Only Human Chapter 1: Heaven or Las Vegas

Dusk had just settled over peaceful suburbia, while automatic lampposts flickered on. As the occasional car buzzed by, there was no one around except for a stranger standing under a tree, one of many surrounded by cement. The rustling sound of trees and the far-off song of crickets were welcoming to her, for it was many years since she last heard either of them.

She looked skywards as an inverted falling star arched overhead. It would go unnoticed by the nearby populace who had forgotten how to look up to the stars. It was not so long ago that she, too, was among the stars, but now her feet were planted on terra firma.

She pulled her tattered denim jacket tightly against herself as she continued walking down the sidewalk. The night was brisk, and winter was not far off by the feel of it. She brushed back some of her redish-blonde hair as she gulped in some of the cold night air. The sight of a Seven Eleven made her pause, torn between temptation and her destination.

The newcomer stalked through the automatic sliding doors, pass the lone attendant hiding behind thick bars, and straight to the coolers lining the back wall. She grabbed a 20 oz. bottle and took it to the counter. She peeled two wrinkled bills from the inner lining of her pocket.

She could barely wait until she got outside before she twisted the cap and downed the drink. A heady mix of caffeine, sugar, and citric acid burned down her throat. She let out a satisfied sigh, and said, “Now, I’m home.” There was no one in particular around to reply to her statement.

It wasn’t much longer before she found the house she was looking for. It was a two-storey home, modest in appearance with a small satellite dish grafted onto one side of the house. The woman paused, almost knocking on the wooden door, before pressing the doorbell. There were muffled sounds coming from the inside of the house.

The door swung open to reveal a woman in her sixties with predominately grey hair. She wore a simple dress with a modest necklace with an even more modest cross at the end. Her aging face widen into a smile. “Elizabeth!” she cried out.
“Mother,” replied the newcomer at her doorstep. “It’s Zoey.” Before she could continue, her mother unabashedly hugged her.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” asked her mother. “We would have baked you something.”

“I’m fine,” replied Zoey. “I had something on my way here.”

“We could have met you at the airport.”

“I took a taxi,” lied Zoey.

“Well, come on in,” said her mother. “Harold! Harold! Elizabeth’s back, Harold.” From the bowels of the house came a slightly overweight older man with thinning hair and grey highlights. “Well, if it isn’t our long lost daughter?” he said. “Come here, pum’kin.” And before Zoey could protest, she found herself hugged yet again.

Zoey’s mother, Alice, helped her out of her battered denim jacket. “You still have this old thing?” she asked her daughter.

“I happen to be fond of it, Mother,” Zoey replied. Harold showed her into the dining area. The refrigerator and the microwave were set into the wall surrounded by cabinets. Zoey sat at the table with her father. Alice took a frozen meal from the freezer.
“Wow, this place has not changed a bit,” said Zoey, looking around. “So, how’s everything?”

“Can’t complain,” said Harold. “Retirement’s nice, but you have to find something to do to pass the time.”

“Don’t let your father fool you. He’s been volunteering to revamp St. Joan’s website, and he’s a consultant at the local optimization company.”

“They finally going have someone update their site?” said Zoey. “Good for them. I’m glad you’re staying out of trouble, Dad.”
“Don’t listen to her, pum’kin. She’s had her hands full with the garden and all the laundry.”

“Lies, lies! I do no such thing,” remarked Alice as she placed the meal into the microwave. “So, what have you been doing all these years?”

“Yeah, how’s life on Mars?”


“Well,” started Zoey, looking into the palms of her hands. I accidentally got recruited into a madman’s human experiments and had my brain lobotomized, so now I can have conversations with computers. Sara, the woman who nursed me back to sanity, took me across the galaxy, and I saw many beautiful and terrifying things.

Zoey looked at her parents. “Nothing much.”

“That’s it?” asked Alice. The microwave quietly hummed to life.

“Nothing interesting, I mean,” Zoey added hastily. “I was living with my old roommate from college, and you know, had some job prospects. Did some temp work. Things not going so well there, with the embargo and everything.”

