Diversion

The buggy had a crooked wheel.  If Jill leaned on the left handle as she pushed, it wasn't such a pain. Jill was hurrying, out of breath, she was a little late for her meeting at the playground. The other mums would probably already be there. The gas leak on Campbell St. had meant that she'd taken longer than usual, she'd quickly cut across the street, took Gavel road then nipped across Sallies square before arriving here just outside the park. The gas-leaks had been getting more frequent. The gas seemed to be more corrosive than usual. Something to do with the microbes that had become super-active with recent solar flares. The trouble was that the gas damaged all the buildings around the leak and if the weather was too calm the residents had to wear masks and shower with neutralising agent. That stuff smelled like hospitals, for weeks afterwards. 

Vera was asleep in the buggy. The stamping of Jill's' feet, the sounds of traffic and workmen on the streets and the jangling of the baby bag on Jill's' shoulder weren't enough to stir Vera. Jill was pleased that Vera was peaceful for the journey, it was one less thing to consider as she adjusted her route and hurried to the playground.

The other mums were huddled in the park. The kids were playing already. The group looked closed and the conversation was lively. Jill opened the playground entrance. The usual hiss of the seal was strangely quiet. Jill eyed the opening a little suspiciously as she manoeuvred the buggy through. Even though it was quiet it was enough to alert Anne. She looked up from the conversation and beckoned enthusiastically.

Anne was a lovely lady. Her husband had lost his job about two years ago and she had sailed over that difficulty without batting an eye. He'd found work again after six months or so. The new job was a complete change of career but it seemed to benefit all of Anne's' family with her husband working at home more and their son Clay getting more time with both parents.

Next to Anne was Cara, she had a really rough year so far. Her husband had left her to volunteer for life in an off-world colony. An affair was one thing but to abandon a life for adventure seemed like the sharpest of insults. Jill was almost intimidated by Cara's swift adaptation to her new life. Little Dahlia was taking it hard and would often find a few minutes to be alone and sob, but Cara didn't have time. She just kept on, keeping on. Most weeks Jill spent a good part of Friday night explaining to her husband how terrible her week had been. For Cara this little luxury didn't exist and yet Cara was not a basket-case or even mildly unhinged. Formidable.

Tracy had just found out that her son Hector had Fleche Syndrome. It was a behavioural problem where little Hector forgot who his parents were. She'd been working with the doctor to develop Hectors memory and she always carried certified documents that identify her as Hectors parent. It was a horrible condition. A couple of times his behaviour had flared up while they were out together. Hector would fight to get away from the 'stranger' claiming to be his mother. Often people saw the commotion and approached to help Hector and that last time it had taken all the other mothers in the group to convince a police officer that Tracy and Hector were related. Jill shuddered almost imperceptibly at the memory.

When Jill got within three steps of the chatting mothers Tracy slid along the bench to make space for Jill to sit down. Jill complied and pulled the buggy in front of her. The ladies all looked at Jill with a pleasant smile. The group was complete so the conversation resumed.  

                "What's wrong with the seal?" Jill asked

                "Yeah, I think there's a leak in the dome somewhere and the pressure is weak." Cara waved her hand loosely, she didn't really understand and was clearly passing on a version of the information about the seal.

                "A leak?" Jill was concerned "There were gas leaks on the way in, a dome leak would be..."

                "Don't worry, Cara doesn't mean a leak she means a breach. The pressures low because the they are patching it." Tracy clarified.

                "Oh yeah, that's right, a breach, not a leak. Thanks Trace."

                Vera detected the stillness of the stationary buggy and it was enough to rouse her. She opened her eyes to see the mums huddled around and talking ferociously as only parents starved of adult company can do. She couldn't see the other children, so she sat up to look around.

                "You can go and play if you want to." Jill smiled "I think Dahlia, Clay and Hector are playing with the sand, over there."

Vera got out of the buggy and skipped across the yard.

"How was your doctor appointment last week?"Anne asked Tracy.

"Well, it seemed like an improvement. Hector's due for another scan next week but we've been given some memory stims."

