Hope From a Mutant
Tuesday, January 31st, 2006CHAPTER 17
HOPE FROM A MUTANT
The doctor came out of the office with a concerned look on his face.
“It’s bad isn’t it?” She started to cry in anticipation of what she assumed was horrible news.
“What I need to tell you about your daughter is not going to be easy to swallow. This is something very rare, something I’ve only seen a couple of previous times. Your daughter it seems is afraid of cockroaches.”
“But that’s impossible, doctor. We ARE cockroaches. How can she be afraid of what she is? What we are?”
The doctor hesitated then proceeded, “Have you been in the human’s lair in the last 6 months?”
The mother thought. “Sure, a number of times. I get a kick out of watching the female scream whenever I show up in the light.”
“Per chance have you ventured into the bed of the human pair?” continued the doctor.
The mother proceeded slowly, “Yes, actually, but just once… it was one night that we had partied a little too hard, and I was dared to go into the bed to scare the couple. I was tipsy, and figured, hey, I only live once. So I ventured into the bed,” then she continued more excitedly, “you should have seen that girl jump… I had to fly to get out of there. I had her mate flailing at me with a shoe. I landed close enough to the wall that I could squeeze under before I could get splatted! Wow, I haven’t ventured there since, but what a rush! What does this have to do with anything?”
“By any chance did you come across any puddles on the bed?” asked the doctor.
The mother froze momentarily…”Doctor, you are scaring me, what are you getting at?”
“It’s vital that you respond, did you or did you not encounter a pud…”
“Yes, doctor I did, just as I was about to fly. I actually slipped on this small amount of water, and it was that stumble that prompted me to fly. What does it matter?”
The doctor leaned in closely… “That puddle wasn’t water…”
The mother’s face stared in terror!
“Your daughter, according to my tests, has how do I explain this to you… well, she has human DNA. That male human appears to be… her father.”
The mother’s lower abdomen started to churn, her antennae began to flail back and forth in a crazy pattern, and finally she found her voice, “That’s impossible!”
“It would seem so, but it’s apparently not. Your daughter’s DNA is half roach and half human. Physically she IS a roach, but it seems that psychologically she is 100% human! Has she exhibited any extremely strange behavior around you that you haven’t told me about?”
Mother cockroach began to cry in an uncontrollable manner, yet between sobs was able to get these words out, “Oh my, my sweet princess… I couldn’t understand why she would walk all over me and scream, ‘DIE, DIE’ stepping on me with her feet as hard as she could, and how she would cower in a corner when I’d walk into the room yelling ‘Somebody kill it, anybody please!!!’, and then she’d look for a table and jump on top of it and cry. My beautiful, beautiful girl, what can I do for her?”
“There really isn’t much we could do to help her, except maybe,” the doctor paused, then decided to go on, “maybe tell her the truth. The way I see it, she can be very important to our species. We have been tortured, sprayed at, terrorized, swatted at by shoes as long as humans have been around, and now we have someone here part human. She may hold the answer to bringing us peace with the humans. Isn’t that what we all want? To not have to look over our antennae to see what is coming after when we’re searching for food? She just might be our only hope.”
“But doctor,” said the mother, “she’s just a child. Can she handle the truth?”
“We might not have a choice. Do you want to visit her?”
“How can I? She’ll scream with fear.”
“I have a solution to that. Here I have a pair of human masks that I cut out of one of what they call a magazine. I am going to be wearing what they call a ‘Tom Cruise’ mask. You’ll be wearing a ‘Jennifer Aniston’ mask. These seem to be powerful humans. Their pictures are practically in all their recorded archives.”
“OK, Doctor, if you say so.”
The two roaches put on the masks and entered the room. The young nymph flinched and then relaxed when she saw human faces, albeit on cockroach bodies.
“Hi, darling, it’s me, mom… I’m sorry for the appearance. I was told it would be acceptable to you.”