“The embargo ended a year ago.”

“Right, I meant before that,” said Zoey.

“So, what brings you back here?” asked Harold.

I had an argument with my best friend, the woman I owe my life to, over information that would have led me to the man who ruined my life. So, I did what I always do and ran away. That’s what led me to Mars in the first place.

Zoey cleared her throat. “Well, I missed you guys.”

“You could have just called,” said Harold.

“Which you never did,” said Alice.

The microwave beeped.

Soundlessly, Alice took the now steaming meal from the microwave and placed it in front of Zoey.

“I wanted to call you guys, but that ten second delay is creepy, and I couldn’t afford calling long distance, as it were.”

“It’s okay. Mom’s just joking with you. Right, Alice?”

“Of course, Harold. Elizabeth’s a grown woman who can choose to ignore the people who gave her life if she chooses to.”

“Mom, it’s not like that,” said Zoey between bites of a white clump posing as mashed potatoes.

“We understand, don’t we Harold?”

“I don’t understand why the two of you can’t just be normal to each other and say how much you miss each other,” he replied. “I’ll be in the other room watching the newscasts.”

“We’re women, Dad,” said Zoey as he rose. “We’re not normal.”

Alice sat down next to Zoey. “I thought he’d never leave. So,” she said with a certain look in her eyes. “Did you meet anyone?”
“Mom!”

“You should be thinking of starting your own family.”

“Mom, it’s none of your business if I’m dating someone.”

“You didn’t have an abortion, did you?”

“No, I didn’t have an abortion!”

“Well, I don’t know,” said Alice. “You seem so secretive today.”

“I am not secretive.”

“If you say so.”

“Okay, Okay,” said Zoey. “I did meet someone.” He’s part of an elite group of super geniuses. He’s familiar with every language in existence, and, more importantly, he’s cute. “He helped me through a rough spot I was going through.” Trapped on a dead planet. “He’s just funny and charming, and I don’t know.” He makes me forget that I’m a freak.

“So, when do we get to meet him?”

“I’ll get back to you on that,” said Zoey as she started to stand up. “My bedroom still there or did you make it into a sunroom?”

“Everything’s just as you left it.” Her mother hugged her warmly. “It is nice to see you again.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Zoey walked past her father who stared soundlessly at his laptop’s screen. She went up the carpeted stairs and found her room to be untouched for the last five years. Her bed was neatly tucked, and everything was cleaned off the floor. Zoey could barely recognize her own room.

She went over to her desk where her cell phone lay. Out of her pocket, Zoey pulled out a similar device for intergalactic calls, the personal line to the Brilliant 5. She set it on her desk and took the cell with her back to the bed. She flipped her cell open as she plopped onto the bed. It took a few seconds for the cell to turn on. During which, Zoey closed her eyes and gathered her wits. Her mind, strange and enhanced, could feel the data floating all around her. Unlike other planets, Earth’s data was crowded, disorganized, and almost chaotic.

Zoey reined in her senses and focused on her cell phone as it started to download her emails. In her mind’s eye were flashes of the email speeding into her inbox. Like her mental training, Zoey tried reading and sorting them as a normal person would with a computer screen. And for a time, she accomplished it, until the weight of the incoming emails became too much for her mind.

Realizing this, Zoey furrowed her brow in concentration. She started pushing the data out of her mind, before she became overrun with it. She exerted all the willpower she could muster in raising her guard and shutting out all of the data around her. She finally managed this small feat and felt utterly drained.

She looked down at the cell phone. Anger and frustration suddenly seized her through the weariness, and she tossed the cell down. It bounced off the bed and slid across the floor. With the floodgates opened, a surge of emotions twisted in her chest.
Zoey, exhausted and lonely, cried. She started to smother her face in the sheets to dry her eyes and to muffle her sobbing from her parents below.

Click here to read Chapter 2

Written by J M Emmons. The story and all characters are copyrighted by J M Emmons.