This was the first ending I wrote for the novel. It didn’t survive long, and is still in first draft form. I felt that it was too trite, too easy, and too predicable. It needed something to leave the reader wondering, maybe encourage the reader to posit what might happen next, or how they’d feel.
“Nothing that we haven’t talked about before. I just wonder sometimes…if a group could find away to use me that was pure and nobler. I imagine a group of Einsteins, Mozarts, Alexander the Greats with all of their best traits, serving humankind. Well-adjusted, living, doing good works.”
“I know, Salim. That was the hope—the promise—of some very good people. Quality people.” Tears came to his eyes as he thought of his last meeting with Androvich, the Director, with…” Unfortunately, as you know all too well, people almost always become corrupt when they attain power, wealth, status.”
Salim’s shoulders drooped. “I know. It’s as if the world was created for good, but rust and mold and corruption are constantly trying to ruin it. You can’t create with the good stuff without being prepared for that.”
“Good analogy. I like to think that even the worst of people are still cut from the same cloth, it is just that corruption began to ruin the cloth. Maybe it could never be cleaned up—but the possibility is there.”
Salim smiled. “I love you, dad. And, for whatever it’s worth, you’ve done the right things and we are in the right place.”
His dad put his arm around him. “Thank you, son. That means a lot to me. I sure hope I did right. I tried.Æ
“Tried what?” said a voice behind them. They both jumped and turned to see Salim’s mom standing ten feet behind them, her brown hair and blue eyes lost in the sea breeze, her eyes twinkling at having caught them off guard.
“Snuck up on us again, Eris. I don’t know how you do that. That’s your superpower. We were just talking about whether I did the right thing or not in bringing us here.’
She walks towards him and hugged Pate. “Of course you did. You usually do, and you are usually right.”
“I’m not so sure about that, but thank you. I couldn’t do it without you.“
“Well, you did it without me for quite a while, but for which I’m so grateful. “She reached up on tiptoes and kissed him.
Salim made a noise. “Okay, okay, you two. What are we going to do tomorrow?”
“We need to go into town,” his dad said, “and get some more materials and tools. I’d like to finish the shed before the wind comes and then will have our own bills. Do you need anything, Eris?”
“I do need some fabric. Maybe we could all go and make a day of it, take in a film and dinner?”
“Yeah!” Shouted Salim.
“OK, that’s the plan.”
“But for now,” Eris said, “dinner is ready, which is why I snuck up here. Hot and fresh, let’s go eat!”
They headed down to the farm house. Eris spoke again. “Heard you say something about being ‘ready for them.’ What were you talking about?”
“I was asking dad if he thought that they would come back for us.”
“And what did he say?”
“He said probably.”
She look at Pate. “But you’re not sure?”
“You know as well as I do that nothing is for sure. Nothing. The best we could do is plan, adjust, and ride out whatever it is.”
“With hard work, careful thought, and love,“ Salim said.
His dad and his mother both stopped and looked at him.
“What?” He said, looking from one to the other.
His mom spoke. “Your ability to capture truths of life in such concise terms.”
Salim smiled. “Well, I got it from you guys.”
“And a series of—“ began Pate.
“Stop—” Erin said. “We don’t have to bring any of them up ever again.”
He laughed. “You’ll get no argument from me on that. Now, let’s get down there and eat, because I also made a special dessert, and I’m afraid we’ve been so long that it may have fallen in the oven and is ruined.”
Pate smiled. “Then we’ll adjust and ride it out.”
Eris looked up and laughed. “I love you, Pate.”
“I love you too, Eris. Whatever may come.”
Immerse yourself in a compelling exploration of the human condition in the near future with Mortals As They Walk, the latest masterpiece by Markus McDowell.
In this beautifully crafted novel, McDowell delves into the lives of ordinary people facing extraordinary challenges, weaving a tapestry of interconnected stories that resonate with universal themes of redemption, vulnerability, and the quest for meaning.
In an age when biotechnology stretches the limits of ethics and legality, a man, woman, and young child are caught up in a heavily funded project based on the work of a brilliant geneticist. But bio-research firms, Big Pharm, governments, and black marketeers see a way to become wealthy and powerful. Kidnappings, payoffs, political intrigue, and murder follow the test subjects, who must decide what to do with the data and the lives that have been destroyed—and find a way to save the child.
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