Chapter Five

Viktoriya stared peacefully out of the window on her journey home from school. Her thoughts lingered on how Choe was becoming a closer friend of sorts, and even though her friend wasn’t the same as her, she still believed she could trust her with her very personal condition.

She felt very isolated and was intensely private about her autism. Even from her earliest recollection, she was uncomfortable sharing her feelings or looking directly at people.

But Choe connected with her in a way that she found comforting for the time being. They both were different in their own ways, and they could help one another. Different enough to become labeled as outsiders or marginalized cruelly, excluded by the normalcies of the world. Different enough to relate to one another.

She wondered if they would ever be like the rest of the kids.

After a few moments, she felt as if her body was spinning aloft in the air while her thoughts swirled until they were no longer her own, but the same reoccurring vision she had been having.

Her imagination had taken over, leading her into a vivid visual entanglement.

She rotated upwards in an elegant swirl like she had secretly done before, imagining perhaps her experience may be different this time, but nothing changed.

I’m being parallaxed.

She felt herself floating as Earth was passing by her eyes, watching the beautiful edge of its atmosphere, glistening as the sun echoed off the clouds, refracting brilliant, colorful patterns around her. She raised her hand, trying to reach for the patterns, but the glows and streams phased past her like she was not there, like some sort of ghost. She tried to move, but bumped her hand into the window, pulling her back to reality.

She turned again, letting out a scoff. “Damn it.”

“Damn what, Vik?” Noxxor asked.

“Nothing, it was just a distraction.”

After a few silent moments, they arrived at their home. She would have liked to enter the experience again, but there were only a few areas with enough depth on their way home to perceive the parallax effect out of her window.

“Welcome home, Vik. Would you like to play a game, Vik?” Noxxor asked.

“Not yet. I’m going to watch some TV for a little while.”

As she strolled through the house, she heard the welcoming voice of Noxxor again and the alarm beep, indicating someone else had just made it home. She turned and began toward the stairs, but was immediately greeted by the sight of her father.

“Daddy!” she shouted as she raced down the stairs and dove into his arms. He picked up his daughter, planting a kiss on her forehead.

She narrated all that had transpired over the hours he had been away while he filtered all he found interesting.

“Reminder. Doctor Maribelle’s session with Viktoriya in one hour,” Noxxor interrupted.

“Hey, I have a great idea! We will also go to the playground afterward! How does that sound?” Rosa said.

“With ice cream?”

“With ice cream.”

He lifted her into his arms in one swift move, teasing her till she could no longer hold her laughter.

* * *

Dr. Maribelle opened the door to the waiting area, welcoming Rosa and Viktoriya into her office, shoving her brunette ponytail over her shoulder.

“How are you today, Viktoriya?” she asked, leaning toward her.

Viktoriya managed a brisk, momentary smile; then, the doctor raised her head to meet her dad.

Viktoriya was not a huge fan of doctors. In fact, she had the worst of experiences with them, but nevertheless, she knew she needed to go.

If she had her way, she would hide away every time, but even if that was an option, she would not bring her parents to suffer in such a way.

Dr. Maribelle wasn’t like the others she had visited when she was younger.

She was different and had only asked her a few questions, had comfortable chats with her, letting her answer only when she felt like it.

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She was even more surprised when the doctor simply smiled when she remained quiet, staring out of the window, not answering her for long periods.

She remembered the soft voice just simply saying, “You’re doing great, wonderful, Viktoriya.”

She had learned to enjoy the sessions, although if she was honest about it, she was not much of a fan of doing facial emotion recognition cards.

“Are you doing okay today, Vik? Did you hear me a moment ago? Are you having one of your feelings now? Tell me what you see, if you can, hun?” Dr. Maribelle asked.

She could not explain what she was seeing, but knew the flash-outs had been happening more frequently and more engaging—like something was calling to her.

Not in the way a person would call to you, but it was more of a feeling, a sensation of the presence of something, and when she stared outside the window, all she saw was the blankness with bright colors radiating from the center.

She couldn’t stop gazing. The different colors glowed brightly. It felt almost so bright, so suddenly, that she cried.

The next thing she felt was the warmth of Dr. Maribelle’s embrace around her and the same soothing, angelic voice muttering to her.

“It’s okay. You are okay, Viktoriya.”

Maribelle could not explain her reasons, but she had always had an overwhelming joy working with children.

Viktoriya thought back to when her mom first asked her associate if she could help with their daughter. Mirabelle had enthusiastically taken Viktoriya as one of her priority patients, one of only a few, altogether.

