Mabry

Mabry sequences amino acids in the basement of a research center in the Canadian tundra. His job is to design a better person by manipulating amino acid sequences and tracing gene-trait causality paths. His research is not meant for implementation, but for documentation and computer simulation. Mabry often complains that the quality of gene combinations is subjective. Sometimes he says that he’s never met someone he considers better than anyone else, so he has no basis of reference. He sleeps in a barracks bunk surrounded by the other members of his project team. All male, they have no wives, no children, no sex in eight years. Every person the team has designed is a woman. Nothing exists in their world beyond work except a few polar bears and thirty something different names for snow.

The Anonymous Father

In 1983, a man named Wallace sold a beige Buick to a woman named Krystal. Wallace knew full-well that the pre-sale repairs he’d commissioned would give before less than a month of driving. He knew full well that Krystal would curse him for a swindler once a mechanic pronounced a priest’s sentence on the engine of the Grand Marquis, and he still asked her phone number, asked her out to dinner. Wallace knew how to smile to make people think him genuine. His smile was his meal ticket, and if he sold a car and got a phone number, he was pretty much being paid for sex. Krystal smiled shyly, pinked only a little pinker than her brushed on blush, pulled out a pen. He only dialed once, spent enough of his her money on the date, and pretended he lost control before he could pull out since ‘condoms took away too much of the feeling.’ He quit his job and changed his name when he heard about babies, the twins.

The Department Store of Love

Henry and Amber held hands as they ambled across the white lines of the empty parking lot to the front door of the store. They stopped on the automatic open sensor, turned to each other and embraced, their kiss steaming, their breath fogging out their nostrils on the cold as their tongues danced to the beats of their hearts. They fell away from each other, gazed into each other’s hazelnut eyes.
“I love you, my beloved,” Henry said.
“I love you too,” Amber said.
Finally, they smiled goodbye, entered the store, and glided in opposite directions as the doors glided shut behind them.
Henry worked in hardware, Amber in housewares. They met in the candy aisle on Amber’s first day, and their first date consisted of coffee at the picnic display during their lunch break. They kicked off their shoes and curled their toes on the Astroturf.
Store policy prohibited dating among employees, so Mr. Melvin, the store manager, asked them to leave. Henry bought Amber a stuffed frog from toys and proclaimed himself a customer.
Mr. Melvin was not a cold man, and the store had no policy against dating among customers, so he fired them both and promised to rehire them the next day. Henry lost the fifty-cent raise all Payberry employees received at the end of our first month, and they both lost the remainder of the day’s wages. Mr. Melvin sacrificed the time to fill out the paperwork of firing two employees and hiring two previously fired employees. He even over-looked the no food and drink policy for half an hour before he asked them to leave again.
When Henry and Amber reported for hire in the morning, Amber wore an engagement ring. The store had no policy against engaged or married couples working together, except that they couldn’t work in the same department or make any public displays of affection including eye contact.
Six months later, the ceremony proceeded down aisle nine from draperies to jewelry. No question where they bought the rings. Gladys from floral designed the bouquet, but Lawrence from gardens arranged the rest of the flowers. Henry made Mr. Melvin the best man. Fifty-seven customers ceased shopping to watch the ceremony and eat the cake at the reception in furniture. Enrique the cashier liked to joke that after the store closed that night, they held their honeymoon in lingerie. They actually drove to Topeka, Kansas to attend a swing dance convention and witness the world’s largest q-tip.