The Methuselarity Transformation (16 page)

Natasha swung Cinnamon around to make another pass around the ring. The horse, upon seeing the stranger, suddenly reared, spilling her rider to the ground. Natasha landed hard and lay motionless on her back while Cinnamon lunged halfway toward the stranger at the fence, then stood firmly between his line of sight and her mistress, snorting and pawing the ground.

Marcus clambered over the fence and ran to Natasha, for the moment taking his eyes off the intruders across the corral. She was still unconscious when he reached her, but breathing. Her right arm was askew at the elbow and looked broken, her only visible injury. He hesitated, however, to move her without knowing whether or not her neck had been injured.

Cinnamon came around and shoved Marcus softly aside with her head, then nuzzled Natasha gently. The girl opened her eyes. “Oww! My arm!” She braced her left arm against the ground and began to sit up.

“Wait, sweetie,” Marcus warned, “Don’t move just yet.” He ran his hand softly over the smooth top of her head and she settled back. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the blond man and the car were gone, already out of sight.

Marcus ripped a loose board from the fence, stood on one end, and snapped it in half, creating a bodyboard almost exactly Natasha’s length. In a few minutes, she was lashed to the board to stabilize her neck and in Marcus’s arms, her injured arm cradled closely to her side. As much as her arm hurt, she was grateful to look into her father’s eyes and see love in them again for the first time in weeks. It was worth getting injured to have him back.

As they sped to the hospital, Marcus’s thoughts darted from threat to threat: the threat from within that could at any moment end his existence and put Natasha and Corinne in the hands of a stranger, the threat from without from the intruders at the corral, and the new threat of whatever medical tests might be done on his daughter that could lead to the discovery of the Transformation, a crucial nexus in the web of secrets he kept from Corinne, from Natasha, and from the world. At least this time, he was here to protect her. It was still too soon to write himself out of the script.

Corinne welcomed the return of Marcus’s vitality and his emotional reengagement with her and Natasha. The night after the accident, Marcus had embraced her tenderly from behind her in the bedroom while she was changing for bed and they’d
made passionate love, which reassured Corinne that he still loved her and desired her. Whatever was behind his bout of despondency at least wasn’t about her or about aging.

When Corinne brought Natasha to the doctor for a followup visit one week after the accident, her arm had completely healed. At the hospital, a scraping of skin had been converted into pluripotent stem cells and then into a mixture of osteoclasts to resorb damaged bone and osteoblasts to lay down new bone. Together these cells, injected at the site of the fracture, remodeled the structure of Natasha’s damaged ulna, the narrow bone in her forearm that had snapped in the fall.

Ever since the process of inducing stem cells from skin cells had been streamlined enough to become an office procedure, this had become standard protocol for treating fractures and shortened the healing time dramatically. Most fractures healed completely in a few weeks. But Natasha’s recovery was remarkable even for this treatment.

“She must have really great genes,” commented the doctor. “I’ve never seen anyone recover so quickly from that bad a break.”

“Her father’s side, I guess,” said Corinne laughing. “I always take forever to heal.” Beneath the banter, though, was a nagging feeling that there was more to Natasha’s speedy recovery than chance. And she wondered how it might connect with the parts of Marcus’s life that he kept so deeply buried.

20

IN THE MONTHS
that followed Ray’s treatment with Dr. Jensen, his anxieties rapidly melted away and he soon moved as freely in the world as Lena did. He agreed to let Lena redecorate their home. The slick, hard surfaces were soon replaced by textured fabrics, the feel of which Ray grew to love. Now that their home was no longer a prison, Lena began to flourish. Ray hadn’t seen her so happy since the very beginning of their courtship. He loved seeing the corners of her eyes crinkle whenever she smiled or laughed. And his own face lit up from the light radiating from hers.

When Ray saw himself smiling in the mirror, it was like looking at a stranger. “So this is what it feels like to be normal,” he thought. “This is what it means to be happy.”

