Ducie by Chris Freeman
Chapter 18. A Ducie vacancy
In Ducie, Jennifer Martinez was battling two feelings from extreme opposite ends of the emotional scale. Like everyone in Ducie, she had known Andrea and was grieving his death. On the other hand, she’d waited as long as she could remember for a Right to Birth vacancy to open up, and whilst she always knew that this could only come about as the result of some poor soul dying, she’d have preferred that it wasn’t the untimely death of such a close friend. Then again, what did she expect? They were all her close friends. However she justified it to herself, this joy she felt at such a tragic time, it wouldn’t change a thing. The facts are the facts, and at that moment in time, the fact was that the island only had 60 residents. Ducie had a vacancy!
Her husband Lionel Martinez had said very little on the walk to the King’s Estate. He wasn’t ignorant by nature, but he was having his own private battle with conflicting emotions and the silence was his coping mechanism. Jennifer had other ideas.
- Have you got the RTB papers there honey?
- Uh hu.
Jennifer’s tone was excited, rushed and ever so slightly irritating.
- Good, good, good. So remember, the King’s not just going to take our application and say, “go ahead and make a baby”. He’s going to ask us things first. You know, like an interview. To check we’re suitable. You know?
- Yeah, I know.
- So let’s go over it once more. I’ll be King Eduardo and you be…well you just be yourself, ok?
Jennifer took on a pompous English sounding voice that sounded nothing like the King whatsoever, but succeeded in moving her from ‘slightly irritating’ to ‘worthy of a slap’.
- So Lionel, what do you think your future child would bring to the Ducie community?
Jennifer chuckled and patted her stomach as she imitated the King, presumably in an attempt to convey an old, rotund sort of chap, which was confusing, as the King actually cut quite a frail figure these days.
- Look Jenny, I know what we’ve got to do, ok! Can you just drop it now please?
Such an outburst at his wife was rare for Lionel, but the pain of seeing his friend fall to his silent death in a pool of copper tailings was still as fresh as the present moment. So many pointless questions presented themselves to the forefront of his thoughts, like catwalk models flaunting outrageous outfits that nobody would actually be seen dead in: Why did he disappear below the water so quickly? Where was his body now? Did he suffer? Did he even know what was happening to him? Had the copper eroded his skin away by now? Did he still have a face? Was he still Andrea?
- Baby, I know you’re still cut up about it all. We all are! I knew him too remember. But don’t you think that a nice man like Andrea would be up there in heaven, looking down on his buddy, saying “Go for it Lionel! Make sure something good comes of my death. Go and have yourself a little baby and when he’s grown up, tell him stories about Uncle Andrea”.
Jennifer had suddenly assigned herself some sort of authority, which apparently now gave her permission to speak on behalf of a dead man.
- “Bring him up to be as strong as Uncle Andrea…as funny as Uncle Andrea…. as…”
Her voice trailed off, as she lost her momentum.
- Heck Lionel, we could even call our baby Andrea! What better tribute to the man? We can’t mope around like this forever. We have an opportunity here to make something good come of all this. Are you telling me you don’t want to take it?
- Of course not, honey, but…
Lionel had no ‘but’. His wife was right. Andrea would have loved that little pep talk she just gave. If there was a heaven, he was probably sitting there right now, nodding in approval with that “you know I’m right” smirk that he did so annoyingly well. In reality though, Lionel knew that his friend wasn’t really sitting on a cloud in the sky watching over them. The grim fact of the matter was that he was lying at the bottom of a pond, rotting!
King Eduardo looked as if he had just woken when he pulled open the door of his Estate to greet the couple. Each second that passed seemed to shave another gram of flesh off his ever diminishing body. He offered the limpest of handshakes to Lionel and beckoned the couple into his office. The office had only one guest seat, so Andrea stood behind Jennifer, placing his hands on her shoulders in a show of solidarity. King Eduardo took his seat behind his desk and stared at the couple for a second or two, as if catching a breather after exerting all his energy answering the door.
- So… You have the papers there?
- Yes Sir!
Jennifer, as always, had assigned herself the role of the couple’s spokesperson. She clumsily fumbled the papers together into a rough pile, straightening them on the desk with a tap, as she handed them to King Eduardo with such haste, it was as if she believed that if she didn’t move quickly, another couple could rush through the door at any moment and steal this Right to Birth vacancy from under their noses. The King flicked lazily through the pile.
- You’ve read the conditions in detail I trust?
- Word for word Sir. I’m... err…We…are more than agreeable to everything we’ve read.
Jennifer glanced up at Lionel in an attempt to make him feel involved. Lionel merely nodded in obligatory agreement.
- Well…I’m pleased to hear it. So all I now need is a couple of signatures right about…
The King looked like he was choosing a page at random, as he shuffled through the document.
- …here!
The King pointed to a general area of white space at the bottom of one of the pages. There was no dotted line for a signature. Jennifer appeared dumfounded and almost slightly disappointed that the interview answers she’d rehearsed so well didn’t appear to be relevant any more.
- What? That’s it? So we just sign there and we can just go ahead and make a baby?
- Well, I’d appreciate it if you at least left my office before you got down to your frisky business, but yes. Sign the papers and the vacancy is yours.
Eduardo may have lost a bit of his physical prowess over the years, but his sense of humour hadn’t yet failed him. Lionel spoke for the first time since arriving.
- But what about the interview process? The parental competency checks? The genetic evaluation? The…
- Nobody else applied for the vacancy Lionel. Where only one application for an RTB is received, the applying couple are entitled to the vacancy by default. Providing of course that they’re in fit and proper condition to raise a child, and you look to me like you are dear boy!
Jennifer began fanning her face with her hand and bobbing excitedly on the chair. She stood up, pushed the chair to the floor and jumped into Lionel’s arms, wrapping her legs around his torso.
- Baby, baby, baby! Lionel. We’re having a baby!
- Hey, steady on you two. I did ask nicely if you’d mind not conceiving in my office.
Jennifer dismounted her husband and smiled manically at Eduardo. Could she hug the King? Was that allowed? She didn’t care. She wrapped her arms around the frail little man that had just made her dream come true, immediately recoiling apologetically as Eduardo flinched weakly. Jennifer tried to compose herself a little.
- So nobody at all applied for the vacancy? How can that be?
- I don’t know Jennifer, perhaps the news of Andrea’s death has taken a bit of the lead out of people’s pencils. People deal with things in different ways. Maybe nobody feels like getting down and dirty at a time like this.
Jennifer looked at the floor, ashamed that she wasn’t grieving more for Andrea right now.
- Sir, it’s not about the sex though. You know that! It’s so much more. It’s a new life. A new little person, who calls me Mommy. Who relies on me. We’re going to call him Andrea.
- That’s a fitting tribute. I’m very happy for you both.
The King’s short response was accompanied by a yawn and a stretch; more than enough of a hint that he considered his work here to be done.
Andrea began shepherding his wife towards the door. Concerned that she might never leave if he didn’t get her out of there soon. Jennifer shouted back to the King all the way to the front door.
- Thank you Eduardo, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! Eduardo….thank you!
Eduardo was exhausted, but managed to summon his best attempt at a shout back.
- You take your time in the production process Jennifer! Sometimes the journey’s as much fun as the destination. Enjoy yourselves!
As the Estate door slammed shut, Eduardo breathed a sigh that he seemed to have been holding the whole time Lionel and Jennifer were there. He needed sleep and was weighing up the pros and cons of abandoning the walk to bed and nodding off to sleep right there in his chair.
Then the telephone rang.