chelseyt
01-26-2010, 07:45 PM
Note: I wouldn't consider this story completely edited yet, I am open to suggestion and criticism. Thanks for Reading!
Independence Day
Nadia often referred to the day she received her designation as “Independence Day”. She also believed that she was the happiest person to ever be designated a non-breeder. Freedom, government sanctioned freedom, from her mother’s pressure, advice and worries. No longer destined to become a fixture of the house, the government had freed her.
But that had been years ago, at the age of 13 when girls are judged by the law. Her mother, the ever suffering housewife, had tried her best to show how much Nadia loved children, to provide proof of how empty her life would be without them. Sarah had done all the right things, on paper, but no matter what she tried she couldn’t get the results. The first time Nadia was left to babysit she somehow left the baby in the laundry, which she didn’t notice until she went looking for a clean pair of socks. When she was put in charge of the Sunday school, she spent the whole time teaching her students how to take apart their ball point pens. It continued like that until the fateful day came, the census takers came to the door, and by the time they left Nadia no longer had to worry about taking care of any brats.
Now, approaching 35 more quickly than she would like to admit Nadia sometimes fell into nostalgia. The memories of her childhood, and formative adolescence made her smile the slow, sensual smile she was quickly becoming famous for. But Nadia was never a vain woman; she appreciated everything, from the top of her strawberry colored head, to her pale toenails and especially the freckles in between. It was in fact, these very traits that had led to her current distinction.
The government takeover and subsequent process of handing out distinction couldn’t have come at a better time for Nadia, and she often donated more money than what was required by law, just as a thank you to President Scaffort. The government doctors had decided that genetics should play a part in the continuation of the species. They decided the best way to limit population growth was to limit those who were available to breed. The controversy was overtaken by the sheer success of the government in saving the country in every other way. The President closed the doors to the country and began systematically eliminating all debt. He forgave the debt of the citizens and urged them to start anew. Where he found the money, no one knew, but they also knew better than to ask questions of a government equip with a genetically engineered army.
It had been frightening for Nadia, at the age of 6, to hear about the takeover. The army used violence, but they were also supremely intelligent, practically outsmarting the old regime into giving away their power. This memory, of the blinding fear felt all around, in her father’s governor’s mansion was what finally dragged Nadia out of bed that morning. She hated when her memories returned to that time, back before the new government had been her savior, to when it had been frightening.
“Ugh” Nadia groaned as her feet hit the cold floor of her penthouse. The industrial floors were the designer’s idea, and her least favorite part of the apartment. As she shuffled to the bathroom, she brushed the long, auburn hair out of her eye. Looking in the mirror, her gold flecked eyes sparkled in the morning sunlight, her skin glowing. Ageless, thanks to the latest technology from her surgeon’s office. The apartment, the hair, the face, it all took a pretty penny to maintain, but it was when she finally turned and went back toward the bedroom that she remembered why she went to all the effort.
He was sun kissed, bronze and rippled, just like they all were. They were all alike young, sexy and born in the time where Nadia was an exotic, sensual mystery. This was how she liked them, enamored by her, yet frightened at the same time. She was almost the last of her kind, a genetic misstep, with beautiful results and they flocked to her.
Secretly, she knew what they called her, “the Cougar” a middle aged woman on the prowl for young meat. No one had ever said it to her face, but the blind items in the gossip pages always described her to a tee. Nadia enjoyed the way people spoke about her, she enjoyed the attention and she enjoyed her nickname. She thought it fitting, because she felt like she was hunting the men, enjoying their animal desires, all without consequences.
When she stepped out of the shower, Nadia saw he had gone, another day another notch, he hadn’t been great and she was happy he had vacated, so that he wouldn’t be in the way of the cleaners. As she examined herself in the mirror, she hoped that the prospects of the day would be a little better than the ones from the day before.
The life of a non-breeder was essentially one of pleasure. The government had not intended this; it was an unforeseen side effect of the forced sterilization. There were the select few who chose to marry and remain monogamous but most were like Nadia, seeking out pleasure wherever it could be found. While she had the same mindset as many other non-breeders, Nadia was a first generation, and it was obvious. She had the recessive gene for red hair and fair skin. The “G” gene had been designated undesirable for breeding during the beginning of the regime. Many also cited political motives, because the pre-regime president was a man who looked much like Nadia, almost exactly like her in fact, a family resemblance.
