As G-889 Turns
Episode #2: The Name Game
"Anthony."
"Christina or Christian."
"Bernadette."
"Oh, I like that one."
"Cassandra."
"What about you, Julia?"
"I don't know, True. I never really thought about it."
"Aw, c'mon. Everybody thinks about it. What about when you were little?"
"Well...." Julia smiled, shyly.
"Come on, Julia," Walman teased. "Out with it."
"I always kind of liked Alexandria. And for a boy, Alexander." Her eyes met Alonzo's. "Alonzo?"
"No, I'm not playing."
"That's not fair," True insisted. "You've been sitting there listening to everyone else. You have to tell."
"I don't have one."
"Alonzo!" they all whined.
"Well, I don't," he insisted. "I used to have one but I changed my mind. Danziger, what about you?"
"True."
"Now, that is cheating," Alonzo said.
"Why?"
"Because you've already used it. You have to think up a new one."
"Why should I have to think up another one if you won't even tell one."
"Yeah, Alonzo," Julia said, eyeing him carefully. "Quit trying to dodge. It's still your turn. You said you used to have one. What was it? Why did you change your mind?"
"I never actually planned on having kids."
He was met with a chorus of "Quit stalling!"
Alonzo sighed. "I never did plan on having a kid...but...if I did...well, I used to think I'd name it after my mother. I don't really remember her all that well. She died when I was young. But I do remember that she was a really nice woman, sweet and kind and all that mom-stuff...but not sappy or anything. I remember this one time the landlord tried to pull a fast one on her. Didn't want to give back her security deposit or something. I was only 5 or 6. I didn't really know what it was about. But she gave him hell. I remember being so proud of her." Alonzo looked around the campfire at all their faces, embarrassed at the way he'd suddenly opened up. "Anyway, her name would have worked for a boy, too."
"But you changed your mind? Why?"
"Let's just say that the name has lost its magic."
"So what would you name your kid?" True demanded.
"I think Alexandria or Alexander would be just fine," he said, winking at Julia.
"That's cheating," Uly said.
"Yeah," Danziger agreed. "'You have to think up a new one.'"
"But why don't you want to name your child after your mother anymore?"
"The name doesn't have the same connotations as it used to. Trust me. You don't want to name your first born after my mother."
Julia tensed under the scrutiny. What had begun as an innocent little name-game to keep True entertained was becoming embarrassingly personal. And yet, she knew all of these people so well that there was no point in not continuing. "You never know. I might just like to name my first born after your mother."
Uly rolled his eyes and made gagging motions. Danziger quietly shushed him.
Alonzo was smirking at Julia in full dimple mode. "Julia," he said, grining even wider. "My mother's name was Morgan."
Morgan spit coffee out of his nose and Danziger fell backwards into the dirt, laughing.
"Alright, your turn," Alonzo told Danziger. John couldn't control his laughter and waved his hands helplessly as he lay panting in the dirt.
"I think we better come back to him later," Julia suggested. "What about you, Walman?"
Walman also appeared to be on the verge of a solid case of the giggles, but managed to offer his suggestion. "Skippy."
"You'd name your kid Skippy?"
"No, I'd name the koba Skippy. I'm not going to give away a perfectly good name. What if I did have a kid someday and you'd already used the name. Then I couldn't use it or else I'd have to tell my kid that I'd named them after a runt koba. That's almost as bad as naming your kid after Morgan."
Another string of snorts rose out of the dirt where Danziger lay.
"Forget the koba for a minute," True suggested. "The question wasn't what should we name the koba. The question was what name would you pick out for your kid. Now tell. We won't give that name to the koba. We promise."
"Jasmine."
"Oh, that's sweet," Magus said.
"I'm not playing if you're going to make fun."
"I'm not making fun. I think it's a sweet name. What would you name a boy?"
"Kyle."
"Kyle the koba. That does have a nice ring to it," Magus smirked. Danziger was still weakly pulling himself to a sitting position and nearly rolled back onto the ground.
