CHAPTER TWENTY
June 20 – June 27 2001
The trial date was set for June the 20th and just before going to it, Jarod asked Miss Parker to find his mother and then "I'll be happy." Miss Parker just inserted a Cd into the computer and turned on the program. "How old are you, Jarod? How long have you missed you mother? Since you were at least four, but I can't be sure of that. . How long are you going to search for her? Do you see this?" She pointed to their photographs, aged considerably. "Are you going to search for her until we look like this? I had to do what I did. Raines and Lyle didn't want you to have children. ."
"You're wrong. I don't think Mr. Parker wanted me to have a family either, He certainly did not want me with you," he said, his voice a little louder, "Frederick and Margaret were meant to be an experiment, just as Gemini and Ethan were and unlike the latter were probably expendable, like I was and all the other Pretenders. If it weren't that your real father Raines was a pervert…"
Suddenly Miss Parker grew livid, grabbed the gun from her desk, pointed at his chest and then took out a pair of handcuffs.
Jarod face turned a little pale on seeing the handcuff's construction. A few years ago according to Walter Attwood, scientists worked on a new alloy not even Dominants could break.
"Freedom's not much fun when you're alone and you changed your last name so many times. Guess what'll happen if I die? The Centre'll lock you in a cell— a rather unpleasant picture." Miss Parker altered the faces to make them look in their eighties. "Isn't it, Jarod?" She then turned off the computer and forced him to the bedroom.
She handcuffed him to the bedposts, and, assaulted him making him feel like the slave he was. Miss Parker was furious. She dug her nails into his chest and then slapped his face while she had him in her and while she raped him, she yelled at his impunity. How dare he call Raines a pervert? How dare he even suggest such a thing? And yet, she knew it was true, but she was the one who should have said it, not him. An hour later, she was exhausted and got off him.
"When I get back, you will put me in you again, won't you?" he asked as blandly as if they had made love in the candlelight with Debussy playing on the CD player. .
"Jarod," she said with frustration as she put on her pants and blouse after taking off the handcuffs and throwing him back his clothes, "for someone of a great intelligence, you don't understand what happened to you. None of your kind will."
He left for New York without saying a word, but he was smiling. Having no reference point to distinguish assault from real love, Jarod was willing to have Miss Parker do anything to him. He was hers forever and would have killed for her. . .
The New York attorney ordered Isaiah and his friends deported to Kenya whereby the authorities executed them. Meanwhile Miss Parker suffered through morning sickness. This was not one of her good days and even Frederick's bringing the Dominant doctor who prescribed a certain medicine, did not help.
"You will have to take it easy. What does your species eat? Ginger ale and crackers," he said, "It will pass. Oh have you had the Official Joining with your Jarod? It will ensure the recognition of your unborn children. They will stand proud with the rest of us, not doomed to— Frederick, have you finished what you're doing? We must arrive at the school by nightfall."
"Yes." He came out from the bedroom, his arms around Carla who was buttoning up her blouse. "Good day, mother," he said to Miss Parker and kissed her light on her cheeks. "You don't look well enough for my request. I will go to the Chosen here and ask for his input." He stared at his mother for a minute. "You should eat more, mother." He smiled at Carla. "Adiós, mi cara."
"I'll be better soon," said Miss Parker bidding her son and the Doctor good-bye and wondering about this Official Joining. So far, all she heard was the Dominants rarely had a pair bonding, the general term for mating for life among their species. However, she wondered whether this was a ploy by the New Species to protect them from annihilation and Carla's explanation verified this.
"Tenemos cuatro ceremonias casadas," said the girl. The first was "la union Oficial", the second was "la Unión de Funcionario," the third was the Union, and the last, the Joining.
"So you have the Official Union, Official Joining, and then just plain Union and Joining." Miss Parker made a face. "It appears unusual. Why not just Official Union and Union? I presume that the former is like our church ceremonies and the second, a civil ceremony and why the names?"
Carla started on an explanation about the Diaspora, their escape from Mexico, and the hunt, done by both types. Miss Parker stopped her. She did not want to hear a whole history, just a reasonable explanation, not that they did not want anyone to know they married like ordinary homo sapiens.
"Señorita Parker," said Carla in Spanish, "For you and Jarod, for Frederick and me, the Official Joinings."
Miss Parker made a note to remember this. "Legal?" she asked.
"Sí. Is very legal. Your offspring will have the protection and not be illegal." She showed Miss Parker her chain, almost pure gold with a clasp from which emitted a transmitter. Every Favorite got one. No one could undo the clasp except by using a specific code and a warning signal emitted from it in case a thief tried to remove it. Carla's had a crucifix attached to it. The ceremony was beautiful. "You can get Official Joined in a Church, but do not sign the civil documents. It is bad. The Chosen will be angry. He orders the death of those who disobey."
The Chosen of the Dominants, who was he and why was he not called King, Ruler, Prince, Emperor, Supreme Intelligence of the Universe—no, that would refer to God. Was he a first Chosen, a second Chosen, a Third Chosen—they really got to give these high intelligent beings, titles. Miss Parker knew the Dominants called their leaders, the Chosen and that the head Chosen was a Tom Daniels. Miss Parker had to find out who the Chosen was in this part of the United States and when they planned to take over the world or at least, the United States. She had no intention of being executed when that happened. . She tried to reach for the computer, but it was too far away. All she could do was to ask the girl to bring her a glass of ginger ale from the fridge and continue with her lessons on 1.6r customs.
