Chapter 9 of the saga:
9
‘A Volatile
Combination’
telling of her story, the creation of a new girl, Lucille was able to see clearly the error of
her ways. Hindsight has perfect vision and by the end of her story, she knew
what she had done was wrong. She said
she was sorry.
“So, let me
get this straight,” said Art Schprengel.
When the Doctor was telling her story, when he first realised what she
had done to his daughter, he was furious.
It took all his willpower not to shoot her there, on the spot. But, as she continued, and told of why she
did it; because she wasn’t loved as a girl after her parents had died; because
she never had any friends; because everyone made fun of her; because no one
cared for her, some of his rage died as he heard her sad, eloquent story. “You took all of our daughters, spliced them
together, and got a brand new daughter?”
“Basically.”
“And why was
that?”
“So future
children could be manufactured the same way as this one was, created in such a way
that they would always have the love of the various individuals within them to
keep them happy. They would be love
self-reliant.”
“But you
think something went wrong with your, what did you call her?” asked Constable
Maubery.
“Amalga-Girl. Yes,”
said Doctor Dewar, “I realise now that the orphan brain that I used must
have been too much of an unstable entity in comparison to the relatively stable
upbringing the other girls had. That
stability was why I came back to the
conduct my experiment. I knew that there
were hundreds of communities here that had well nurtured and loved
children. But when I got the orphan
brain, well, she just reminded me so much of myself, and I thought that maybe I
could save her. Give her the lack of
need for love that I never had.”
“Did you
ever consider adoption,” came the voice from up the lake. It was Newgirl, on her way back to the
mansion. The speaker was Orphan
Brain. “It would have been a lot easier
on all of us.”
Everyone looked in the direction of the voice. They
could all see that Newgirl had her arm around Dr. Yeo, who went up that way to
have a pee, using him as a shield.
“Amalga-Girl, drop that man!” screamed Lucille.
“Don’t call
me that stupid name,” said Newgirl. “My
name is Newgirl. And if any of you come
any closer, I’ll kill this guy.”
“I’ll kill you dead girl,” said Guy Maddox lifting his
shotgun and shooting in the direction of the voices.
“Don’t
shoot,” yelled Art. “My daughter’s in
that girl.” Hearing the absurdity of
that sentence, Art felt he needed to add a more reasonable reason as well. “And, besides, you could hurt Dr. Yeo.”
“Daddy?”
yelled Pristle, out of Newgirl. “Daddy,
I have red hair!”
“Pristle!”
shouted Art. “Don’t you worry,
Pristle. Daddy’s going to get his little
girl out of there. I promise.”
“You can’t
get me out of here, Daddy,” said Pristle.
“I’m a part of Newgirl now.”
“Yes we
will,” said Art. “We’ll take out your
heart, and all the other stuff of yours that’s in that girl and we’ll put in a
bucket of goop, or something, keep you alive that way!”
“I’d look
ugly in a bucket of goop, Daddy,” Pristle said.
“Just get me an appointment with a hair dresser who knows how to dye red
hair.”
“No one is
going to dye my red hair,” said Orphan Brain.
“It’s the hair that I was born with, it’s the hair that Mother chose for
us, it’s the hair that’s going to stay.”
“I’ll let
you pick the colour of the goop,” said Art, trying to entice his daughter’s
heart.
“No, I’m not
going to live in a bucket,” said Pristel. “I’m going to live here, as part of
Newgirl, and we are dying our hair.”
“You’re only
staying as part of me,” said Newgirl, “if you promise to let me have complete
control of me.”
“I am going
to keep complete control of this body,” said Orphan Brain. “The brain should always be in control.”
“But I am
the soul of me,” shouted Newgirl. “I
should be in control.”
“Well,” said
Pristle, “what about the old saying ‘follow your heart’? I say I should control our life.”
“No one is
going to control your life,” said Doctor Lucille Dewar. “Because you will have to die.”
“Excuse me?”
said Pristle. “But that is not an
option.”
“You can’t
live,” said Lucille. “none of you,
either alone or as a whole. You’re too
volatile a combination.”
“But if the
soul was in charge,” said Newgirl, “sort of keeping the rest of me in check—“
“No, it
wouldn’t work,” said Lucille. “The
orphan’s brain is to unstable. It could
never get used living as part of such a close knit family.”
“Oh, no,”
shouted Orphan Brain, “don’t blame all this on me.”
“I don’t,”
said the Doctor. “It’s my fault,
entirely. I should have never used the
orphan brain. I should have let her
continue to live her miserable orphan life, never allowing herself to trust
another individual enough to love them, or let them love you. It’s my fault I made you this way, and
there’s nothing I can do to change it.
I’m sorry, but you’ll have to die.
For the betterment of society.”
“Yeah?” said
Newgirl. “Well, I don’t know about my
sisters, but I know I don’t want to die, so screw you, Mother.”
“I’m with
her,” said Orphan Brain.
“Let’s get
out of here,” said Pristle. “I know
where we can get some nice black hair!”
With that, Newgirl threw down Dr. Yeo, and took off running.
Newgirl ran
past the posse and Doctor, into the darkness of the night, before any of them
could get a shot at her.
“Damn,” said
Constable Maubery. “She got away.”
“I know
where she’s going,” said Lucille, calmly.
“Where?”
said Constable Maubery, checking the ammunition in his revolver.
“Copper
Acropolis.”
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Next, the final chapter: Chapter 10 - "Goo'byee Moffer"
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