She hugged the girl tightly, Viktoriya’s warm tears soaking the doctor’s blue sweater, and her trembling causing her to hold her much tighter.

“It will be okay, Vik. You are okay. Everyone here loves you, dear,” Dr. Maribelle comforted. As she said the words, she drifted and wondered what it would be like holding her own child in her arms and telling her everything was okay.

Was this the sort of deep connection that she would feel for her child, or would it be something more?

Sadly, she would never know, as she could not have children of her own. Dr. Maribelle couldn’t contain herself and cried for a moment, then wiped her tears with a tissue. She always kept one handy, since she had close connections with her patients and emotionally bonded with them.

Over her lengthy career, she realized the best way to help her neuroatypical patients was immersing herself in their world as much as possible.

Doing so came with an emotional attachment. But occasionally, it was simply her own personal reflection, as in this case.

“It’s going to be all right,” she told herself quietly.

“Dr. Maribelle?” Rosa’s voice came from behind. She wiped her tears with her tissue once more, then swung her hair back, praying her eyes weren’t swollen already.

“Thank you for—”

“Certainly, Rosa. I wish I could help more, but I am sure you already know what it is she must do.”

“Yes. It doesn’t make it easy seeing her suffer that way, though.”

“I know,” she replied, smiling. “It’s not something that happens overnight, but it gets better.”

She managed another brisk smile.

Rosa smiled too, thanking her before leaving.

Viktoriya was quiet throughout the ride, staring out the window, enjoying the chilly wind brushing her face as her fascination with the city distracted her from her other thoughts.

Her dad had enabled the autopilot, letting the AI guide the vehicle.

The loud noise from kids screaming broke the silence between them as they arrived. Children ran all over the playground, throwing balls, shooting toy laser rifles, and giggling on a merry-go-round. On the other side were carnival games, swings, and roundabouts.

A couple of hours had passed since they arrived. Rosa hoped it would help her make contact and perhaps become friends with some of the other children.

He had nudged her toward the water game, which popped a balloon for whichever player hit the target the longest, but rather than teaming up with any other children; she sat at the end with two empty seats between herself and the next child.

Plan playground wasn’t exactly a hit, and with this blow, he wondered if that was the life she would live from there on out, in her own peculiar isolation.

Even though the previous doctors had come to the same conclusion as Dr. Maribelle, that she would not need constant supervision for her entire life, he clearly saw the challenges that only a parent understands: the pain their child goes through.

He felt the same kind of hurt inside of him, and the clutching pain made him want to sit with her, but just as the thought crossed his mind, he heard a voice calling to them. He turned as Aura and Choe greeted him.

Choe immediately raced toward Viktoriya, and as if a flick of a light switch, the dull, removed child now appeared as if something had lit up inside her. Rosa was happy that they had also come to the playground.

The two played, moving from the slides to the swings and back to the roundabout and water game.

Aura and Rosa sat together talking about everything and nothing as the kids ran and played together, when a sudden tremble came, shaking the ground under them.

The other parents gasped and looked around, but shook it off after a few moments as the slight shake quickly faded.

Rosa looked at his vibrating Halikkon smartwatch, linked to their Collective data center, now showing a ripple of seismic activity increasing.

“Oh no, it’s happening right here! I think there is a full-on earthquake developing.”

“What is happening?” Aura asked, still shaken by the vibration.

“We’ve got to get out of here now. Everybody else too,” Rosa shouted as he began jumping up and down on the bench, waving his hands.

“Everyone, evacuate the area!”

Before he finished the words, the ground shook more violently. Kids bolted to their parents, and parents began running with their kids, evacuating the playground in a panic.

Everyone struggled to hold themselves and their balance until the trembling finally subsided after a minute. Then Rosa and Aura resumed rushing toward the parking lot with the girls in tow.

The crowd retreated into their cars, speeding off in different directions, fleeing the area, and hoping to escape the coming calamity.

The decreased mass of Earth caused by the TITAN effect and the recently widening trajectory around the sun resulted in some unintended, tangible events.

Rosa realized that events such as these were going to be the new normal going forward.

The groans and pains of the planet.

Reaped from the arrogance of humankind, in their crusade to correct the world of all that was wrong.

It all stemmed from

their quest to have control over it all and fix every single thing that, in their arrogance, they considered wrong in the world.

The quest of humanity to reign over the earth, in its entirety.