“You do look better, “said the young’en, “but I would appreciate it if you stayed away… I’m kind of grossed out by the two of you. I’m not quite sure why I’m not screaming actually.”
“You’ve been sedated,” interrupted the doctor. “I just wanted you to relax while I examined you. Regarding your exam there is something you should kno…”
“Please,” the mother jumped in, “let me tell her.”
The doctor moved aside and let the mother approach her daughter as much as possible before the daughter began to visibly squirm.
“You know how I told you about your father, may he rest in peace… well, it seems that he wasn’t really your father. Sweetie, I can’t explain to you how… but…” she begins to cry again, but manages to blurt out, “your father is a human!”
“What?”
“Yes, darling. Your father is a human. He happens to be the man that lives outside of these walls that we live in. There was a freak accident, but somehow I conceived you by him… he is your biological father.”
“That makes so much sense. It makes so… much… sense!!!”
“Now honey, listen to me, I know this is a lot for you to swallow in one day, but the truth is that this truth makes you very special, one of a kind even. You may be our only hope to fixing the great schism between man and roach.”
“That’s right, young girl. Over the next few weeks we have to condition you to see how we can get you to communicate with your half species. If all goes well, we will be able to bridge the gap with humans.”
“What? You want me to be your diplomat? Your go between. Excuse me, but I just found out I have a father out there. I need to see him. I can’t wait. I need to be with him. i can’t be with you any longer. I’, disgusted by you. I need to be with my own kind.”
Mother had to say something, “Sweetie, don’t you understand, you’re not really one of them… you look nothing like them… they won’t understand!”
“Of course he will mother, HE’S MY FATHER!” She got up and stormed out.
“Wait!” said the doctor, “You’re not thinking straight, it’s the drugs in your system that are sedating you. They’re putting ideas in your head. Stop!”
“Monica, come back!” yelled her mom.
But she was gone.
Monica raced into an alley. She needed to do something. A paper. She needed a paper. As big a paper as possible. She had to write a message, one big enough for her father to read. She found something to write with and scratched something onto the biggest paper she could find. She looked at it closely then folded it up and darted out under the crease in the wooden baseboards in the house. She wasn’t sure which room her father was in, or if he was even in the area, but it was a chance she was willing to take. She went into the kitchen… nothing. She continued into the hallway… no one. She went into two other rooms… not a sole.
Finally she sensed some movement in the laundry room. She wandered in, and found him… HER FATHER, and THAT GIRL. He ran towards her father and yelled as loud as she could, “DADDY, DADDY!” But her voice was too low. He heard nothing. Suddenly, she heard a screech. It was the girl! She ran to a corner and started yelling those words so familiar to her, “Kill it, kill it!”
She looked and saw her father now facing her. Here was her chance! She unfolded her paper and pointed it right at him, but by the time he would even notice she was holding it, it was too late. Monica died at that instant at the hands of her own father.
“Thank God, you killed it. I was going to have a heart attack. Your fumigator sucks!” the girl offered.
“I hope you’re happy. Those things are harmless. What has a cockroach ever done to you?”
“Your always defending them. Why? They’re nasty! Aren’t you grossed out by them?”
“Yeah, so? It’s not like they can hurt you. I mean look at this one, it was not even fully grown. What was it going to do to you, huh?” And as he looked at the cockroach lying on the floor, he saw a small folded paper lying close by. He bent over and picked it up. He opened it and for whatever reason decided to read it… aloud.
‘It’s me HUMAN DADDY, your daughter, MONICA ROACH.’
“What the hell does that mean,” he murmured to himself, and as he turned around to face his girlfriend…
SLAP!!
“You two timing, son of a… I can’t believe you were seeing someone else behind my back… my sister always siad you were a roach!!! Ugh! You disgust me you backstabbing ass!” And she walked out the door.
From a distance, the doctor stood alone in a corner in the laundry room and sighed to himself, “Just like last time… I guess we’re doomed.”
He slowly crawled back under the wooden baseboard and into the wall and prayed for another miracle mutant to be sent.
THE END
