Year Of The Monkey

by Taylor Ashton
"Then why the hell did you take the job?" The vice president asked, over the
phone.
The answer was obvious. She took the job because she was a career politician
and she had been offered a position in the cabinet. Of course she took the job.
"You ever tried to tell that man no?" Secretary Rebecca Sandler responded,
without thinking about what she was saying, and who she was saying it to; it was a
stupid question to ask the vice president, and showed just how flustered she was.
There was a noticeable pause before he responded. "You have to be joking. All I
do is try to tell him no. And then when that doesn't work I suck it up and do my job.
That's what we do." Rebecca had known the vice president for years, she had even
interned for him when he was just a lowly state senator. She did not appreciate the
condescending tone he was using now.
"I can't sit here and watch my career die in the Monkey Department." She used the
derisive name for The Department of Homo Simian Affairs to get a reaction. Nothing
made her blood boil more than when someone used that term; it demeaned the job she
was trying to do and she had even fired a staffer for using it when he didn't realize she
had been in earshot. Now she wielded it like a rapier, trying to poke holes in the vice
president's defenses. She needed to have his full attention if she expected him to take
her seriously, and she couldn't have been more serious right now. "I'm ready to step
down. I'll just say I need to spend more time with my family. Anything is better than
becoming more of a laughing stock than I already am. I can't do it. No one takes me
seriously anymore. When they aren't laughing at me, they are pitying me, Jim. Pity. I
can't take that. I can't." She could feel her emotions began to rise up and clenched her
teeth to fight them back down. She would not let him hear the emotion in her voice,
but it took everything she could muster.
< 2 >
"Rebecca. I love you like a daughter. I've known you since before you went to law
school. Hell, I wrote the letter that helped get you into Yale. You know I would do
anything for you if I could." She tried to cut him off to tell him that she needed that
lifeline now, but he just talked right over the top of her attempts. "I just can't deal with
this now. I need you there. I know it doesn't seem like it, but you are providing an
important service to the president by being someone he can trust in such a key
position in the government. Tough it out until at least the midterm elections and I'll
see what I can do. I might even be able to secure you a promotion. You know that I'll
go to war for you."
She wanted to believe him. She really did, but even he couldn't hide the slight
scorn in his voice when he said things like 'key position in the government'. She
wanted to scream and flail her arms like a child. "I don't know if I can last that long."
"If you don't, you can go home. Enjoy your time off. But you know it will take a
miracle to keep your former seat in The House from going to the republicans. And I
don't have to tell you how bleak winning it back after your hiatus looks at the moment.
You think you are a laughing stock right now as a member of the cabinet? Try being
the former Secretary of Monkey Affairs. At least now you have some pull, and a
promise that I will do what I can if you keep your department from causing me any
additional headaches."
She knew he was right. She knew that if she went home now, she could kiss
everything she had worked her whole life for goodbye. She was humiliated and felt
more defeated than she ever could have imagined possible, but he was right and she
couldn't turn back now. "Ok. Thank you for your time and consideration." She barely
waited for him to say goodbye before hanging up the phone. As much as she still
wanted to scream, she suppressed the urge. It wouldn't help the situation to give her
subordinates clues as to exactly how close she was to her breaking point. To release
the built-up tension she focused on taking even breaths and, when she felt a little more
relaxed, let her mind wander. How the hell had it come to this?
< 3 >
Eighteen months ago twelve homo simians got off a boat that they should never
have been on. The fact that they existed at all was the real problem though, Secretary
Sandler angrily reflected. Richard Patterson had ruined her life. Not directly of course,
but the eccentric billionaire spent his fortune opening Pandora's Box; and then, once it
was open, he suddenly died, leaving the mess he created for everyone else to clean up.
He was supposed to be spending his fortune funding Parkinson's disease research off
of the coast of South Korea where there were fewer regulations, and he could blur
ethical lines in the name of science. Obviously, that was just a cover for what was
actually happening on his island.
Richard Patterson grew up on a huge and wildly successful farm and from there
went to school to study genetics. He took his family's money and used his passion for
science to turn a successful business into a juggernaut and made his fortune
genetically modifying farm animals and crops. Techniques he developed helped
produce more food at a fraction of the farm space and resources than was previously
possible. But apparently farm animals and crops weren't enough for him.
It is speculated that he became interested in the idea of breeding a human with a
primate from studying the breeding of donkeys and horses. They are as genetically
close to one another as some primates and humans, so why not? He wasn't the first to
come up with this idea, but he was certainly the most resourceful and well-funded.
Using a lab and combining chimpanzee sperm with human eggs, he was able to create
a new hybrid species. Homo simians.
