Drown #9: the best laid plans, part 3

December 2085. Justin Kim is 25, Stephanie Nova is 26.

* sensitive content advisory for Drown #9: the best laid plans, parts 1-5


When Justin got Stephanie back and was finally able to look at her in the light, he saw that she was pale in the face, vacant in her eyes, and shaking. His mother didn't even need to ask, she just said, "I'll take Willow up to bed. Come on, Willow. You must be so sleepy."

"We have to go," Stephanie said. "We have to leave tonight and go somewhere he won’t think to look for us."

Justin shook his head. "Not tonight, the roads are too bad. It’s too late. Steph, calm down."

"He’ll come here, he’ll find us here."

"You’re safe."

"We’re not safe. He’s gonna find us and kill us. He won't stop until he gets what he wants or one of us is dead."

"He’s just trying to bully you," Justin said. "He’s not really going to murder anyone. He didn't even try to hit me. It'll be okay. You need to rest now. We’ll think about what else to do in the morning."

Drown #9: the best laid plans, part 2

December 2085. Stephanie Nova is 26, Willow is 4. Jeremiah Day is 28.  

* sensitive content advisory for Drown #9: the best laid plans, parts 1-5


"That's better, huh?" Jeremiah said. "Just the three of us, just the way it's supposed to be."

Stephanie couldn't hide the mix of emotions on her face, wavering between annoyance and disappointment and terror, so she turned her face to the dishwater.

"They were nice people," Stephanie said. "I liked talking to them."

"So let me get this straight, your husband is home after three years at war and you’d rather socialize with two strangers?"

"I didn’t mean it like that. I mean … it’s not like we haven’t been talking at all."

"You’re right," Jeremiah said. "We have been talking. All we’ve done for three years is talk and I don’t want to talk right now, either. I can think of a hundred other things I’d rather do than talk."

"Oh," she said.

She didn't like the way he looked at her then. Not because he looked angry, but the opposite. He looked calm, eager, and expectant.

"But if you liked them so much, maybe we’ll have them over again some other time. You're upset now?"

"No, I’m fine."

"Good, because I have some good news. Tonight was supposed to be a happy occasion. So perk up. It can't get much worse, right? I already know what you did."

Drown #9: the best laid plans, part 1

*** please be advised that Drown #9: the best laid plans, part 1-5, may be troubling for some readers. Sensitive readers should review the general content advisory for these stories. 

—

December 2085. Stephanie Nova is 26, Willow is 4. Jeremiah Day is 28.  


"Look, Momma!"

"Come sit with me, girlie."


"I’m not gonna break it."

"I know. I just want you to hold my hand."

"I won’t get lost."

"I know. That’s not why I want you to hold my hand."

Drown #8: reclamation day, part 2

December 2085. Justin Kim is 25, Stephanie Nova is 26, Willow is 3. 

* NSFW


So, just like that, the world wasn’t going to end.

Stephanie drank some carrot juice from her new juicer and lamented that while she might get to do a lot of things in her lifetime, she would never get to be an Olympic figure skater. It all seemed so silly and inconsequential, and normal.

Things she might get to do: see her daughter grow up, get divorced and married again, have a twenty-sixth birthday, see Europe and maybe Africa. Go to the moon. She would get to worry about the mundane kinds of things that people did, like what on earth would the holidays look like with two divorced couples and three sets of parents who didn’t get along?

Drown #8: reclamation day, part 1

October 5th, 2085 — Keri Riley is 24. Cabe Deppiesse is 44. Lampyridae Coleoptera, age unknown. 


Keri was alone on the observation deck for a short moment. Lately, people couldn't stay away from the observation deck. Everyone wanted to see home. Small, insignificant, Earth. It looked as little and helpless as it actually was from up here. Everyone Keri ever cared about was down there on that tiny blue rock, and they were all dying. She guessed that Justin wanted to believe she never cared about anyone but herself, but that wasn't true. She cared deeply about at least a half dozen people down there, probably more than they would ever know.

But how stupid and pointless it all seemed now, the fuss everyone made when she came out here. As it turned out, she was so much safer out here than they were down there. The little shits wanted nothing to do with the moon.

Drown #7.7: drown

August 2085—Stephanie Nova and Justin Kim are 25, Lily is 2, Willow is 3. Lucy Harris is 19. Welcome, baby Cassiopeia!



"Don’t be alarmed at her coloring," Violet warned them. "I can assure you that she’s perfectly healthy."

Cassiopeia Hope Deppiesse was born at 9:34 pm on August 9th, 2085.

Her skin was a pearly shade of blueish gray, but she had her mother’s warm caramel brown eyes.

"Thank you for keeping us safe," Lucy said. "You have no idea how much this means to us all."

Drown #7.6: origin stories

July 2085. Stephanie Nova and Justin Kim are 25, Jeremiah Day is 28. Lucy Harris is 19, Violet Deppiesse is 55.


In this full house, Stephanie's bedroom was one rare place where she and Justin could steal a moment of quiet together. Only a moment, probably, before one of the girls came bursting in or her parents came knocking. They had about an hour once he was home from work on Tuesdays and Thursdays before he had to leave again for guard duty at the road. Each family in the neighborhood took two six-hour shifts each week, and since Justin was the only member of their household that wasn't a child or elderly, pregnant or half-blind or minding a thousand children, it usually fell on him. He didn't mind, though. It was boring most of the time, but their neighborhood was one of the safest places in town because of it.

Then, just as they thought they might mess around for a few minutes before he had to go, Stephanie's phone rang. She didn’t answer it, but they both knew who it was. Since she lived with almost everyone she knew and all of her daycare kids had stopped being dropped off, she didn't get phone calls from that many people anymore.

"He’ll be mad," Justin said.

"Not as long as I call him back before he tries a second time," she said.

"Yeah, well, what is that? Like five minutes from now?"