Decrease

Six Months Later

"After three years being in a cryogenic state, you were finally released. It was touch and go for a couple of days, but then a miracle happened. A wondrous, God-given miracle! You opened your eyes and for the first time in your life you were made whole. Your distorted body had renewed itself into a normal human being. You had no deformities of any kind. You were completely healed. Can you imagine how we all felt seeing you so healthy, so happy that you could finally be a normal child? We were so happy for you, Jonathan; so happy."

Aunt Ruth stops, and then continues. "But then we noticed something was wrong. You were frozen for three years, and of course, you hadn't aged. You were still the boy of three, instead of a young boy of six. That's when Raymond knew that when you would be out in public, people would notice that you had not aged. Questions would have been raised. Raymond had realized that the serum had also slowed down the aging process. You were going to be young for God knows how long. We knew that would present many problems. So, Raymond added some poison from the deadly blow fish in its raw form and injected you with that. As soon as you were injected, you began to transform and age very rapidly. It took three more years for Raymond to perfect the serum to bring you to your real age. That's when all hell broke loose."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"That's when government leaders and the CDC decided to take control of the serum. They wanted to use it to help control the world's population by secretly distributing the serum in packaged foods, bottled water, and other items for the populace to ingest without them knowing about it. Instead, without anyone knowing the consequences, the virus, or whatever you want to call it, began to mutate on its' own and would infest itself on an individual without their knowledge. The mutation was alive and there was no stopping it. The world began to die."

"We had sterilization and planned births, why did people have to die?" I ask.

"It wasn't enough. The world was still populating illegally and people weren't dying as fast as the governments would have liked. Even with the crappy economy, people still clung on to life. Before we knew it, the population exploded, and trying to give them the necessary things they needed in order to survive was becoming economically futile. That's when Operation Scrooge was fabricated, and all of the world leaders were in agreement to have it initiated and move forward for the sake of humanity and to help humans survive."

"You mean it was for the greater good, don't you Aunt Ruth?"

"Yes, for the greater good," she whispers.

After a moment or two of silence, Aunt Ruth continues, "Jonathan, can you ever forgive me for what we did to you; for what I did to you? I couldn't see you suffer anymore. It was tearing my heart apart. You were everything to me. Everything! Do you understand that? Do you?"

I didn't know what to say. I understood what she was talking about and where she was coming from. But damn it, to kill fifteen billion innocent lives for one person, how am I supposed to live with that?

I look around and say, "Aunt Ruth... mother... I don't know what to think, or to even say. I'm totally confused about all of this. But there's one thing I do know and I don't think I could ever forgive you." I look deep into her eyes and say, "You killed Claire and my son. They were my life. Now they're gone. Why did you save me and not them? Why? I need to know why."

Ruth solemnly looks at me and says, "I am so, so sorry. There's nothing I can say that will change what happened to Claire and your son. Maybe someday you'll be able to forgive me. But I'll understand that if you don't, it won't make me stop loving you. I will always love you. And there's nothing, not one damn thing that could ever stop me from loving you."

Ruth gets up and puts on her sweater and lays some money down on the table for the tea. As she walks by me, I reach out to grab her arm and say, "Thank you, Mom." She nods her head and walks out the door. I sit and wonder if I'll ever see her again.