Nadia’s Uncle Ron had always been the shining star of her family. This was a fact that had been drilled into her head every holiday, after Grandpa had a couple bourbons. Ron, her father’s twin and the favorite son, her father’s own face in the mirror an everyday reminder of his brother’s shadow. He may have been President Hensley, but to Nadia, he was always just Uncle Ron, the man with her father’s face. Her mother, Sarah hadn’t been one bit surprised when her father sat them down and explained the plan; the plan that would end the government, and begin anew, the plan that would help change the future, and cause the extinction of his own bloodline. At the age of six, Nadia only knew that suddenly her house was full of men, strange, perfect looking men with bodies like Adonis, and eyes of cold steel. She didn’t notice the blueprints, and the explosives, lining the wall of the basement. Nadia didn’t understand what happened the day of the takeover until she was much older, but she did remember one thing, she remembered the television. The television, the night in November, as she watched her father on the screen, smiling, as his brother’s house burned. She would never forget that as the nation grieved over the loss of her Uncle, her own father smiled.
It was only after the coup was over that the men with the steel eyes revealed their final plan to her father. He cried, Nadia remembered that, with an intense almost physical memory, the day he told her about the Eugenics plan; the plan that would change her life forever. He looked so ashamed when he told her they would never allow her to have children, so very sorrowful as he explained the chemical sterilization she would have to endure. What he would never know was that after their talk, twelve year old Nadia went into her room; smiled and thought of freedom.
Nadia looked into her closet, dissatisfied; she pushed the touch screen to change her selection. Satin, lace, sequins and silk; her dresses, suits and tops hung sensuously on their velvet hangers, awaiting their next adventure. As she flipped through the wardrobe Nadia considered her plan for the day and after careful thought selected the green silk dress. It hugged her curves and emphasized her long slender legs, a perfect magnet for a man. She took her time steaming the dress because she hated the way the closet smelled like cedar. While functional, the scent of a cedar lined closet or chest always reminded Nadia of her mother, not something she wanted to think about when looking for prowl attire.
“Hey baby, that dress would look a lot better wrinkled up on my floor!” Her doorman cried. Everyday another attempt; Nadia was beginning to think he would never run out of lame pick up lines. No matter, the attention invigorated her and she waved to him as she flounced down the stairs in her 700 dollar heels. Worth every penny she would say to her girlfriends when their jaws dropped to the floor. It paid to be beautiful and free. Nadia all but strutted past the café and pretended not to notice the younger women’s heads turn.
It was on the steps in from of the library that she saw him. At the same time, she noticed the grate. It was placed almost perfectly in front of him as if fate had placed it there just for her. She took a few steps forward and carefully stepped onto the grate, then she turned and with a large snap, broke the heel off her left pump. She let herself fall onto the pavement with a large “oomph!” As she predicted, he quickly hopped up and was almost instantly at her side. “Are you alright?” He asked. She brushed her hair out of her eyes and gave her shyest smile. “I’m fine, but it doesn’t look like my shoe is…darn don’t you just hate when that happens?” She said playfully.
Patrick was his name, he was darker than most of her conquests, and a little older but just as eager to please. Nadia prided herself on her adventurousness and she liked occasionally stepping outside her type. When he left her penthouse two days later, she almost missed him. It was that feeling that made her write his name and number down, a habit she had avoided for years. Something about him was different, and should she decide, Nadia wanted to remember him for another weekend of fun.
With the next day came another boy and a few more days of fun. Nadia was an extremely good judge of character, and while she had had one or two jerks along the way, they always treated her with respect. Being beautiful was tiring, so every month Nadia and her other non-breeder girlfriends went to the spa. It was there that she met Jacob. Staying at the hotel on business, he was busy during the day, but at night he found her in the bar. She caught his eye wearing the gold dress that night and his was the second name she ever wrote down.
It had been a few days since anyone had caught Nadia’s eye, but Shawn was there, at the café and she joined him for coffee. Just as he threw her into the softness of her mattress the phone rang. “Don’t answer it,” he said as he kissed her neck, but she couldn’t concentrate not with the ringing, that insistent, unending ringing, Nadia sat up and grabbed the phone.