"Is Hector good with those patches? Vera won't stop playing with a patch until it peels away." Jill jumped in.

"Yeah and then you can't tell if they've had the full dose or not..." Cara complained.

"No, he's useless but we put them on right before bed-time and I've stuck it between his shoulder blades so there's no way he can reach it."

"That's smart. I must remember that next time Dahly needs a patch."

In the sand Hector was digging. Dahlia and Clay had built a mountain out of sand.

"Hello, Dahla. Hello Clay. Hello Hector. It's me Vera"

"I am making a road Veerah. Don't come near me you might Istroy it!" Hector warned

"Me and Clay are making a house. Clay is the bulldozer and I am the Mum."

"Grrrrrrummmm" Clay revved.

"Can I be a sister?"

"No, you be a shopper and bring us nice things for the house."

"Yes. I like shopping"

Hectors road really needed to pass right over the plot the house was piled on. After a short pause Hector decided to dig a tunnel under the house. It would be the best part of his road.

Vera looked around then waddled through the sand pit. There was something shiny poking out of the sand at the edge of the pit. As Vera stepped towards it the clouds covered the sun for a minute and the shine dimmed. The shiny thing was a broken bottle. Vera moved closer to investigate.

"I was so upset they put the game on." Anne complained

"Yeah, they didn't even put the episode on after, just skipped the whole thing" Tracy sympathised.

"They shouldn't be allowed to do that. Don't they understand I need my fix of Cave of Wonders?" Anne continued.

"I left Peter watching the game and started sorting out the home movies." Jill confessed

"Oh that's a good idea. I've got hours of film that are just a jumble of files" Tracy said.

"Well Jamie hates the sport and hates me watching Cave so he was quite happy. He took us all out for dinner." Anne confided.

"That's lovely." Cara stared dreamily at Anne. Suddenly Jill and Tracy felt uncomfortable with the conversation. Poor Cara. Anne was unpeturbed.

"Yeah and the restaurant was virtually abandoned because all those guys were home watching the game."

Suddenly there was the sound breaking glass, and a childish shout. It sent a cold chill through the mothers; a natural response given that particular combination of sounds. Jill and Tracy felt a relief from the conversation even as a thin panic rose in their throats.

"Hey what was that?" Anne asked.

"Sounded like Vera" Jill yelped then stood up to locate Vera.

Vera was shouting at the nano-recycler.

"You OK sweetie?"

"I throwed the bottle in the bin."

"Good girl, now go back and play with your friends." Jill's voice quickly calmed at the sight of her daughter.

Vera looked around for good shopping.

She heard buzzing nearby . Turning towards the noise she saw some beautiful flowers. The house would look very pretty with some flowers on it. Vera smiled and walked towards the flowers with determination.

"Have you seen those new morning-after 'nites?" Tracy asked

"When do you have chance to use anything like that? Since Clay arrived I haven't had a single night out. Ha ha ha." Anne giggled.

"Well, that's kind of the point. Have a good night out, let your hair down then swallow a capsule and next day get up fresh as a daisy" Jill laughed.

"Have all you girls been out without me?" Anne asked with a smile.

"What's the big deal with these new ones Trace?"

"Well I know it's a bit naughty but they've been tweaked to remove drugs as well as booze"

"Oh Tracy! You surprise me!" Cara seemed genuinely shocked

"I didn't say I was taking drugs. Just that now, you could give it a try without needing to use the nanny software for too long. I wouldn't want to give Hector any more reasons to forget us." she smiled weakly.

The other girls smiled politely.

"So should we have a night out?" Anne leapt right back on the idea.

"Well, I'm not sure..." Cara started.

"Bring Dahlia over for a sleepover, Jamie will be home and won't mind. You can stay the night as well, we can have a good time and then all be tucked in safe and sound afterwards."

"Oh Anne, that's very kind of you. Can you give me a little time to think about it?"

"So when should we go out?" Jill enthused

"It'll have to be Saturday, synch calendars ladies and let our phones spit out the date." Tracy took control.

The ladies all pressed a button at their wrist and Tracy projected the date onto the floor in front of them."