"Alright, that's it," Walman growled. "Game's over. No one's naming that little rodent after my possible future kid. I don't know why the hell we're even keeping it. Haven't we established that those monsters are dangerous?"
"We can't leave it," True cried. "It'll die. It's too young to survive on its own."
"They aren't fatal," Yale reminded him. "Just exceedingly inconvenient."
"You don't think getting zapped unconscious counts as dangerous?"
"They only attack in self defense," True insisted.
"We'll let it go as soon as its old enough to survive without its mother," Danziger said.
"You just feel guilty because you ran over its mother. The rest of us shouldn't be put at risk just because you can't drive. It's still a dangerous animal."
"Walman, it's just a little baby. It's not big enough to hurt anybody."
"You don't know that. You don't know how old they have to be before they can start stinging people."
"Walman," Julia said. "It can barely crawl yet. As long as you don't go near it, it can't possibly hurt you."
Walman grunted as the argument died down. The whole camp seemed to have been won over by the little creature and the one person he'd expected to be on his side hadn't uttered a word during the entire argument. Morgan just sat staring blankly into the fire.
Even Danziger seemed to notice that Morgan had stayed remarkably silent. "Hey, Morgan?" He seemed to stir slightly but didn't lift his eyes from the flames. "Morgan, what would you name your kid?"
"Murder," Morgan whispered.
John looked at the others. They all seemed as stunned as himself. "A novel choice, I'll admit. Bit of a downer, but at least you wouldn't have to change the monogrammed silverware."
"Cold-blooded pre-meditated murder," Morgan said, quietly. He finally lifted his eyes from the campfire and blinked slowly, as if shaking off a heavy fog. He met their eyes blankly until his gaze locked onto Alonzo. "He set us up," he told Alonzo. "He set us both up to die. He knew the mission was sabotaged. He could get rid of us both at once."
Morgan rubbed his forehead as the others stared at each other in confusion. "He tried to kill us. He tried to kill me." His voice rose to a familiar, tearful whine.
"Morgan, what are you talking about?" Alonzo demanded. "Who are you talking about?"
Morgan just shook his head. "Oh, God. All this time I thought it was so ironic that he would pull all these strings to get me a job that nearly got me killed...but it wasn't coincidence. He knew. He had to know. He pulled all those strings to get me on this mission because he wanted to get me killed." Morgan stood, and staggered somewhat in his daze. "I bet he had to pull even more strings to get you on this mission," he growled, once again facing Alonzo. "Just getting you awake at the right time to be able to accept the commission would have taken some doing."
"Morgan, you're upset. Why don't you sit down and let Julia check you over. You look a little shaky."
"Shaky? Shaky?! I just had my entire universe yanked out from under me and thrown back in my face. Damn right, I'm shaky!"
"Morgan," Alonzo began, reaching out to him.
"Get away from me," Morgan growled. "Get away from me and keep away from me." Without warning, tears began to stream down Morgan's face. "You ruined my life!" he yelled at Alonzo. "You don't get it at all. You don't even care. You ruined my entire LIFE!!!" he shrieked, spitting out the words.
Pushing Bess and the others away, Morgan turned and ran away from the camp. Bess looked helplessly to the others for a moment and then followed him.
"What the...," Danziger began.
Alonzo just shook his head. "Julia?"
"I have no idea," she said. "We better go find him. I don't want Bess to be alone with him. I'm not sure he has an adequate grasp on reality at the moment."
True and Uly clung to Danziger. "What's wrong with him?" Uly whispered, nervously.
"I don't know," Danziger replied. "But, don't you worry about it. Julia and Alonzo will handle things." He then nodded to Walman over their heads, indicating that he should follow the others.
Those who remained fidgeted awkwardly, each deeply concerned but not wanting to say anything to upset the children any further. They had spent months worrying who would get sick next after Devon. They were just barely begining to relax and now Morgan had just spontaneously freaked out in the middle of a quiet evening. A question haunted many of them. Is that it? Is that the next thing? We all go insane?
