Peace Out (The Futures Trilogy Book 1) (13 page)

“They will only use the amount of force necessary. I promise.”

Clara slowly folded her handkerchief into a neat square.

“Would you like me to call them?” Patrick asked.

Clara didn’t answer at first.

Let him! Anna screamed internally. Your son is trying to kill you!

Clara finally spoke. “I do think that would be best.”

Patrick picked up the phone and spoke briefly with security, ordering them to approach respectfully and use no force. Patrick ended the call.

“You can spend the night here and in the morning you’ll be on a flight to Atlanta. Megan can fly with you. Would you like that?”

Before Clara could answer, the door burst open. “What is going on?” Jackson demanded.
“Those security guards just told me I need to leave! Momma? What are you doing?”

Clara shrank back into her chair.

“Your mother has decided to join an Enclave,” Patrick said calmly.

Jackson
’s face purpled. “What do you think you are doing here? How dare you try to kidnap my mother? She is a sick woman. We’re leaving, Momma.” He grabbed Clara’s hand and dragged her toward the door. Two men in black uniforms blocked his way.

“Please let your mother go,” Patrick said. “It
’s over.”

“Like hell,” Jackson said. He took a swing at one of the guards. The guard blocked the punch and twisted Jackson
’s arm up behind his back. Jackson lost hold of his mother and Clara backed away, sobbing hysterically. Patrick came out from behind his desk and helped Clara into his chair. He knelt  beside her, talking to her in soothing tones. Jackson was screaming incoherently, fighting the guards, kicking at them. They wrestled him to the ground at Anna’s feet. His eyes bored into hers and Anna recoiled. After they put plastic restraints on his wrists, Jackson stopped struggling. They helped him up.

“I
’m suing you all,” Jackson said calmly as they marched him out of Patrick’s office. He looked over his shoulder.  “Don’t worry Momma, I’ll be back for you.”

Anna slowly unclenched her fists and looked down at her hands. Blood oozed from her palms.

Anna paced up and down the conference room floor. She and Scott were the only ones there. They were staying
late since dinner with the Cleagers wasn’t until seven.

“It was crazy, Scott. Totally crazy,” Anna said. She paced back and forth.

“It’s OK,” Scott said. He tried to put his arms around her.

Anna stepped back. “Not now,” she said.

Scott dropped his arms.

“The guy just snapped.” She continued pacing. “He was a different person. The way he looked at me.” She shook her head. “Like he would have killed me, right then and there. Nobody has ever looked at me like that before.” Anna felt tears coming and took a few deep breaths to stop them. She looked away.

Scott approached slowly. This time she let him hold her close. He could feel her tears dampen his shirt.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Nothing to be sorry about,” Scott said.

“I feel like such a baby.” Anna got herself back under control. “Can we talk about something else?”

“I could tell you about my day,” Scott suggested.

Anna nodded.

“Very boring. Just helping Bertha confirm medical diagnoses. Doing some routine labs on her research. That’s all I’m good for right now. Did you know Peacing people Out is only a small part of Bertha’s job? Most of the doctors are here for the research. They can work on whatever they want when they’re not at the body factory.”

“The body factory?”

“Kind of cold, but that’s what she calls it. I mean, there’s really only one outcome for her patients. Though I guess this one time, she found a hidden needle mark on a guy in a coma. It was an attempted murder gone wrong. With the man’s directive, Peace Out would have finished the job if she hadn’t found the mark. They called the police and she had to testify in the trial. The guy made a full recovery. After that, Peace Out started doing full body scans of everyone under directive.” Scott checked his watch. “We should cancel this dinner tonight,” he said. “Patrick would understand.”

“No,” Anna said firmly. “We have to go. We
’re going.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. We need to pick up a bottle of wine on the way.”

MARTY AND JENNY

Everyone talks about these charitable Enclaves. How they
’ll take care of you until you die of natural causes. Change your diapers. Spoon feed you. No thanks. It’s not for me. Jesus this and God that in exchange for a place to stay and three squares a day? Kumbaya while some teenager with spiky hair and a puka shell necklace plays the guitar with his eyes closed? Just Peace me Out now. Seriously. Peace me Out now.

Brody James, Age 66, Peace Out Chicago Intake Evaluation, 10/3/2038.

