Chapter 59: Carol's Dream of Dying for Her Lord

Friday, April 15, 2005 (Continued)

After the dishes were cleared away and loaded into the dishwasher (I hope our mansion will have one of those!) Mom said, "I'm taking Mark to get his cast removed later. I don't know how long that'll take so let's have our little meeting now, over coffee in the living room maybe?"

Vanessa agreed and started making it.

Carol returned looking happy, and Vanessa told her, "I've left your plate in the microwave, dear. In case you were hungry and wanted to finish it. You missed dessert, but it was only ice cream and fruit, both of which are in the fridge so help yourself."

Mom said to Donna, "I'm sorry, but this meeting is private. Parents, Mark, Carol and Julia only. I have to exclude you and The Boys. It's not about sex generally, but about personal matters. I hope you won't take offense?"

"Nah. That's cool. I'll hang out with The Boys."

Robert said, "We don't have many DVDs that'll appeal to Donna. Why don't we take her out to buy half a dozen that she'd like and can watch whenever she's over here?"

Donna thought that was an excellent idea. It's not often, if ever, that any of the Anderson kids gets granted carte blanche. I hoped that one day my family would have enough money to be so casual about spending it.

We sat down for coffee and conversation, and I was informed that there weren't many items on the agenda. The parents wanted to discuss what to do about the possibility of Carol developing the same special abilities as me, especially as she was about the age I'd first started changing. By extension, that issue included Donna and any children I might have with a sister or two.

The "flying stuff around" ability had particularly captured everyone's attention. The rest of my abilities, that they knew about, were human capabilities, but "flying stuff" was not.

Mom asked, "What was the first sign that you were becoming more capable?"

I replied, "When I started getting smarter," because "When I had another mind in my head" wouldn't have been a good answer, even if more accurate.

Mom asked Carol, "Have you noticed yourself becoming smarter?"

"No, and I don't want to either. Mark is the Lord. I want to serve him, not be equal to him, and I'd serve him anyway because he's so nice and loving."

She was told to let them know if she got smarter though, and reluctantly agreed.

The meeting wasn't as difficult as you might expect. There wasn't anything that I could say, so I essentially said nothing. That didn't leave them much to work with.

Everyone knew that my abilities had come suddenly at the end of 2003, but they wanted to know about the cause, asking quite a few questions about it. Of course I told them that I had no clue.

I was asked whether I'd knocked my head, fallen off my bike, or any other such traumatic event that might have initiated it. I told the truth for once, saying, "I can't remember any such incident."

"You weren't electrocuted, drank any unusual chemicals, anything like that?"

"No."

I wasn't asked whether I'd rescued any aliens and been given a reality-altering device as payment, been mysteriously radiated by an exploding laboratory machine, or found any magical Egyptian artifacts, genie lamps or spell books. I guess those possibilities were just too implausible. [[Sorry, I just couldn't resist poking a little fun at the usual mechanisms of stories about people who gain special powers.]]

The genetic possibility was the only one that had any credibility. This was the hypothesis I wanted to support as it justified my having Carol and - although I felt no real desire for her - Donna too, in the unlikely event that things worked out that way.

Genetically speaking, if I had 'it' - whatever 'it' was - so might Carol and/or Donna. Or might not. Or maybe they had it as recessives. Our children might, or might not, have it, or even a double dose of it. You get the idea: every outcome was possible.

Prof said, "If the mutation occurred in Mark, then the girls won't have it. But if the mutation occurred in Felicity or Steven, then any or all of the Anderson children might have it. It could be as simple as a 50/50 chance although that seems unlikely to me given the range of improvements Mark is expressing, or more complex if several genes are involved. The only thing we know for sure is that Mark has it. If he has children, and I hope he does, then there's a reasonable chance it'll pass on. It's worth noting that the mutation might be on the Y-chromosome, in which case only male children could inherit it. So please have several male children Mark, and that's not a joke!"

We kicked that around some more, and everyone agreed that theoretically I should get Carol pregnant and have several male children with her. I got the impression that Prof, Vanessa and Carol would like that to happen sooner rather than later. Mom and Dad weren't so eager.

Prof raised a couple of issues that I hadn't thought about. First the idea of having my genes examined to see if a reason for my abilities could be determined. It was hardly surprising that I hadn't thought of that. No one liked that idea because we'd have to tell the scientists far too much information about me to get them motivated to make the necessary effort. Maybe in a few decades gene mapping would be more routine, much easier and more thorough, but it wasn't a workable approach yet.

Prof's second point was one that I agreed with: that it'd be a great pity if I got hit by a bus tomorrow. He suggested that they 'bank' samples of my body, especially sperm samples, for future use or study. Prof suggested doing the same for all five members of the Anderson family, as we didn't know who had the mutated gene(s). Prof already had details on two facilities that could take our samples (of course he did). "Two for redundancy," he said. Prof smiled when he pointed out that I wouldn't have any use for my sperm for the next week or two. His quip was almost amusing, but not quite.

