Meet Anna Cambell
Twenty years ago.
A family. A family of four. Mother-Karen, Father-Steven, Son-Chad, Son-Eric. A young family, living in the whipping cold beauty of northern Vermont. A family that liked salmon.
A week and three days until Christmas. Children are napping, too young for school. A knock at the front door. A pause. A knock at the front door. Karen sits in her room, bent over a work table. A puzzle is scattered before her. A baby moniter is beside her. An aloe plant sits in the sunlight of the window, and a grey cat stares at the the table from the floor.
Gears grind, and tires squeal towards traction on the icey dirt road. The truck finds its pace, and begins laboring back up the hill, a great heavy plume of brown-grey smoke discharging from the roof's exhaust.
Karen rises from her tall stool, and leans over to the window, seeing the spread of dark gases float in the wind. She catches the yellow marker of UPS' as the truck turns out of sight. Still holding the small piece of the puzzle in her hand, Karen pulls on a knitted cardigan and goes downstairs to the front door. The knob is cold like the outside, and she opens it up. On the front stoop is the large box from her mother, with the Vancouver Salmon. The christmas present for Karen and Steve. The kids' arrived seperately, since it wasn't ordered from a market.
The box was heavier than it had been past years, Karen mused, as she carried it inside to the dining room table. Maybe it was the baby weight that made her a little weaker. She would call her mother while she opened the package, that would be nice. No, she would call right afterward. She would need two hands to open it and put the meat away. Maybe bring the kids down? To see what Nanna had given them. But what a bother, getting them up from sleep when they would be so tired, and only Chad might understand.
Karen took a small knife out of the block in the kitchen, and found the puzzle piece still in her palm. She tucked it in her pocket to be safe. Poising the blade on the tape, where the cardboard panels came together, Karen thought only a moment that it was strange her mother had changed the place she sent the salmon from. The simple and bold TCRI label looked more like a restaurant supplier than a christmas market catalogue.
Two hours later.
A storm was moving in, as every radio weatherman had predicted. Dry snow rained down in great clouds from the white sky. A teal SUV was parked in the single garage beside the house. Steven was inside with his wife. No one could reach Karen's mother, and no one else could tell them where to reach TCRI. The package was still on the table.
A hard plastic casing was open to reveal a thick blue foam interior. Set in the center of the cube was a large egg, the size a little smaller than a basketball. Perfectly round. Clean flake white, with a handful of light cream splotches, hardly visible farther than a pencil length away.
Steve order his wife to stand back. He was going to pick it up again. Karen gathered herself back in the kitchen, watching Steve with wide brown eyes. He lifted the globe from its nest and held it to the light once again. The shell was near the end of its development, and almost completely opaque. Still, the faint grey silouhette of a feotus was visible, curled up in the confining shell. Steve examined all that he could see, drawing back to medical school what he remembered of fetal development. At least at appearences it was human. But what human was grown in an egg? It was contrary to nature, simply put.
Upstairs, Chad was walking around in his room. The baby would cry intermittedly, and was about to start wailing soon. The door was locked from the outside.
I think I see some fingers.' Steve murmered. It's moving around...'
Maybe it's going to hatch.' Karen said. Steve set the egg back and went into the kitchen with his wife, where they had a clear shot of the dining room table. They waited as the egg sat still. They waited as the egg shifted. They waited in the kitchen. The shell began to twist, and a small micro hole cut through. Slowly. A tear began, the egg pushed. More twisting, and the rip lengthened.
A small green head worked it's way out into the dining room. Karen shrieked. Karen opened her eyes again and screamed. She nearly fell backwards, and her feet seeing this as a good idea, turned and sprinted from the kitchen to the back door.
Oh, ...oh lord. Oh, LORD!' Steve stumbled back after his wife. Seeing that gooey green face, and black piercing eyes behind the slime that no amount of doctorhood or autopsies had prepared him for. He slammed the back door tight, sealing the creature inside, and them safe outdoors. Karen was running for the garage, her long brown hair undone and flying in the wind above her flapping and helpless skirt. Her broken screams came and went with the howling of the coming storm.
Steve stayed at the back door, breathing in the cold, looking for his sanity. It came to him slowly with the bite of snow on his face, and cold that permeated his clothes. He looked again for his wife, and saw her thrashing about in the garage window, some part of her trying to get away in the car, the other part trying to get away. He looked through the door window back into the house.
He found stillness.
Rationally, they must go back inside. This thing had to be dealt with. And eventually Chad would find his way downstairs, and may be scarred for life, if he didn't. Staying outside would only give him a sickness.