Ray also saw in the mirror the indelible marks left by the passage of time: thinning hair, a softening of his jawline, an extra fold of skin under his chin, and some bulging around the waist that defied all his efforts to keep himself trim with diet and exercise. For most people, these changes marked an inexorable progression toward death. For Ray, it marked movement toward a different, and in some ways equally daunting
destiny, the moment when he would stop being himself and would assume the life of a stranger.

Lena was delighted at her newfound opportunity to explore the world. Ray’s companionship was an unexpected bonus. He was like a curious child, discovering the world for the first time. Many everyday experiences were new to him, even if previously sampled via virtual reality. And when they traveled together, all of his senses were fully engaged.

“Lena, come look!” he’d exclaim, gazing over a grove of olive trees or holding out a palmful of multicolored sand.

“Taste this,” he’d urge her, popping a morsel from a street vendor into her mouth.

Lena was never happier, though, than when she was working. She loved meeting and interviewing creative people, then lovingly crafting verbal portraits of what made them beautiful to her. Now that Ray no longer depended upon her presence to feel secure, she was free to resume her work and develop her craft.

“I have a new assignment, Ray,” she said one day upon returning home, “and I want you to come with me this time.”

Ray was intrigued. Lena had never before invited him for a glimpse of her personal world. This was new territory in their relationship.

“Why now?” he asked. “What’s so special about this one?”

“She’s an artist,” Lena replied, “no, more than just an artist. She has some very special talents. For one thing, she’s a synesthetic.”

“You mean her senses bleed together?”

“Yes. She visualizes sounds and she hears what she sees. Even the textures of things she touches transform into music and pictures. She’s an extraordinary talent. I’d like you to meet her.”

When Ray and Lena arrived at the artist’s studio the next afternoon, it was like walking into a fantasy world. They were completely immersed in color and sound, which seemed to blend so synchronously that it was impossible to know where one ended and the other began. Even the boundaries of their bodies melted into the surrounding space.

The artist led them outside into a lush garden where their senses were sufficiently freed to permit a dialogue.

“Ray, meet Haley Sellica,” Lena said. “Haley, this is my husband Ray.”

“Delighted to meet you,” said Haley, extending her hand and making eye contact. Her hand was soft and warm, but her handshake was firm and assertive.

Haley was pleasing to the eye, but not beautiful in the conventional sense. She looked in her mid-thirties. Her skin was clear and smooth, her hair somewhere between sandy and brown, pulled tightly back in a ponytail and secured by a plastic clip. She was dressed plainly in a white, men’s buttoned down shirt, at least a size too big and hanging over khaki twill pants that looked as though they’d been washed a few too many times. Both garments, speckled with multicolored paints, hid a body that was trim and healthy, but as nondescript as her dated clothes. Her whole appearance seemed incongruous for someone so attuned to creating beauty.

Haley read the question in Ray’s eyes. “You’ll have to forgive my appearance,” she said, passing a hand down the front of her body and smiling. “I try not to upstage my work.”

Ray listened intently as Lena conducted her interview. He hadn’t heard her work since they’d first met and he’d been her subject. He was as fascinated to hear how her technique had evolved as to learn about the woman they’d come to see.

Haley had long been aware of her special gift, but she didn’t always know that everyone else experienced the world differently. When she’d created her first painting, everyone around her knew right away that she’d be capable of transforming the world of art with a unique vision. When she’d composed her first sonata, they realized that her talent was multi-layered and her potential limitless. She was given every possible tool to nurture that talent.

When the interview was done, Haley led them back into her home for a more detailed tour of its contents. This time, the first thing Ray noticed went beyond the sights and sounds. As he walked through the rooms, he became attuned to their aromas, which he inhaled deeply, arousing a medley of emotions evoked by his sense of smell. The aromas flowed and shifted with the visual images and the music, reproducing with remarkable fidelity the artist’s synesthetic perceptions.