"Well if the calendar says so let's book it!" Anne chimed.

"That's three weeks away right?" Cara asked

"Yeah. Now it's synched it'll flag up if something else crops up and clashes." Tracy explained.

"It's so long since I've been out, it's like a holiday. I'm so excited!" Anne chirped

"Now where shall we go?" Jill asked looking directly to Cara. Best to give the poor girl some sort of control since she'd been gently railroaded.

The bees dipped into the flowers. The delicate white trumpets were just wide enough to let the bees venture inside. Vera could see the flowers bulging as the bees travelled down to the nectar at the bottom of the flower. She watched them moving from bloom to bloom. Her tutor program logged some details, identified the species of flower and bee and prepared a future lesson based on her observation. Then one bee tried to crawl into an occupied flower. Vera laughed, it was funny to see such a silly mistake. The second bee's rear end stuck out like a chubby, furry tongue. Vera clapped with the comedy of it all. The second bee dropped out of the flower closely followed by the resident bee. Vera stopped still. The buzzing noise had become more intense and even Vera knew the first bee was very angry. The two bees locked together. They fell onto the ground below the flowers, wrestling and buzzing really hard. Vera stepped closer to see what was going on.

Suddenly the buzzing stopped. One bee was lying still and the other crawled slowly away across the ground. It was impossible to know which was which. Another minute later it didn't matter both bees were completely frozen.

With both bees motionless Vera soon got bored, and remembering her 'shopping', she reached up to grab some flowers. Her hands gripped the stems and she pulled. The bees were shaken out of their blooms and they noisily flew around trying to find another place to land. Vera yanked again but the plants were tough and woody. The bees were growing impatient.

 "The kids are playing nicely huh?" Anne sounded content.

"Yeah, a break from the education programs is good." Jill confessed.

"I know they have the Free-world class time but I think face to face socialisation is important" Cara said firmly.

"I'm sure in ten years the kids will all be locking themselves in their rooms and we will have to Free-world them to come eat". Tracy said dreamily as she browsed her mail.

"Jill, is it OK for Vera to be playing with the flowers over there?" Cara asked.

"Vera! Leave the flowers alone. Go back and play with Hector and the others."

Vera let go of the plant sulkily. She stared at her mother waiting for her to turn around, but  she kept watching. The other children were still in the sand-pit and the 'house' was quite tall now. Vera grabbed two hands-full of dandelions from near the path and headed back. At least there would be some flowers, even if they couldn't be the pretty ones. As she stomped  back she heard a whisper. It was a voice but Vera couldn't quite hear the words. She looked around but there was no-one around. Vera stopped walking to listen harder. The whispering  sounded like words but not words she knew. It was interesting. She dropped the dandelions in her left hand and moved towards the sound.

Another two steps and the whisper was louder but the sounds didn't make sense. Vera looked up and there was a fuzzy patch in the air. Maybe the whisper was from an invisible man? Vera moved towards the rippling air and the whisper got louder, but infuriatingly it was no clearer. Vera ran forward, maybe the invisible man was disappearing and needed help. The shimmering air was bigger now, filling her vision. She must be standing right next to the invisible whisperer. Vera lifted her right hand to offer the invisible person her dandelions.

The shimmer gathered around the yellow petals. It gripped the flowers and inevitably drained the colour from them making them grey and limp. Vera was a little shocked. It was happening very slowly but too quick for her to react.

The stem of the dandelion turned grey and limp. The whispering was much louder but no clearer. Vera saw the grey touch the edge of her fingers. There was a numbness where the flesh had turned grey.

Vera decided that the invisible man was trying to make her invisible too. Vera didn't like the idea of being invisible. She opened her hand and the bleached dandelions fell to the ground and came apart like china falling onto concrete.

Vera turned towards her mother, but the grey was spreading up her fingers towards her palm. The numbness had turned to a tingling. Vera didn't like it, she started to cry out.

Jill looked up. Her daughter was trotting across the park, her little face was contorted. Jill's heart quickened and she was already on her feet and heading towards Vera with open arms.