Karen!' Steve called, jogging towards the garage. The figure in the window paused. Karen emmerged from the side door, and sprinted towards him. Her eyes were wild and frightened, and he caught her in an embrace. She squeezed the life out of him, pressing her cheek to his shoulder.
Oh god, oh holy god, father, lord. why... lord why, oh Steve. Oh god.' She whispered hard into his shoulder. He squeezed her back.
Karen. Get a hold of yourself now.' He said sternly, like he remember his father doing. Karen,' He held her away at arms length, looking hard into her eyes. Get control.' She swallowed and nodded vigerously.
I'm sorry, I--I'm ok. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.' She looked around her surroundings, knowing them familiar, and taking the most brief survey of them.
We have to go back in. We have to take care this. Now come on.' Steve took her by the arm and lead her back to the wood house. They opened and closed the door and wiped their feet on the black mat. Entering through the kitchen, they went slowly, ready for anything, and knowing they were not ready at all. There was a knife on the counter, and Steve picked it up.
On the dining room table, in the case, the egg was broken open, and lay collapsed in the protective foam. At the foot of the case, in a contained puddle of its own placenta, a green form lay on the cherrywood table top. It didn't move.
Maybe, is it dead?' Karen asked her husband.
I don't--' It gurgled as he spoke, and shifted a little. Alive.' They waited until it stopped moving again, although a few noises still ementated from it. Steve stepped forward, and stood on tip toes to look over the top of it, taking quick reference to it all. The green, reptilian. But the arms and legs were much too long. And for a baby it was definately too large. Unless it was some rare foriegn breed. But, there was a small shell, undeveloped and wet, so it was a turtle.
A turtle. Of that size, might be a snapper, but it didn't have the pronounced beak, or even the basic shape. And the limbs. The purpose of the shell was to hid away the limbs, but those could never fit in there. What kind of turtle was it? Was it even a turtle? It had so many, for the lack of a better term, human characteristics. What kind of human was it? Was it even a human?
It's moving again!' Karen whispered. The creature turned, or rolled, onto it's back, seeming to feel the intensity of attention upon it. And as if it could sense the world it had just been brought into, it gave the saddest, softest cry from it's tiny mouth. Steve paused over it.
Those eyes, that he had thought were black, were really only the enlarged pupils from eyes that had been gestating in a world of darkness. And as they shrunk down, and the white around them could be seen, they seemed oh so much more human. The body was a baby's, legs and arms still curled in the feotal position they had been pressed into inside the egg.
Karen... get me some paper towels.' Steve whispered. A few moments later a mess of paper towels came to him, and he took them like pot holders. We should wash it off.' He picked the thing up carefully, one hand to support the neck, the other to support the body. It was heavy in his hands. They took it to the kitchen sink, and ran some lukewarm water. Karen wrang out a dish rag, and they cautiously cleaned the foggy goo off the baby. It squirmed, and cried like a pleased kitten at the warmth of the water. Quickly, something to dry it.' Karen took the nice blue hand towel and suddenly found Steve handing the creature to her. She took it, wrapping it in the soft towel. It was as small and heavy as Eric had been less than a year ago. It won't bite you,' Steve said softly. I don't think it has teeth.'
It's an alien.' Karen took her first real good look at the thing. It was looking back at her. She almost dropped it.
Control, Karen.' Steve said gently, coming around to his wife's side. They both looked down on it. It was looking up at them. It's head shrunk down a ways into the shell. Steve chuckled lightly.
Why is it so big?' Karen asked.
I dunno.' It's head raised back out slower than it had gone in. Karen carefully took a corner of the towel and dried the water off it's head. It didn't jump at her, and so she held it up to have a look. It fit almost in the palm of her hand, it was so small. The thing made it's kitten cry again, and Karen smiled. The little three fingered hand found her free finger, and closed around it. Karen froze. It was touching her.
But not only that, it touched her how Eric touched her. And Chad too, when he was a baby. Holding her fingers with a new found strength to see how far they could squeeze. She was stunned to silence.
Let me have it.' Steve said, taking the baby from her. He held it in the crook of his arm, looking down intently upon it. Karen watched them.
Steve placed his finger in the palm of it's hand, and watched how it curled its fingers and thumb around it. The bright whites of the eyes, the long legs that kicked his arm once or twice.
I think it's human.'
Present Day
New York City, the plows out in force. A snow storm passed through, closing schools and many businesses. Municiple plows are out in record numbers to clear the streets. Cars by the thousands are still on the road and swerve and skid their way to destinations. A pair of steaming trucks are left askew on the sidewalk after a collision.