"Some of our species went to the Official Union schools of your kind, so now they can perform the ceremonies. Your kind marries too late."
"What you call Chameleons. What other terms do you use?"
They called anyone in the Medical profession, Medicals. They called lawyers and such, Advocate. The chief Advocate, a Chosen was under the Executioner. He decided who would live and who would die.
"Much like Kyle."
Carla looked at Miss Parker with incomprehension and then described the Sacred Official saying something similar to the Visitor marriage ceremony of V, the Series, an episode that Carla, a Science Fiction fan, never saw. "I have not seen that episode," she said, "It affects us badly."
"Maybe they didn't have it in Spanish," said Miss Parker who wondered whether they went on a killing spree or whether they all decided to get drunk. She wrote in her notebook, "Be sure to rent the V series at Blockbusters."
"After that, we have a celebration," said Carla.
Miss Parker did not want to know what the celebration consisted of, probably pulling the limbs off a human captive.
She asked Carla if anyone tried to register the equivalent Official Joining, with the civil authorities.
"No señorita!" explained Carla with horror, "they kill both. It is a great evil. Even those forced to register by the captive girl's parents have their offspring reduced to slavery and the parents having to mortgage their house to free them!"
Miss Parker wisely stopped the discussion and then spent a week on the couch, only getting up for the washroom. Carla made several minor repairs to the blender and coffee maker that now, unlike before, could make Espresso. Meanwhile the mail just piled up as Miss Parker lay there, not having enough energy to get the phone, and then the door opened and Jarod walked in, saying, "The money ran out. You have to pay the VCTF."
"I'll send them a check." She made a half-hearted effort to get up and finally staggered to the washroom, and threw up after remarking, "I hope you empty all your stomach contents" to which Jarod paid no attention.
Feeling better after he got her a drink of ginger-ale, Miss Parker put her head on his shoulder.
"I can forge your signature," he said, trying to regain the coldness he and Miss Parker used to have and finding it no longer there. Maybe her little plan worked, he thought or maybe I wanted it to work. Then it could have been the computer program.
It was then he realized she had never acted like that. Most of the time, the only way they got together was when she forced him to have sex and she usually made sure he was handcuffed and shackled. It was amazing how she could do it without her putting her arms on his body. And her next words seemed so light and fluffy. Must be a delayed reaction from the hypnosis. Probably gave a suggestion for her to be more amiable, as if that will work.
"I believe you can, but not this time. Especially considering that case was about a harpoon and teeny tiny lions." She started to giggle.
"Actually they were not quite a year old." By this time, he was growing rather frantic and imagined all sorts of things about Miss Parker. One of which was the Centre probably gave her an order such as "Now that you've raped Jarod and know his reaction, you keep your hands off of him, don't let him put his hands on you either. The only time you are permitted to hold him or touch him with your hand is before you kill him. Understand Miss Parker?"
Jarod's heart started pounding rapidly, looking towards the cushions and wondering where she hid the gun. He forgot that before he left for New York, she actually scratched him. She's going to kill me He looked around for an escape route. If he made it to the bedroom, and lock the door, but that would be the first place she would look. There's a small window, I can squeeze through it, make it to the highway. Then just as suddenly, the thought disappeared. It was just a delayed reaction to Raines's programming. He did not have to fear Miss Parker anymore. The Dominant instinct to be in charge began to overtake him. He got closer to her.
"That's because you weren't caught yet." She tried to push him away. "Jarod, do you remember more?"
"Yes, I'll show you." He had one hand around her waist and was doing something with the other. "Do you mind, Miss Parker?" he said with his now lack of emotion, all the time, looking at the bedroom.
She gave her warmest smile. "Not now, Jarod. What do you remember?"
"It was normal." He moved closer.
"Normal? That was normal?" She moved back and got off the couch, straightening her skirt. Tonight was to be the night she made the appointment at the Cathedral, but Jarod was not interested in going out. All her assaults on the Pretender, the constant rapes had been too successful. She had to use all her mental facilities to defer him. "I can't do it now. I've been a little on edge lately. I had to make an excuse to go to New York on a shopping trip and I don't think Raines believed me"
"Natural. Shopping, a female occupation to relieve stress, often accompanied by large purchases of no particular value on a credit card"
"I don't know whether that was a compliment or an insult, Jarod. I want you to find something at the Centre for me. I know that Raines had a secret project in mind. I knew he also intended to kill you."
"Sydney should have aimed better. I hope that Raines was in horrific pain."
"I'll agree with you on that. Go get the evidence, bring me a tape, a CD or something."
"Raines probably has a whole library and sells it to certain people who like that stuff. I should be back in an hour." He left by the back door.
Meanwhile, Miss Parker inserted her Hercules CD, but unlike Jarod, she knew what she was looking for. After watching it for half an hour, she called Broots and gave him the information she desired. "I think Major Charles might have been a Dominant, but am not sure. —No Broots, just photographs of Major Charles —I want to compare it with the ones on the missing ship, maybe Jarod's grandparents—No, I don't have their names, someone erased them—If you find the missing information but I think that's been erased as well—I have other photographs. I want you to compare them to any Pretender at the Centre or suspected of being one—Why? You needn't know."