The Baby - a short story Read online

  Ellie snatched him up and clutched him hungrily. She sat with him in the rocker, rocking and crooning. "There, there, baby. Ellie's here, Daniel, sweetheart. Ellie's here. It'll all be all right soon."

  She got up again, closed the bedroom door, sat back down. "Greg wasn't such a good friend, was he? Greg tried to make us stay with him, Greg wanted Daniel and Ellie all for himself. Shhh, darling. We'll wait, just a little while, and then we'll get away."

  The baby's eyes drifted closed. He would be asleep again soon. "It's all right, baby. Go to sleep. Ellie will take care of you. It'll all be all right."

  Daniel was sleeping. Ellie rocked and whispered. "We'll go away, you and me, Ellie and Daniel, just the two of us. The two of us, always, just the way it was meant to be."

  The End

 

  To learn more about the author and her work,

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  Read on for a preview of Wyle's near-future novel Division.

  Cloning technology gives conjoined twins Gordon and Johnny new choices --

  But who gets to choose?

  Prologue

  Time: soon

  Ellen walked softly up to the boys’ bedroom door and put her hand on the knob. She really should break the habit of peeking in on them. You peeked in on babies, and the boys’ third birthday cake had already gone stale. But there was something so soothing about watching your children sleep, and knowing you had met all their needs for one more day.

  She turned the knob and opened the door, a little at a time. It opened silently: her husband Frank, both indulgent and practical, had oiled the hinges.

  There they lay, the night-light’s glow just enough for her to see them, in the “big boy” bed that Ellen had purchased the year before. Both Gordon and Johnny had been pleased—and in Johnny’s case, rather smug—to graduate from a toddler bed before any of their peers. Their broad torso had made the change a necessity.

  A movement caught her eye from the near side of the bed. Johnny’s head had turned; he was awake, and looking at her. She tiptoed toward him, her finger to her lips, then knelt down next to the bed and whispered as quietly as she could: “Lie still, sweetie. You don’t want to wake your brother.”

  Johnny yawned. “I was just thinking. About the puppy.”

  Ellen suppressed a sigh. The neighbor’s puppy had got out and encountered a car, a cheap one with the minimum required programming. Apparently the puppy had been too small to trigger the system’s evasive response.

  “The puppy died.”

  She could hardly deny it. “Yes, sweetheart. It did.”

  Would he ask about her own mortality? She had not yet found a satisfactory way to respond to such questions.

  “Will Gordon die some day?”

  Ellen tried to beat back something like panic. “Johnny, darling, please go back to sleep.”

  “Will I die when Gordon dies?”

  He was so smart. She could almost wish otherwise. Sharing several vital organs as the boys did, sharing a bloodstream, the death of one brother would surely doom the other.

  “Hush, baby. You and Gordon will live and be well for many, many years.”

  And now, a voice from the other side of the bed. She had not realized Gordon had awakened. “And we’ll always be together.” Gordon’s face bore the sweetest, sleepiest smile.

  She stood up, leaned over, and kissed first Gordon’s cheek, then Johnny’s. “Yes, darling. Of course. Now, both of you, back to sleep.”

  “G’NIGHT, MOMMY . . . .” The boys mumbled together, their two voices indistinguishable.

  “Good night.” She watched their eyes close, backed out of the room, and silently closed the door.

  Chapter One

  Gordon opened his eyes and stretched their right arm. He moved slowly and carefully, so as not to wake his brother. Gordon usually awoke first, but allowed Johnny an extra few minutes of sleep.

  Relaxing against the mattress, he thought with pleasurable anticipation about the recital, running through the Romance in his mind. He could not help but echo some of the motions he would make with the bow, and Johnny mumbled a protest.

  “Time to get up already?” Johnny pushed them up onto their left elbow and looked around blearily. Then his head jerked over toward Gordon’s. “Hey, isn’t it Saturday? What time is it, anyhow?”

  “Time to get up, is what! We leave for the recital in ninety minutes, and we’re going to practice one more time.”

  Johnny flopped them back down on the bed. “Damn.”

  “It’s only one recital every six months. If I weren’t being nice to you, it’d be once every two.”

