Читать книгу The Apotheosis - Darrell Lee - Страница 21

“Amira, come here.”

Ethan’s command came from the study. Supper baked in the oven. Elona was watching TV in the living room. It was early evening on a Friday. Amira stopped mid-stroke in ironing Elona’s dress. She knew that tone all too well. Whatever Ethan wanted to talk about couldn’t be good. Her hope for a peaceful weekend winked out of existence in an instant. She placed the iron on the counter. Her mind raced. We’ve been very careful. No texts. No emails. I always call him, never the other way around. I always use the prepaid phone. It’s still hidden in the lining of my purse. He hasn’t found that, my purse is in here.

Amira stood in the doorway of the study. Ethan sat at his desk, his laptop in front of him.

“Why is there an email here from Boston Magazine informing you that they have received your resume for a position there?”

“Where’s the email? When did I get it?”

“In your inbox. It just arrived.”

Damn it, of all the luck. I applied only yesterday.

Ethan checking Amira’s email was nothing new. Some battles weren’t worth fighting.

“Elona’s been in school for almost a month now. I thought I’d try to find some part-time work. Like I said, use that journalism degree I have.” And some battles are.

“Why do you insist on disobeying me? We have discussed this idea at least twice before and I told you that you will not work outside this house! I am the husband, I decide how this house is run! I am deleting your email account!”

Delete my account, like I can’t make another? A secret one. But I’m not hiding this from you. I’m not your slave. The ball of anger grew in Amira’s chest. Down the hall, Elona peered around the corner. Amira sensed her and looked to her right. Their eyes met. Amira could see the dread on her child’s face of another argument brewing. If it was about anything else she’d let it go, if only to save Elona from having to hear another one. To save the weekend and next week from having to watch Ethan brood about, silent and sulking. The anger in Ethan’s eyes was as blatant as the sadness and fear in Elona’s. But she was determined to stand her ground over this. Ethan and his threats had gone too far.

“Elona, go to your room and shut the door, please.” Amira’s voice was calm but forced. Elona stood silent and still. She dropped her eyes to the floor. Amira knew what she was contemplating: If I don’t go to my room, the fight won’t happen. “Now! Elona.”

The child ran to her room.

The door shut.

Amira turned to glare at Ethan. The ball grew. How dare you make me have to speak to Elona like that?

John opened the door to Amira, red-eyed, red-nosed, clutching her purse and a tissue.

“It must be bad for you to drive here in the pouring rain. What happened?”

“Ethan took her.” Amira came inside and sat on the couch.

“Elona?”

“Yes.”

“Where?” John sat beside her.

“He didn’t say, but I’d expect to his parents’ apartment in New York. She doesn’t even have a change of clothes.”

“What was this fight over?”

“The job I applied for… and he threatened to delete my email account.” Amira held her head in her hands. “There was a lot of yelling and screaming and him quoting scripture… I told him he could go fuck himself in the ass with that book.”

John smirked.

“I don’t know where that came from… I swore I’d quit talking like that.”

“It’s never too late to start again.”

“It’s not funny. I don’t want every time Elona hears the F-word for it to have come from her mother.”

“Sorry.”

“Oh, God, I hope Elona didn’t hear that… I was just so… so angry.” Amira sighed and sat up straight. “He stormed out of the study to Elona’s room and picked her up and headed for the door. I tried to stop him and he pushed me.”

“He pushed you?”

“Yes… twice. Once inside the apartment and once in the hallway. Elona was crying. I was crying. I tried to stop him from getting on the elevator, and he pushed me to the floor. The neighbors came out. I was so embarrassed. The elevator opened and he was gone with her. I just sat there and cried.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No, just my pride… and dignity. I don’t know how I’ll be able to look my neighbors in the eye again.”

“I wouldn’t worry about them. And if he’s heading to the grandparents’ place, I wouldn’t worry about Elona either. At least not about being clothed, fed, bathed, and teeth brushed. From the stories you tell me, she has both sets of grandparents wrapped around her finger. And she knows it. They’ll get her to feeling better and probably have her call you as soon as they understand what happened.”

“You’re right.”

John wrapped an arm around her. She let out another deep breath and rested her head on his shoulder.

“Do you want something to eat?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Want to watch TV?”

Amira shook her head.

“Would you like to go to my lab and see my new baby monkeys?”

Amira had been hoping for weeks to see the new arrivals. She sat back to see his face.

“That’s unfair for you to ask me that now; you’ve been putting me off all this time and now you’re just using it as a ploy to get me to feel better.”

“Nobody ever told me I had to be fair.”

The slightest smile came to her lips.

When they entered the lab, the overhead lights came on. Cold air met Amira’s face. The whirl of fans inside the rack of computers filled the space with an annoying hum. Amira gazed around in amazement. In the middle of the room, a large machine sat on top of a table. A bundle of multicolored wires came out of the gray metal housing and ran along the underside of a robotic arm. The arm extended out over the table to a work area with a large black metal cylinder that stood to the ceiling. A panel of switches, LED lights, and a flat-panel computer screen were mounted to the side, at the base of the cylinder. Underneath the screen, on the tabletop, sat a keyboard and a mouse. Amira looked at the computer monitor and could see a live video feed of the end of the robotic arm inside the cylinder. A mechanical hand, with a delicate gold needle-like tool extending from the center, showed on the screen. Amira looked back at the arm, where it came out of the cylinder, and followed it back to its base. She noticed the rack of four blank computer screens and a keyboard.

