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The days were passing by fast. Eske found himself smiling at any time of the day. He could see her cleaning the classroom while he was lecturing. Or waiting for him in front of the school gates as she used to. Going back home and talking about her days.
He knew he missed her, but Eske didn't realise how much he disregarded those little moments. But his favourite point of the day was him waking up, and she greeted him, telling him she loved him. The dreams or nightmares, Eske was still unsure what to call them, were now more frequent but always the same.
They would walk down a yellow scenery of a marketplace street, knocking at doors and distributing soup cans. Eske was still trying to get information from young Nona. Where were they? Why would she go door to door giving soup cans away? What was wrong with the cat? And what was her other job? And more questions that Eske could simply not find the answers to.
Once he arrived home, his mobile phone rang: 'Schrodinger.'
'Hi, it is Alice. How are you?' She sounded happy and excited over something. 'I got some really good news! I have your last test results!'
'Nice.'; it wasn't like him to sound so emotionless on such an occasion, but Eske didn't care about his result. He only cared about what he already knew and had.
'Are you feeling alright? No nausea, lake of taste or smell or insomnias?'; she asked him with concern.
Eske shrugged off all her worries: 'Nothing, I'm excellent.'; he said while watching Nona brushing her hair at the window.
Alice laughed happily into the receiver. 'That's great. I'm really happy to hear it. Look, Eske, I was thinking perhaps showing you the results over dinner.'
'Dinner?'
'Or lunch.'; she added quickly.
'Can't you tell me tomorrow when I pick up the next batch?'; he asked.
She sighed deeply before answering. 'Eske, there will be no new batch. The trial is over.'
'What do you mean?'; Eske felt cold shivers run down his spine. 'You're kidding.'
'We have the control sample and the samples after-effect. There is no need for you to continue in the long-term.'
'But...but we just started. It was only 15 days,'; Eske stuttered out nervously. 'How can this happen?'
'It's okay, Eske, don't worry too much. You did well. I have enough data to send to the commission.'; she said.
There was silence between them. Then Eske spoke again: 'Why? We've barely begun!'
'Eske?'
'So can you show me the results at dinner? I pay.'; Eske swallowed dry, watching Nona lying on the couch with a book and playing with her hair. He couldn't lose this. 'Eight?'; he insisted.
'Oh, hum, okay. Eight sounds fine.'
'Okay, look forward to it.'; Eske hung up and rushed towards Nona. He knelt beside her. 'Hey, hey, baby.'
She ignored him. At this point, he was used to it but didn't care: 'I really need an idea. Like a bombastic idea how I keep this on.'; he looked at her, distracted. 'Nothing?'
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Eske arrived first at the restaurant and rehearsed his speech over and over in his head again until she arrived. Alice really liked red. She looked dashing with her red pencil skirt and red blouse matching her lipstick. She was no doubt pretty.
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'Good evening.'; she greeted him with kisses on each cheek and sat on the other side of the table. Eske smiled in a way he knew would make her face match the dress.
The waiter brought them their wine, and they ordered dinner having small talk time for a while. It seemed to go well enough, but Eske did not let himself relax too much just yet.
'While we wait, you want to see the results?'; asked Alice sorting out her purse a long cream folder.
Eske carefully took the file from her hand, opening it up and seeing several lists, numbers, and terms he wasn't familiar with. The most repeated number was zero. 'What am I looking at?'
'The first page is your control sample.'; said Alice flipping through some papers. And pointed to something else that looked important, a square with the caption T-DNA and a round 0.0%.
'What does it mean?'; asked Eske wondering if there had been any mistakes in his test.
Alice gave him an odd look as though she'd read what Eske thought: 'Your DNA result would be what we call an abnormality. It's often said that humans are 99.9% identical. And what makes us unique is a measly 0.1% of our genome. But with you is the opposite. There is no one like you. You are impossible to be replicated. You have zero genetic mutation, and none of your genes is copied. I never saw something like this.'
'Is that good?'; wondered Eske hoping he didn't sound stupid.
'I don't know!'; chuckled Alice shaking her head. 'It means you're different from everyone else. In fact, everything about you seems peculiar. Have you ever taken antibiotics?'
Eske shook his head. 'Never.'; he answered, surprised by the question.
'If you ever caught a virus, antibiotics would have no effect on you, and honestly, I suspect you can't even get sick, I mean really sick. By infections, inflammations or mutation. Check the other page of the testing.'; Alice flipped back through some more pages before coming across another sheet marked with the same lettering as the previous one. This time, however, it was labelled as after-effect. 'Zero. Nothing changed.'
'Nothing?'; Eske stared at the paper, trying to understand how nothing could change anything. He turned to Alice, who now wore a confused expression. 'How do I explain this? How can my body remain unchanged when...'
'When I experimented on myself, my cells changed. Even my T-DNA marker dropped. Your's came back intact. And I can't work with these results.'; she paused, giving him a sad smile. 'You will probably live forever unless you die of unnatural causes.'; she added softly. 'But you knew that already, didn't you?'
Eske felt a chill run down his spine: 'Yeah, I knew.'
'Now, I'm not stupid or easy to trick with a smile and a dinner. And I guess you were planning to seduce me, probably sleep with me, which I would say yes, even though the motives of it are sad. But, I rather want to know why someone who doesn't age, who doesn't get sick, who honestly doesn't care about those results wants so badly to keep doing this. And also lied to me about the side effects.; Alice gathered the files back into the folder, set them aside and crossed her arms: 'Speak!'
Eske leaned back on his chair and realised he didn't touch his plate: 'Everything tastes like paper, check. Hard time sleeping, check. I also have seizures, and I can see her. I can see my girlfriend. I can see her everywhere I go. And it gives me back a tiny piece of happiness I used to have.'
'Eske, those are hallucinations, you know that, and you said you have seizures?'; Alice reached for the file.
Eske held her arm before she did: 'I don't think the side effects are mine.'
'Then whose?'; Alice pushed harder against his grip.
Eske sighed. 'Hers. All these side effects, she used to have them. When I see her, it is actually memories. These are not things I saw. When I have seizures, I pass out and see her when she is younger. Although the world is painted in a very unreal, almost made-up way, I guess that is how she saw it.'
Alice nodded and put away the file: 'So, what exactly is going on here?'; she asked, taking a sip of her wine.
Eske took a deep breath and tried to figure out where to begin: 'I need to understand. I need to have an answer to why she left.'
'And then what?'; Alice interrupted. 'You move on?'
'I move on.'; Eske replied.
She raised an eyebrow: 'Monday. We continue on Monday.'
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