| ZYGOTE IN MY COFFEE.COM |
| ***BIO*** Tonia Brown: I hail from North Carolina though my roots spread a little deeper thanks to a military upbringing. I have made previous short story sales to Morpheus Tales, Macabre Cadaver, Burst! Literary Ezine and The Monsters Next Door. I am also slated to appear in the upcoming anthology Ladies of Horror 2009. I have a full length paranormal-erotic-comedy named "Epiphany" coming out in late spring with Sugar and Spice Press. |
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| © 2009 zygoteinmycoffee Ink. |
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| Forever Young |
| by Tonia Brown |
| “Everything went to hell the day the government took it away,” he said. He drew on his cigarette, triggering a coughing spasm. He remedied this with the oxygen mask, holding his cigarette as far away as his tired arm could manage. He grinned when he saw the worry on her. “I’m supposed to live dangerously. It’s what teenagers do.”
Kelly tried to ignore the flammable combination and keep up her best ‘reporter’ smile. “So you blame the government?” He took another drag, and exhaled slowly. “Like most God fearing Americans, I hate the government.” The smoke eased away from his lips and nostrils and eddied around him in the stagnant air. Nicotine stains left his mouth a barbed, yellow cavern, while his eyes were bloodshot pools of endless red. Kelly thought he looked like an old dragon that had crawled off to die. “But it wasn’t them that did this to me,” he continued. “It that dammed Social Engineer. Helen Sikes.” “But her idea for your sentence was sanctioned by the government,” Kelly said as she pushed the recorder closer to him. “It wasn’t a sentence, it was an experiment!” he shouted. His grin faded. She shifted in her seat, uncomfortable by his outburst, and changed the direction of her questions. “Just to clarify for our readers, you are legally fourteen?” “Yup,” he said. “Every scrap of paper in the US of A thinks I’m just a little boy.” “But you are actually…” her question trailed off. “Seventy three.” He winked at her. She smiled again. “And by law you’ll never age? You’ll be forever young?” “Young on paper,” he corrected. “No adult rights or privileges. That was the genius of it. Kept us under their thumb, legally, forever and ever. Amen.” He laid a single thumb down against the wooden bedside table, and twisted it for emphasis before he added, “And it worked too. For a while.” “When did you first realize it would work as a form of punishment?” He cocked his head in thought, and squashed his spent cigarette into the mountain of charred filters in the ashtray. “My pediatrician,” he growled as he lit another one. “Pediatrician?” “Yeah. He refused to see me again after the conviction.” He coughed a few times, holding the mask in wait but not resorting to it. “And you are required, by law, to see a pediatrician?” He nodded. “For the rest of your life?” she asked. He nodded again; smoke trailing from his snout, his glassy eyes burning with hate. “I had to have an affidavit every time I changed docs. That got really old, really fast. Eventually I hooked up with this med school graduate that didn’t mind the publicity. I figured I needed someone in it for the long haul, so I got a pediatrician younger than me.” He flicked his ash and snorted an ironic chuckle. “He still sees me. He broke the cancer to me.” “Is the cancer why you’re coming out against this now? After so many years?” He stared quietly at her, before she made a note of it and moved on. “How did it affect the rest of your life?” she asked. He jabbed the air with his cigarette as he said, “I was gonna be a photographer when I grew up. I’ll bet you didn’t know that. I had the passion, and the talent. But I hung out with the wrong kids and blew it all to hell.” He pressed his forefingers together in a mock barrel, and placed their tips against his head. He silently pulled his thumb-trigger. She swallowed hard. “The conviction ruined a promising career?” He laughed and shook his head. “No one wants a fourteen year old employee on the books. Can’t drive. Can’t work certain hours. Can’t do the nudie shoots. The taxes alone are a nightmare. It screwed my life up for a long time.” “Then when did the sentence stop being effective?” “When Sikes abandoned us. You know, Helen actually came to me and apologized.” He smiled wider than before and added, “I told her to blow!” He laughed, which set him off to coughing again. After he settled down, he took on a wounded look. Kelly didn’t know if it was the illness or the memories paining him. “Why do you think she left?” He just stared at her again. “Do think it was the Butler incident?” she asked. “Sure,” he said. “When the Feds found out our Mr. Butler had himself a harem of little girls, they blew their stacks. I mean, sure legally he was only twelve, but come on! Did he really think he’d get away with it?” “He might have,” she interjected, “if that father hadn’t shot him.” “What do you think I meant?” He raised an eyebrow at her and smirked. She shifted again, ever uncomfortable under his glare. “But even after that, did they keep enforcing the sentence?” “They tried, but there was a lot bad blood after Butler. The men upstairs practically pulled plug overnight and paid us all to forget about it.” “But they never, formally, lifted the sentence.” He shook his head. “Why do you think they didn’t suspend the sentence?” she asked. “And admit they screwed up to begin with?” he asked. “You sure you’re from America?” “But surely they admitted as much by issuing settlements?” His grin flattened into a pleasant smile. “Money is an amazing thing. Technically I’m jail bait, but you’d be surprised what kind of woman can be bought.” He stopped and licked his lips, eyeing Kelly’s skirt-bare legs. “Besides, the money isn’t technically mine. I’m not old enough to have it.” “Do you regret shooting that man?” she suddenly asked, surprised by her own audacity. He frowned, leaned in and stared hard at her. “Young lady, they literally took away my birthday. What do you think?” “Legally, forever young,” she said softly. His dragon smile spread wide again. “Yeah, sucks, don’t it?” |
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| July 2009 |
| 121 |