***
Bess found Morgan down by the creek, squatting at the edge and splashing water on his face. "Morgan? Honey? I don't understand."
"Oh, Bess, why do you stay with me? Why did you decide to renew? It's not like you didn't have alternatives," he added, waving weakly in the direction of camp. "I'm a loser, Bess. I've always been a loser and I'll always be a loser. Everybody hates me...when they bother to think of me at all, that is."
"Morgan, that's not true."
"It is true. You know it's true. No one can even stand to be around me. I'm just a pest, a nuisance, an annoying, needy, crawling thing that won't go away."
"Morgan...."
Alonzo and Julia had paused some distance from them. Morgan seemed to have calmed down to his familiar whimpering self so they just hovered there waiting to see if his tantrum was really over. Walman stood even farther back in the shadows.
But when Morgan looked up and saw Alonzo, the fury returned. "You stinking, sleep-jumping, shanking, rat-faced,...!" he screamed, hurling himself at the pilot. Walman sprang forword and pulled Morgan off the other man, but not before Morgan had knocked him to the ground.
"What is your problem?!" Alonzo screamed.
Julia hovered uncertainly around them. Psychiatry was not her field.
"You are my problem! You have always been my problem. You are a sick, manipulative, leacherous, bed-hopping, lying, sleazy...."
"You, of all people, shouldn't be starting a name calling contest, Morgan!"
"Morgan," Julia warned. "If you don't calm down, I'm going to have to sedate you."
"Me?!"
"Yes. Morgan, you're not being rational. You need to calm down. You're not making any sense. Just slow down and relax."
"Relax? My father tried to murder me and I'm suppose to relax?"
"Morgan, what are you talking about?"
"My father got me this assignment. He made a big deal about it being a big move for my career. Only, he didn't do it for me, he did it for himself. He could kill me and cash in on the money. It must have seemed heaven-sent when he first found out about this. All he had to do was get me on that ship and Blalock would handle the dirty work."
"Surely you don't believe you father wanted to kill you," Bess said. "He couldn't have known about the sabotage. I'm sure only a small circle of people would have known."
"Bess, Dyson Blalock witnessed my signature on my life insurance policy. I'm telling you that my father was in that circle. He had to be."
"And all of this just hit you now?" Walman asked. "Like divine inspiration or something?"
"Because of him," Morgan said, pointing at Alonzo. "It had to be a setup, because of him. Do you know how many billions of people there are in the universe? Do you know how many of them are pilots and civil servants? What are the odds that, of all the combinations of people that could have been assigned to this mission, Alonzo and I both wound up here?"
"You're getting a little philosophical," Julia protested. "It had to be somebody. Why not you two?"
"I'm not asking 'Why me?' and I'm not asking 'Why him?' I'm asking 'Why us?' And there's no other explanation. It's just too much of a coincidence to believe that we just happened to meet on the mission that was supposed to kill us. I'm telling you, we were both set up. I know that this had to be my father's doing. He arranged it so that we'd both be on that ship, so we'd both die."
"Why would your father want to kill me?" Alonzo asked. "I don't even know him."
"Oh, but he knows you. He knows you, and he hates you, almost as much as he hates me." Morgan dropped down onto the ground, tears once again welling up in his eyes. "Do you know what it's like to know that everybody hates you? And when you look into the eyes of the one person who doesn't hate you," he said, looking up at Bess as she knelt down next to him, "you can't think of one good reason why they don't hate you, too."
"I think you should let Julia sedate you," Alonzo suggested. "Get some rest. Maybe it'll make more sense to you in the morning."
"I'm not confused," Morgan insisted. "For the first time in my life, I truly know the score."
"Morgan, I do not believe that your father was part of a conspiracy to kill me. Maybe he did know about the bomb. Maybe he really did want to kill you. I don't know. I don't really want to go into your personal hangups. But I'm quite sure that he didn't plot to get me on that ship."
