Fission
Part One: Junk Mail
Phil Corbyn paused before setting his daughter’s bags down by the oak door. He fully intended to carry them out to her car and stack them inside, but first he wanted his other two children to say goodbye to their sister. It irritated him that, while those two got along so well with each other, neither of them ever really seemed to want much to do with their older sibling. ‘No doubt they are upstairs,’ he mused, ‘playing on their computers.’
He inhaled sharply in preparation to yell at the top of his lungs when his oldest, Allie, walked around the corner from the den. She smiled when she saw him, and she wasted no time in joining him near the front door. She gave him a hug and peck on the cheek before she spoke. “Thank you for a wonderful summer, daddy. I’m gonna miss you guys.”
He exhaled loudly and smiled at his angel. He could never stay mad when she was around. “Just promise me you’ll stay focused on your studies and not on boys. College ain’t cheap,” he joked, like he couldn’t afford it, or that she wasn’t attending on a full academic scholarship anyway.
Her smile widened. “Aww dad, no worries. Junior year is when I’m supposed to strut my stuff and start lining up the best Grad School I can find. Trust me,” she paused as she wiped some lint from his dress shirt, “I always focus on what’s important to me, you know that.”
A noise from the landing caused Phil to shift around, his arm now draped over Allie’s shoulder as he looked up to the top of the stairs at the end of the stairway. There at the white marble balustrade stood his other daughter, Bethany. She waved. “Hold on you two, I’m coming.” She then promptly sprinted down the stairs, Phil had warned her repeatedly about that, but such was the power of his authority in his own house, no one listened to him anyway.
Bethany stopped just short of bowling them over. She gave him one of her typical, almost too long for comfort hugs and then hugged Allie. “I’m gonna miss you sis,” his youngest daughter surprised him. Perhaps they had grown closer over the summer and he hadn’t noticed. He was so pleased by this development he didn’t hear his son walk in from the den.
“Hey guys, saying goodbye? Mind if I join.” Tommy approached with his arms open and he tried his best to wrap them all up. “Group hug?” He laughed.
Phil felt something akin to a fist releasing his heart. His irritation from earlier completely forgotten. ‘This is great, he beamed, ‘if only Cheryl was here—’ he didn’t finish the thought.
The memory of his departed wife on his mind, he stepped away and let his kids have their moment together. He saw them, smiling, joking, and turned his head and wiped at his eyes. ‘Damn, getting dusty in here.’
“Dad,” it was Allie, “are you okay?” She stepped away from her siblings, which seemed to irk them.
‘Oh no, I won’t ruin this.’ He held up his hands. “I’m just happy to see you three getting along. It’s been a while.” He looked over at the picture of Cheryl on the wall. He willed himself forward. “One more group hug then you all can help me get these bags loaded.” They groaned in unison.
Once Allie’s belongings were stowed in the trunk and Tommy and Bethany said their goodbyes, Phil hugged his daughter one last time. He kissed her on top of her head. “Dad,” she said in her typical mock exasperation. He knew she loved his displays of affection, however. He held her slender shoulders and gave her his most earnest look.
“Drive safely. If anything happens, call me.” She started to speak but he cut her off. “I know, I know. It’s only a few hours away. I love you, be careful, please.”
She nodded and kissed him on the cheek. “I love you too, daddy.” She stepped away then, off to partake in her junior year at college. He waved and didn’t stop until she turned down at the end of the street. Phil despised not being able to accompany her, but it was her wish. ‘She’s out of the nest, time for her to fly,’ he rationalized to himself.
He checked and made sure his cell phone was on and fully charged. It was still early, the temperature was only moderately scorching, he could get some yard work in.
After an hour spent mowing part of the back yard, the duration of the task prolonged by his repeated monitoring of his phone, he drove the riding mower back into its enclosure he walked back to the house.
He heard splashing and stopped by the pool to find Tommy and Bethany swimming and horsing around. It certainly felt like the sweat was pouring out of him; he couldn’t stop wiping his forehead and face.
“Marco,” Tommy shouted, his voice bouncing off the patio furniture.
“Polo,” Bethany swam away, and Phil sincerely hoped she had put on plenty of sunscreen, as a pale redhead she got sunburn very easily.
“Marco,” Tommy’s voice became sinister as he moved closer to his sister. Bethany tried to dodge him, but his hand caught her underwater. She squealed
It was tough for Phil to see; it was almost like he was blind with all the sweat in his eyes. Still, he had to ask, “you guys want anything to drink?”
“Nah, we’re good,” Tommy answered.
Phil considered bringing them something anyway but dismissed it. He needed to get inside and cool off. His skin was beginning to sting. He checked the phone and it was later than he would have thought. ‘Shit, I’ve got those files from the office I have to work on.’
Once inside he made a glass of ice water and drank half of it. He took it as a sign of him getting older that he just couldn’t handle the heat like he could in his youth. Gazing out the window, he saw his two remaining children still playing in the pool.
They both had graduated high school just three months prior. Neither of them wanted to rush off to college, which was fine with him, he didn’t want to waste money for them to find their career paths after several years of frivolous courses. The real reason was something he didn’t want to admit to himself, if they both left for college, he’d be alone.
He wasn’t ready for that yet. He’d never be ready for that.
Phil finished off his water and went upstairs to his home office. Waiting for his PC to boot up, he double checked his phone then called his business partner. Ron picked up on the third ring.