Angrily Nadine tore off the headset and took her phone call. Probably Damon or Jordan’s school again, those damn boys were nothing but trouble, a thorn in her side, constantly, the bane of her existence. “Hello? No thank you we are very happy with our current virtual services, no we are not in need of another headset, yes I am sure, alright, no nothing else at this time, thank you buh bye.” Nadine sighed to herself and turned away from the virtual station towards the digital clock on the desk. “Almost three, ugh never enough hours in the day,” she said to herself. She walked into the next room, stepping on something sharp along the way, a plastic block no doubt, traps laid by the boys. Nadine sometimes wondered if her boys tried to torture her, or if it just came naturally. Probably a trait inherited from their father, something associated with the “Y” chromosome. When she got to the bathroom, she threw open the drawer to look for a rubber band. Her baby soft, fine blond ringlets were always in her eyes without the headset on and she wasn’t about to deal with the boys blind. With her clear, porcelain skin and her bright blue eyes, Nadine was pretty once, but that was before she was married, before the boys drained her to a shell. Her father had always admired her skin, so pale like her sister’s, but with out a mark, no freckles, not even a mole to mar her perfect complexion.
When she returned to the office, Nadine looked once again at the virtual station, then bent and turned Nadia off. “Nighty, Night,” she said and left to pick up the boys. As she drove, she thought of her plans, of Nadia. It was just after Damon’s birth, when John told her she wouldn’t be returning to work, that she created Nadia. The virtual world was exactly like the real one, except that you could be whoever you wanted to be. It was an old concept, created at the very beginning of the technological era, but it had been expanded over time until it was almost a world of its own. It was this world that brought Nadine the life she craved, the life that had been stolen from her the moment she was born. She sometimes looked at the pictures of her family and thought that if the dictionary had pictures, her family portrait should be filed under tragic irony. Her mother was the picture of idealism with her golden blonde hair, so lush she never needed to style it, and her clear blue eyes. Her father looked strong and handsome, his red hair glinting off of his green tie, his sun kissed cheeks dimpled when he smiled. Then there was Rebecca, a perfect Irish daughter, she took strongly after their father, his hair, his same green eyes and his striking smile. Nadine looked so small in the photo, so much younger than her sister but as different as day and night. She had blonde hair but it hung, so soft it couldn’t even support its own weight and her mother’s clear, shining blue eyes. Her sister Rebecca, so beautiful and so cursed. Her only dream to be a mother destroyed by their own father’s poor planning. When she found out about the sterilization, Rebecca tried to run, she was older than the girls are now when the designation is made and her desire for a family was strong. Nadine remembered the way her older sister looked when she came home from the procedure, empty, destroyed, and that was what she was, a shell of a person. If Nadine had bothered to look in the mirror, she would have noticed that she now had the same eyes as her sister, the haunted look of defeat.
A trick of fate, a curse from God, Nadine didn’t know what to call it; she only knew that if their looks had been reversed, her sister would still be alive. But she had been weak, weaker than Nadine and now she was dead. Her mother claimed it was from a broken heart. The only thing Rebecca ever wanted was a family of her own, the very same thing that had put Nadine in a prison since she was pubescent.
As the boys piled into the car, Nadine thought of her sister and how she had wasted such a wonderful designation. As soon as she was old enough to realize what the designations meant, Nadine had hoped for freedom, she had prayed her hair would change, that she too would be determined a carrier of the “G” gene. It had been hopeless; she should have known that all along, she was too much like her mother, a physical specimen, perfect genetic material to continue the species. Her marriage to John had been arranged by her father, a good political marriage.
John was a good man, but he wasn’t what Nadine wanted. She didn’t know what kind of man she wanted, but she knew it wasn’t an anti tech political bureaucrat who wanted seven sons. One of the only things that brought a smile to Nadine’s face besides Nadia was the fact that her husband had no idea what she did all day. He was an Anti Tech, part of the cult that was established in the last hundred years. It had been declared its own religion after much bribing of the government and therefore it was extremely popular. It was mostly men and women who dreamed of a different time, but had no idea how to get back there, not after all the damage that had been done. Nadine supposed she was lucky that John let her have a virtual machine at all. She had had to bring out her inner Nadia to convince him, and she was often afraid she would soon have to deal with another one of his children in order to keep it.
It was almost a week later that Nadia met Dave at the grocery. He had long hair and wore sandals, totally not her type. It was his voice that she was drawn to; it was so soft, sweet and sexy. His was the third name she wrote in her notebook.
Nadine always met John at the door. She knew it would keep up appearances and it was important to keep him happy. It was important that she keep her husband happy because without him she would lose everything. Nadine had to keep herself in the house, with access to his money until she was ready for her plan to start. She just needed to find the right person, the person she could manipulate into setting her free.
In the next two months, Nadia met two more men whose names she wrote down in her small purple notebook. Out of boredom one day, she called up Patrick, but he wasn’t in-virtual. In fact, when she checked his profile, she found he hadn’t returned to their world since the morning he left her house. She smiled to herself, assuming her sheer prowess had made him lose his desire for other women.
