literature

OHFE: When Everybody Lives

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  Handy was nervous just like that day when Jackie had told him the breaking news. Right now he was sitting in the hospital corridor, pondering about everything and nothing, as well as Jackie... but there was another thing which left track at least for a long period.
  Handy had seen a creature in the taxi this morning. It hadn't been an alien - everyone in the family was used to them, it was human. A tiny little human, and moreover, Handy's lookalike. Handy had noticed it for a brief moment, and then it was gone. Maybe it had been a nervous sight due to reasons because of which he was in this hospital right now.
  "Handy? Mr. Smith?"
  Handy briskly looked up, meeting the look of the stranger who called him by his name. Nothing special, except one fact: not everyone knew this name. John, John, John - hardly anyone liked "Handy". Maybe because "John Smith" sounded... calm or something. So ordinay, unlike some parents' trials to stand out with the help of children... There was something new.
  The stranger wasn't a beauty. Rectangular face, wide nose, lips of weird patters, and ungainly thin-legged figure. Nothing familiar. Nothing at all. Handy bit his lip and, without totally realizing what he was saying, blabbed out the thing he was most afraid of:
  "She died".
  "No, Handy". The stranger seemed as nervous as him, if not worse.
  "That means the child..."
  "Come along".
  "And who might you be?" Jackie interfered. "I haven't seen you here. And you don't look like a doctor..."
  "For heaven's sake, Mrs. Tyler, are you going to attack me with a gun, like you did to those Daleks?"
  This was highly unpredictable. Whoever knew about it? People tended to forget things due to unknown reasons. All people, not some particular ones. And they had forgotten things that usually stay in the society's memory... in both worlds, because they were connected despite everything. Hardly had Jackie thought of an answer to the stranger who knew too much when he was gone behind the closest ward's doors, having pulled Handy after him.
  Handy, who was over-unsteady now, wasn't looking forward to seeing this, though he had seen things which would have driven normal people mad in a blink. Firstly, the main character of this story - definitely Rose - was safe and sound, though she looked deadly exhausted and was sleeping like a log. Secondly, there was that very Handy's tiny doppelganger on the bed beside her - to say honest, he was on his knees on her pillow before her face which he was carefully wiping with a damp cloth. This very doppelganger looked like a plush toy - too large head, short limbs, very huge brown eyes, but this all made an adorable little scene complete.
  Handy rushed to his wife, but the stranger made him stop.
  "Let me go!" he almost shouted, having recalled that they were not alone here. Right on time. The next words were whispered: "What is this little copy of me doing on my wife's pillow?.. What are you doing here?.. And... who are you that you know it all?.."
  "Handy... may I tell something to you?" The approval followed. "You're not purely human. And you knew this could have made the situation a little complicated... but fortunately everything is fine. Everything got tangled in the best way, and..."
  Handy wasn't going to try and get out of the stranger's iron grip again - he thought that his hand, that very famous hand, would be torn away one more time. Turning pale, he stared first at the stranger, then at the alive doll who had stopped fussing next to Rose's face and blinked at them both. The stranger, having understood that Handy wasn't going to run anywhere, let him go and asked someone invisible - or rather unnoticed:
  "Samantha, it's your turn. Throw this perception filter away for good, it's extra now".
  A key on a chain fell onto the floor - it had been masking a girl of about ten dressed in sporty trousers and a bluish violet blouse. She was clasping a bundle of a fluffy pink blanket to her chest.
  "You must be Handy", she said timidly and beamed. "I think it's time I should leave you..."

  The baby was born not too long ago, but she was smart, very smart. Those particles, those very particles which some genial madmen try to set in particular order, came together this way - one heart, ordinary human blood, but something inconceivable was already going on in the baby girl's head. It's normal to think that babies hardly understand anything... but no.
  The girl who was holding her in her arms smelled strangely. Yes, she did, but this smell was fine, the baby believed her. Then she was given to someone else. This other man was a lot taller, and he was afraid. Why? The baby liked him. And again - why? Not clear. Anyway, why should she know it?.. This man leaned over her, examining her with his look and not believing his eyes to the end, and the baby reached out, touching his cheek. It was cool, but not antagonizing. Soft and smooth. The baby let out a sound like a cat's purring, then got silent.

  "She's asleep..." Handy looked like an archeologist who found a tomb lost for two hundred years - or no, rather like a traveller who discovered a new culture. Or no - he looked a thousand times happier than both. He couldn't tear his eyes off his daughter. "But one thing isn't clear to me... Who are you? You say things that are known to few people, to less than a dozen of them... and you..."
  The stranger smiled back again:
  "You won't believe me, but you all have sense. Even those who are less than a day old... We're here because of her. But that's unimportant. I'm interested in what you're going to name her".
  Handy was perplexed.
  "I don't know. Jackie offered lots of versions... and I don't know. Why am I telling it to you anyway?.."
  "That's all about my face. You know... if you don't mind... I'll tell you a thing. You're beautiful together - Rose and Handy. That is it... Come along, Samantha, come along, Chibiten. Johnny-Jimmy has probably put my sweet up to taking the wrong way.
  No one noticed them leaving. Was that needed? The main thing was that Handy had no doubt about the name which the incredible girl who had just come to this world would get. Rose's approval was the only thing needed... This name was simple and sonorous, though unusual. Like Handy himself, like Rose and Handy together.
What a shame. I have written it quite a while ago, but managed to translate it only now... A small story featuring the family in the parallel Universe, because every story needs a beginning. And the story of Rhodie Smith too (her name is a combination of her parents' names: Rose + Handy => "Rody" => Rhodie. What to say, love playing with words.
© 2013 - 2024 CarryPhoenix
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KunYKA's avatar
cikava rozpovid :)