  Johnny growled deep in his throat. “The hell it would. Anyway, we’ve practiced enough. Let’s sleep another half an hour.”

  Gordon tensed the diaphragm muscles on his side and tried to jerk them into sitting position. He met some resistance greater than their combined weight: Johnny must be hanging onto the bed frame on his side, holding them in place.

  Getting frustrated would do no good, and he would not spoil the morning by losing his temper. “Come on. This is silly.” He cast about for an inducement. “When we get home, we can watch that extreme sports show you like.” He suppressed a shudder. “For an hour!”

  No response.

  “You let go right now!” He tugged upward, hard, even though it hurt, and was both glad and sorry to hear Johnny grunt in pain. But he could not tug hard enough to break Johnny’s grip.

  “I’ll call Mom! She’ll smack you!” It might happen. On the rare occasions when the boys were not partners in crime, there were few methods of discipline that affected only one of them, and Mom sometimes resorted to an old-fashioned approach. She knew all the spots that only one boy or the other would feel.

  As if he had already called their mother, Gordon heard footsteps and then a knock on the door. Johnny’s head swiveled toward the door, and he looked alarmed for a moment; then he relaxed. “That’s not Mom.”

  The knock was softer than Mom’s impatient rap would have been, and it came from lower on the door. Gordon relaxed as well. “It’s Dodi!” She must have popped over from down the street to check up on them. Dodi would have Johnny seeing reason soon enough. He called out to her. “Come on in!”

  The door cracked open. “Are you decent? Can I come in?”

  Gordon snorted. “We’re so decent we aren’t even out of bed yet! Come help me get this bum moving!”

  Dodi’s round face and wavy dark hair emerged through the partly opened door. Apparently reassured that her friends were not unduly exposed, she came in and stood at the foot of the bed. She wore a frilly pink dress instead of her usual jeans. Dodi always dressed up for the boys’ recitals. “Why aren’t you up?”

  Gordon glared at Johnny. “Tell her why we aren’t up yet, won’t you?” He tugged again and fell forward, stubbing his nose on the mattress. Johnny must have let go, or even shoved upward at just the moment Gordon started pulling.

  Gordon pushed their torso back up to a sitting position and turned his head toward Johnny’s, clenching their right fist. Dodi scurried forward to Gordon’s side of the bed, grabbed the hand, and unfolded it. “Oh, Gordon, don’t let him rile you. And Johnny, stop teasing!” She reached out to take their other hand; Johnny obliged, and Dodi, with obvious effort, pulled them out of bed.

  She had always been short, but the boys had not always been tall. Now, at eleven, they were shooting up. It was strange to be looking that far down at their friend. Dodi looked back up at them, her eyes wide with curiosity. “What’s going on?”

  Johnny shrugged their left shoulder. “It doesn’t matter. Pick us out something to wear?”

  Dodi cocked her head to one side. “Didn’t your mother do that, last night?”

  Gordon shook his head. “She says we have to start making those decisions for ourselves.”

  Johnny made a face. “Something else for us to fight about. O
h, goody.”

  Dodi sighed. “Well, if you both want me to choose something . . .” She looked at each of them for any opposition, and finding none, moved to their closet. “Oh, good! You have a new blue shirt. You look so good in blue. It brings out your eyes. But look at your suit jacket! Gordon, what were you eating the last time you boys dressed up?”

  Gordon gaped, indignant. “It wasn’t me! Johnny was holding a hot dog and got excited about something, and he waved it around, and mustard went flying off onto my side.”

  Dodi and Gordon both looked toward Johnny, who nodded sheepishly. Dodi got what Gordon thought of as her domestic expression, comically adult and determined. “I’ll get something to clean this up.” She hustled out into the corridor; Gordon could hear her quick steps as she headed for the bathroom.

  The boys extracted their suit pants from the hanger, found a clean undershirt and laid the blue dress shirt on the bed. Dodi reappeared, jacket draped over her arm and dangling toward the floor. She handed it toward Gordon, who dropped it on the bed next to the shirt. Dodi stepped closer and sniffed at their right armpit, wrinkled her forehead for a moment, then smiled. “Ooh, my wittle boys are growing up! You stink like grown men. Do you have time to take a shower?”