It was a slow day, not very many people were around town and the pickings for men were slim. Nadia was disappointed; she had recently bought a new top, slinky and backless and was ready to find some fun. She decided to call the next man in her purple book, Jacob, the spa man.
Nadine kissed her husband goodnight.
“Did you have a good day, my love?” He whispered in the dark.
“It was fine, just fine,” she sighed absentmindedly.
Nadia was becoming frantic now; all of the men, her special men, her purple book men were totally missing from her world. Normally she wouldn’t have minded, it was just that all the men had been special somehow, in a way she couldn’t place. She had hoped one of them might be the one to help her plan but now it looked like she was going to have to keep searching. It was strange that all the men were missing. They had nice apartments and were big players in the world. It seemed like a lot of work to abandon. It had taken Nadia seven years to get her fame and she couldn’t imagine walking away. Something was wrong.
It was six months of meaningless flings until Nadia found another like her special men. He was tall, much taller than most of the men she had met. It was his eyes that caught her, the way they twinkled, she had to have him. He was a waiter at the café, a newbie and he was all hers. She loved the way he felt so fresh, so innocent, a rarity in the world she lived in. It only took her a week until she decided he was the one.
It took her almost exactly a month to get the courage to ask Isaac about his life outside of the virtual world. His lip curled in a way she had never seen before, a sort of relieved smile as he answered, “I thought you would never ask.”
Nadine’s heart raced. Today was finally the day she would meet him, her knight in shining armor. She had taken the kids to school that morning and kissed them both goodbyes for the last time. Then for the first time in almost eight years, she went home and ignored her virtual station. Nadine went upstairs, and unwrapped the beautiful new dress, an exact replica of one of her favorite virtual outfits. She styled her hair into soft curls and carefully applied makeup for the first time since the birth of her oldest son.
When the doorbell rang, she was surprised that he was perfectly on time. Her house wasn’t the easiest to find, but Nadine assumed that he must have had a GPS system. “How nice to not have to deal with an Anti Tech anymore,” Nadine said to the mirror. Isaac in the flesh, come to take her to freedom. Her heart raced as she went to the stairs, but when she got to the bottom it all but stopped beating.
Standing at the bottom of the stairs was John. He waved as she stared, open mouthed at the roses in his left hand. Slowly she shut it when she noticed the Government Issue revolver in his right. “Why don’t we have a seat my dear Nadia, I think we have a lot to discuss.” His smile sickened her, but she let him lead her into the living room.
“I don’t understand where is Isaac? What have you done with him?” Nadine cried.
“Oh my sweet, naïve little darling, did it ever occur to you that you were not the only one who lied? Did you really think you were the only one to live a double life inside the virtual world? You never asked me what I did for the government; you were so busy trying to conceal your life from me that you never thought to ask how I paid for it all. Have you no idea what that technology has done to our President’s breeding plan? How many breeder men waste their lives inside that virtual world? It is ruining us Nadine, ruining the future that your father helped create. I am a hunter my sweet. I find the women, the most famous women, the ones in the virtual world who lead the breeder men away from the real world and into that wasteland. And when I find these women, I end them.”
John stood then and looked Nadine up and down, sizing her up like cattle. She could see no trace of the man she knew, but there was wildness behind his eyes she knew as passion, lust, but this time she knew the lust had nothing to do with her body. He started to speak again, with an almost breathless fervor, waving the pistol as he spoke,
“Did you really think I wouldn’t find out? I knew it was you as soon as I saw her, so much like your sister. You were always jealous of her I knew that, but to defame her memory for your shameful promiscuity? How dare you! You will never be the woman your sister was, never the wife and mother she could have been. Damn you and your blonde hair! I loved you Nadine just like your sister, I really did, but this I cannot forgive. It’s my job dear, to eliminate the threats to the breeding system. So know that this is not personal my sweet, simply business, something I’m sure your father taught you. Sometimes family comes between what is best for the country, and then the ties must be broken.”
Finally able to find words, Nadine spoke as John caught his breath,
“But, Isaac and I, we talked of freedom, of making our own decisions. How could that have been you the whole time? He promised he would take me away from this prison, make me free…..”
“Yes my dear, I am Isaac, and no I never lied to you, I will make you free.”
With that, John raised his hand and pulled the trigger. Nadine shook with impact, her body sighing as it hit the ground. She closed her eyes.
