Richmond, VA - July 2045
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Mara (freshly) Sherman closed her eyes and took a breath before stepping out into the hot lamplight of the stage.
Deep breath, this is her first time doing the climax scene since her honeymoon. Slow, measured exhale, she tried not to think about how everyone had been saying this was the understudy’s best scene while she was gone. Hovering behind her, the node that had appeared on her wedding day and followed her everywhere since.
Mara Azumi had feared the inverted purple cone when it had first appeared, but by the time the rings were on and she was Mara Sherman, she felt assured and comforted by it. After all, Jesse had always had his little blue diamond, Haniel with him as long as he’d been a Sherman too; apparently it appeared the day her fathers-in-law brought him home from adoption.
Stop thinking about Muriel. Mara moved to her mark, and delivered her line:
“Pshh. Science, huh? Well, you tell Mr. Goodman there's a lot of work to be done around here, so he'd better not count on you spending your days with half-life. Tell him if he wants to find out about half-life, he can come and ask me; I'm the original half-life. I've got one daughter with half a mind, the other who's half a test tube, a house half-full of rabbit crap and half a corpse. That's a half-life, all right. Jesus, don't you hate the world, Matilda?”
As she moved offstage after the scene ended, she heard whispering from the front rows of the audience. She couldn’t make out details but tones sounded judgmental and she was catching snippets like “weird node thing” and “ugly purple thing.” After that, Mara heard similar such whisperings every time she was onstage for the rest of the show.
After final curtain call she went to her dressing room barely long enough to rip off her costume and throw on the evening gown she had picked out for her dinner with Jesse and practically ran out of the back of the Euderice-Wolff Node Theater complex. She slumped against the cement wall beside the emergency exit and tried to just focus on breathing.
Muriel seemed to be hovering lower and dimmer than usual, and Mara thought maybe the node was expressing guilt for the situation.
“Oh don’t worry, it’s not your fault. Nobody chooses to exist in this world, not even a node.”
Muriel seemed to brighten up a bit at this comforting remark, and in turn that made Mara feel a little better as well, though it did elicit a quizzical look from her. Just then, Jesse came around the corner with Haniel beside him.
“Here you are! We’ve been looking all over for you, why are you hiding out back here?” he slipped his arm around her shoulder and side hugged Mara as he leaned against the wall with her.
“Oh I just couldn’t bare to face a crowd after that show. When I went on for that line I told you everyone was saying Christine was doing so well with — I watched a recording by the way, she really did do very good— anyway, I heard people whispering about Muriel and it just knocked down my confidence honestly. I figured the local papers might be waiting out front and I just didn’t want to answer any dumb questions…”
“Hey, you did amazing tonight. Muriel stayed out of sight behind you most of the time anyway, and her glow gave you an aura that really suited Beatrice’s character if you ask me. And, I bet Muriel didn’t even show up in the node simulcasts at all,” Jesse was being totally genuine, and it was working to reassure Mara.
“You really think so?”
“Yeah, for real. Now let’s go eat some lab-grown steak.”
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The two got into Jesse’s station wagon and it took them to the restaurant their reservation was at, one of the oldest Public Option Steakhouse locations. A majority of their menu items were comprised of lab-grown or vertical agriculture ingredients, and their prices were very affordable, but the atmosphere and presentation was always top-notch. The name seemed like a joke and was the reason Mara and Jesse had first checked the place out back when they were first dating, but it turned out it was actually a venture of the UNSA’s Food and Nutrition Administration. In any case the food was delicious and guilt-free and the two had continued to dine there throughout their courtship and now into marriage, though their “home” location had changed when they moved to Richmond for Mara to start her node acting career.
They rode in comfortable silence, holding hands, and shortly arrived at POS. Inside, they were seated by a host and placed their orders from the menus at the table. While Mara was deciding which soup to order ahead of her meal, Jesse checked his phone. Mara saw but did not observe out of the corner of her eye as his eyebrows progressively raised higher and higher and his smile grew wider and wider. When she finally ordered her soup and put the menu down, she looked at him with his now ridiculous expression and chuckled.
“What are you cheesing so hard about?”
“Hon, look at this!” he turned his phone to her excitedly and waited eagerly as she read the news article on the screen.
As Mara read, she said key phrases aloud so they could share the excitement. The article was posted moments ago and was a Broadway critic’s review of that night’s performance of Gamma Rays.
“’Mara Sherman’s blazing return to the node stage… will be written in the history books of the performing arts… radiant and fierce, bringing a new light to the century-old character… something simply magical about the amplification of her emotional portrayal by the node transfer projection… possibly a new horizon for the entire medium…’” for the next bit, Mara took Jesse’s hand in hers, “Aw, ‘I don’t know if this is what true and honest love does for a brilliant actress, but it certainly warms my heart to see how newly radiant Sherman is after her honeymoon with her partner, National Products Manufacturing Company product designer Jesse Sherman,’” as she finished reading she looked up at her husband, eyes glittering with tears, and squeezed his hand.
Jesse’s eyes were welling up as well, and the two laughed instead of crying.
“Wow,” said Mara.
“You’re amazing,” said Jesse.
“I’ll be honest, I think it was all Muriel,” Mara pointed a thumb at the node hovering beside her in the booth. Muriel seemed to preen at this.
“I don’t know about that, Haniel hasn’t helped me open a new horizon for product design,” Jesse laughed.
Just then, one of the faces of Haniel’s diamond shape flashed brighter, and then in the next instant Muriel flashed back.
“What was that?!” asked Mara, scooting a few inches away from Muriel.
“I have no idea. I’ve never seen them do that before…” answered Jesse, looking at Haniel incredulously.
“Do you think… Did they just do a node transfer?”
“What would they be transferring?”
“I don’t know, maybe they’re talking to each other?”
“Do you think they can?”
“Talk? Maybe. I feel like Muriel reacts to things I say to her, like she’s actually listening to me. So maybe she can talk too, just not in a way we understand.”
As if to confirm, the nodes exchanged another flashing of light. Mara and Jesse looked at each other and then back at their nodes.
“Can you understand us?” Jesse asked Haniel.
Haniel flashed at him, quick and bright.
“Is that a yes?” Mara asked.
Haniel flashed exactly the same way again.
“Is that a no?” asked Jesse.
Haniel flashed again, just a nit dimmer and for an iota longer.
Mara laughed and she and Jesse smiled.
“Oh my god, we can talk to them,” she turned to her violet companion, “I think I would hug you right now if I could, Muriel.”
At this Muriel hovered a little higher, glowed a little brighter, and flashed a blush pink field of energy at her companion. Mara believed she could feel the little node’s love towards her imbued in that flash of light.
“What do you think this means for the rest of the nodes?” asked Jesse.
The two humans and two small nodes sat in their restaurant booth in silence for a moment, each of them struggling to wrap their minds and hearts around the potential implications of nodal sentience. Haniel dimmed a bit, and hovered a little lower, subtly flashing a rose-red field at Jesse, which he would later say felt of Haniel’s pain.
At that moment their food arrived:
“Alright folks, I’ve got the bloomin’ onion here for ya, and who ordered the loaded baked potato soup?”
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