I had no trouble with agreeing to provide samples, "Especially if Carol and Julia are allowed to help collect them." I knew the samples would be worthless so I did feel a little guilty about my deception wasting money. Hopefully I'd be able to pay it back from my roulette winnings.

There was some discussion about legal ownership and control of the samples. Prof was happy to pay the sample taking and storage costs, which raised the issue about whether he and Vanessa would have any control over them. Vanessa had plenty to say on the topic as it was a commonly discussed ethical issue, albeit with an unusual twist this time. Another consideration was whether the children would gain control when we turned eighteen. I attempted to defuse my part of that debate by saying, "I couldn't care less. If I'm alive I won't need the samples, if I'm dead you're welcome to them."

Vanessa pointed out several flaws in my lack of thinking, but I still couldn't take any of her scenarios seriously, such as Julia and I breaking up acrimoniously, her using my sperm sample to get herself pregnant, and then hitting me up for support payments.

Carol echoed my lack of concern, and we expected Donna to be even less concerned. Taking egg samples from the girls was agreed, and the word "menarche" was even mentioned. I was quite proud of myself for knowing what it meant. Silly really. I felt even sillier when I learned that everyone except me knew that Donna already had eggs in her body. That seemed wrong to me because she hadn't reached menarche yet. I wasn't going to ask for an explanation though.

We resolved that the samples would all be controlled by Mom and Dad, then would pass to each child if both parents died, then to Prof and Vanessa if we all died, then to Julia and The Boys. Everyone agreed to update their wills appropriately. Carol and I agreed to get wills.

Vanessa raised the issue of my having babies with Donna. Logically it was inescapably a good idea. Because it'd taken fourteen years for my abilities to manifest we couldn't just get Carol to pop out a baby, then say, "Yep, it's got the abilities. No need for your womb then, Donna." Conceivably (if you'll excuse the pun), Carol might not have the mutation but Donna might, including as a recessive. Possibly the only way to produce more people with my abilities could be babies from Donna and me.

In the ensuing discussion, I dropped in a few comments: "I've never thought of Donna that way", "She's still a girl", "Yes I know I love one sister, but Donna is the baby of the family so I don't think of her that way."

Mom asked, "Carol, what do you think of the idea of Donna and Mark having children?"

Carol said, "I've never thought about it before. My first reaction is that Donna certainly loves Mark, but whether she loves him that way I don't know. If she does, and Mark wants to, then it sounds like an excellent idea. More little Marks running around sounds like fun. Or maybe they'd fly around." That created an image that resounded in everyone's mind!

Mom enjoyed pulling Dad's leg with a comment about my kids making good livings as professional basketball players.

I was impressed Carol had thought of flying babies. I guess her imagination was less constrained than mine, as I was VERY aware of my 10.5 pound restriction as EVERY TK action I took was a major exercise in weight management.

[I later asked Carol how come she'd thought of floating children. She laughed and asked me, "Do you know how many times I've watched Peter Pan movies?"]

When Mom got the floor again, she said to Carol, "When I asked you what you thought about it, I was actually meaning whether you'd get jealous if he and Donna had babies?"

Carol, bless her, said, "Heavens no! He can have babies with whomever he wants; he's our Lord! With Donna would be very cool though. I'd like that. I'm EXTREMELY happy that he's going to give me babies, and maybe I'm a little overly proud that I'm his first choice, but that's all. I'd never be jealous. That's not serving him, that's serving me; even I know that!"

Julia took Carol's hand and said, "VERY good girl!"

Carol smiled happily, and told her, "Thanks, but it's obvious. I worked it out back when you first mentioned getting lots more girls for him."

"WHAT!" from Mom.

#4: <This should be interesting.>

As a result of Mom's abrupt exclamation, Carol turned to face Mom. Mom immediately expanded on her previous 'comment', "What's this about Mark getting lots more girls?"

"Julia and I are going to be getting him some," answered Carol unhelpfully, in a normal tone of voice.

Julia took a breath to speak, but I proximity sensed Carol surreptitiously giving Julia's hand a quick squeeze (they were sitting on my lap). Julia relaxed, saying nothing.

After a moment's silence Mom tried again, "Why on Earth would you do that?"

"So he can play with them, of course. What else would he do with lots of girls?"

Carol was talking in a perfectly ordinary tone of voice, as if they were discussing the weather. That meant she was teasing Mom. I was impressed she'd gained that much self-confidence.

Mom was a little confused, so she asked, "When you say 'play', exactly what do you mean?"

Carol said, "Oh, I'm sorry, Mom. Didn't I explain myself very well?" Mom's body language made it clear that, no, Carol had not explained herself very well at all.

^-- So Carol did explain, "So he can screw them. One at a time, or in groups, with or without Julia or me. Whatever sexual activities he wants. It's all up to him."

#4: <I think Carol's very good at explaining things, isn't she?>