Eli and Oskar walked slowly across the courtyard, leaving footprints in the still-falling snow. They had made their final choice this afternoon, and waited until well after dark to set out from their little apartment. The Biology Building at Karlstad University was barely visible through the snow as they turned onto the well-lit walkway towards the main entrance. Oskar could see the lights in the window on the second floor, where Professor Dawson’s office was located. On a sudden impulse, Oskar moved ahead, climbed the stairs, opened one of the heavy wooden doors and stepped inside, letting the door close behind him just as Eli reached the top step. He leaned back against the closed door.
“Are we dong the right thing?” he thought to himself. “We’ve talked about this for days now, and I’m still not sure. What will we do if he doesn’t understand? I’m so frightened! What if they take her away? Of all people, Eli should know you can’t depend on adults for anything. She’s had to rely on herself for everything for over 200 years, because no one cared enough to give her a second thought -- unless they wanted something.” He felt himself getting angry all over again at everyone who had hurt Eli. The man with the dice, who used her in unspeakable ways, took her identity from her, mutilated her and threw her away when he was tired of her; her mother, who did nothing to save her and would never take her back because of her weakness and ignorant superstition; her entire family, who didn’t love her enough to forgive her for being what she was through no fault of her own; all the men like her “dad” who helped her for reasons he couldn’t understand, even after Eli had tried to explain it to him. A vampire! A vampire who was nothing! Just as she had told him that night, ‘Not a boy, not a girl, not old, not a child,’ nothing! All these people took everything she was away from her, and gave her the gift of loneliness, despair, and isolation, and made her a thing that can’t look at the sun and is considered evil and disgusting. Only she is everything to me! Everything! And these are the people she wants to ask for help! And I have to help her because I love her so much!
There was a light knock on the door. “Oskar? Is something wrong?”
He sighed, and slowly opened the door. Eli stood outside looking at him quizzically. “Oskar…”
“I know, I know! Maybe we shouldn’t… “
“Oskar, we’ve discussed this! We agreed! You know I can’t wait much longer, and I’m not sure I can …. you know.” She shuddered.
He had already noticed some changes in her; the subtle changes that indicated that she was in the beginning phase of starving to death. That seemed to be the way she looked most of the time lately.
“OK, OK! You can come in.” He saw the dust of snow in her hair and absent-mindedly brushed it away as she quickly stepped inside. “Oskar. Please don’t be like that! Everything will be fine. If this doesn’t work out, we’ll find another way.”
“What other way? This is all my fault! If it wasn’t for me, you would be … doing just fine. You would be healthy and wouldn’t be hungry all the time!” Eli pulled him close and hugged him. He hugged her back, hard.
“Silly Oskar! Don’t you know that I could never be happy without you?” She kissed him lightly on the cheek. “Now let’s get going. I don’t want him to leave before we can see him. He sometimes leaves early.” She put her arm around him, and they went up the stairs together. “We look just like a couple of ordinary school kids, with our backpacks, boots, and gloves,” Oskar thought as they turned the corner towards the library. “Oh how I wish it could really be that way. I would give anything for it to be that way!”
At the entrance to the library, they took off their packs, jackets and gloves, stomping their feet to get rid of the excess snow.
Mrs. Holmberg looked up from her desk. What on earth are these kids doing here in this weather? Even my grad students had enough sense to go home when the snow really started coming down.
She smiled, “May I help you two?”
Eli stepped up to the desk. “Excuse me. We’re students in 7th year science class, and would like to ask Professor Richard Dawson some questions about evolution.”
“Oh, that’s nice. Is he expecting you?”
“…No. Our teacher, Mr. Molin, was supposed to call, but he said he couldn’t reach him. He told us the Professor would be in his office tonight and … .” Eli pleaded, “Please, we really need to talk to him. We have to turn in our report by Friday.”
She really didn’t like to bother the professor, but the girl was so earnest, she felt she had to give it a try. “Just a moment.”