  Johnny smirked. “Well, I’d like to be clean for our recital, but this fellow wants to practice instead. Again.”

  “Be nice to your brother! I guess you can manage with deodorant. I’ll get out and let you get dressed.”

  “Just a moment.” Johnny held up their right index finger. “Gordon? Private moment.”

  Gordon obediently held up the other index finger and put it in his left ear. Johnny put the index finger under his control in Gordon’s right ear. Gordon shut his eyes.

  Johnny looked back toward Dodi, a long, lingering look. “I just wanted to tell you—you look really pretty in that dress.”

  Dodi blushed and smiled, then blew him a kiss and backed out the door, still smiling.

  Johnny pulled the finger out of Gordon’s ear. “Let’s get dressed—fast!” With luck, Gordon would be pleased enough at his cooperation not to get too curious about what Johnny and Dodi might just have shared.

  The boys washed up, applied the recommended deodorant, and scrambled into their clothes with impressive efficiency. Gordon was as pleased as Johnny had hoped, and rewarded him by agreeing to have breakfast before they practiced. Dodi joined them, their mother beaming at the three of them as she flipped pancakes and poured juice.

  Then Dodi sat quietly in the living room while the boys played. When they were done, she walked with them to the car, then headed off to get her bicycle.

  Johnny pouted, though he knew it was unlikely to sway their mother. “I want us to ride our bike too. Why do we have to go in the car?”

  “Because you’d wrinkle your suit. I know that crabby tone of voice. Have the two of you been arguing again?”

  The boys looked at each other for a moment before shaking their heads.

  Gordon and Johnny perched on a black metal folding chair. The student who had just performed came back and sat on Gordon’s side, a sheen of perspiration on her forehead. The boy on Johnny’s side leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Your turn next, Rover.”

  Johnny clenched their left fist. Would anyone notice if he punched the boy in the leg, just inches away? He looked out at the audience. He could see his mother’s blonde head, bent forward as she studied the program. If he moved quickly—but then his mother looked up and smiled at him. Johnny sat back, seething in frustration.

  At their last recital, as the students milled around before heading on stage, the boy had asked the others if they had ever heard of Samuel Johnson. Seeing blank expressions all round, he proceeded to enlighten the group about Johnson’s comments on women preachers. “Johnson said a woman preaching is like a dog on its hind legs. He said what’s surprising is that it can walk like that at all, even though it can’t do it well.” He aimed his greasy, pimply face at Gordon and Johnny. “Right, Rover?”

  Some of the students looked puzzled, and a few of the girls seemed indignant at the insult to female preachers, but Johnny knew just what the little twerp was driving at.

  It was bullshit. He and Gordon were good. Gordon, especially—their teacher Mr. Kohler always praised his bow technique, and Kohler was hard to please. Wasn’t he?

  Johnny didn’t mind playing, exactly. He liked the music itself, and it was fun to make such intense use of a part of the body he controlled entirely, moving the fingers so fast from one position to another. But he’d have more control if they studied singing. He’d be using his own mouth and throat and lungs. And even though he and Gordon shared a diaphragm, he could take a deep breath when he wanted, unless Gordon made a point of interfering. He was good at singing, too. Dodi said so, and she’d promised never to lie to them about anything, ever. But Gordon complained that Johnny sang too loud, that it hurt his left ear.

  Now Gordon was poking him. Kohler had been introducing them while Johnny was lost in thought. It was time to get up and play. As they arose, Johnny turned back to the boy in the next chair. “Watch out. Dogs bite, you know.” He turned away without waiting to see whether the threat had any effect. He would imagine that it had.

  Dodi, sitting between the boys' mother and stepfather, saw Johnny’s exchange with the boy in the next chair and clenched her own fists in angry sympathy. Johnny had told her about “Rover” after the last recital. Gordon had just laughed it off—but he didn’t let things get to him the way Johnny did. And as the more dedicated violinist of the two, Gordon had a better idea of the quality of their performance.

  She did like it when they sang, as Johnny preferred. He had cajoled Gordon into learning some duets, and when Gordon wasn’t in the mood, Johnny would sometime sing on his own, while Gordon assumed his martyr expression.

