THE MOTHER SIEGE: A DYSTOPIAN THRILLER

Chapter 9: THE MOTHER SIEGE: A DYSTOPIAN THRILLER

Copyright (c) 2013 Phyllis Zimbler Miller

All rights reserved.

            Jonah asked the Videobook screen for the time.  His mother should have been home by now because she knew he planned to go to the last karate class of the evening.

            At the age of 12 he was finally old enough to take out a movicle by himself.  Not old enough to drive it manually – but to take it out on automatic.  He would have gone to an earlier class but he was stuck “babysitting” his younger sisters.

            Not that the girls even noticed he was there.  They had finished their individual schoolwork assigned by their mother and were now each engaged reading a book on her personal comm unit.

            The Videobook chirped and Jonah jumped out of his seat.  Who could it be?  Their mother never invited anyone here. 

            “Who’s there?” Jonah spoke to the Videobook.

            “I’m Harold, a doctor who works with your mother,” returned the man who now showed on the Videobook screen.

            “My mother isn’t here now,” Jonah said.  “You can talk to her at work tomorrow.”

             “It’s rather important I see her tonight.  May I come up and wait?”

            Remembering all he had been taught about talking to strangers, Jonah said, “How do I know you are who you say you are?”

           Via the Videobook Jonah watched the man remove his wallet from a pants pocket and hold up his medical office ID.  Jonah said “enlarge” to the Videobook and looked at the ID that matched the one his mother carried.  While he knew it could be fake, he felt pretty sure it was authentic.

         Jonah asked the Videobook to scan for weapons – none detected – and Jonah reminded himself he was a black belt in karate with skill in disabling techniques.

           Plus he didn’t want a strange man hanging outside the building entrance; his mother could be vulnerable when she arrived.  And all he had to do was ask the girls to go to their room so the man wouldn’t see Julie.

         Jonah buzzed the man in and then told his sisters to disappear into their room and keep quiet.  They knew better than to argue with him.

            When Jonah slid open the door for the man, Jonah felt close up that the man looked vaguely familiar.   “Do I know you?” Jonah said.

             “You may have met me at your mother’s medical office.”

          Jonah gestured to a seating unit.  As soon as the man sat down, he brought out a small notebook from his pants pocket, scribbled something on a page, and showed it to Jonah.

             On the page he had written “Where are your sisters?”

             “My sister is in her bedroom,” Jonah replied.

             The man dashed a line under the word sisters and held his finger to his lips.

           A shot of adrenalin pulsed through Jonah.  As the son of a medical doctor he knew that this primitive flight or fight emotion was connected to the fear that this man had caused Jonah to feel.  Jonah took a deep breath to calm the automatic response and shook his head.

            “When do you expect your mother to return?” the man asked.

            “It should be very soon because I plan to go to karate and can’t leave Jessica alone.”