Marty and Jenny fell into a routine. She came over with dinner on Wednesday nights and stayed the evening. Her hours were fulfilled in a month. Marty half wondered if she would stop coming. But she didn’t. He taught her how to play poker and they used jellybeans as chips. Jenny got pretty good at it. She shared her boy troubles. Her excitement over being admitted to a dozen great colleges. Her relief to learn that her father did have a college fund for her and she could go to Yale with minimal loans. Now the problem was her major. She really had no idea what to study. She loved the arts and music, but her parents were so practical. Their money wasn’t going to pay for a degree in Theatre.

Marty did a lot of listening. He figured Jenny just needed someone to talk to, someone without an agenda for her future.

One night Jenny brought over some brochures. “Marty,” she said. “Let’s talk about an Enclave.”

“No thanks,” he said.

“I’m leaving for college soon,” she said. “I’m worried about you.”

“I was just fine before you started visiting. I
’ll be just fine after you go.”

“Come on, Marty,” she said. “Let
’s just look at them.”

“I looked after Diana Peaced Out. Did you know there are way more women in Enclaves than men? We are a sought after commodity, you know. Do you think I want a bunch of harridans hounding me for the rest of my life? No thanks.”

“You could at least give it a try,” she said. “There’s one in here with a full sports bar. They show all the games, huge screens. Beer. Wings. Lots of old guys in Falcons’ gear?”

“Old guys?”

“Look at the picture,” Jenny said, handing him a brochure.

The sports bar did look sporty, Marty thought. “I have frozen wings,” he said.

“Fresh is better. You know it is,” Jenny said.

“Is there one with no social activities? One with no bingo nights, dances or theme parties?”

“Sorry, Marty,” she said. “I think they all do. But you don’t have to go to any of them. You could come out for meals and football games and spend the rest of your time holed up in your room, all alone.”

“How is that different than what I have now?”

“Well, maybe you’ll make a friend. Maybe there is another old guy who loves the Falcons and you could talk with him about football instead of chatting with a teenager on the computer.”

“Ja
son16 is my friend,” Marty said defensively.

“Think about Diana. What would she have wanted for you? Would she have wanted you to spend the rest of your life alone, eating frozen meals?”

Marty didn’t answer at first. “Well, it’s her fault,” he finally said. “She is the one who left me like this.”

“I don
’t understand,” Jenny said.

“Diana chose to Peace Out,” he said roughly. “She didn
’t have to. She wasn’t terminal. She wanted me to Peace Out with her. But I refused and she did it without me. I held her in my arms while they put the needle in. While they lowered the mask onto her face. And the whole time I thought to myself, you are such a coward Marty. You are scared shitless of dying. That’s why you don’t have the guts to do it with her.”

“Oh, Marty,” Jenny said, tearing up. “I
’m so sorry.”

“I promised her I would join an Enclave,” he said. “She begged me to promise her that. So she wouldn
’t have to worry about me. But then I didn’t. I looked at all those brochures you have there. All those happy white haired folk eating at long tables, playing golf, taking salsa lessons. And I knew I could never be one of them.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t deserve to be,” he said, voice breaking. “I drove my son away long before he died. I nearly drove my wife away. When she decided to stay with me, I thought that we had healed whatever was between us. And the one thing she wanted in the end was to Peace Out together. I was too chicken shit to do it. I couldn’t give her that.”

“She had no right to ask for your life,” Jenny said. “It
’s your life, not hers.”

“It was our life,” Marty said. “We were in it together.”

“She made the choice to leave,” Jenny insisted. “You couldn’t stop her and you had no obligation to go with her. You need to stop punishing yourself.”

“I
’m not punishing myself,” he said. “I’m not good with people. You know that.”

“They just have to get to know you a little. You never let anybody do that. Listen, will you come with me to the Marietta Enclave? I
’ll do the tour with you. If I see any harridans eyeing you, I’ll tell them you lost all your male parts in an unfortunate climbing accident.”

“Jenny!”

“What? The brochures are pretty clear on why they want men. I bet some of those old guys love it.”

SAMMY AND BECCA

There is all this hullabaloo over Peace Out, but there is really nothing to worry about. Peace Out underestimates that fact that at heart, we are animals. Animals with a basic instinct to survive. To live. Sure, they
’ll get the terminally ill and people in comas, but this whole Pledge 70 thing? What sane person would voluntarily choose to end their life over some nebulous claims about the carrying capacity of the earth? This is just a new fad. It’s gonna go under in a year or two.

Mainline with Morris Pendergast, ABC, 5/27/2028.

