Chapter 21 Facade
Peggy’s Affliction
The only daughter to A class parents and the youngest of three children, she was a little spoiled having been the awaited baby girl and princess after two brothers. Popular in school, her brown eyes, long dark hair, and tall and slender body had the boys interested ever since grade school.
By her senior year in high school, Peggy seemed to have it all; beauty, money, status, privilege, male attention and not much competition. That is, until Amber came to live with their family.
Amber was a year younger, but looked like she should be in college already. Amber’s sophisticated, exotic looks were as different from Peggy as a supermodel was from a small town prom queen.
Peggy felt more than a ting of jealousy from day one. “Why did she come to live with us? I don’t get it. And she’s pregnant!” She said it like it was some kind of disease. “Doesn’t she have a family already?” she asked per parents.
“No, honey. She doesn’t have a family. And she’s been in some kind of accident and doesn’t remember anything about her past. A good friend of mine has asked for our help and, well, we’re able to help so we’re going to do it. So I suggest you change your attitude right now, young lady.” That was Peggy’s cool mom.
The 4M treatments had transformed Amy into the new Amber, who now was really quite amiable. She and Peggy quickly became good friends. Peggy was there for her when she gave birth to Bryan. She was there in the bar the first time Amber met Darren. Peggy watched as that relationship blossomed. And she was in Darren and Amber’s wedding.
So she was thrilled to get a call from Amber. “Amber, what the hell! I haven’t heard from you forever. How’s my favorite girl?”
“It’s so good to hear your voice, Peg. We’ve just been so busy with Bryan, and being pregnant and both working. Sorry I haven’t called in a while. I think of you all the time.”
“I think of you guys all the time, too. Wish you didn’t live thirty miles away. Kind of hard to just drop by and say hello,” said Peggy.
“I know. We never go anywhere, except to work and back. What are you doing these days? Last time we talked you were seeing this guy…”
“Uhh, don’t remind me, Amber. I should have taken your advice and kicked him to the curb long before I did. What a loser.” She paused. “He got me pregnant, though. I’m due in about two months.”
“Oh, my gosh, Peg. How are you doing with it? Has your pregnancy been okay, or a bitch?”
“A bitch, to tell you the truth. I had glamorized this whole pregnancy bliss thing. It hasn’t been fun. If there was someone to share it with, like what you and Darren have, it would be a lot more tolerable. So you must be getting close too.”
“That’s funny,” said Amber. “I’m due in about two months too. What’s your due date?
“May eleventh.”
“May twenty-fifth,” said Amber. “That seems more than coincidence. So what are your plans with the baby?”
“I don’t know, Amber. I just don’t know if I can raise a child alone. Or if I want to even try that. Maybe it’s just better to…”
“It won’t help your already perfect Score to just give it to the State, so that shouldn’t be a factor in your decision whether to keep it or not,” Amber offered.
“Oh, it isn’t. I don’t need any class boost like most everyone else does. Shit. Sorry, Amber, I didn’t mean it like that. I know you guys have gotten the shaft for reasons unfair.”
“No problem, Peg. We’re doing great. Making some progress towards improving our Score too. We’re happy.”
“Good. Glad to hear it.”
“So what do you think you’re going to do?”
Peggy answered, “I’m really undecided at this point. What would you do if you were me?”
“I’d come with your best friend to her pregnancy checkup, that’s what. I have one scheduled for this Thursday afternoon. Any chance you could come over and go with me?” asked Amber.
“I miss you, Amber. Yes, I’d love to come.”
Bingo. Plan number one started. I’m not going to hurt her, though, Amber thought. Whatever happens will be for the best, for her and the baby.
Amber and Darren discussed the plan right away. Since Darren’s father had long ago agreed to pay for whatever 4M treatments were needed for Amber, they could easily have a few treatments for Peggy charged to Amber’s account and no one would be the wiser.
The trick was going to be how to get Peggy to the clinic where the 4M treatments are done. One idea was for Amber to fake a migraine as soon as Peggy got there and have Peggy go with her to the 4M clinic before the prenatal checkup. But how would they actually get her into a 4M treatment? She wouldn’t think it was anything special since, having A class parents, she could probably have treatments whenever she wanted.