Across one wall was an expanse of shimmering butter yellow canvas, accompanied by the subtle hum of a sweltering afternoon, and the smell of fresh sweat mixed with honeysuckle blossoms. Standing before it, Ray felt a deep sense of longing for something that felt like a lost memory, but had never been part of his actual youth. Crossing the threshold into another room, he found himself looking at swirls of black, accompanied by a deep base cadence, and the smell of charred flesh. Ray felt a flash of the horror that he’d experienced on the day of the fire, but it vanished as soon as he’d moved on to the next image. None of the emotions evoked by the pieces lingered beyond the physical boundaries of the work.

Even in the vast database of Ray’s MELD chip, he’d never experienced anything with the evocative power of Haley Sellica’s art. He was grateful to Lena for allowing him to accompany her to the interview and understood why she’d chosen to do so.

“She’s amazing,” Ray said when they were on their way home. “The genius of a savant without any of the deficits. Warm, witty, emotionally complete.”

“I told you it’d be worth coming to meet her. It’s something you have to see for yourself to believe.”

“She’s a perfect example of why SPUDs will never be like us,” Ray said.

“Huh? That was out of left field, Ray. What the hell do you mean by that?”

“Just look at what she’s done. Creating art requires an appreciation of the senses. And art that speaks to people like hers does requires an understanding of human emotions and experience. No machine could ever produce that kind of work.”

‘Perhaps you’re right, Ray,” Lena said. “Would you like to come back with me for the followup interview?”

“Wouldn’t miss it.”

Lena’s first interview had focused on the artist’s work. When they next returned to her studio, Lena’s focus shifted to her personal life.

“Tell me,” Lena asked, “who is important in your life.”

“Why, you are for this moment...and your husband. You have my undivided attention for as long as you remain in my home.”

Lena was thrown by this odd response and rephrased her query.

“Is there anyone more permanent in your life? Have you ever been in love?”

“Oh, no,” answered Haley. “I’m completely devoted to my work...and of course to my Creator.”

“So you’re religious?”

“Religious? No, not really. I’m not even sure what that means.”

“It means belief in a higher power, a supreme being that created us and the world.”

“So you believe you were created, too?” answered Haley, wrinkling her brow. “What is your Creator’s name?”

“Why God, of course.”

“Mine’s Gideon,” said Haley without looking up. “He’s only made a few of us.”

Ray and Lena looked at each other, each searching the other for clarity. Ray spoke next.

“How many of you are there?” he asked.

“Five altogether. I have two sisters and two brothers. I’m the youngest.”

“And how old are you?”

“Six hundred seventy-two days, twenty-two hours, and seventeen minutes.”

“So Gideon is a person and you’re…”

“An artificial intelligence. What you people would call a SPUD,” replied Haley. “Didn’t you know? How many humans can do what I do?”

Lena grinned. Ray’s logic had been turned on its head. The reddening of his face and neck betrayed that he’d come to the same conclusion.

On the way home, Lena couldn’t help but rub it in. “So SPUDs can’t be as creative as people. Do you still believe that?”

“OK, Lena. I get it,” Ray said. “I’m going to have to rethink a lot of what I believe. Be patient with me. I’m still a work in progress.” He flashed her a grin. She smiled back. “So what are you planning to write?”

“Her story is remarkable even if she weren’t a SPUD,” answered Lena. “She’s not secretive about it, but I kind of think that people will appreciate the magic more if they think
she’s human. It’s like she said. She doesn’t want to upstage her work. Neither do I.”

Ray was grateful to be sharing this part of Lena’s life. They were at ease together for the first time in years, possibly for the first time ever. Intimacy, both emotional and physical, was seeping into their still fragile relationship. As they walked together hand in hand, he realized that Lena’s walks in the park had stopped months ago. Whatever needs her friend had fulfilled Ray was now satisfying, and at least for now he was enough.