The Purple Eyes

The wobbling of the car finally stopped as I turned off the car engine. Looming before us was a small wooden cabin overlooking a lake. It was maddeningly peaceful here.

A small gasp came out of my mother’s mouth as she took in the view. It was the first time I’d seen such intense desire in her face, even looking at her handbags didn’t bring such an expression.

I opened my car door, and stepped out. I winced upon hearing the crunch of rocks under my feet. The unevenness of the roads was my only complaint as we drove up here. It made the car wobble so much that I wanted to throw up every few minutes.

“You ready?” She glanced over me with worry. Her purple eyes gleaned under the sun making it more beautiful. She looked like a painting. There were a few wrinkles around her eyes and lips, her hair looked dry as well, but that was to be expected at eighty years old. Aside from that, people mistook us for twins. She could have gotten work done to make herself look younger. After all, she was only halfway through her life.

“My legs feel weak.” She looped her arms around me, which was a surprise. She’d never really shown affection before. I assisted her towards the wooden steps and we take it one by one, her breath comes up in short puffs as we get nearer to the door.

“You don’t have to do this, you know? No one’s forcing you.” She smiled at me. It was a thing she rarely does, but I guess today was the time for that.

She cupped my face with her hands and said, “Live a better life than me. I believe in you.” I stand there, stunned, until I hear her fist hit against the cabin door. I immediately turn towards the door and was greeted by a tall man with green eyes and brown hair. He looked about thirty to forty years older than me. I expected him to be much older. This man was at the prime of his life and here he was living at a cabin in the middle of nowhere.

“Peter.” My mother exhaled out. I could see tears forming in her eyes while she looked at this man, which made me think that I never really knew her. She wasn’t much for emotions. “Peter,” She whimpered. I looked at the man and found him staring at me. I felt uncomfortable under his scrutiny. I glanced towards my mother and back at him. He blinked and finally noticed my mother.

“Katherine.” He envelopes her in a hug and I looked at them awkwardly.

“I’ll give you a moment,” I said to my mother. I quickly removed myself and went towards the lake. I sat down on the ground and watched the ripples on the water. I grabbed a stone and started throwing it at the water.

I briefly wondered if that man was my father and why they separated. I’d imagine he was deranged, maybe that’s why he lived here.

It was about an hour after I heard footsteps approaching. The man called Peter grabbed a stone and squatted beside me. “There’s a certain angle to it if you want it to skip against the water.” His voice sounded hoarse and his eyes were all red and swollen. He threw the stone in the water and it skipped five times.

After a quiet moment, I asked, “Are you my mother’s sperm donor?”

His eyes widened with surprised but he immediately answered, “No.”

“You seemed to know my mother really well, even more so than I did.”

“Maybe. How do you feel about it?”

“Nothing, really. I’m just curious about it. It’s hard not to notice the way you two look at each other. It’s the way people look at the things they own.”

“People don’t get owned by others.” He frowned and looked back at the cabin. “Your mom’s ready.”

I stood up and shook off the dirt from my butt. I followed the man quietly back to his house. He leads me to another room adjoining his house. My mother greeted us, grief painting her eyes. She looked like she’d been crying for an hour.

It was hard to fathom the connection between my mother and this man. It seemed to go beyond a sexual nature and more into a foreign one.

“What’s next?” I asked casually.

“I inject her and she goes in the incinerator. It should be done in a minute. Do you want to say anything to her?” The man asked in a poignant voice.

I looked at my mother and a strange feeling goes through me. I immediately stamped it down. “I don’t know what to say.” We had a typical relationship - the way a mother-daughter relationship should be. She taught me about society and I learned from her. Should there be something else?

“Do I have to sign anything or register for something?” I asked the man. A flash of anger swept his face. It was gone before I could even say anything else.

He reached out for my mother’s hands and placed it on his cheek. “She’s less human than I thought.” Were they talking about me? I’m as human as they come. I had skin, eyes, hair, nails. I considered myself normal.

It was beginning to feel awkward again. I looked at my mother and said. “I appreciate what you’ve taught me. Thank you.”

Mother pulled me into a hug and whispered, “Live a good life. I mean it.” I wondered what she meant by that. I had thought I was living a good life. Why did she feel the need to keep repeating it? I flinched away from her embrace. I saw her getting teary eyed again as she mouthed something to the man beside me. She was looking at him again as if she owned him.

He reached for a syringe and instructed my mother to lay down on the big metal sheet. She grasped his hand and mine as he injects her. She closed her eyes and a second later, she stopped moving.

The man immediately stepped away and tapped on the menu on the pod like incinerator. My mother was retracted inside the machine and a countdown appeared on the pod’s surface right next to the controls. Completion in two minutes.

“What do you plan to do with the ashes?” He asked in a small voice.

“I don’t want it to take too much space in the house.” I observed his expression morphed into anger.

After a minute, I said. “Would you mind if I spread it in the lake?”

He shook his head as if he was disappointed in something.

“I can --”

He interrupted before I could finish. “What made you think of that?”

The incinerator beeped before I could respond and a black rectangular box was deposited at the head of the machine.

“I think she would want to be here. It’s peaceful.”

I carried the black rectangular box as we made our way back to the lake; It felt heavier than I thought it would be. I opened the box and spread it into the lake.

“My mother was like any mother.” Once I was done, I handed the box to him. “She taught me how to live. I would never understand why she would choose Disposal for herself but I made a promise to respect her decision.”

Quietly, I added, “I’m glad someone knew the real her.” A tear escaped my eyes and it felt foreign to me. There was not much to cry about nowadays. The only reason why anybody cried was if we didn’t get what we wanted.

The man reached out his arms towards my face and was about to wipe the tear off my face when I heard a beeping noise from my pocket. He immediately retracted his hand away.

I pulled out my phone and smiled. “I’ve got a match. I’m gonna be a donor.”

The man frowned at that. “Are you sure about that?”

“My mother wanted me to live a good life. How much better could it get? This was how we were meant to live it.”

“I don’t think that’s what she meant about a good life.”

I shrugged my shoulders and started moving back to car. He didn’t know what a good life was. It was back there in the city with everyone else.