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Arthur Guimaraes · Author · added over 7 years ago

Chapter Zero - a sample

 

It was a stormy afternoon; the rain fell heavy and in torrents on the kitchen window. Except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind that swept up the garden outside fiercely agitating the weeds growing on the garden. Noises startled me only to steal my attention from the rain outside. It was the combined noises of the kettle on the stove beeping to alert me that the water was fully boiled before turning off completely, and the doorbell on the living room announcing the arrival of Mister Mark Doyle. "The tea will have to wait a moment" I thought to myself, while walking to greet him as fast as my old bones allowed me to move without pain.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Xavier." Said the half-soaked boy from the door, with a forceful smile.

"Yes, Afternoon. Quickly come inside young man, get off that horrible rain."

As I watched him take of his trench coat and put aside his blue umbrella, I couldn’t help but wonder how old he was. It… couldn’t be that long right? Last time I had seen him in person he was too small even to talk. Where had the time gone...? He seemed about thirty now, maybe even younger.

"Thank you for having me in your lovely home."

"Hope it wasn’t hard to find."

"Nah it wasn’t, don’t worry."

"Come, sit in the living room. I will be right back, there is some tea I must attend to in the kitchen. It won’t be a second. Hope you don’t mind herbal tea."

“No I don’t, thank you very much.”

As he made himself comfortable, I couldn’t help but notice the resemblance. He is just like his father. At least the way I remember his father, young, robust and out of fashion. Memories of Mr. Rossiter Doyle, or "Lil’man" as I would call him, came rushing to my head to distract me as I prepared the tea. Memories of his reaction to the nickname brought forth a smile to my face. As I walk back in the living room, I caught him staring at the picture frames on top of the fireplace.

"Old pictures."

"Yes... Pardon me, sir. She just... caught my eyes.” He looked at the pictures with great attention, trying to look for something. After a moment, he pointed to the top right and asked “That’s her right here, right? Standing on the back."

"Which one? Oh yes that is her, around the time she arrived actually. She was still feeling a stranger to the house, I think."

"I heard she was... quite a character."

"Is that why you are here?"

"Okay, well... As you are aware Mr. Xavier, my dad is researching many sources in order to write his next book entitled Programming a new species. I was assigned to talk with you, collect as many information as you are willing to offer about your personal experiences with your old friend."

"My side of the story, or hers?"

"The human element... per say. My father has heard many stories related to her and we have many records showing all the legal information, but we wish to get first-handed knowledge of the true facts. I do understand that it may have taken part quite some time ago..."

"My memory is better than you expect."

"I am sorry, I didn’t mean any offence..."

"You didn’t."

"Right..." A momentary awkward silence fell between us, and neither made any effort to break it. I watched as he shuffled the noisy contents of the briefcase, and pulled out his little electronic device. It wasn’t bigger than his hand, thin with one big screen taking over all of one side. I have known only one other person to use one of those, like father like son.

"Is that an old JPAD? Haven’t seen one of those in a while."

"Ah yes. I like these little things, quite a time saver in my opinion. Safer too, records audio in blocks instead of one long stream. I am sorry, do you mind if I start recording?"

"Do as you must." I said, and we both sat down. I watched him palm the back of the little JPAD and it comes to life. After pressing things here and there on the screen the placed it on the center table right between us.

"Alright. The time now is... 14:13, file from Mark Doyle. Interview with Pierre Xavier. Right Mr. Xavier, we can talk naturally now and forget this little thing. We are simply having a conversation between friends, take as much time you may see fit."

"Ok. Where do I start?"

"From the very beginning. How did you come to meet Thurxa?"

"Well, that was a long time ago. More years than I care to count. I think it was the year 2102, I was just a boy back then, and the world was very different from the one you know now...