The early morning sun shone in the window, crimson spread across the pillow, Nadia woke slowly and smiled.
The End
Independence Day
Nadia often referred to the day she received her designation as “Independence Day”. She also believed that she was the happiest person to ever be designated a non-breeder. Freedom, government sanctioned freedom, from her mother’s pressure, advice and worries. No longer destined to become a fixture of the house, the government had freed her.
But that had been years ago, at the age of 13 when girls are judged by the law. Her mother, the ever suffering housewife, had tried her best to show how much Nadia loved children, to provide proof of how empty her life would be without them. Sarah had done all the right things, on paper, but no matter what she tried she couldn’t get the results. The first time Nadia was left to babysit she somehow left the baby in the laundry, which she didn’t notice until she went looking for a clean pair of socks. When she was put in charge of the Sunday school, she spent the whole time teaching her students how to take apart their ball point pens. It continued like that until the fateful day came, the census takers came to the door, and by the time they left Nadia no longer had to worry about taking care of any brats.
Now, approaching 35 more quickly than she would like to admit Nadia sometimes fell into nostalgia. The memories of her childhood, and formative adolescence made her smile the slow, sensual smile she was quickly becoming famous for. But Nadia was never a vain woman; she appreciated everything, from the top of her strawberry colored head, to her pale toenails and especially the freckles in between. It was in fact, these very traits that had led to her current distinction.
The government takeover and subsequent process of handing out distinction couldn’t have come at a better time for Nadia, and she often donated more money than what was required by law, just as a thank you to President Scaffort. The government doctors had decided that genetics should play a part in the continuation of the species. They decided the best way to limit population growth was to limit those who were available to breed. The controversy was overtaken by the sheer success of the government in saving the country in every other way. The President closed the doors to the country and began systematically eliminating all debt. He forgave the debt of the citizens and urged them to start anew. Where he found the money, no one knew, but they also knew better than to ask questions of a government equip with a genetically engineered army.
It had been frightening for Nadia, at the age of 6, to hear about the takeover. The army used violence, but they were also supremely intelligent, practically outsmarting the old regime into giving away their power. This memory, of the blinding fear felt all around, in her father’s governor’s mansion was what finally dragged Nadia out of bed that morning. She hated when her memories returned to that time, back before the new government had been her savior, to when it had been frightening.
“Ugh” Nadia groaned as her feet hit the cold floor of her penthouse. The industrial floors were the designer’s idea, and her least favorite part of the apartment. As she shuffled to the bathroom, she brushed the long, auburn hair out of her eye. Looking in the mirror, her gold flecked eyes sparkled in the morning sunlight, her skin glowing. Ageless, thanks to the latest technology from her surgeon’s office. The apartment, the hair, the face, it all took a pretty penny to maintain, but it was when she finally turned and went back toward the bedroom that she remembered why she went to all the effort.
He was sun kissed, bronze and rippled, just like they all were. They were all alike young, sexy and born in the time where Nadia was an exotic, sensual mystery. This was how she liked them, enamored by her, yet frightened at the same time. She was almost the last of her kind, a genetic misstep, with beautiful results and they flocked to her.
Secretly, she knew what they called her, “the Cougar” a middle aged woman on the prowl for young meat. No one had ever said it to her face, but the blind items in the gossip pages always described her to a tee. Nadia enjoyed the way people spoke about her, she enjoyed the attention and she enjoyed her nickname. She thought it fitting, because she felt like she was hunting the men, enjoying their animal desires, all without consequences.
When she stepped out of the shower, Nadia saw he had gone, another day another notch, he hadn’t been great and she was happy he had vacated, so that he wouldn’t be in the way of the cleaners. As she examined herself in the mirror, she hoped that the prospects of the day would be a little better than the ones from the day before.
The life of a non-breeder was essentially one of pleasure. The government had not intended this; it was an unforeseen side effect of the forced sterilization. There were the select few who chose to marry and remain monogamous but most were like Nadia, seeking out pleasure wherever it could be found. While she had the same mindset as many other non-breeders, Nadia was a first generation, and it was obvious. She had the recessive gene for red hair and fair skin. The “G” gene had been designated undesirable for breeding during the beginning of the regime. Many also cited political motives, because the pre-regime president was a man who looked much like Nadia, almost exactly like her in fact, a family resemblance.