She picked up the phone and punched a button. “Professor, there are a couple of children here from a local school who have some questions they want to ask you for their science class. … I really think you should. They’re such nice children…... OK….. I’ll tell them.”
“He’ll see you right away. Go down the hall, third door on the right. You can leave your wet things on the table outside the door if you wish.”
Oskar smiled at her. “Thank you so much!
“You’re quite welcome.” She watched as they took each other’s hand and walked quickly down the hall. They seem so happy, She thought. She had always enjoyed being around young people. They were always so full of life, so excitable. She sighed. “Life is so hard to take seriously when you think it will never end. They’ll have plenty of time to do that later,” she thought, and smiled grimly to herself.
As they approached the Professor’s office, Eli became more tense. “I can’t let Oskar see how scared I am. He gave up everything for me. And now he’s willing to do it again, even though he knows this could turn out bad for him -- and me. I had no choice when I left everything behind. Oskar HAD a choice and he chose me. Me! Even after he knew what I was! I just KNOW I’m too weak to have made a choice like that. How could Oskar make a choice like that?” she smiled to herself, “He thinks he’s such a wimp, but he has never let me down. He saved my life! He’s so sweet and kind. I love him so much I could never let him get hurt!” She became angry just thinking about all the people who had stood by while Oskar was beaten and humiliated at school and all the teachers, and even his own mother, and his drunkard father, who all looked the other way because it was too inconvenient for them to interrupt their day by paying any attention! “Well, I’M paying attention now!”
They paused at the door, looked at each other and took a deep breath. “It’ll be fine Oskar. You’ll see.” The sign on the door said “Professor Richard Dawson, Molecular Biology Department” They didn’t have a chance to knock before the door suddenly opened, and a tall, thin man with horn-rimmed glasses towered over them.
Oskar said quickly, “We’re so sorry to bother you sir, but we have some questions to ask you for our class project on evolution. It’ll only take a few minutes…”
Eli broke in, “I’m sorry we didn’t make an appointment. I know you must be very busy. We’ve been discussing your book, ‘Unknitting the Rainbow’ in class and picked you as our class project.”
He smiled, “I don’t think I’ve ever been a class project before.”
He ordinarily wouldn’t have taken the time for this, because he was so inept talking to children. He sincerely felt that he was wasting their time. He tended to digress, and before he realized it, their little eyes would already be glazed over. But these two looked so eager and were so polite, that he couldn’t resist. And the girl, although a bit slimmer, reminded him of his granddaughter.
Well, maybe I could give it another try, he thought. “Richard, try not to use too many big words, but don’t talk down to them either.” What a balancing act this is for me! I’ve been away from children far too long. He thought about his daughter who had moved from their home in London to Karlstad with her husband and his two grandchildren 8 years ago. His work kept him from visiting them more than once or twice a year, so he had jumped at the chance to come to Karlstad University on sabbatical. He loved the area and had done some graduate work here in his younger days. At least it allowed him to see them regularly now. Hopefully not too little too late….
“Come on in!” He gestured to the two ancient leather-upholstered chairs in front of his desk. The boy sat down purposefully and took a notebook and pencil out of his backpack. The girl sat upright on the edge of her chair with her legs crossed at the ankles, looked down, and nervously placed her hands in her lap.
He looked across the desk at them, crossed his arms, smiled and said, “Right, then. What would you like to know?”
Oskar and Eli looked at each other for a moment, then, hesitantly, Oskar asked, “Do you know of any diseases that would make a person do something he doesn’t want to do?”
Dawson hesitated, a bit puzzled. “Why do you ask? Is this related in some way to cultural, rather than physical evolution perhaps?”
Oskar looked away, a bit embarrassed, “ No, its just that … would it possible for a dog or something to have a disease where he couldn’t eat anything but maybe the blood of another dog? You know, kind of like the stories about vampires … or like vampire bats?”
Dawson smiled “What have you been reading? It certainly isn’t one of my books.”
Neither of them reacted. Their earnestness made him a bit uneasy.
