On Monday, Claudia saw five new patients in addition to some regulars. “Must be gas people,” speculated the receptionist. The area was undergoing a gas drilling boom and swarming with gas company employees from across the country.
Claudia’s first patient was an Hispanic woman, age twenty-seven, named Maria Medina. She was quite talkative and not with the gas company.
“My husband is a carpenter, specializing in kitchens,” she said. “He’s older than me.”
“How old is he?” asked Claudia as she palpated the patient’s breasts.
“Forty-two,” said Maria.
“I don’t feel anything wrong,” said Claudia, as she closed the paper gown back over Maria’s breasts.
“I want to get pregnant,” the patient blurted.
“Are you trying?” asked Claudia, who had moved down to Maria’s other end and was adjusting the stirrups.“Scoot down,” she said. “A little more, little more, that’s good.”
“José is fine with it, although he is adamant about only wanting one. But Doctor, we have a problem. My husband has a really low sperm count. It was an issue in his first marriage. We could keep trying forever, but he’s okay with artificial insemination. I figured you could help me with that.”
Claudia, about to insert the speculum, paused. “Well, I can refer you to a doctor in Binghamton who specializes in fertility issues. There’s —”
“Is it a man?” Maria said.
“Well, yeah, but Dr. Mehra is an excellent physician. He’s well known all over the area, and he’s been called to speak at many conferences.”
“I don’t want a man,” Maria said firmly. “And I don’t want to drive far. You can help me here.”
Claudia stuttered. “W-well, I don’t know. I don’t know why you wouldn’t want someone who’s an expert. Who has access to more—”
Maria partially sat up on the table, causing Claudia to almost drop her instruments. “There is nothing wrong with me. I just need some sperm inserted. I need to find someone with good genes, get some of his semen and, if I have to, insert it with a turkey baster. Lesbians do that, right? If you don’t want to help me, I’ll just do that! We don’t have zillions of dollars to waste on some fancy specialist!”
Claudia finished the exam in silence. As she tossed her surgical gloves into the trash can, she said, “I’ll think about it.” But really, it wasn’t something she relished doing, this turkey baster business. So unprofessional.
~~~
The next day, Claudia’s mother, missing Richard, though not enough to invite him back to live with her, picked him up in the morning, and they headed out on a trip to the Finger Lakes. The empty apartment was a blissful sight when Claudia arrived home after work.
She poured herself a generous glass of chardonnay and settled into a chair on the patio. Though it was early October, the day had been summer hot and now was comfortable. She sipped the wine, then had a horrible premonition. That place in her mind where she’d filed away the frightening invader had creaked open its door. Then… out he stepped in reality, right in front of her.
He stood between her and the setting sun, and she saw that he was made of solid matter. This time, perhaps because he was familiar, he did not seem quite as bizarre as before.
“We are happy with how you are progressing in your work,” he told her. “But now your time to help us is approaching. I remind you of your obligations.”
She had no idea what he was talking about.
“Made before you were born,” he prompted.
Claudia did not believe in anything outside of the material. She was a scientist, a doctor — such people stuck to the program.
He said, “I remind you that people consciously forget their contracts after they enter the physical, but they often fulfill them just the same. What is forgotten in the brain is still remembered in the finer matter.”
She wished he would speak in normal language.
“It is time, Claudia.”
Her heart was pounding in that most unpleasant way again. Was it too much to ask for a quiet, normal life?
“Time for what?” she said with resignation.
“To implant that seed, my child.”
She shut her eyes and sighed. “What are you talking about?”
“The young female who came to your place of examination yesterday. She is the one.”
Claudia sat up so fast, she knocked over her glass. “Who? You mean Maria Medina?” What had made her name that particular patient when she had seen at least ten other “young females”?
Her visitor smiled. “Indeed, that is the one. Now listen carefully. You are going to allow me to place the seed.”
“What? You think I’m going to allow you to rape one of my patients? Are you insane?”
“Be tranquil, child.”
He waved a hand over her forehead and, surprisingly, she was calmer. But then since this was only a dream or hallucination, she supposed that sort of thing was to be expected. She blinked hard, hoping to get rid of him, but he was still there.
“I think you misunderstood me. You will simply arrange for Maria Medina to come to your office for the procedure, and I will take care of the rest.”
“The rest of what?” She wanted to scream.
“The insemination. I will handle that.”
Desperate, she decided to humor him. “What will you inseminate her with, if I may ask? And how will you insert it into her body?”
“You will be present the entire time. Nothing to concern yourself with. No one else can be there, however. It can be only Maria, you and me. Best, perhaps, to arrange this for after the work day is over. Get her there, and I will appear.”
Oh, my God, Claudia thought. Is this whatever-he-is going to ruin my entire career? Will someone see us inside the clinic? How would I ever explain this to Maria? What if she freaks when she sees him?