Nadia’s Uncle Ron had always been the shining star of her family. This was a fact that had been drilled into her head every holiday, after Grandpa had a couple bourbons. Ron, her father’s twin and the favorite son, her father’s own face in the mirror an everyday reminder of his brother’s shadow. He may have been President Hensley, but to Nadia, he was always just Uncle Ron, the man with her father’s face. Her mother, Sarah hadn’t been one bit surprised when her father sat them down and explained the plan; the plan that would end the government, and begin anew, the plan that would help change the future, and cause the extinction of his own bloodline. At the age of six, Nadia only knew that suddenly her house was full of men, strange, perfect looking men with bodies like Adonis, and eyes of cold steel. She didn’t notice the blueprints, and the explosives, lining the wall of the basement. Nadia didn’t understand what happened the day of the takeover until she was much older, but she did remember one thing, she remembered the television. The television, the night in November, as she watched her father on the screen, smiling, as his brother’s house burned. She would never forget that as the nation grieved over the loss of her Uncle, her own father smiled.
It was only after the coup was over that the men with the steel eyes revealed their final plan to her father. He cried, Nadia remembered that, with an intense almost physical memory, the day he told her about the Eugenics plan; the plan that would change her life forever. He looked so ashamed when he told her they would never allow her to have children, so very sorrowful as he explained the chemical sterilization she would have to endure. What he would never know was that after their talk, twelve year old Nadia went into her room; smiled and thought of freedom.
Nadia looked into her closet, dissatisfied; she pushed the touch screen to change her selection. Satin, lace, sequins and silk; her dresses, suits and tops hung sensuously on their velvet hangers, awaiting their next adventure. As she flipped through the wardrobe Nadia considered her plan for the day and after careful thought selected the green silk dress. It hugged her curves and emphasized her long slender legs, a perfect magnet for a man. She took her time steaming the dress because she hated the way the closet smelled like cedar. While functional, the scent of a cedar lined closet or chest always reminded Nadia of her mother, not something she wanted to think about when looking for prowl attire.
“Hey baby, that dress would look a lot better wrinkled up on my floor!” Her doorman cried. Everyday another attempt; Nadia was beginning to think he would never run out of lame pick up lines. No matter, the attention invigorated her and she waved to him as she flounced down the stairs in her 700 dollar heels. Worth every penny she would say to her girlfriends when their jaws dropped to the floor. It paid to be beautiful and free. Nadia all but strutted past the café and pretended not to notice the younger women’s heads turn.
It was on the steps in from of the library that she saw him. At the same time, she noticed the grate. It was placed almost perfectly in front of him as if fate had placed it there just for her. She took a few steps forward and carefully stepped onto the grate, then she turned and with a large snap, broke the heel off her left pump. She let herself fall onto the pavement with a large “oomph!” As she predicted, he quickly hopped up and was almost instantly at her side. “Are you alright?” He asked. She brushed her hair out of her eyes and gave her shyest smile. “I’m fine, but it doesn’t look like my shoe is…darn don’t you just hate when that happens?” She said playfully.
Patrick was his name, he was darker than most of her conquests, and a little older but just as eager to please. Nadia prided herself on her adventurousness and she liked occasionally stepping outside her type. When he left her penthouse two days later, she almost missed him. It was that feeling that made her write his name and number down, a habit she had avoided for years. Something about him was different, and should she decide, Nadia wanted to remember him for another weekend of fun.
With the next day came another boy and a few more days of fun. Nadia was an extremely good judge of character, and while she had had one or two jerks along the way, they always treated her with respect. Being beautiful was tiring, so every month Nadia and her other non-breeder girlfriends went to the spa. It was there that she met Jacob. Staying at the hotel on business, he was busy during the day, but at night he found her in the bar. She caught his eye wearing the gold dress that night and his was the second name she ever wrote down.
It had been a few days since anyone had caught Nadia’s eye, but Shawn was there, at the café and she joined him for coffee. Just as he threw her into the softness of her mattress the phone rang. “Don’t answer it,” he said as he kissed her neck, but she couldn’t concentrate not with the ringing, that insistent, unending ringing, Nadia sat up and grabbed the phone.