Central park is where the children have gone. Sleds and inner tubes on their chests or backs, they plowed the snow themselves into racetracks and causeways. The rapid fire intersections were filled with the glee and shouts of dozens upon dozens of young girls and boys who reveled at the clouds of snow flurries that trailed after each rocket.
On the ground level a young girl walked alone and unsuspecting. She paused to breath in the dirty cold New York air, and smiled. To her, New York was beautiful.
GANG WAY!!! AAAAH, LOOK OUT!' The girl looked up as a silver donut with arms and legs eclipsed the sun and descended upon her. She screamed, but her mouth was muffled by plastic. The new snow broke her fall, as she fell back beneath the inner tube, sinking two feet into the ground. She had been hit by a cushioned ton of bricks. Oh shit!' The weight was lifted off her, and the darkness drew back. Are you ok?' Someone was asking, while digging out and arm or hers.
Yeah, I'm ok, I'm fine, I'm fine.' The next thing she knew she was standing up, and the boy was brushing the snow off her with the side of his mitten. Woah.' She checked her balance, startled to be upright again.
Crap, I'm sorry. I didn't see you standing there!' The boy insisted. She was too busy pulling her scarf up to be concerned, and nodded her head vigerously at his apoligies.
You're a jackass, Mike!' Someone called from the top of the hill.
I'm fine, really.' She turned her head away, and pulled the hat down farther over the back of her head.
You're sure? I'm real sorry. Tha-anks!' The boy called, charging back up the hill with the silver tube.
ANNIE!' A man came tromping speedily through the snow. ANNIE! Are you alright?' Chad took Annie's arm, gulping for breath. Are you hurt?'
No, Chad, I'm fine.' Annie repeated insitantly. I'm ok.'
I saw that punk land right on you!' Chad growled.
He didn't see me.' She adjusted the scarf again, seeing that it was pulled over her protruding beak.
You're sure?' They looked up at the hill to see the boys moving off towards another hill. I should have your heads for this!' Chad shook his gloved fist after them. They didn't seem to hear him.
Geez, calm down!' Annie pulled on his arm. You're acting like a crazy old man!'
Jerks.' He glared at all the kids playing on the hill. Annie laughed.
You used to do that too. Come on, let's keep walking.' She pulled him along down the boot trodden path. Chad was noticablely taller than his adopted sister. They looked almost like father and daughter. Chad was only twenty-five, but he carried himself as much older. And Anna had just turned twenty, yet she looked fourteen. She was short, and looked stalky under the layers of winter clothes. She had been five feet tall for several years already, and it was doubtful that she would grow any taller.
Her brothers, Chad and Eric, had grown up tall like their dad. They had their father's light hair and eyes, and their mother's excellent bone structure. And everyone at the hospital commented on what fine young men they were growing up to be.
Anna stayed home mostly. Their parents said that she was a sickly child, and couldn't be seen. She had an affliction to light, and had to remain in nearly total darkness during the day. Secretly, she had no photsensitivity. She was just too freakish to be seen as a child. And eventually, people stopped asking about her.
Anna spent most of her free time, as she grew older, in the solitude of the woods. Her father taught her to shoot arrows, and she would leave for weekends to practice wilderness survival while her brothers went into town. She learned to enjoy her solitude. For no matter often her parents told her she was a part of their family, no one could deny that she had no real family. That she was only their green orphan. But they went on together, and she loved them all. And then she went into the forest, where she could love herself.
In the meantime, she, like her brothers, was home schooled by their mother. And after receiving her GED, she went on to correspondance courses for a degree in philosophy. Her brothers went to college. Chad went to NYU, Eric to JMU. Chad found an appartment in New York, and stayed there for med school. And for his sister's twentieth birthday, he convinced their reluctant parents to let her spend the month with him. Well supervised, and well armed in case someone tried to hurt them. Chad had a gun licsense, and kept a pistol in his case. Annie had flat knives banded around each ankle.
Not that their parents willingly let Anna go. It was a great act of rebellion for her. In the end, her parents were forced to cede to her wishes. At least that way they might at least have some say over them both. Both Anna and Chad carried cell phones and beepers with them, with implanted GPS tracking chips. The mother had come to stay one week when she dropped Anna off, and would come for one more week before she brought her home. These two and a half weeks Chad and Anna had alone together they spent touring the city. In the cold it was so easy for Anna to blend into quilted and coated crowds. And despite the horrible risk of exposure, she loved the city.
So why weren't you around to defend me against my snowy assailant?' Annie teased. I saw you talking to that girl.' Chad's lips turned into a wry smile. She looked pretty.'
She gave me her number. And yeah, she's pretty'.'
I bet she wants to get into your pants.'
I sure hope so.'
~~
Sasami