“We’re going to have to knock her out somehow,” said Amber. “Then we can take her into the 4M clinic and have a treatment done on her.”
“Will they actually give her a treatment without her consent?” asked Darren.
“They will if it’s requested by an immediate family member, which will be you, her husband. We’ll say she is Amber. If anyone asks, I’ll claim to be her step sister, Peggy, just along to help. If we have to scan her Chip before we check in, we’ll just scan mine.”
“Okay,” Darren said, “I can see how that could work. But how do we knock her out?”
“Commune Love Potion Number Three.”
“What?”
“Come on, Darren. You’ve really never heard of the date rape drugs used in the labor communes?” She looked a little surprised. “Maybe that kind of news doesn’t make it out here. It’s standard practice in there.”
“Do you actually remember that? Or have your heard or read about it since you were Amber?”
Amber looked up as she thought, Hmm, I don’t know how I know that. “Maybe I do remember. Interesting.” She paused a moment, then looked back at Darren. “Anyway, I do know this about it: It’s common for males to use this date rape drug to basically have any women they want, whenever they want. It’s frowned upon in the Commune as being unethical, if you can believe the government really taking a moral stand about anything. But it’s used anyway, and everyone looks the other way because women are socially at the bottom and one goal of the commune is for women to make lots of babies.”
“That’s awful Amber. I’m sorry to hear that. So do you think you were ever…”
“It’s possible. But how would I really know? Maybe that’s how I ended up pregnant with my first baby.”
“I’m sorry, Amber,” Darren said, squeezing her arm. After a pause, he continued, “Not trying to downplay your bad experiences, but where can we get some of this love potion?”
“Those specialty stores usually have it, selling it as a tranquilizer.”
“How do you use it?” Darren asked.
“It comes in different forms. Some is designed to put in food or drinks. That’s great if you’re out having drinks or something. But that’s risky because we can’t guarantee that we can get Peggy to drink or eat anything in the short window of time we’ll have with her. So there’s another form that is a liquid in a small tube with a roller ball. All we have to do is rub some on her skin—it only takes a small amount—and it will be absorbed into her body in no time. And there’s a gel that could be put in her mouth.”
“How do you know all this stuff?”
“Ah, it’s called reading. Ever try it?” Amber snickered.
On Thursday afternoon, Amber got a call from Peggy. “Hey Amber. I’m about ten minutes away. Do you guys want to meet me in the parking lot?” Darren and Amber didn’t have a car so they had made plans to ride with Peggy.
“Sure, unless you want to come up to the apartment for tea first. We’ve got some time to kill before my appointment.”
“How about we go out to a tea café and
have tea and muffins or something?”
“Sounds great, Peggy. We’ll be waiting downstairs.”
“Do we need to take Bryan somewhere, or is he coming with us?”
“Darren’s mom already came by and picked him up, so we’re good. Thanks.”
After Amber got off the phone, Darren asked her, “How are you going to rub it on her without her noticing?”
“The same way I rub it on you without you knowing. How else do you think I manage to get you to do anything I want?” Amber laughed.
“You wouldn’t!” Darren teased.
It was a warm, sunny, spring like day. They had just walked down to the parking lot in front of the apartment when Peggy drove up.
Peggy smiled as she stopped the car in the no parking zone and got out to give Amber a hug. “Good timing. It’s so good to see you. Wow, you are looking great. I’d say being pregnant does you good. Hey, Darren.”
Amber gave her a hug. “You look great, too. I can’t believe you’re due about the same time I am. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to steal the thunder from you guys.”
“Nonsense,” said Amber. “It would have been great to share all the nausea and aches and pains together. Hey, why don’t you let Darren drive and we sit in the back and visit more.”
“Sure,” Peggy said. The three of them piled in her car and Darren started driving towards the tea café.
As they drove toward the city center, Peggy’s speech became more and more garbled. Darren looked in the rear view mirror with a frown on his face. “Everything okay?” he asked.
“Everything’s fine,” said Amber. “Right, Peggy?”
Peggy was smiling, but not saying anything. Within a few more minutes, Peggy’s eyes were closed and she leaned her head over on Amber’s shoulder.
“Okay, driver, to the 4M clinic please.”