“This must be your miracle. The accumulation of all those IQ points bouncing around in that mind of yours. Your masterpiece.”

“I’ve worked on it the last four years. It’s the device that enables me to extract the nucleus from the donor cell and replace it with the nucleus of the clone cell in just the right way to get the key proteins in place. It constructs the internal working of the cell so that it’s perfect, of course, using those computers on the wall behind you and software developed by yours truly. It stimulates the nucleus of the donor egg to begin cell division and building of the embryo. It begins there inside that cylinder.”

Amira looked to the left of the table and saw a separate device. A table at one end and a vertical long, hollow cylinder at the other. She paused for a moment. “That is a CAT scan machine, right?”

“I use it to study the development of the brain in the cloned monkeys. I’ve a few ideas I’m researching. If you look at the computer screen behind the table, you can see the images. The software I created is making a detailed analysis. It takes a while, so I let it run pretty much twenty-four hours a day.”

John opened a drawer in the desk next to him and removed a bag of almonds. He opened the bag and placed half a handful into his right pants pocket. He held some out for Amira. “Put these in your pocket.” She did. He placed the bag back in the drawer and closed it. John pointed to the far end of the room past the CAT scan. “It’s through that door at the end; the monkeys are waiting.”

From behind the Plexiglas, the monkeys screeched their excitement at having visitors. Petri ran to the platform in front of the door, her infant hanging onto her back. Amira noticed each adult monkey had a small infant clinging to her somewhere. Each infant had a different-colored plastic band around one of its wrists. John went to the door, unlatched and opened it. Petri scampered out onto John’s shoulder. Her baby had a red wristband. The other monkeys moved toward the door. John closed it.

“Amira, this is Petri, and riding along with Petri is her baby, Petri Three. Petri, this is Amira.”

Amira reached out slowly and stroked Petri on her shoulder.

“Give her an almond.”

Amira did and laughed at the way Petri snatched it from her hand, bit it in half, and gave half to the baby she was carrying. The baby ate the almond with the enthusiasm of its mother.

“She’s so stinking cute! Can I hold her?”

“Take a few almonds out of your pocket and hold them in the palm of your hand so she can see them. I’ll move so she can get from my shoulder to yours. For almonds, she would let the devil himself hold her.”

That was exactly what happened. A minute later Petri and Petri Three were sitting happily on Amira’s shoulder eating every almond handed their way. Soon Amira’s almonds were gone, and Petri returned to John’s shoulder. John opened the Plexiglas door again and she hopped back inside. John threw the remaining almonds in to the other monkeys, closed the door, and locked the latch. Amira stood silently. The smile that had been on her face was gone. She stared at the monkeys inside the enclosed area. A lightening flash strobed through the overhead domed skylight and thunder cracked. Rain drummed on the roof.

“I’m leaving him.” She didn’t look at John standing behind her. “God knows I have tried to make it work, tried for Elona, tried for my parents—I just can’t.” A tear rolled down her cheek. She kept looking at the monkeys. “It’s more than just the loss of love or passion or intimacy. He will not let me grow. He wants to keep me in a cage, just like these monkeys, and he’ll never change.”

“How can I help? What do you need from me?” John put his arms around her.

“Patience,” she said. “I’m going to talk to him when he comes back. It’s going to take a while for me to get my own place, as well as get Elona and myself settled there. We won’t be able to see each other till the separation is complete.”

“I understand.”

“Thanks. There’s one other thing you can do for me,” Amira said.

“Anything.”

She faced him. “Take me back to your place and bring me to your bed.”

When Ethan returned the next evening, Amira felt ready. She spent the first hour with Elona, hearing about the new doll Grandmother bought her and the new clothes. Ethan didn’t say a word to Amira the whole evening, or during dinner. When dinner ended, Ethan secluded himself in the study. Amira put Elona to bed.

Amira took a shower, changed into sweatpants and a T-shirt, and went to the study. Ethan sat at his desk reading the Tanakh. When she walked in, he continued reading as if she wasn’t there.

“Ethan, we need to talk,” Amira said.

“No, we don’t. You are not working outside this house. That is my final word on the matter. I hoped time alone would help you understand that fact. Elona needs you at home.” Ethan turned a page of the book, pressing it down firmly with his hand.

“I’m leaving,” Amira said.

Ethan looked up from the book. “Leaving? Where’re you going? It’s ten o’clock at night.”

“I mean I’m moving out, with Elona. I want a divorce.”

“I forbid it.”

“Ethan, please. We need to talk. We have to talk about how best to handle this for Elona.” Amira kept her voice calm and her tone even.