Angrily Nadine tore off the headset and took her phone call. Probably Damon or Jordan’s school again, those damn boys were nothing but trouble, a thorn in her side, constantly, the bane of her existence. “Hello? No thank you we are very happy with our current virtual services, no we are not in need of another headset, yes I am sure, alright, no nothing else at this time, thank you buh bye.” Nadine sighed to herself and turned away from the virtual station towards the digital clock on the desk. “Almost three, ugh never enough hours in the day,” she said to herself. She walked into the next room, stepping on something sharp along the way, a plastic block no doubt, traps laid by the boys. Nadine sometimes wondered if her boys tried to torture her, or if it just came naturally. Probably a trait inherited from their father, something associated with the “Y” chromosome. When she got to the bathroom, she threw open the drawer to look for a rubber band. Her baby soft, fine blond ringlets were always in her eyes without the headset on and she wasn’t about to deal with the boys blind. With her clear, porcelain skin and her bright blue eyes, Nadine was pretty once, but that was before she was married, before the boys drained her to a shell. Her father had always admired her skin, so pale like her sister’s, but with out a mark, no freckles, not even a mole to mar her perfect complexion.
When she returned to the office, Nadine looked once again at the virtual station, then bent and turned Nadia off. “Nighty, Night,” she said and left to pick up the boys. As she drove, she thought of her plans, of Nadia. It was just after Damon’s birth, when John told her she wouldn’t be returning to work, that she created Nadia. The virtual world was exactly like the real one, except that you could be whoever you wanted to be. It was an old concept, created at the very beginning of the technological era, but it had been expanded over time until it was almost a world of its own. It was this world that brought Nadine the life she craved, the life that had been stolen from her the moment she was born. She sometimes looked at the pictures of her family and thought that if the dictionary had pictures, her family portrait should be filed under tragic irony. Her mother was the picture of idealism with her golden blonde hair, so lush she never needed to style it, and her clear blue eyes. Her father looked strong and handsome, his red hair glinting off of his green tie, his sun kissed cheeks dimpled when he smiled. Then there was Rebecca, a perfect Irish daughter, she took strongly after their father, his hair, his same green eyes and his striking smile. Nadine looked so small in the photo, so much younger than her sister but as different as day and night. She had blonde hair but it hung, so soft it couldn’t even support its own weight and her mother’s clear, shining blue eyes. Her sister Rebecca, so beautiful and so cursed. Her only dream to be a mother destroyed by their own father’s poor planning. When she found out about the sterilization, Rebecca tried to run, she was older than the girls are now when the designation is made and her desire for a family was strong. Nadine remembered the way her older sister looked when she came home from the procedure, empty, destroyed, and that was what she was, a shell of a person. If Nadine had bothered to look in the mirror, she would have noticed that she now had the same eyes as her sister, the haunted look of defeat.
A trick of fate, a curse from God, Nadine didn’t know what to call it; she only knew that if their looks had been reversed, her sister would still be alive. But she had been weak, weaker than Nadine and now she was dead. Her mother claimed it was from a broken heart. The only thing Rebecca ever wanted was a family of her own, the very same thing that had put Nadine in a prison since she was pubescent.
As the boys piled into the car, Nadine thought of her sister and how she had wasted such a wonderful designation. As soon as she was old enough to realize what the designations meant, Nadine had hoped for freedom, she had prayed her hair would change, that she too would be determined a carrier of the “G” gene. It had been hopeless; she should have known that all along, she was too much like her mother, a physical specimen, perfect genetic material to continue the species. Her marriage to John had been arranged by her father, a good political marriage.
John was a good man, but he wasn’t what Nadine wanted. She didn’t know what kind of man she wanted, but she knew it wasn’t an anti tech political bureaucrat who wanted seven sons. One of the only things that brought a smile to Nadine’s face besides Nadia was the fact that her husband had no idea what she did all day. He was an Anti Tech, part of the cult that was established in the last hundred years. It had been declared its own religion after much bribing of the government and therefore it was extremely popular. It was mostly men and women who dreamed of a different time, but had no idea how to get back there, not after all the damage that had been done. Nadine supposed she was lucky that John let her have a virtual machine at all. She had had to bring out her inner Nadia to convince him, and she was often afraid she would soon have to deal with another one of his children in order to keep it.
It was almost a week later that Nadia met Dave at the grocery. He had long hair and wore sandals, totally not her type. It was his voice that she was drawn to; it was so soft, sweet and sexy. His was the third name she wrote in her notebook.
Nadine always met John at the door. She knew it would keep up appearances and it was important to keep him happy. It was important that she keep her husband happy because without him she would lose everything. Nadine had to keep herself in the house, with access to his money until she was ready for her plan to start. She just needed to find the right person, the person she could manipulate into setting her free.
In the next two months, Nadia met two more men whose names she wrote down in her small purple notebook. Out of boredom one day, she called up Patrick, but he wasn’t in-virtual. In fact, when she checked his profile, she found he hadn’t returned to their world since the morning he left her house. She smiled to herself, assuming her sheer prowess had made him lose his desire for other women.
