"Your examination and test results show nothing to explain your condition, Ms. Walker," said the doctor. Doctor Frieda was Lauren's personal physician, who arranged and followed up the treatment that prevented her immune system from collapsing.
All of Lauren's visits with Doctor Frieda and every treatment for Lauren were borne by Brendon. Lauren, who normally goes for a check-up every two months, was a little uncomfortable with her earlier visit, but she thought it might be worth seeing her doctor because she was afraid that what she was experiencing might be some kind of seizure.
Her doctor said that physical fatigue can cause sensory problems and recommended rest. In fact, according to studies, she explained that immigrants are more affected by changes in their environment because their senses are more sensitive than the normal population.
While anyone who thought she was tired said it was the result of taking care of the baby, Lauren found it more tiring to have to attend classes for at least six hours each weekday and not be absent. She was fond of entering her department. Never studying would not be offensive but it was really tiring for her to stay in the top twenty to attend classes from home.
She turned on the telecomputer on her wrist on the way home from the air train. She looked at the test results falling into her personal databank, as if she didn't believe what her doctor said was normal.
Actually, it wasn't because she understood, but she was happy to see the values in the normal range there. Then another test result caught her eye. This was a negative pregnancy test.
Except for tests for the immune system, tests were not performed unless deemed necessary in the normal examinations. Seeing this test made her feel a little embarrassed. "What kind of pregnancy can cause waking or hallucinating during the day, my dear doctor?" she muttered. But she couldn't be completely angry with her doctor. Except for a few people, everyone who knew them thought that Brendon and Lauren's marriage was a normal marriage.
A rule about sexual relations between the parties in the marriage agreement she made did not have. However, in some articles, there were phrases about inheritance, rights and education plans "related to future children". Moreover, situations such as "acquiring a mistress, cheating..." were forbidden in order not to shake the family reputation and the trust of the parties to each other.
When Lauren thought about these articles, at first it would be a normal marriage, except for the agreement and logic marriage on paper, she had thought. If Brendon didn't want to have a mistress and wanted more than one child, that meant he was willing to have sex with Lauren. However, Brendon hadn't touched Lauren once throughout their marriage.
She had "He might be trying to get to know me or waiting for me to get used to it." or "He might not want me to be a mother before I finish school or before Michelin is a little older." prediction. Lauren didn't know the real reason, as Brendon never talked about it.
As she got off the air train at the stop near her home, "Although, if he wants to be a father again with this official attitude, he may request insemination under laboratory conditions," she thought and chuckled. Who would want to be a parent in such a way unless they have to? Or was there a problem with Brendon Walker? To think so caused more enjoyment.
Lauren once had read a journal article about a fertility test in the past. A porn content was shown to men in a room instead of giving a stimulant drug. She had a hard time not laughing out loud when she imagined her expressionless husband giving a test in a room with a porn magazine in front of him.
…
A high school boy saw a young woman slightly taller than his older sister, with beautiful dark hair, bent in front of her in the middle of the subway stop. In fact, the incomplete chuckle emanating from that young woman had caught his attention first.
The woman stood for a while, both hands over her mouth, bent forward. The sunlight hitting the top of the air train stop was hitting the woman's hair spilled in front of her and illuminating the dark blue color.
The boy thought the woman might have sneezed. At first he wouldn't care, but the strong wind caused by the second train that came to the station later blew her skirt off her knees, but the woman did not move. Anyone would hold it, afraid that it would blow in such a wind.
Then the woman walked slowly towards the fire escape section of the station exit on her right. Her hands and feet moved as if they were being played with a string. The boy followed her.
The woman went through the open fire escape, which should normally be locked, and climbed the stairs. This stop is almost twenty meters from the ground.
The woman didn't mind her hair or skirt blowing in the blowing wind. She gently grabbed the railing and was throwing herself down when the boy grabbed her from behind and knocked her to the ground. "What are you doing?" he yelled. However, the woman was still staring at the sky as if in a trance.
…
Lauren heard the persistent ringing of her cell phone. She sat up suddenly. In front of her was a high school boy leaning over her. She looked around, trying to figure out where she was.
A man behind him said, "This door was supposed to be locked. How did it open?" When he said that, she turned to look at the open door and the stall attendant speaking out. The station in the back and the man's uniform reminded her where she was.
She brought one hand to her face and remembered the word "Ici" addressed to her, feeling nauseous. The feeling of nausea reminded her that she was experiencing the same thing again.
"Are you okay?" the boy asked again. "Yes, I am fine. Thanks," Lauren replied.
When her phone stopped ringing, she lifted her wrist to see who the caller was. It was Brendon calling. Lauren said she was fine to the station attendant, who got up slowly and asked her if she was okay.
While she was whisking the dust off her skirt and blouse, she made up excuses for the station attendant that she was dizzy and messed up the road. He did not forget to thank the young man who helped her, and as soon as she finished her work, she made his way home.
As soon as she entered the house, she greeted Margaret, who was watching over the baby. She entered the bedroom and planned to phone Brendon.
Normally she was sleeping in Michelin's room. Lauren used the bedroom in the house as if it were a shared bedroom with Brendon while Margaret was at home.
The room smelled of Brendon's lotion. There was a strong odor somewhere as if he had left the bottle open. Lauren glanced over the mirrored vanity just outside the door and couldn't see it there. The door to the dressing room on the other side of the bed against the right wall of the room was closed. The bathroom door on the other side was open and the smell was coming from that side.
When Lauren walked in, she saw the overturned lotion bottle. She sniffed closely at the rim of the bottle before lifting it up and capping it. While smelling it, she was able to see the razor right in front of her. When stuck for a moment that Brendon's neck and neck smelled like this., she felt awkward and capped the bottle.
