Devolution

Gasping and wheezing as a result of his sprint away from the highway, Jeremiah had finally crashed to a halt in a suburban backyard. He didn’t know where he was and that was comforting. Deciding to wait till nightfall before moving on, he hoped his pursuers would have lost his trail as well; at least for the time being. The pleasure of this brief rest was interrupted by a terrible itch in his forearm where he had removed the tracker device.

Not having the proper equipment on hand and being in such a hurry, Jeremiah had crudely removed the tracker using a utility knife. Once out, he destroyed it and dressed the wound as best he could after cauterizing it. Then he swallowed a couple of fast acting painkillers. He reasoned that if he got the chance he would have it seen to by a medical professional but in the meantime what he had done would hopefully be sufficient.

Now as he removed the bandage from his arm to inspect the wound he wondered what could be causing the itching sensation which intensified as the seconds passed. It looked swollen and red, probably infected by now but not too bad. The urge to scratch was attacking him but he could not scratch for fear of opening up the wound and also spreading infection.

I can’t touch it, he kept saying to himself. I must not scratch. I must not scratch. He would have to leave his refuge and try to get help. He couldn’t stand it any longer so he stood and scaled the fence against which he was leaning and ran out onto the street. Now an easy target, he had no choice but to run straight and unhindered. Although the sun had gone down, Jeremiah was spotlighted by a brilliant full moon whose radiance diffused through persistent cloud cover. Where would he find a doctor? He didn’t even know where he was.

Beginning to cry out in frustration, Jeremiah grabbed his arm as it continued to swell and itch, pressing his palm against it as tightly as he could bear. The pain was excruciating and soon it was all his mind could deal with as delirium overcame him and he ran blindly and without purpose.

He didn’t even see the deep crack in the footpath which caused him to fall headlong into the front yard of someone’s home. When he tried to get to his feet, he found he was entangled in strong vine, its thorns tearing his skin with each movement. Ignoring the ripping of the sharp thorns, Jeremiah began to scratch his arm and immediately the swollen node burst, splattering infected pus all over him.

In a moment of clarity as the itching and pain caused his brain to begin to shut down, he thought he heard a voice, a soothing voice. Was it a bystander? The householder? Emergency services? God?

Jeremiah ceased struggling as the bacteria entered his body through hundreds of surgical cuts made by the thorns and totally paralyzed him. He even managed a smile at the relief he felt now free from pain. Now also free from danger, and free from this life. Lying still, he heard more voices but was unable to discern individual words from the sounds. It didn’t matter anymore.

Opening his eyes briefly, he turned his head as much as he could to see who was there but his vision was blurred so he closed them again.

‘I’m sorry God,’ whispered Jeremiah. ‘I’m sorry.’

Then he died.

The crowd of on-lookers heard his dying words weighing heavily as they did on his last breath, and watched in stunned silence as his twisted and torn body released its spirit to eternity.

The sound of the telephone ringing wrestled 3 from his slumber. He answered from his chair, ordering on the speakerphone.

‘Ted speaking.’

‘Ted, have you seen the news?’ It was Joshua. ‘Jeremiah is dead. He died only a few blocks from where he bolted away from us. They say he was poisoned. I need to talk to you. Can you come over to see me now? Are you busy?’

Hearing the breathless edge in his friend’s voice, 3 replied, ‘I’m not doing anything Joshua. I’ll come on over. I’ll leave straight away.’ Then he disconnected.

Joshua’s place was only fifteen minutes away but 3 spent every second of those fifteen minutes trying to figure what could be wrong now. His greatest suspicion was that it had something to do with Jeremiah.

Joshua was busy stuffing a backpack when 3 arrived. Veena was already there and he noted the two of them were involved in a heated discussion. It only took a few sentences for 3 to grab the thrust of the conversation.

‘I agree with Veena,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t make any sense and although it’s a noble cause, I really can’t support you doing this.’

Joshua stopped his packing quite suddenly and looked hard at his friend. ‘Don’t patronize me. I’m not a child,’ he said as he resumed his task. ‘You sound like my dad. Don’t you realize how serious I am? Don’t you realize how serious the situation is? We’ve just about finished school, and even if we weren’t finished, the school is being closed down. The last mixed tribe school. Think about it.’

‘I have thought about it,’ answered 3, wondering what school had to do with anything that was happening.

‘So have I,’ agreed Veena, but there are other things we can do to support the cause of peace.’

‘Protest marches?’ said Joshua dismissively. ‘Letter writing campaigns? Hand wringing? Pontificating? Whining?’

‘What about prayer?’ asked 3. ‘You have always believed in the power of prayer to change things.’

That broke through. Pausing for a moment, Joshua shook his head. ‘It’s not enough 3,’ he said. ‘Of course I’ll pray. I pray out of habit now, even when I don’t really believe what I’m saying or asking for. I’ve done that since I was a child and I suppose I’ll do it until the day I die, but I just don’t think it’s enough anymore. I’ve got to actually do something. I’ve got to put some feet on those prayers of mine. Anyway my prayers didn’t help Jeremiah, did they?’

Painful regret filled the silence that followed.

