Читать книгу The Apotheosis - Darrell Lee - Страница 19

The months following Amira’s first visit to my apartment were the happiest I’d ever known. I diligently watched the monkeys’ progress, and I finished the CAT scan system in anticipation of the new arrivals. Amira and I saw each other often, usually at lunch. I would return to work with the scent of her still on me and casually pass Ethan in the hallway. Sometimes she came to my apartment in the mornings after taking Elona to school and on Saturday afternoons when she could make an excuse to be out of the house.

One weekend in late April, when Ethan was away on business travel, we saw a movie while holding hands. It sounds so trivial now, but I remember it being a big deal. Out and about like a normal couple, doing normal date things. The times when we were together passed at twice the speed of a normal day. We talked about literature and philosophy and why the world was the way it was and how it could be better and how we would change it. I was not really much of a talker; I think I was a bit too practical to really be chatty. Except when I was around her. She inspired me and opened my mind to different subject matters, and we talked and talked for hours on end without any of it being forced or trite. She simply brought out the best in me. And I believed I did the same for her. We were happy and content and stimulated in each other’s company. And that was all we needed. That night, we ate dinner at a restaurant before rushing back to my apartment. She always had to go too soon, leaving me there with the sweat-dampened sheets and silence.

By mid-June the five expectant monkeys had each given birth to healthy replicas of Petri. It was a time of great excitement, and I spent long hours in the lab studying and observing the mother-infant pairs and performing tests on the infants. By September the newborn monkeys were eating solid food and thriving. They were developing normally and I felt confident I had achieved a 100 percent success rate for embryo implantation.

Things were going well, but that was about to change. At first, I was sure it was for the better, only to find out it was for the worse.