Homeschooling really wasn’t so bad, Becca thought. The school part was way better than regular school. Mom never lectured them. She just gave the assignments, answered any questions and checked over their work when they were ready. Daddy bought them both tablets so they could keep track of everything. After watching them tap at the keyboard with two fingers he downloaded a typing game. The twins were at fifty words a minute in no time.

They completed the sixth grade curriculum in three months and were already a third of the way through seventh grade in everything but math. They had scorched through Algebra in two weeks and Geometry in a month. Mom had just started them on Algebra II. Becca heard her telling Daddy that she might need to find them a tutor for math beyond that because Mom really didn
’t remember much.

They usually finished with school by lunch. Mom enrolled them in a club soccer league for their physical education requirement. The twins picked it up quickly and were both forwards. Daddy set up a goal in the backyard so they could practice. Most afternoons were spent outside. They still had Girl Scouts. It was their one time a week to see Christy. She kept them up to date on what was happening in school, including how Levi Mazzo was her boyfriend now and how everyone who did PO Ed had to write an essay about it for Mr. Eggers (who was not fired, much to the twins
’ relief). The best essay from district got entered in the state level competition where the prize was a $10,000 scholarship. The national prize was $100,000. Christy asked her mother if it was OK to write a positive essay to try for the scholarship. Her mom said that a lawyer always writes to her audience, so of course she should write whatever she thought would win her that money. Mr. Eggers had picked Christy’s essay as the winner for class and now she was waiting for the results from district.

On rainy days Mom would put on a movie for them to watch with Grandma. Or they would read. Daddy gave them a monthly budget for books. Sammy used up her budget at the crystal library, but Becca hated the thought of books that disappeared after twenty days. She much preferred paper ones, even though that meant her budget didn
’t go as far.

Mom was also teaching them how to cook. The twins now made dinner on Thursdays. They got to pick the recipe and do the shopping. At first Mom was very hands on, but now she only helped when there was a new technique to learn, like how to use the broiler or whip egg whites into stiff peaks.

Becca entered the final answer on her problem set. “I’m done,” Becca said. “Mom?”

Mom was on the phone, talking to Mrs. Whiting. She raised one hand for silence. Mom and Daddy had hired Christy
’s mom to be their lawyer. Sammy and Becca knew they were suing about PO Ed, but didn’t understand why because Sammy was the one who forged the forms.

“Just a minute, Elaine,” Mom said. “Becca, you may be excused.” Mom went back to her call and Becca went up to her room to read. Sammy came in ten minutes later.

“Mom’s still on the phone,” she said, shutting the door. “Hey Becca?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you remember Andrew?”

Becca put down her book. The twins hadn
’t really talked about him since Mom told them how he died. “A little,” she said. “I remember visiting him in the hospital a lot.”

“I remember him at our birthday party when we turned three. Remember he built us that dollhouse?”

“Oh yeah,” Becca said, “I remember that dollhouse. He made everything out of cardboard and we messed it up when we tried to give the dolls a bath in the tub!”

“I cried so hard about it and Andrew just dried everything off and made us a new bathtub.”

“He was a good big brother,” Becca said. “He was always nice to us.”

“He was,” Sammy agreed.

“Girls!” Mom called up the stairs. “I’m going to put a movie on for Grandma if you want to come down.”

“Want to?” Becca asked.

“No, I’m going to read.”

“I
’m coming,” Becca shouted out the door. “Sammy is going to read up here.”

“I
’m making popcorn,” Mom shouted back.

“I guess I can read downstairs,” Sammy said.

The girls settled in on the couch, Becca in the middle with Grandma and Sammy on either side of her. Sammy put her feet up on the coffee table and focused on her tablet, getting a handful popcorn from the big bowl in Becca’s lap. Grandma was drinking tea and nibbling a cookie.

“Are there any cookies left, Grandma?” Becca asked.

Grandma nodded. Becca dashed into the kitchen to grab some. She handed one to Sammy, whose eyes never left her tablet.

“What are we watching?” Becca asked as the movie started. “Oh, Mom told me this one was one of your favorites when you were a little girl.”

Grandma nodded.

Mom came in and sat in the armchair. She had her own bowl of popcorn. “Grandma thinks this is the greatest love story of all time.”

“WALL•E and Eve?” Sammy looked up from her tablet. “Two robots? Why?”

“Actually, I don
’t know,” Mom said.

“Their love never has to end,” Grandma said, taking a sip of tea.