  What sort of voices would they have as they got older? She’d know soon enough. She just barely remembered her brother’s voice changing, many years ago when she was small. Well, smaller. Small seemed to be a permanent condition. How much taller would the boys get? Would it be difficult, if they ever wanted to . . . well, to kiss or anything?

  Now the boys were standing at center stage, next to the accompanist, and starting to play. She did love Suen Jié’s Romance in F major. Johnny had asked her what they should learn next, when Mr. Kohler let them pick their next selection. Gordon had looked annoyed for a moment, maybe because Johnny had thought of asking her before Gordon had. But Gordon rarely stayed annoyed for long about anything.

  It was funny how you could fill different roles, at different times, with the same person. The boys were like her brothers—playmates, the kind of brothers she’d never had, with her own brother and her sister so much older. But sometimes, like this morning, she felt almost like their mother, cleaning up after them, keeping them out of trouble. Ms. Blake had noticed, of course: she called Dodi her little assistant.

  And Dodi could feel something else coming, another role. Johnny’s compliment about her dress; the way both boys had started to look at her differently; the way she felt sometimes, looking at them . . . .

  The three of them had always assumed, when they were children playing house, that they’d be a family when they grew up. Dodi’s parents had never liked her to say so, and lately they’d been talking up some of the other boys she knew, asking if she ever spent time with this or that male classmate, saying how nice he was. Well, Mom and Dad would just have to deal. If she and Gordon and Johnny—well, whatever ended up happening, it was their business and nobody else’s.

  Ellen had several reasons for steering the family to Kap’s Kitchen after every recital. All of them, to varying degrees, liked the food. She and Frank liked, or could tolerate, the prices. But what Ellen liked most were the booths.

  The booths had nice, high walls, and there were several corner booths, largely enclosed. She could sit with her family in one of those booths and know that the ubiquitous beach-loving tourists would pr
obably make their way to and from their tables without the distracting sight of Ellen’s sons.

  The locals—that was different. Most of them had known Gordon and Johnny for years, and took them pretty much for granted. They might stop to chat, or simply nod in passing. That was fine.

  She glanced at the menu for form’s sake. She knew it by heart, and always had one of her three favorite entrees, unless a daily special tempted her. Frank did the same, with his own set of favorites. Gordon was even less adventurous, ordering the cheese ravioli year in and year out. It had taken him some time to find the item he liked best, but once he had found it, he saw no reason to stray. Johnny, on the other hand, took advantage of the fact that the items were numbered: he usually brought dice in their left pants pocket, and rolled them to pick his meal. He might, however, roll again, if the first result was particularly unfortunate.

  The waiter came by, took their order, smiled benignly and disappeared again. She turned her attention to the boys, who were regaling her with backstage gossip.

  “Denny TOLD EVERYONE THAT he hurt HIS HAND PLAYING softball and that’s why HE MESSED UP, BUT then we HEARD HIM tell Alice that REALLY HE JUST didn’t practice . . . .”

  As usual, the boys drifted in and out of simultaneous speech.

  “And I WANTED TO tell on him, because HE MADE THE REST of us look bad . . . .”

  Gordon was taking the lead, with Johnny fading in and out. Gordon naturally cared more about the success of the recital. Johnny looked as if he were getting bored with the topic. Always sensitive to the demand for equal time, she searched for an appropriate change of subject.

  “Did Mr. Kohler say anything more about the field trip?”

  Johnny perked up. “It’s on! WE GET TO SEE this guy MAKING THE VIOLIN Mr. Kohler is BUYING FROM HIM.” Gordon was beaming as well: this was one of the relatively rare expeditions that interested both boys equally.

  Ellen listened while she temporarily learned more than she had imagined knowing about the construction of violins, until they were interrupted by the arrival of their food. As the waiter set Gordon’s plate, then Johnny’s, in front of the boys, a woman’s head and shoulders appeared behind him: a stranger, an apparent tourist, phone in her hand, with an avid expression. With no wasted motion, the waiter swept his elbow back, catching the woman in the ribs. He turned toward her and bodily herded her away, all the while overflowing with profuse apologies. Ellen raised her napkin to her face to hide her grin. Frank, less reticent, let out a loud guffaw before returning his attention to his food.