“…There are some parasites that may take vital nutrients from their host, which the host then unconsciously replenishes by modifying its eating habits, but nothing that would cause the host to completely change its diet to something it would never have eaten in the first place… although there have been cases where an extreme deficiency of some necessary nutrients, has manifested itself in a ‘disease’ called Pica, an eating disorder that causes some people to eat things like sand, or metal shavings, but at the same time there can be a link to mental illness in many such cases.” Their expressions didn’t change. “Ease up a bit,” he thought.
He winked at them. “Then there’s Gourmand Syndrome, a much more expensive eating disorder caused by damage to the frontal lobe of the brain, which causes its victims to crave gourmet food. These people often make excellent Michelin Guide restaurant critics ” He paused, and noticed that his notorious dry humor had no effect on the children at all. He sighed. Another time and place maybe.
Eli looked directly at him, pleadingly,. “But what if the … parasite… needed blood. Would the person be a bad person just because he needed blood to survive? What if someone like that became so hungry that he had to have blood or he would die? What could be done for him?”
Dawson frowned, “I think society in general would be a bit reluctant to let someone with this ‘parasite’ roam freely among us looking for lunch, but we are far beyond the torches and pitchforks of our distant ancestors. Modern medicine would certainly make every attempt at finding a cure for his disease.”
Oskar turned and smiled at Eli. A ray of hope? Maybe this WAS the right thing to do, after all.
Oskar had always enjoyed reading about Forensics and Forensic Science, which was one of the lesser reasons he kept his scrapbooks He had been doing a lot of such reading since He and Eli left Blackeberg. He had followed all the articles about the murders at the Pool, and all the theories that had been discussed as to what had actually happened there, and was impressed with the objectivity that these scientists seemed to have. They didn’t make emotional judgments and seemed to go where the facts led them. That’s what originally gave him the idea to look for help from a scientist. That was why they were here. “But what if we were wrong?” he thought.
Dawson stood up. “Are you planning on asking me any questions about evolution? I would be quite happy to answer those, but I’m not sure I understand where your line of questioning is going and I do have a bit of work to do. Perhaps you could give me a list of questions and come back tomorrow at this same time… no … Friday, for your answers?”
Oskar stood up quickly, “I’m sorry! Maybe we shouldn’t have bothered you. Maybe we should leave….”
Eli grabbed his wrist firmly. “No! We need to explain ourselves so he will understand. We have to do this…now! Before it’s too late.” Eli was determined, and couldn’t understand why Oskar was trying to stop now. He had worked so hard to convince her that this was the best chance they had. And now she was convinced! “Please, Oskar.”
Oskar saw the faint shadows in her eyes and noticed a few strands of white hair, and slowly sat down.
Eli stood up, placed her hands on the desk, and spoke firmly, “We need your help and don’t really know how to ask for it properly. I’m frightened that you won’t understand, and that I will have to go on doing…” her eyes filled with tears. Oskar quickly rose and put his arms around her. She laid her head on his shoulder.
Dawson became concerned. “Are you two all right? Can I call anyone for you? Your parents?”
Oskar looked down, embarrassed. “We really aren’t from a science class. We came to you because we thought you might be able to understand…”
Eli interrupted. “Maybe I should just show him.” Her gaze rose to meet Dawson’s, she leaned forward, and brushed her hand against his ….
He noticed her eyes for the first time. Deep, blue-grey, and …enormous. As he watched, they began to change – to become iridescent. The pupils elongated, became cat-like, hypnotic. He found himself becoming a bit dizzy. His concern for her swelled suddenly and he felt an urgency; a need to do something. He wanted to help her. “She is so lonely and afraid! What can I do to make her feel better?” He felt like sweeping her up in his arms and comforting her.
Eli slowly closed her eyes, leaned back from the desk, shuddered, and sat down quickly.
He stood there for a moment, feeling suddenly quite stupid. ‘What was that? Did she hypnotize me? What the hell was that with her eyes?’ He shuddered, shook his head, and sat down. She’s so small! How old is she, 11? 12 at the most. Where could she have learned such things? And why?
His eyes slowly focused on her face. With difficulty, he looked directly at her. “Who are you?”