‘Jeremiah sealed his own fate by the choices he made,’ said 3.

‘A compassionate assessment, my friend.’

3 was surprised by the sarcasm, a foreign body in Joshua’s speech.

Veena decided to change tack to get Ted off the hook. ‘So you’re going to become a Carrier and get yourself killed and that will be your big contribution to the fight for justice?’ Her tone trivialized the word and robbed it of significance.

‘Maybe I will get killed,’ said Joshua, ‘But at least I will die knowing I did something and I wasn’t just sitting around on my backside whining about it.’

‘What has made the difference now,’ asked 3. ‘I mean why all of a sudden are you packing a bag and getting ready to go?’

Gliding over to Joshua, 3 reached out to touch his friend’s arm. ‘Can we all just sit down for a minute and talk about it? I mean why did you invite us here if only to tell us that you were leaving? Do you want us to stop you? To come with you?’

‘That’s not it,’ said Joshua. I just wanted to say goodbye, face to face. I’ve already made up my mind, I don’t need to discuss anything and I don’t need your approval.’

Veena rose from her chair suddenly and stormed over to Joshua grabbing the backpack off the bed just as he was trying to force another item into it. ‘Listen,’ she said, ‘You haven’t thought this through and even if it’s only for my benefit and Ted’s, the three of us are going to sit down and talk about it. Do you even know anything about the Carrier Force and how it operates?’

‘I know enough. Only Deists can be Carriers, and it’s an important job. They started out as purely religious messengers working for the various faiths and denominations, but look, I don’t have time. I’ve already arranged a meeting with a guy who is going to take me to the secret Carrier launch site.’

‘Here in Mumbai?’ asked 3.

‘I don’t know, he didn’t say, but I have to meet him in Borivali, at the SBI Bank on Manodaya Dattapada Road in two hours.’

‘Two hours?’ said Veena. ‘That’s plenty of time for us to talk.’

Reluctantly Joshua agreed and took a seat in the lounge room opposite where Veena sat down while 3 glided back and forth behind the sofa.

‘Stop moving around Ted,’ said Veena.

‘Do you have anything to drink, Josh?’ asked 3, ‘I’m thirsty.’

He did actually need to drink frequently in order to maintain the correct body fluid levels-it was yet another side effect of the drugs he was taking- and to ensure the genetic alterers worked properly. Anything would do the trick; he was supposed to mainly have water but like most people he preferred his fluids to have taste. Water may have been perfectly clean and safe and apparently very healthy thanks to sophisticated filtration systems but it was insipid and uninspiring.

‘There’s Coke in the refrigerator,’ said Joshua. ‘Help yourself.’

Feeling uncertain and wondering how on earth he and Veena could possibly change Joshua’s mind, 3 grabbed a cold bottle of Coke from the door shelf of the refrigerator and opened it slowly enjoying the crack of the breaking seal and the hiss of air as the pressure from inside the bottle was released.

He knew how determined his friend could be and how once he had set himself to do something, there was very little to be done to change his mind or alter his plans. There was the time a few years ago at school when he decided to pray for the entire lunch period, right out in the quadrangle. Knowing it would provoke the other students particularly those among his classmates who were already antagonistic towards Deists in general and him in particular.

‘They’re really going to give it to you Josh. Why do you look for trouble?’

“I have to do it, Ted,’ said Joshua. ‘I have to make a bold statement of faith in a public way to show I am not ashamed. To testify, to witness to the greatness of God.’

‘You sound like a fanatic.’

‘You make it sound as if there’s something wrong with that.’

So, he had walked out into the middle of the quad at the beginning of the lunch break and sat down, closed his eyes and began to pray. Within minutes he was surrounded by students, some of whom encouraged him but most taunted him. He just ignored them all and before long, a few other Deist students joined him on the ground. After ten minutes the onlookers had become bored and there was no wind left in the sails of the mockers so they dispersed, leaving the Deists to pray out the remainder of the lunch break in peace. Joshua later claimed it as a marvelous miracle, and 3 had to admit it was an impressive display of genuine conviction. To call it a miracle was beyond him, outside his world view.

Staying quietly in the kitchen, thoughtfully sipping his Coke, 3 listened to Veena and Joshua arguing. An idea penetrated 3’s reflections like water into paper taking him completely by surprise.

‘Why don’t we do it together?’ said 3 sliding back into the living room.

Momentarily taken off guard, Veena stopped talking and looked at him. ‘Do what together?’ she said. Then as the realization flared, ‘Join up?’ she said. ‘Are you saying we should all volunteer to be Carriers?’ The tone of incredulity rose in pitch with each question. 3 was amused and struggled not to laugh.

Silent up till that point, Joshua reached out to put his hand on 3’s knee. ‘Thanks Ted,’ he said. ‘I appreciate the offer but I’m going alone. You guys don’t need to come this time. I know we’ve always done things together but,’ he paused to turn from 3 to Veena and back again, ‘we aren’t kids anymore. This is serious business.’

‘Exactly,’ said Veena. ‘It’s too serious for even you to be considering. You know what happens to most carriers, eighty percent of them or higher die on their first mission. It’s suicide. You are volunteering to be killed.’