"Do a DNA scan," Morgan suggested to Julia.
"A DNA scan? What for?"
"I can prove what I'm telling you."
"How will a DNA scan prove anything?"
"I can prove motive. If I can prove my father had a reason for killing Alonzo, then you'd have to admit that it would be an amazing coincidence if he didn't have something to do with it."
"But why?" Alonzo demanded.
"Because you're a jerk!" Morgan screamed.
"All right, that's it." Alonzo threw up his hands. "I'm not standing here listening to this anymore."
"You will listen," Morgan insisted. "Sit down. Sit down right here and let me tell you a story. I'm going to tell you what it was like for me growing up."
"I don't want to listen to your life story, Morgan," Alonzo said, turning away.
"Well, you have to hear it. You can't walk away from trouble all your life, Alonzo. It catches up to you eventually. This particular piece of trouble has caught up to you now and I'm not letting you leave this time." Alonzo turned back and looked at him. "You want to know the truth, then you have to listen to the whole truth."
"Alright, Morgan," Alonzo said. He sat down on the ground a few meters away. "Talk."
"My father did a lot of favors for me. Kept me clothed, we had a nice apartment.... I had nothing to complain about. But the thing is, he always made sure I knew that what he was doing for me was a favor, that he didn't have to do anything for me because I wasn't really his kid. As long as I can remember, I've known that he resented me. My mother was a lovely woman, not just pretty, but smart, talented. She was a musician, a poet, a truly beautiful person. But that sort of thing doesn't really count for much if you're not a member of the idle rich. She had to work for a living, and, quite frankly, there just weren't a lot of practical things that she was very good at. And then she got pregnant. You wouldn't think that sort of thing would happen anymore, but it did. She had a fling with this playboy who wasn't keeping track of his suppessors and bingo. So there she was, pregnant, and no job prospects and along comes my father and takes her in. Good Samaritan and all. Only he never let either of us forget it. I sometimes think he married her specifically because he wanted a woman who would be in his debt the rest of her life. He did seem to genuinely like her. But he never liked me. I used to dream about my real father, wild fantasies about how he was going to show up one day and take me away with him on his adventures. Whenever my father yelled at me or grounded me or told me I was useless, I used to tell myself that it didn't matter, because my 'real' father was out there somewhere and my 'real' father loved me and some day my 'real' father would come back for me. And every now and then, when I was feeling reckless, I'd throw it back in my dad's face. Only he was better at those mind games than I was and always turned it right back on me. My 'real' father was just a loser too, he said. My 'real' father wasn't coming back for me because he didn't even know I existed and wouldn't care if he did. Well, he was right, as always. How long ago was it, I wonder? Just a year or two, I bet."
"Morgan, you're rambling again," Julia said. Bess just sat next to him, quietly clutching his arm.
"I'm going back," Alonzo said, standing up. "He's obviously not going to say anything that makes sense."
"Be careful, Julia," Morgan said, quitely. "He's a wanderer. It's Alonzo's nature. He'll laugh and trade babynames now but as soon as he gets the chance, he'll be gone."
"Damn it, Morgan. I don't care if you are having a nervous breakdown. Keep me out of your obsessions. I didn't have anything to do with your being here. I didn't have anything to do with that crash. I didn't have anything to do with your domestic strife. Stop screaming at me like you expect me to solve all your problems. I am not your father."
Morgan stood and walked straight up to Alonzo's face. "You are my father! Haven't you been listening to anything I just said? C'mon. Get the brain in gear. It's been no time at all for you. It's gotta be fresh in your mind. Or do you just knock up so many women that you can't keep track anymore? I'm telling you that you, flyboy, Al, son of Morgan, are my father."
"I think," Julia said, quietly, "that maybe I should do that DNA scan now."
CONTINUED IN THE NEXT INSTALLMENT
Author's Chapter Notes:
This is a continuing soap opera. If you haven't read the prior installments of the As G-889 Turns saga yet, this will make no sense whatsoever.