I read the play version of Daniel Keyes’ FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON when I was in eighth grade. It has stayed with me for decades, a haunting symbol for both the overwhelming possibilities of the human intellect and the overwhelming impossibilities faced by a profoundly challenged human mind. I’ve started and stopped this novel a half a dozen times in eleven years. I want to bring the original idea into the present millennium. To read RECONSTRUCTION from beginning to here, click on the label to the right and scroll four pages back until you get to the bottom.
CJ waved to Mr. Jalfroun and said
to Job, “I gotta go!”
“We just got here!” he exclaimed.
“Mai Li needs me to do something or
get something for her.”
“What’m I s’posed to tell Mr.
Jalfroun? He saw you!”
“Tell him my sister called me in
sick!”
CJ ran to his bike and unlocked it
and sprinted out of the parking lot. He got home in record time, ran into the
house and shouted, “Mai Li! Mai Li!”
There was no answer. He dropped his
backpack and ran to Mai Li’s room.
Empty.
“Mai Li!” Silence.
He ran upstairs to Mom’s room.
Empty.
“Mai Li!” He spun frantically. The
rooms were all open and there was no Mai Li. He ran down to the main level –
again all the rooms were open and there was no Mai Li. “Mai Li!” He ran to the
kitchen then pounded down the steps to his bedroom.
Slumped over his desk was his
sister. He didn’t move, waiting for her to sit up. Yell at him about his
under-the-bed stash; yell at him for sneaking up on her; yell at him for being
her idiot brother.
She didn’t move and he was suddenly
afraid to step forward. What if she was dead? He didn’t know if he could handle
that. What would he do? Who would he call? Could he call the ambulance? What if
Dr. Douchebag got hold of her? He’d dissect her like they’d dissected the frog
in science class a few weeks ago!
His feet moved on their own. His
hand moved on its own. He touched her shoulder. She sat up slowly, turned to
look at him. She held his gaze, blinking slowly. The look wasn’t the Cheerios
look, but it wasn’t the ambulance look, either. It was somewhere between.
She was going away from him.
She said suddenly, “What the heck
are you looking at?”
“Uhh...” he replied brilliantly.
“Maybe I’ve been wrong all along –
maybe you aren’t an idiot and really retarded.”
“Hey!” he flashed, “You called me
home and I came! I was at school...”
“Like anything was going to happen
there,” she snapped back.
“Fine, then! I’ll go back. You can
explain to Mom why I’m tardy, then!”
“Fine! I will, you little idiot!”
He started back up the stairs,
stomping as loud as he could.
“You’re acting like a child!”
He turned and shouted, “That’s
‘cause I am a child! What’s your excuse, Lady Genius Smarter Than The Whole
World?” He reached the top of the stairs, expecting a verbal spear in the back
like that movie THROUGH GATES OF SPLENDOR 3D.
He reached the top and stomped into
the kitchen, being sure he hit the floor as hard as he could with each foot. It
would be incredibly loud over her head in the basement room. He reached the
front door which still stood open after his frantic search for her. “A lot of
good that did,” he muttered.
Even so, he stopped with his hand
on the door, listening.
“Chris?” she said his name softly
with none of the anger from a moment ago.
He went back to the basement door
and stood at the top, staring down the steps. He said, “What?”
“I’m sorry.”
He took a step down, softly this
time. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m pretty sure I’m dying and I
can’t do anything about it.”
Three more steps, “You’re not dying
– maybe going back to what you were before the nanomachines.”
Long pause, then she said, “Explain
to me how that’s not the same thing as dying.”
CJ didn’t have an answer. Instead,
he knew he was selfish but couldn’t keep the question inside, “Am I going to
still be able to read when...when...the nanomachines are done rebuilding your
brain?”
Mai Li snorted and said, “Nah,
idiot brother. You learned how to read all by yourself.” Long pause, “Me? I
needed the nanos to make me, and now they’re going to unmake me. What have I got
to whine about?”
Without knowing exactly why, CJ
stepped down all the way, went to his sister and started bawling like a toddler
who skinned his knee for the first time.
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