‘Where’d you get that figure of eighty percent from Veena,’ said 3, ‘I think I would have to dispute that.’

Veena was further incensed by the smile forming on 3’s face and disgusted to find Joshua likewise failing to suppress again.

‘It’s not a joke! You two think everything is a joke. It’s not funny. If you want to go and die for nothing before you’ve even lived half a life then go ahead,’ she said as she rose from the lounge, ‘but I won’t be coming along. Not this time.’

She headed for the door while 3 and Joshua continued smiling at each other and at Veena’s emotional outburst. Her maternal instincts were entertaining but at the same time touching and comforting. Veena really cared for them.

‘Wait Veena,’ called Joshua. “Don’t go. Come back we’ll talk some more.’

A door slammed in reply.

‘She’ll cool off,’ said 3.

Leaning back in the lounge, Joshua closed his eyes and said, ‘I’ve got to do something Ted. They killed Jeremiah because of his involvement.’

‘You don’t know that.’

‘They say he was poisoned right, and we know he was being chased by some guys he had apparently offended somehow.’

‘Or cheated. Maybe double-crossed.’

‘You’re a hard man, Ted 15. Seriously.’ Joshua smiled at his friend. ‘Anyway, there is nowhere to run from these people and no one to turn to for protection. That’s what Jeremiah found out the hard way.’

3 could have argued the point and press Joshua as to why he was so hell-bent on the same fate as his cousin, but it would only have been for sport because he knew his friend was right. Sometimes you just had to stand up and fight.

‘They may suspect,’ continued Joshua, ‘that we now have information which could be harmful to them. They would know for sure we had contact with Jeremiah. Me especially right? And not just once. They know all right and we could well be next on their list.’

‘They would have tried to get us already, don’t you think?’

‘Maybe, but in any case I’m not going to sit around waiting for it. If I’m a threat to them because of what I know then I may as well become a Carrier and then at least I will have a purpose, a goal. And who knows it may be an overseas mission which would take us right out of harm’s way, wouldn’t it? I won’t be just sitting around waiting for trouble to find me and take me out.’

Sunrise illuminated the room as the two friends continued their weighty conversation. Joshua looked around the room allowing the objects he saw to evoke pleasant memories of a childhood which seemed to no longer belong to him.

‘It’s time to grow up, Ted. School’s all but finished and the world has less and less to offer us.’

He stood up and walked to the bay window facing the street and ordered the lights off.

‘I want to make a difference Ted. You should understand, I mean if I were you then I might not even be discussing this idea. I might have just gone ahead and signed up as fast as a I could. But...’

Gliding over to the window, 3 searched carefully for the appropriate words. ‘What was the verse from your Bible you always used to quote me as a reason for not getting involved in these sorts of things? Something Jesus said to his disciples?’

‘In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world. John 16:33.’

‘There are enough problems in life without going to look for them, right?’

Joshua picked up the thread of an argument he had used so many times to justify being a clean skin, it now came as an automatic response. ‘I will trust God to defend me and protect me and I will do as much as I possibly can to avoid trouble but I will be a peacemaker for blessed are the peacemakers.’

‘Blessed are the peacemakers,’ repeated 3.

‘Are there any left, Ted?’

‘Peacemakers? Sure, my father,’ 3 choked on the words as he was overwhelmed suddenly with grief and sadness and guilt. He had not thought of his father while all this business had been going on with Jeremiah, and now he felt as if he was dishonoring his father by so quickly turning his thoughts to other things. As tears welled in his eyes he moved away from the window to gain control.

‘I’m sorry Ted, but do you see what I mean? Your father and Veena’s were peacemakers. I mean I know their dogmatic approach alienated people and obviously they had enemies but...’ Joshua stopped, suddenly feeling the conversation was heading where neither of them wanted it to go.

3 glanced at his control pad and said, ‘We had better get going if we are going to be on time for the meeting with that guy downtown.’

‘Ted,’ began Joshua.

‘I said we. I’m going with you Josh. It’s time we made a difference. It’s our time.’

Looking at his friend with resignation and a trace of gratitude in his eyes, Joshua slowly nodded in agreement. ‘All right,’ he said, ‘let’s go.’

An angry Veena intercepted them before they had reached the road.

‘Where are you two going?’ she demanded.

‘You know. The guy I was talking about?’

‘Well I’m coming too.’

Joshua and 3 exchanged surprised looks before 3 said, ‘You changed your tune quickly, what-’

‘Come on. Let’s go. It’s on the news. We can watch it in the transport on the way.’

‘I wasn’t planning on driving because the parking stations are so far from the CBD, there’s no point. You may as well take public transport all the way in.’

‘Not this time,’ said Veena emphatically, ‘we need to be watching the news, there’s some story out there now, some rumor, some conspiracy, whatever you want to call it-I don’t know where it came from but webnews makes it seem like fact, you know they way they do that?’

Ignoring the obvious rhetoric, Joshua tried to get to the point.

‘Okay we’ll take the car but you have to slow down and try to explain yourself a bit more, all right?’