End on Extinct

Chapter Two

Spring 2030

MARIANA

Her fingers clutched round the handle of the second-hand briefcase, a prop to appear more confident as there was hardly anything inside. A decade-old tablet that could hardly hold a charge, her wallet with a debit card to access her nearly empty bank account and a credit card that represented a black cloud of debt which swirled around her, plus the tattered manila folder with a crisp physical copy of her resume.

A digital copy had already been sent to the company, the descriptive outline of her past employment phrased in such a way to downplay her absence from the working world for the past seven years. Still, the company had contacted her and requested an interview. The first to respond in her unsuccessful attempts to find employment.

In this case, it helped she'd been referred by Frank. When she told him, a reference could only carry her so far, Frank had responded with, "I dare say you show up, impress them, and you'll have the job." She needed his confidence. His optimism that this all would work out okay. The rest of his words hung with her now, "Even if the income is humbling, it's a start, Mariana. A landing spot for you right now."

She entered the lobby of the four-story building and skimmed the list of labs, most of them tied in with UCLA Extension, until she found Room #430. She'd spoken with an Ashyr Harmon on the phone, but the name Brody Daniels stared back at her. Funny, she didn't even know the company's name.

She should have asked Frank more. He said he'd told her all he knew, but she should have pressed. She should have researched more. The former Mariana would have done that. But right now, forward-thinking wasn't her strength. Rather one day at a time, coping along, still processing the current state of her life.

She punched at the elevator button, and, while waiting, caught herself in the reflective mirrors. Mariana had never pictured this. Her in a pressed suit, her coarse hair curled and sprayed to perfection. Her makeup applied to imply a professional-cute-yet-assertive look. All so she could land this job.

She trusted Frank. Which was good because she desperately needed this job.

The longer Mariana waited for the elevator doors to open, the longer her eyes watched themselves in the reflection until she saw the creeping of a tear surface.

She wasn't a crier.

But, with each passing day, her appreciation for Frank and his wife, Jocelyn, continued to grow. The gratitude surfacing now in the form of tears.

They had been the first to arrive at the scene. Frank, who had been the one to call Mariana. Who had hugged Mariana when she'd arrived. Who told Mariana that she and the children would be okay. All while she stared at the truck fractured against the thick oak.

The elevator beeped. Her reflection she'd been staring at separated as the doors opened. She stepped inside, punched at the number four, and tried to push the memory out.

She had until the elevator reached the top to pull herself together. To recite, for the hundredth time, that it was a tree, not another car, not another human's life. Only Zane's life.

As she felt the floor lift beneath her feet, Mariana recalled Frank and Jocelyn joining her as she gathered her four-year-old son and three-year-old daughter to share the only story they needed to hear. Their dad was reaching for his morning bagel. A bagel like he always ate for breakfast as he headed into work. It'd been like every other normal moment, except he'd reached down to pick up his bagel, that had fallen to the floor of the cab, only to run off the road.

Of course, the lie was stupid. At their ages, Zane Jr. and Caroline knew no different. But the lie was as much for herself as for the children.

A bagel had been found a few yards from the crash.