval then also race riots, Vietnam protests were heating up. But we did have the Beatles and the Rolling Stones much to the chagrin of my father who blamed both me and Rock n Roll music for the pregnancy.

Your mother waited until she was twenty five and married four years. But even then, she was beset by the same questions and concerns that are plaguing you now.

Why did you do it, Gramma? I asked.

The access to abortion was limited and it was a dangerous procedure, so I had Patti. That was when I learned there was more to life than just I. It gave me a purpose that I had been missing before that, no matter the looks and disapproving stares that went along with her. Perhaps it unleashed a stubborn streak in me that I had not realized was there. In any event, as they say today, it is what it is. I blossomed afterwards, even without the help of Daddy.

So, I let the unborn thing inside me develop and grow and I became attached, so to speak, to it, even as I questioned why that story that Gramma had told me made me change my mind.

So, what is so important, Drew, that it couldnt wait?

Cephalon Industries has a new device which they are unveiling at the Tech Trade show today. At two.

The trade show? That is five hours from here, I said. I am still in my p-js and have not taken a shower yet! And my schedule is too full already!

You can take the train. Ive already taken care of your tickets, sent your boarding pass to you, it should be in your email, and you will have a private space so you can research and write. My friend on the inside said that it was a really important announcement, one that could change everything on the genetics forefront. So you, being as able as you are to decipher and distill information down to an understandable and still accurate story, well, you are my Go To Gal!

Really, spare me the pep talk. What about the rest of my appointments? And, in case you have forgotten, I am pregnant, and seven months so, I am not going to be running a marathon just so you can get a cut off of my story.

Relax, Jackie. You have a hotel room waiting and everything. This should almost be like a vacation for you.

Well, looks like I am going to the Tech trade show, after all, I said to my unborn child as I headed towards the shower.

The Train ride there was almost like a vacation, the reason I say almost is that Drew could not let me go alone but had to tag along, and kept disturbing my thoughts until I became agitated and sent him to the observation car under threat of physical mutilation should he disturb me further.

After I had booted Drew, I called up the Cephalon Industries webpage on my computer to look a bit more deeply into what they did and tried to get some kind of angle on what their big announcement was going to be. And why wait to announce that they had a large announcement to make until the last minute? Usually a tech firm wants people to know when it is going to announce something important to generate buzz and push up stock price. This just was not looking promising.

Indeed, from their webpage with all of its flashy up to the second trendy-ness, all I could find was that they were some Biotech firm with aspirations towards stem cells and cloning of pets, neither of which were producing any cutting edge developments that I could see. So what was the big deal?

I looked at their balance sheet, at their prospectus, saw that they were fairly well off and had, besides being so pedestrian a product line, a great deal of income from the big ag-tech companies, but could not for the life of me figure out what their great announcement was to be. Either they were masters of the smoke and mirrors technique, or they had perfected the art of keeping silent. I had my money on the blowing smoke angle. Why Drew, who for all of his shortcomings was a sharp individual, would be suckered by something like this I had no idea.

By the time we disembarked the train I had looked at not only everything that Cephalon Industries said about itself, but everything everybody else was saying about Cephalon Industries, which amounted to not a lot.

Drew came up to me with my bags, he is a gentleman, after all, and asked me If I would like to get a bite to eat while he sent the bags on to the hotel.

Who is paying for this? I asked, letting the pause become as pregnant as I before continuing, It is Cephalon, isnt it?

Yes

Now why would Cephalon pay to have me come to their trade show announcement, put me up in a nice hotel, when I dont know anything about them, cant learn anything about them from the internet.

Well, actually, he said after a long pause, They want to hire you.

Hire me? Why on earth would they want to hire me?

For the same reasons I want you under contract with me: You are talented at writing a story that is informative and comprehendible to a large segment of people. You take complex subjects and make them seem simple to anybody. That is a talent not many people have, and Cephalon is willing to pay for it.

You may not realize this, but in the time that you have been working as a writer under me, your street cred among the people who contract your services has risen. You are basically freelancing now, your name goes on everything you write, I act more as an agent and a filter for you than anything else. I get several requests a day for you to write. As a columnist your star is meteoric He paused at the look on my face, Whats wrong.

So you dont think that I can I started, then backed off from what I had been going to say, thinking better of making a scene in such a public place. Why did you not tell me this in the first place? Why did you concoct this story of some great turning point in science?

Well, that was true, from what they told me. I just left out the part that they wanted you to tell of it, instead of report it. They want you for a spokesperson.

This did nothing to improve my mood. I had gotten out of crafting messages for companies because I saw how misleading they could be. I knew enough of the corporate mechanisms that went on in the boardrooms and planning meetings so that I had a fairly reasonable surety that one of those press releases, (Like those I had been reading on the train) was pretty much akin to talking with the great and powerful Wizard of OZ.

As I turned to look for the station ticket office, reaching out to grab my bags from the wilting Drew, I was interrupted by a man, small of stature and flanked by two very large men.

Miss Jacqueline Sharp? came the query, though one could tell it was merely a polite formality. I have been reading much of your work and would like to congratulate you on your mastery of the written language. You make it seem effortless to describe what are the most complex of processes, please wont you come with us. There is still some time before our announcement and it seems impolite to make a woman in your state stand around on a train platform while she could be relaxing in a more comfortable setting, being informed of the substance of our announcement.

I was so angry I was cross-eyed, held speechless by the ringing in my ears. Of all the gall! As if I hadnt been angry enough, this man has the nerve to patronize me! My state! How dare he.

The ringing in my ears turned to a buzzing sound, then to silence, blackness enveloping me.

To Be Continued, if there is any interest.. I would like to know how it is going to end.....