Ana says, “Yes, enough of this.”
May says, “From this day forth, no more creeping and crawling.”
Ana says, “From this day forth, no more creeping and crawling.”
May says, “And from this forth, I will no longer be a rock.”
Ana says, “From this day forth, you will be like all other little girls.”
May says, “From this day forth, you will be like all other little girls.”
The sisters make a little slit on their forefingers and rub their blood together.
Ana May
From that day forth, Ana learns to walk with a slight slouch and May becomes a little ballerina. But they never forget.
The Parents
They are not cruel or uncaring parents, but they are happy when their children become like all other children. They were worried about Ana and her jumping around like an ape. They thought perhaps she was part monkey, but then she became like all other little girls. They were worried that May was destined to be an obese lump, destined to never find love because who could love a girl like that? The parents did not want to admit it, but even they found her gross. But then, she became like all other little girls.
The World
Meanwhile, countries are tossing bombs at each other, but Ana May does not care. They are two happy children, playing games like normal children.
Ana May
Two sisters, but really they are bored playing games like hopscotch and Scrabble. They are bored out of their minds, but the people ignore them now. They are normal children, children to be adored for being utterly unremarkable.
The World
Meanwhile, the people use their technologies until all the icebergs are puddles of lukewarm spit.
Ana May
Two sisters, and now that it is hot, they don bathing suits all day. Little boys walking by whistle not only at Ana but also at May. May, trim as paper, winks.
The World
Meanwhile, meteors shower Mars and Jupiter and Neptune. Entire planets evaporate, leaving only a colored film of dust to float into the people’s hair and lawns.
Ana May
Two sisters, and they let the remnants of Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune tattoo their faces with light.
May
Two sisters, and the younger predicted all of this would happen.
Ana
Two sisters, and the older devised a strategy that could have prevented all this.
The World
Meanwhile, the apocalypse is knocking. Is anybody home?
Yes, the people are home.
Please, come on in. Can I offer you some fresh lemonade?
It’s sweltering out there.
Ana May
Two sisters, and older says, “It’s time.”
The younger says, “Yes, it’s time. We have to do something.”
But the older is out of practice. When she leaps to the ceiling, she cannot hold herself up. When she catapults to a light fixture, gravity weighs her down until she is fully earthbound.
And the younger is so slight now the older cannot hide behind her. She can no longer offer protection.
So the two sisters grasp onto each other, telling the other how pretty she is, and the cobalt haze lifts its skirt, inviting the two sisters in.
clear chat history: a triptych (from Davis Schneiderman)
PART ONE: Day 417 of 1463-day Mars Colony Simulation Mission: The Story
1. Yes.
2. I’ve been awake for 17 minutes.
3. Pass urine, also known as take a piss.
What have you done this morning?
I know. I know. You can’t answer me. Or you won’t answer me. Whatever. No harm in trying. One of these days, right?
4. Consume hydrogenated algae drink. What I really want though is some orange juice. From real oranges.
5. Day 417 of projected 1463-day mission.
6. Ready to proceed.
7. No problems.
8. Male.
9. 35.
10. Brown.
11. Hazel, although I suspect the left one is growing more brown than green. I’d never say green or brown though.
12. Unmarried.
13. Newark, DE.
14. Two. One sister: older. One brother: younger.
15. 43 years, although my father’s probably been cheating the whole time. Who knows about my mother.
16. University of Delaware (BS, Biology); University of Angola (MS, Microbiology); Yale University (Ph.D., Astrobiology; Biochemistry); Brunei Systems Propulsion Lab (Post-doc).
17. “Theses on the Possibility of Artificial Neural Networks Applied to Star Clusters: A Comparative Analysis.” Distinction.
18. Possibly seeing my mother lift me from a kiddie pool with the sun flat like a chrome disk behind her. Also: what kind of fucking question is that? I’ve answered it for 417 days. Never known the purpose. You’re not going to answer. You’re probably not even a you.
Or: seeing my parents screw. My dad’s hairy back, my mom’s bush.
19. Alice in Wonderland (video); Douglas R. Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (paperback); Songs of a Dead Dreamer, DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid (audio).
20. Reading. Cooking. Point of clarification: none of which I can do here.
21. The way white asparagus seems to melt into clarified butter.
22. A steel-reinforced square space — 35’ x 35’ — with light partitions for three not-uncomfortable bunks. The rest of the space is open but divided into three zones: hygiene, cooking, lounge.
This space hasn’t changed in 417 days. Do you really have to continue asking this question?
23. One computer. All it can do is answer this chat questionnaire from control. But you know that already because you’re the one asking the questions.
No other ability to send communication outward.
Also, a joke: how many engineers does it take to make a computer do more than it ought to be capable of doing?
There’s no answer, but we’re still trying.
24. We know because we receive this message: “Today’s questionnaire submitted successfully.”
Also, you keep asking questions.
25. N/A. We’ve never been unsuccessful, unless the others are hiding something from me.
26. There seems to be no continuity to these questions, but the fractal pattern along the lower third of the wall opposite my bunk is flawed in its fifty-third iterative spiral.
27. Jack, star cartographer and system analyst; Jane, environmental theoretician.
Don’t you know this by now?
28. Attractive. One more than the other. Sometimes, the other more than the one. That doesn’t happen often though.
29. We masturbate. Sometimes with each other.
30. How would I know? The Kennedy Assassination, Watergate, the implosion of the Twin Towers as a correction to the binary code?
31. 1–4 times per day. Never touching.
32. We’re professional. Things remain platonic.
33. I stopped brushing my teeth 29 days ago, but I use the dull edge of a plastic knife as a tongue scraper.