It was a slow day, not very many people were around town and the pickings for men were slim. Nadia was disappointed; she had recently bought a new top, slinky and backless and was ready to find some fun. She decided to call the next man in her purple book, Jacob, the spa man.
Nadine kissed her husband goodnight.
“Did you have a good day, my love?” He whispered in the dark.
“It was fine, just fine,” she sighed absentmindedly.
Nadia was becoming frantic now; all of the men, her special men, her purple book men were totally missing from her world. Normally she wouldn’t have minded, it was just that all the men had been special somehow, in a way she couldn’t place. She had hoped one of them might be the one to help her plan but now it looked like she was going to have to keep searching. It was strange that all the men were missing. They had nice apartments and were big players in the world. It seemed like a lot of work to abandon. It had taken Nadia seven years to get her fame and she couldn’t imagine walking away. Something was wrong.
It was six months of meaningless flings until Nadia found another like her special men. He was tall, much taller than most of the men she had met. It was his eyes that caught her, the way they twinkled, she had to have him. He was a waiter at the café, a newbie and he was all hers. She loved the way he felt so fresh, so innocent, a rarity in the world she lived in. It only took her a week until she decided he was the one.
It took her almost exactly a month to get the courage to ask Isaac about his life outside of the virtual world. His lip curled in a way she had never seen before, a sort of relieved smile as he answered, “I thought you would never ask.”
Nadine’s heart raced. Today was finally the day she would meet him, her knight in shining armor. She had taken the kids to school that morning and kissed them both goodbyes for the last time. Then for the first time in almost eight years, she went home and ignored her virtual station. Nadine went upstairs, and unwrapped the beautiful new dress, an exact replica of one of her favorite virtual outfits. She styled her hair into soft curls and carefully applied makeup for the first time since the birth of her oldest son.
When the doorbell rang, she was surprised that he was perfectly on time. Her house wasn’t the easiest to find, but Nadine assumed that he must have had a GPS system. “How nice to not have to deal with an Anti Tech anymore,” Nadine said to the mirror. Isaac in the flesh, come to take her to freedom. Her heart raced as she went to the stairs, but when she got to the bottom it all but stopped beating.
Standing at the bottom of the stairs was John. He waved as she stared, open mouthed at the roses in his left hand. Slowly she shut it when she noticed the Government Issue revolver in his right. “Why don’t we have a seat my dear Nadia, I think we have a lot to discuss.” His smile sickened her, but she let him lead her into the living room.
“I don’t understand where is Isaac? What have you done with him?” Nadine cried.
“Oh my sweet, naïve little darling, did it ever occur to you that you were not the only one who lied? Did you really think you were the only one to live a double life inside the virtual world? You never asked me what I did for the government; you were so busy trying to conceal your life from me that you never thought to ask how I paid for it all. Have you no idea what that technology has done to our President’s breeding plan? How many breeder men waste their lives inside that virtual world? It is ruining us Nadine, ruining the future that your father helped create. I am a hunter my sweet. I find the women, the most famous women, the ones in the virtual world who lead the breeder men away from the real world and into that wasteland. And when I find these women, I end them.”
John stood then and looked Nadine up and down, sizing her up like cattle. She could see no trace of the man she knew, but there was wildness behind his eyes she knew as passion, lust, but this time she knew the lust had nothing to do with her body. He started to speak again, with an almost breathless fervor, waving the pistol as he spoke,
“Did you really think I wouldn’t find out? I knew it was you as soon as I saw her, so much like your sister. You were always jealous of her I knew that, but to defame her memory for your shameful promiscuity? How dare you! You will never be the woman your sister was, never the wife and mother she could have been. Damn you and your blonde hair! I loved you Nadine just like your sister, I really did, but this I cannot forgive. It’s my job dear, to eliminate the threats to the breeding system. So know that this is not personal my sweet, simply business, something I’m sure your father taught you. Sometimes family comes between what is best for the country, and then the ties must be broken.”
Finally able to find words, Nadine spoke as John caught his breath,
“But, Isaac and I, we talked of freedom, of making our own decisions. How could that have been you the whole time? He promised he would take me away from this prison, make me free…..”
“Yes my dear, I am Isaac, and no I never lied to you, I will make you free.”
With that, John raised his hand and pulled the trigger. Nadine shook with impact, her body sighing as it hit the ground. She closed her eyes.
The early morning sun shone in the window, crimson spread across the pillow, Nadia woke slowly and smiled.
The End