Jaye Michael

PART ONE: EVOLUTION

Chapter Three: Elusion

A rose is a rose is a rose.
– Gertrude Stein
...unless it’s something else.
– [Editor’s Note]

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 11:50 A.M., EAST 55TH STREET, APARTMENT 1617, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

The door slammed with a solid clang as Eunice snuck out the back stairway and into the basement garage. She had just dropped the doorman’s letter down the mail shoot.

Eunice got into to his red Mustang convertible and headed out onto the street. The garage doors opened as he moved up the ramp to street level and out before automatically closing behind him. The wind was gusty and the sky was gray and dull, but at least it wasn’t raining. There were several cars with flashing red lights at the entrance to his building and Eunice wondered what was going on, after all, this was considered a “good” neighborhood. Tempted as he was to go back and find out what was going on, it was a one-way street and he would have had to go around the block to come back; besides, he needed to get to Lyle’s place as quickly as possible. With a shrug, he turned away from the commotion and drove off.

Traffic was just beginning to lighten up to the point where one could move a whole block or two between lights. Slowly Eunice wound east one block to the park and then north past the University. As Eunice pulled onto the block where Lyle’s apartment was located, he was surprised to find several cars with flashing lights at the main entrance to that building too; or was it the frat house? Driving past the apartment, Eunice was even more surprised to note that several of the cars were Federal Pool cars.

Having a bad feeling, Eunice drove past rather than stopping. As she stopped at the light at the corner, she was disgusted by the sight of one of the growing horde of street people. This one wore raggedy jeans, a ratty old coat with a fur collar and had her face almost totally covered by a shocking green knit cap. He couldn’t tell her age, but Eunice suspected that the woman had a fairly good body under all those rags. He sighed. It was truly sad what some people made of their lives. The woman was pushing a shopping cart with a suitcase on top of what looked like musty old clothes.

Suddenly, the filthy creature left its cart. Waving frantically, she ran in front of his car. Eunice slammed on the brakes, stopping just short of hitting the woman. She jumped in and yelled in a loud, raspy, fear-filled voice, “Quick! Drive! They’re after us.” and turned back toward the apartment building just past.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing? Get out of my car or I’ll call the cops; they’re just a couple of feet back the way I came. Kay?” Eunice pushed the intruder against the door trying to force her out of his car.

“Will you please wait for me until I can get my suitcase and get back in? We have big problems.” When Eunice nodded, she slowly turned and opened the door.

Eunice immediately pushed the vagabond out of the car and pressed hard on the gas pedal. Half way down the block a look in the rear view mirror made her stop. Whoever it was, she was sitting in the middle of the street, a New York City street at that; and she seemed to be crying.

Eunice stopped the car and stared. Then, with a shake of the head, a sigh and a mumbled, “I’m probably going to regret this,” he slowly backed up the car until it was directly beside the crying figure.

Getting out and standing over the pitiful wretch he asked, “Who are you?”

Between sobs, he heard her say, “Lyle. Lyle Abbot and I thought you were Eunice Branca. I recognized the car. You’re driving her car. Hey, if you’re not Eunice, who are you?”

“Yeah, I’m Eunice, or at least I used to be,” he said with a gesture highlighting his curves, or lack thereof. “And if you know me you must be Lyle, but lest make sure. If you’re really Lyle, show me some identification. Kay?” Eunice demanded in a voice that sounded far more authoritative than he felt.

The crying shape slowly reached into a back pocket and produced a wallet. Flipping it open, she produced a University picture ID card for Lyle T. Abbot.

“Oh. Lyle, I’m sorry...but I’m sure you can understand how surprised I was when some tattered stranger jumped into my car. I had this immediate vision of rape and murder.” As Eunice spoke, he got Lyle’s suitcase, threw it into the back of the car and helped the still crying Lyle in. Eunice then got in and continued crying as he drove quickly away.

“What are you doing here? I expected you to be in your apartment waiting for me.”

“Cops…everywhere.”

They drove without speaking further as Lyle slowly stopped sobbing. Finally, Lyle asked, “Where are we going?”

“I don’t know. I’m not headed anywhere specific.” Checking a couple of street signs, he continued. “We’re near the Cloisters. Why don’t I park there and we can try to figure out what’s going on? Kay?”

Lyle nodded her agreement and both silently contemplated their futures as Eunice drove the several blocks to the Cloisters and pulled into the first available parking space. Without thinking, both got out and walked over to a nearby picnic bench. About twenty feet beyond was a wrought iron fence. Beyond the fence was a drop off. Unseen from their bench, at least two hundred feet below, was the West Side Highway and the Hudson River. The view might have been romantic were in not for their circumstances.