Three steps forward the tingling had bloomed into pain. Fat tears swelled in the corners of Vera's eyes and the shout of distress became a loud, heartfelt cry of pain. The pain was still growing as the grey consumed the whole hand and wrist. Vera's cry was rising, rising to an alarming scream.

Jill scooped up her daughter.

"What's the matter baby?" she barked in fear. Vera was smothered by the pain in her hand. She gasped for air, gulped it down and kept screaming.

Jill responded by physically holding out her daughters arms and legs and looking over every inch. It didn't take long to see the hand was degenerated. The other mums crowded around.

"What is it Jill?"Cara shouted over the child's cries.

"She has a nanite infection." Tracy butted in.

"How far has it got?" Anne asked with calm authority. Motherly accident and emergency mode engaged.

"Looks like the hand" Jill replied.

"Here, I've got an emergency patch." Cara held out the patch that she'd quickly retrieved from her handbag.

"Thanks" Jill said as she grabbed the patch and pulled up Vera's sleeve. She ripped the back off the patch with her teeth and pressed it down mid-way along Vera's forearm. Vera's screaming hadn't stopped and her face was tight and ruby red with a grimace of agony. The soothing green light on the patch lit up to show that the anasthetic had been applied.

Less than a second later the blue light fired to show disinfection had begun.

Another long second later and Vera's screaming broke down to heavy sobbing as the pain subsided.

"Do you have an Amp-kit?" Cara asked.

"Yeah, it's in my bag will one of you fetch it for me?" Jill looked pale, she brushed Vera's hair away from her face  with her hand, and stared into her eyes. Vera lay limp across Jill's knees. The Grey had stopped advancing.

Anne returned. She ripped open the hermetic seal and passed the silver Amp tool to Jill. Jill took it from Anne limply.

"Nearly done sweetie. It's really easy, and you know the patch will protect her." Anne encouraged.

"I can do it if you'd like." Tracy soothed.

"No, I'm fine. I've just never had to do it before." Jill said flatly.

Jill's thumb pressed the activation button and the laser blade lit up.

"One swift motion to avoid ragged edges" Anne mimicked the medical advice on the side of the packet. Her action looked as if she were enthusiastically scooping out a melon.

Jill gripped Vera's arm and pressed the blade against her wrist, below the patch. The blade parted the flesh with almost no effort. Jill was surprised to feel no resistance. Vera had flopped into a chemical sleep. The bone smoked a little, and the smell turned Jill's stomach, but the Amp tool slid on. Behind the sizzle of the blade the wound was sealed like a good pork steak on a barbeque. Jill felt the nausea rising as she mentally compared her child's arm to meat. The smell of cooking was impossible to ignore. Sooner than she expected she was through. The grey hand fell to the earth and shattered.

"All done. Now you just need to pick up a replacement on the way home." Anne said.

"Can't believe that was your first time. Hector's had both hands and a shin replaced". Tracy confided.

"Oh Yes. Dahlia has a replacement ear and her left foot was swapped last year." Anne said.

"Well, I'm horrified." Cara butted in. "Clearly the leak, breach thingy wasn't sealed properly, which is criminal in a children's park. If it's OK with you I'll go and video it and bundle the first hand footage from Vera's tutorial software. I can send it as a complaint file straight to the local authority."

"Great idea Cara. And keep your reciept for Vera's new hand. The compensation should reimburse that." Anne smiled.

"That's true. So get a good replacement, don't skimp and get Vera home. It'll all be fixed and fine before your husband gets home." Tracy smiled and reached out to squeeze Jill's shoulder in support.

"Thanks ladies. I panicked a bit, glad you were here to help me."

"Nonsense, you coped really well. It's just incredible that it's Vera's first time. You've looked after her very well." Anne beamed.

Jill lifted her daughter into the buggy. She carefully moved the stump onto Vera's lap and cushioned it with a fleecy blanket. The she turned and hugged the other mums in turn. Finally she pushed her daughter out through the seal and onto Sallies square. She paused to consider the gas leaks and chose to go to the chemist on Friar Lane as it was the closest place to get a good quality replacement hand. And since Cooper street was closed, it was on the way home.