“What! But you haven’t even…”
“Yes I have. While you were picking your nose back at the apartment parking lot, I was giving my old friend a nice hug with my little gizmo hidden in my hand as I held the back of her neck.” Amber looked smug.
“Wow, Amber. You never cease to amaze me.”
They arrived shortly at the 4M treatment clinic. After he parked the car, Darren went inside to get a wheelchair. He was back out to the car after a few minutes. They both managed to get Peggy from the back seat of the car and into the wheel chair.
Inside the clinic, they signed in, scanned Amber’s hand, and waited to be called for their turn. These types of clinics typically had a doctor on staff, but you rarely saw them after your first consultation. Once you had an established identify file and funds transfer set up, you could pretty much come in whenever you wanted and order just about any treatment you wanted.
One or two technicians usually staffed the computer controlled 4M devices. The technicians did little more than confirm your account, get you comfortable on a table, select the treatment from the screen options and hit the start button.
“Mrs. Darren Cross? Amber Cross?”
Darren stood up and nodded, pushing the wheelchair with Peggy through the waiting room door into the hallway leading to the 4M rooms. Amber walked behind.
“This is Amber?” the technician asked, nodding to Peggy. Peggy had her eyes open now, but was pretty much just staring into space.
“Yes. She’s been complaining of a headache coming on. I think this one turned into one of the worst migraines she’s had in a while.
“Maybe you should take her to a hospital,” the technician said. “She looks out of it.”
Amber spoke up, “No, this happens fairly often. I think the Z19 treatment will do it for her.”
The technician eyed Amber. “That’s a pretty strong treatment. Who are you?”
“I’m her sister, Peggy. She’s had these headaches for years. The doctors say there’s really nothing they can do. Just get a 4M treatment when they happen. Sometimes we’re able to get her to a clinic when she feels it coming on. The R series treatments work pretty well if we get here early. But this time, we couldn’t get here fast enough. We’ve learned the hard way that the Z series are needed when she gets like this.” Amber reached down and gently stroked Peggy’s head. “You’re going to be okay, Amber.”
Wow, Darren thought. What a pro. I bet she could sell a heart attack to someone and make them excited to get it.
The technician looked bored at Amber’s response and went about preparing Peggy and the 4M device.
The new generation of 4M machines used more sophisticated electromagnetic pulse technology than the old laser or nuclear technologies from half a century before. Depending on the desired effect, the treatments ranged from in-facility sessions, to portable devices and implants.
The in-facility sessions were the most powerful, longest lasting and quickest to administer. Typically a probe about the size of a grapefruit, supported on a telescoping lance, would be positioned within three hundred centimeters, about a foot, of the patient’s head. The machine’s pre-programmed algorithms would do the rest.
“Okay, Z19 treatment. Please sign here Mr. Cross,” he said, handing Darren an edoc pad. Darren quickly signed with his index finger and handled the pad back to the technician.
The treatment took a mere five minutes. Peggy was remarkably more coherent immediately following the treatment. Although she didn’t know who anyone was or where she was, she looked very serene and satisfied.
Amber spoke up again, talking to Darren but in a loud enough tone so the technician would hear her. “You know, Dad thinks Amber should have one of those portable devices just to help take the edge off if she can’t get in right away. What do you think, Darren?”
“It’s probably time to try something like that. She’s been having more trouble for the past few months. When I’m at work she can’t get in to a clinic if she’s having an episode.”
Darren turned to the technician. “What do you have for portable devices?”
“Depends how much you want to spend.”
“I’m not letting cost get in the way of giving my wife the best possible treatments. What do you recommend if price isn’t an issue?”
“Definitely, the Lansing III Model. Do you want me to get one?”
“Yes, let’s do it.”
In another ten minutes they were all back in the car, along with the Lansing III. Peggy was starting to be more talkative. “So how do I know you two?”
Amber answered, “I’m your sister, Amber, and this is my husband, Darren. We’re going to help you through your difficult decision to give up your baby. You’re going to come live with us for a few months until you have your baby. We’ll help you through it.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Peggy said. “You’re good people. Thank you so much for helping me. I don’t know how to repay you.” Peggy looked at her belly, rubbing it slightly.
“I’m sure we’ll think of some way,” Darren mumbled to himself as he stomped on the accelerator.
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