“’Kay,” Eunice took the lead. “Let’s start with the basics. Do you know what happened to us?”

“Yes–at least I’m fairy certain I do. But there’s an even more basic issue. Did you see the cars all around my apartment? They were from the government and they broke into my apartment and only my apartment. It seems safe to assume who they were looking for and it was sheer luck that they didn’t get me.”

“So how did you get out?”

“I got bored waiting for you and began packing some of my clothes on the off chance that they would fit you. After lugging the suitcase down to the front door to meet you, I realized that I had forgotten my research notes. I left the suitcase in the laundry room and went back to my apartment. I had just returned to the laundry room and was stuffing the papers into my suitcase when I heard the noise from that invasion force. Peeking around the doorway to get a better view, I heard one of them say, ‘He’s in apartment four-twelve. Let the DeCon unit go in first.’”

“Anyway, I quickly slipped out of the laundry room, which can’t be locked, and into the storage room next door, dragging the suitcase after me. It was heavier than I expected it to be. A disguise was now my first order of business. Looking around in a panic, I saw the usual stuff one would expect in a storage room: a shopping cart, several piles of boxes, a couple of old bicycles and a rack of old clothes. Boy, was it dusty.

“There was this weird coat with some kind of fake fur and a ripped collar on the rack,” Lyle fingered the offending article of clothing as if the fur might up and bit him, “and the first box were some old winter clothes including this bright green ski hat. I grabbed the coat and ski hat and put them on hoping they would disguise me a bit. Then I put the suitcase into the shopping cart, with some other odds and ends from the boxes to cover it over, and started wheeling it out the back door to the apartment.”

“When I was almost to the back door this guy in a military uniform comes walking in on me. He asks me if I live in the apartment.”

“Anyway, I was afraid to talk so I grunted, and quickly pushed the cart into the door, but it wouldn’t open. I guess I lucked out, because he even held the door open for me.”

“The problem in all this is that four-twelve is my apartment and if a government decontamination unit charges up the stairs to my apartment, we’re both probably in big, big trouble. The only possible explanation I can come up with is that they think something dangerous escaped from the University lab and they think were infected. Considering what’s happened to us I’m afraid they’re right.”

“Great.” Eunice grumbled. “That was probably also them pulling up in front of my condo as I was leaving to come here. Kay. To sum it all up we’ve changed sex, the feds are looking for us and don’t seem to be all that concerned about our rights, and we may be carrying some deadly contagion. Is that about it, Lyle?”

“So it would seem. Although to be accurate, while we might be contagious, I doubt whatever we have would kill anyone.”

“I feel much better now. What do we do now...and, come to think of it, why should it be we? Huh?”

“Well, I need to have some quiet time–you know, with no interruptions–to figure out exactly what happened and what to do, or are you happy being a wanted, possibly contagious fugitive? I’d like to get back to the lab, but that doesn’t seem likely. For that matter, if the federal government wants us they can probably get us. They’ll have our ID photos, they’ll have our fingerprints, they’ll have our credit card numbers, they’ll be watching for any contacts with our friends and relatives. They’ll probably even have people looking for this car. Do you think we’ll be safer together or apart?”

“Lyle, that doesn’t leave a lot of choices, and we haven’t even begun to talk about my concerns. I can’t believe our government could possibly be as efficient as you just described.”

“Ten bucks says I’m right.”

“Well–never mind. Let’s think things through. You need to have uninterrupted time to figure out what happened and how to undo it, if that’s even possible. If it can be undone, I sure would like to know about it. For this to happen, we need to have the government off our backs. That means we need to find out who set them on our trail in the first place.”

“I think I can answer that last question. It must have been Dr. Sternlicht.”

“Great, what does that do for us now?” Eunice pulled out of the parking space.

“I don’t know. I’m not positive, but it seems likely.”

“Kay. Let’s go.” Eunice stood and strode purposefully to the car.

“Uh–where are you going?”

“To test your hypotheses. Kay? You’re the ABD. Does it mean ‘All But Dissertation’ or 'A Big Dummy’? You should understand what it means to test a hypothesis. Let’s find a public telephone.”

At the pay telephone near the University, Eunice dialed a number and then gave the receiver to Lyle. “Your voice sounds more like mine than mine does right now. When someone answers, nod your head and then say what I tell you.”
Lyle nodded.

“Hello, Aunt Staci...this is Eunice. I have a problem and I need to talk to you. Kay? But I need to get something at Dr. Sternlicht’s lab at the University first. I’ll be at the lab in about five minutes and then I’ll come directly to you. I should be at your house in Queens in about one hour, traffic permitting.”

Eunice gestured for Lyle to hang up.

“Now we go back to the University and watch. Kay? If you’re right, we’re in big trouble.”