She wondered if there was some kind of aphrodisiac ingredient in the lotion. Then, remembering what had just happened to her, she snapped out of Brendon and her thoughts and wanted to open the window and air out the room. When she turned around after opening the window, she thought she saw something right in front of the bathroom door. It was in his heart.
She was thankful she didn't scream and wake Michelin. She tried to remember what she saw, its shape and type, but failed. She sat on the edge of the bed. After calming down for a while, she was about to call Brendon when the phone started ringing again.
Brendon was silent for a moment on the phone that was picked up on the third ring. Lauren used to answer, "Hello?" but this time there was no sound from the other side.
"Lauren?" he called. "Y-Sir?" the answer came with a stuttering voice.
"Are you ok? I called half an hour ago, but I guess you didn't hear." said Brandon.
Lauren replied, "I didn't hear it when I was on the t-train. I was going to call now too. I just got home."
"I told you you could use the car when you left the house," Brendon said.
Lauren sighed, "I can't imagine experiencing my trance today while driving." she thought. But in a calmer voice, "It was a short distance. No problem." she replied.
"You had a job at school?" Brendon succumbed to his curiosity. Actually, her school was not a short distance. Lauren was a little quiet. She hadn't told him that she was going to see her doctor. It was something she couldn't hide. After all, Brendon was paying the bills. She said she went for a routine checkup. Brendon didn't ask too many questions.
Lauren asked, "Were you going to say something?" This time it was Brendon's turn to be quiet.
"I was going to say I'd be arriving early tonight. If you want, that is, if you wait to eat..." came the answer. Lauren wasn't expecting this. "Sure, it does." she said while trying not to show a smile.
they decided at about eight o'clock and hung up the phone. At that moment, Margaret asked Lauren to keep an eye on the baby monitor as she was going to the bathroom. She placed it on the make-up table right in front of her.
Lauren sat on the edge of the bed for a while longer. She couldn't understand why she was so happy to hear that Brendon would arrive early. When she felt relief, she lay on her back on the bed. She liked the smell of the lotion, which the open window couldn't immediately take away and the clean linens.
She heard a sizzle. She looked up at the radio in front of her. There was no crying sound. The sizzle got a little louder. Thinking the radio might be broken, Lauren straightened up and walked over to it. As she got closer, she realized that the sizzle was something like a whisper. She picked up the radio and put it to her ear.
Lauren had to put the radio away and turn it off, as the whisper turned into a raspy signal the moment she picked the letters exactly. She ran to Michelin's room. Michelin was still sleeping. She couldn't make sense of what was happening.
To find out if the words she heard had any meaning, she typed into her telecomputer's search engine: "T, I, R, E, T, O, and I" versus French "Get out!" word was coming. She couldn't understand. Then a television sound came to her ears. It must have come from downstairs or upstairs. The sound was not clear. "I wonder if I heard the TV when it suddenly turned up?" she thought.
Brendon turned off his telecomputer. However, he was still staring at the picture he saw on the tablet in his hand. The picture was taken recently on the school campus. Lauren had posed with her friends.
He knew one of her friends. She was a smart girl. She was the only friend of Lauren's who knew she was getting married. He remembered that her name was Cecile. According to the information he gathered before marrying Lauren, this girl was the first person Lauren had truly intimidated with after the District 23 incident when Lauren was 14.
It was a pity that they couldn't see each other often as Lauren had to attend virtual simulation classes to get a rating. In fact, Brendon had made no such requirement. Some people say, "He can't tie his young wife to the house." Impressed with their words, he took a hit on Lauren right after they got married, forcing her to stay in the top 20.
As if to relieve his conscience, "I also graduated from the same department. In addition, I was in the top twenty for 4 years, but we did not have such a virtual simulation opportunity." he muttered. All the while, he was glad that Lauren obeyed.
In the photo, one of her male classmates was hugging Lauren's waist as she posed. The moment he saw this photo on Lauren's social media, he involuntarily called Lauren. The fact that the phone hadn't been picked up on her first call also made him nervous, but Lauren explained to him why she couldn't pick up. Focusing on the hand on the thin T-shirt, he sighed and pushed the tablet away. He took his head in his hands. Then he covered his face.
He didn't understand why he was so affected by what some of them said and thought. Three years ago, when they said "You Should Get Married.", he got tired of their nagging and got married. When they said "You must have a child," he had become a father.
After the woman he married died suspiciously, when they said "The baby is small, find a mother," he did it. But there was one thing he didn't do as they wanted, and that was to marry someone like Lauren.
He had seen Lauren at a seminar he had been invited to. It was precisely the period when immigrants died one by one that was hidden from the public. He had only researched because he was wondering how a bright young woman studying in the same department could cope with this situation, but when he realized that she could not cope, he thought of proposing to her.
This immigrant girl, who was in a difficult situation, accepted his offer. Soon after, they got married in a modest wedding. It was fun for him to do something for the sake of the family. He didn't care much for the twelve-year age gap. In the end, the other party knowingly accepted this. Moreover, the other party was more profitable. Brendon was taking care of all her needs.
Basically, it wasn't all that different from how Brendon treated Michelin's mother. The biggest difference was that he didn't touch Lauren. At first it wasn't something he'd ever thought of. The prenuptial agreement was an agreement created by his private attorney, and it had provisions for it. Lauren had agreed by signing, but Brendon had never looked at her that way until now.
Perhaps the thought that he was helping her because he saw her as young, inexperienced, needy and helpless was perhaps hindered by him. But now the situation was different
"I'm not a robot after all." he muttered. He looked at the calendar in front of his desk. He had to prepare for the seminar he will give at the 36th Space Days Symposium, which will take place a few days later. He remembered the gala night that will be held on the last day of the symposium. He decided to take Lauren with him that night.