“Call her tonight and tell her you will do it three days hence. Tell her that you will provide the sperm. Tell her that the donor is above reproach.”
“Is she going to have an alien child?” Claudia squealed.
“Alien?” He smiled. “No one in the universe is alien.” He paused. “By the way, you won’t be crying yourself to sleep much longer.”
She opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but as always, he disappeared.
~~~
Maria, for some strange reason, trusting her utterly, immediately complied with Claudia’s request to come to the clinic that following Friday at seven PM. Her response to Claudia’s undoubtedly odd phone call in which she said that she would provide the sperm of someone perfect for the job was almost dreamy.
“Fantastic,” Maria said, her voice trailing off. Claudia wondered if she was on something.
Maria now lay on the table, her feet in the stirrups, legs spread. Claudia, having prepped her, had no idea what she was supposed to do next and couldn’t explain why she was even going along with this utterly crazy plan. She had no semen to insert anyway!
The weird thing was, when she checked Maria’s chart, the young woman was ovulating.
Jabril suddenly appeared behind Maria’s head. He lowered his hands over her, and she instantly fell sleep. He moved so fast that to Claudia he seemed a blur of light. She didn’t know what he did nor how he did it, but soon it was over and he was gone. Maria opened her eyes.
“So, are we going to do this thing or what?” she said.
Claudia clamped her mouth shut (it had been hanging open) with a loud click. “I-It’s already done,” she managed to mutter.
“Wow, I must have dosed off,” said Maria. “I’ve been weirdly sleepy all day.”
“Tilt your pelvis up a little and lie there for an hour,” Claudia instructed her. She inserted a folded towel under Maria’s lower back for support. “I’ll catch up on some computer work while you rest.”
But somehow she knew that it didn’t matter if Maria lay down or danced a jig. The girl was knocked up, and that was that.
Jabril did not reappear, neither to Claudia nor to Richard. Richard seemed to find this perfectly normal; apparently he was used to his hallucinations coming and going.
“Don’t you find it ominous?” she asked him after a couple of weeks. She didn’t tell him about Maria, of course, nor for that matter, anything Jabril had said to her.
Richard shrugged. “I guess he just moved on.”
“But don’t you wonder what he was? He wasn’t human!”
Her brother smiled. “I think he was an angel,” he said matter-of-factly.
She didn’t want to get into that conversation and quickly changed the subject.
~~~
Nine months later, Claudia delivered Maria of a seven pound, three ounce baby girl, and she and her husband named the child Xalvadora.
Claudia made a point of examining the baby carefully and could find nothing off about her. She looked, in every respect, like a normal human child. There was one thing, however, which she didn’t notice until Maria came in for her post-delivery checkup.
“I brought Xalvadora for you to see!” said Maria. “Isn’t she the prettiest thing? Look at those eyes!”
Claudia looked and felt a strange bolt of electricity shoot through her. Xalvadora’s eyes were dark blue, probably on their way to brown and physically like any other pretty eyes. However, the expression in them was disturbing in that the tiny infant seemed to look right into Claudia’s soul. The expression was not unkind, but so knowing that Claudia quickly handed her back to her mother.
“I am so proud of her,” Maria said. “I think she is going to do great things.”
What had she done? Claudia wondered, once Maria was gone. But was she given any choice in the matter? Was this child an alien hybrid? Were aliens taking over the earth, and was this sort of thing going on all over the planet?
No other explanation crossed her mind. While Claudia was a good doctor, imagination had never been her forte.
The holidays approached, bringing with them the hospital’s employee dinner dance, held this year at a restaurant and caterer known for dashing weddings and bar mitzvahs. Claudia decided to attend (she hadn’t during her residency, nor the year before) and to take Richard along as her “date.” Richard, however, insisted on bringing his new girlfriend from one of his clinic day programs so that once again, Claudia found herself in her usual position of, if not loner, then third wheel. Lamentable too, she thought with self-pity, since for once she’d liked what she’d seen in the mirror before they’d left the apartment. Her hair was looking thick and shiny, and the dress she had on, a black velvet, cut-out number, was particularly flattering to her figure.
The DJ put on that juicy oldie, “Close the Door” by Teddy Pendergrass that always made Claudia’s lower regions, the very ones she was an expert at examining, turn to mush. She had grown up on the song since it was one of her mother’s favorites and had known since a little girl that it had to do with what went on between men and women. And now the sparkling room filled with it, and her heart ached to dance, but who would she do that with?
But here came Dr. Cantor, the new gastroenterologist, heading her way and soon she was up on the floor, and they were moving as if they had already known each other for quite some time. As she snuggled closer to get a whiff of the cologne he was wearing, she understood what Jabril had meant. That she would not be crying any more and more than that… who Xalvadora was.
About Margaret Karmazin