And what have you done with my composure, he thought.
Eli and Oskar snuck a quick look at each other, remembering a similar question from Oskar, seemingly years ago. The answer this time would be more difficult to give. And could be much more dangerous for them. At this point, Eli didn’t even know if she would have the fortitude to stop him if he took this the wrong way and went screaming out of the room. Lately, it seemed that the Changing was causing her more and more pain, and she knew it was because of Oskar and everything he meant to her. And because of this reconnection with her feelings she could no longer maintain her detachment with the ease that more than 200 years of being a predator had made second nature to her.
“That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you. I’m sick, and I’ve been sick for a long time.”
“I got … bitten, and have … been this way ever since.”
“What way? I don’t understand.” He tried to compose himself. The sensation he felt was slowly fading, and he began to think maybe it was just his imagination, or something he had eaten – or hadn’t eaten, he realized, since he hadn’t had anything but coffee since this morning.
She sighed, “You saw what I can do. Do you think that’s normal? Is that something that you think a … normal person could do?”
“Possibly – with training. I admit, you took me completely by surprise, but where DID you learn how to do that? Especially the illusion with the eyes? For a moment, it looked as though you had a coloboma, but those don’t come and go.”
Didn’t he get it? Why is he not able to understand? Eli suddenly realized why. “He’s a scientist. He believes there is a rational, objective way to approach everything in his life. He thinks he understands the way things work, and anything that doesn’t seem to fit, he is certain that, with enough thought and consideration, it Will. Eventually. Fit. How can I get around THAT!? Or do I really want to? Is that what Oskar tried to warn me about?”
“What’s a coloboma?” Oskar asked.
“It’s a distortion or small opening in the eye that in some cases makes the pupil elongated. Its caused by a genetic defect in Chromosome 22…” he realized he was doing it again, and stopped abruptly.
“The important thing is, I am still confused as to what it is you want of me in particular. How does this … ability of yours relate in any way to a disease? My son-in-law is a physician. Perhaps you and your parents would like to speak with him.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have shown you that. I’ve never shown that to anyone before!” At least not to anyone who had survived, she thought. “ I don’t know how to do this, Oskar. How can I do this?” she put her face in her hands in exasperation.
“Maybe you could show him….something else?” Oskar whispered.
“But I don’t want to ….” she thought for a moment …. Yes. I have to do it. If this doesn’t work, I don’t know what else we can do. Maybe we’ll have to just leave, try something else ….. NO! This has to work!
“Let me show you,” she said, as she quickly pulled her sweater off over her head. “And please – don’t be afraid…..” Oskar quickly stepped back out of the way, as she tossed her sweater on the chair.
Dawson stood up, startled. She was now standing before him, rigid, naked from the waist up, her arms at her sides. She was so thin he could almost count her ribs. Her skin was unnaturally white. Against all that whiteness, her face, framed by her coal-black hair, suddenly appeared almost unbearably angelic, ethereal. ‘My God, what a beautiful child,’ he thought fleetingly, before he fully realized what she had actually done. “Please, don’t do that! Let me get Mrs. Holmberg in here right away!” He turned to Oskar. “What’s she doing? Please stop her!” He reached for the phone as Oskar stepped further back, away from Eli.
Eli stood completely still for a moment with her head down and her thin, pale arms tightly against her sides, her hands balled up into tight fists. As she looked up, she slowly raised her arms, revealing dark, shimmering spider-web-like threads expanding in intricate patterns radiating outwards between her sides and arms as they rose. He heard a faint crackling sound as the still-damp threads, one after another, trembled, then became taut. As he watched in amazement, the space between the web strands filled in like spilled ink flowing over a lace tablecloth. The streetlamps outside his window were suddenly dimmed, then completely blocked out by the empty blackness of the shimmering, pulsating wings that now filled his field of vision as she raised her arms in an arc over her head.
The contrast between the child and her… wings was stunning! His jaw dropped, and he stumbled back, weak-kneed. “Please!” she said softly. “Please help me!”