They should have never been Rebecca Sandler's problem, as they were created in
a lab far from the jurisdiction of the US government, but when Richard Patterson died
they didn't get off of a boat in South Korea. They ship they snuck onto docked in San
Francisco. To say they caused an uproar is comically underselling it. This was one of
the biggest stories in the history of media. Hell, it is still one of the biggest stories in
the history of media. The stories and pictures in the tabloid magazines have gotten
sillier by the day. The truth of the matter is that the homo simians look pretty much
like homo sapiens, just a little furrier and with a more pronounced brow, but without
knowing any better it would be possible to pass them on the street without realizing it;
of course anyone who had glanced at a TV screen or a computer monitor in the past
year and a half would instantly recognize them. Also their intelligence level is at least
that of an average human, smart enough that they wouldn't be interested in the
lowbrow tabloids that they are so incorrectly portrayed in. One thing that the tabloids
continually got wrong, time and time again, was that this would never be a Planet of
the Apes scenario; like the offspring of horses and donkeys, all homo simians are
sterile.
< 4 >
A phone call from her assistant interrupted her train of thought, "Adam is here to
see you. He says it's urgent and won't tell me the nature of what it is, but just that it's
something you need to know and he can only tell you in person."
Adam. What a joke. Mr. Patterson did have a sense of humor. He was well aware
of the outcry the religious groups would make to this scandal and, in accordance to
that, gave all of his 'children' biblical names. The first born, Adam, because what else
could it be? He was their de facto leader now.
 "Fine. Give me a minute to make another phone call, and I'll let you know when I
am ready to see him." She didn't have another phone call to make. She just needed a
minute to compose herself before facing whatever the hell it was he was going to
trouble her with.
*
Adam did not feel bad for adding more chaos and conflict to Rebecca Sandler's life.
He knew how stressed out she was; he knew she worked hard to take her job seriously
in the face of scorn and even outright contempt. Adam still didn't care. He didn't ask
for this. He didn't ask to be created in a test tube. He didn't ask for the same scorn and
the same contempt for just existing. All he wanted was a sense of normalcy and to be
left alone. Society couldn't even begin to do that, let alone accept him and his brothers
and sisters. They knew they would never be treated the same as everyone else,
because they were different. But was it too much to ask for people to not be outright
hostile to them for just walking down the street? Was it too much to ask for the death
threats to stop? Was it too much to ask to be able to have a job and be a member of
society? Adam didn't think so, and that's what kept him going. Some day he hoped he
could have a normal life where he didn't have to feel like he was an abomination.
As Adam sat in the waiting room, waiting for Rebecca Sandler to see him, he was
also thinking back to Richard Patterson. Richard Patterson had been the only human
to show Adam and his siblings love and compassion. They were jokingly and
mockingly called 'Patterson's bastards' but that undersold how much of a father
Richard had been to them. They were his creation and he cared for them like a father
should. He was warm and affectionate and life in the lab while he was still alive
wasn't so bad. Adam probably could have gone on forever like that because he hadn't
known any better. There was no way for him to have known how big the world
outside of his reality at the time was; and he certainly hadn't known what to expect
when he plotted the escape plan. After his father died, life changed. Adam knew a
storm was coming and it was only a matter of time before something like the wrong
person leaked something to the press. Adam knew that it needed to be on their terms.
And so he plotted their escape, never suspecting that the world outside his compound
would hate him; never suspecting that they would take his mere existence as a threat
to their way of life. No, he did not feel sorry for Rebecca Sandler.
< 5 >
*
Rebecca watched Adam and his companion walk into her office. He normally came to
see her by himself, and it was curious that he would bring another homo simian with
him. It was somewhat embarrassing that she couldn't place the girl's name, but she
hadn't felt it necessary to have a personal relationship with each individual; the fact
that she had a working relationship with Adam was more than most people would
grant them in her position. She didn't need them to come to her with every slight
society threw their way. She gestured to some chairs in front of her desk, "Take a
seat," she said, moving towards the back of her desk.
Adam and his companion didn't accept her invitation, "We'll stay standing," he
said. "But it will probably be best if you sit down for this."
Rebecca was confused but didn't let it show on her face, "What brings you here
today?" she asked.
Adam nodded towards his companion, and she began to take off her overcoat. It
was a much heavier coat than Rebecca would have worn given how hot it was today.
"This is my sister," he said, pausing as the breath caught in Rebecca's throat. Once her
coat was removed, it was obvious what the girl had been hiding. The protruding belly
was easily distinguishable and the shock of it took Rebecca's breath away. "Her name
is Mary."