Ethan stood from the chair and went around the desk. He pointed his finger at Amira’s face. “I forbid it! You’ll not destroy this family!”

She stood her ground. “I’m not your child. I’m not asking your permission. This is not a family. We’re two people living separate lives within the same house. There’s no love here.” Amira raised her voice at the end. “You want to control me like I’m your servant, but I’m not going to live my life this way!”

Amira’s defiance, in Ethan’s eyes, was a defiance of God. God had ordained the husband as the authority in the marriage. It threatened him, but mostly it scared him. He was losing, or as he now realized, he had already lost her. Anger widened his eyes and veins protruded from his forehead. He didn’t know how to stop it. His open hand came up out of frustrated reflex and landed sharply on the side of Amira’s face before either of them knew it, leaving the red imprint of his fingers.

She gasped from the pain. He had never struck her before. Her eyes went back to his. She could see the outward expression of anger, but she could smell the fear. Her eyes did not flinch. Her stare never left his.

“I’m leaving. You can beat me if you want, but that fact will not change!”

He clenched his fist in front of Amira. Instead of striking her again, he grabbed the book from the desk and threw it against the wall behind her. “I’ll not grant you a divorce, ever! You’ll be back here in a week. Do you understand? I’ll fight you every step of the way. I will not help you break up our family.”

“I don’t expect any help.” Amira slammed the door on her way out.

The next morning, after she took Elona to school, as soon as the bank was open Amira withdrew half of the money in their checking and saving accounts. She opened up her own account at a different bank and calculated that she had enough money to last for a year. By then I need to have a job. From there, she took the laptop to a Starbucks to search for an apartment.

She settled at the table and opened the laptop. She took a sip from the latte and waited for the login screen. I don’t think Ethan would put spyware on my computer. But I can’t be sure. I’ll just have to risk it. Into Google she typed “Craigslist Boston.” Under “Housing” she selected “apt/housing.” Next she selected “All Apartments.”

The screen filled with pictures, sorted by newest to oldest. Amira scrolled through the page. Something close to Elona’s school. Her attention was drawn to the picture of an empty living room, well-lit, an open kitchen with golden-oak flooring, and cabinets with black granite countertops at the far end.

Rent: $2,500 / Month

Broker Fee: One Month

Available Date: 09/12/2019

Beds: 2

Baths: 2

Pet: No Pets

Features: Central Air, Dishwasher, Eat-in Kitchen, Granite Countertops, Hardwood Floors, Laundry, Modern Bath, Modern Kitchen, Near T, New/Renovated Kitchen, Parking For Rent, Storage, Near Public Transportation

Spacious 2 bed 2 bath apartment located on Jacob Street. Gorgeous updated kitchen, granite, dishwasher. Modern bathroom, good closet space, windows, gleaming hardwood floor in kitchen and bath and crown moldings. Steps to Star Market and C-Line. Great restaurants within walking distance. Central A/C. Exclusive laundry and storage space right outside of unit.

Call or Text Lisa 508-516-3877

That is a very short drive to Elona’s school. And it’s available tomorrow. Amira punched the number on her phone.

“Hello?” a young woman’s voice answered.

“Hi, I’m calling about the apartment you have for rent. Is it still available?”

“Yes, it is still available.”

“I am very interested, can I come see it?”

“Great, I’m the broker. What time would you like the viewing?”

“Now?”

“I can’t right now, but I could meet you there in an hour.”

“Works for me.”

Amira wrote the address on the Starbucks napkin.

“Thanks, see you soon.”

Amira spent the next forty minutes making a to-do list and sipping her latte before leaving for the appointment. Like all of Boston, maple trees lined the sidewalks of Jacob Street. Metro bus tracks separated the two sides. Businesses and brick apartment buildings occupied most of the block. A Whole Foods wasn’t far away.

The broker, a smartly dressed woman in her thirties, stood in front of a red brick building with rich-toned maple doors. The broker spotted her as soon as she stepped out of the car. They shook hands.

“Hi, I’m Lisa.”

“Amira.”

“Let me show you the place.”

They proceeded to the door and the broker opened it with a security keypad. They took the stairs to the second floor. Just three doors down.

It was everything the ad claimed it to be. Stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, domed lights on the ceiling. The bedrooms were down a short hall. Amira fell in love with it immediately. It smelled of fresh paint, new carpet, and new life.

“I’ll take it.”

“When would you like to move in?”

“Day after tomorrow.”

“That may be a challenge. There is paperwork for the lease agreement and a credit check. You must pay the first month’s rent and the broker fee of $2,500.”

“If I pay the broker fee in cash,” Amira removed an envelope from her purse, “and made it $3,000, would that help to get the paperwork done in time?” She removed thirty $100 bills from the envelope.

Lisa took the money with a smile. “Yes, I’m sure we can find a way.”

“And perhaps you know a moving company that can find a way to fit me in that day? There isn’t that much to move and I’d being willing to pay extra for the inconvenience.”

“I know just the company… my brother owns it.”

Amira sat in her car, excited and nervous. It’s real and it’s about damn time.