“Sup bud, how’s it going?” Ron’s Texas drawl flowed through the phone’s speaker like molasses down a spigot.
“Everything is good here, thanks for asking. Just saw Allie off to college a couple of hours ago. I am fixing to get to work on this Murcheson Energy filing. How’re you and Barbara?”
“A bit upset. We got ourselves ready to go to the club, Barb all willing to play a couple of sets and me dressed to tee up and we walked outside and was like, goddamn it’s too damn hot. Think I’ll just grill some steaks. My team is playing later anyway. What brings you to call me?”
Phil sat down and entered his password as he considered how best to phrase this. “I’m gonna buckle down on this filing and have it ready to review by Wednesday. I want you to lead the team on this, I’m taking Friday off to surprise Allie up there. I’d appreciate you covering for me again.”
“Damn bud it’s no problem. I should finish up client meetings by Tuesday anyway. It’s not like I don’t owe you for looking out for Barb while I, well, you know. You do what you got to do.
“Ron, thanks a million, I’ll make it up to you,” Phil nodded along as he watched the loading screen make no progress.
“I got ya. Was there anything else you needed? Otherwise I have to start the grill.” Phil could hear the impatience in Ron’s voice.
“No, that was it. Later, Ron.”
“See ya at work.”
They disconnected and Phil noted that, while he didn’t sound drunk, something was going on, since Ron mentioned going to the country club. Phil hoped he wasn’t backsliding, but of course Barbara wouldn’t accompany him if that was the case. ‘No,’ Phil thought, ‘she’d be serving him divorce papers. Again.’
Partly to take his mind off that unpleasantness and because he was still waiting for his computer to load up, Phil looked over the framed photographs lining his desk. There was a picture of Cheryl smiling in to the camera from their third date. One of them at their wedding, with him feeding her cake.
He knew it wasn’t healthy to dwell on the past, but he believed so long as he remembered, she was still alive. That was enough of a reason for him. Phil wasn’t a saint, he had… regrets. All he could do was his best. He turned his attention to the next photo. Cheryl, her face beaming, held a tiny Allie in her hands. Behind them was the decrepit Chinese orphanage they had saved her from.
Next photo, Allie as a toddler holding Tommy’s tiny form. He had been born prematurely, the priests there had called it a miracle, and while Phil wasn’t religious, he was inclined to agree. The African country wracked by famine; his starving mother had been shot by rebels as she tried to flee from some roadside checkpoint.
The doctor had speculated that she played dead until dark and stumbled and crawled her way to the tiny hospital in a nearby village. She died, but Tommy survived. They never told him that, and as far as Phil was concerned, he never would. Tommy already had one dead mother; Phil didn’t think he’d need another.
The final photo was from two years later, now Tommy stood next to a smiling Allie and their last addition, Bethany. She, herself was supported by Cheryl.
Bethany’s adoption was the most blatantly transactional of the bunch. The crooks at the Russian orphanage had them over long enough to meet and bond with the little angel before they kept demanding more and more money. Not that Phil wasn’t loaded by that point, he and Ron had won enough high-profile cases he could afford it.
Once he realized what was going on, he refused to be bullied. Phil just bribed a succession of powerful politicians and other connections until he found one with the stroke capable of pushing the adoption through. By that time, however, it was nearly a year later, and Bethany wasn’t a baby anymore, she was the same in age as Tommy.
That didn’t matter, Cheryl wanted another little girl and that was that. Phil chuckled at the thought that all the stress of dealing with Tommy as a baby soured Cheryl on the idea of another boy. Three kids so close in age definitely wore her out, but she loved it. Many nights were spent together cuddling when she’d admit to Phil how happy she was.
Phil spent a few more minutes looking over more photographs on the desk before he returned his attention back to the computer. ‘Ah, finally finished loading.’ Phil decided he wanted to check his email before going over court documents.
As he scanned through the usual fare; he noticed a message that caught his eye. “Writ of Discovery.” He smiled, as no lawyer would send a writ through email, until he saw the sender listed as Percy Ford. Percy was opposing council on the Murcheson Energy Incorporated case, which meant that there was a high likelihood that what he was looking at was some internal document from Percy’s office that had been sent to him by mistake.
He knew then, in that moment, that he shouldn’t open it. There was a chance that it was privileged information, even though Phil could argue Mr. Ford abrogated that when he sent Phil this email. Still, there would be a hassle, not to mention the ethics involved.
‘Hmm, choices, choices.’ He considered it for a few more seconds, “Fuck it,” he said out loud with a smile before he clicked on it. The email opened with just a blank space save for the words, “VIDEO EVIDENCE” in all caps with a video embedded in the message. “Sure, why not,” he laughed and clicked play.
The display was black for a few seconds before the sounds of synth pop began. Suddenly there was light and what he saw looked to be the furnishings and accoutrements associated with a young woman’s room. Suddenly within the frame walked a pair of feminine feet. They were small and whoever she was had on pink toe nail polish.
Phil had time to not only admire them, but to chuckle at what was going on, the legal community in town being rather tight knit, obviously someone had heard of his fetish and sent this as a joke. ‘Fine, I’ll play along,’ he thought. ‘Plus, they are cute feet.’ Whomever said footsies belonged to, they adjusted the camera, and now Phil saw more of their slender legs and supple thighs.
‘Killer legs, and her skin tone, it’s really nice.’ Phil looked over and insured that his office door was shut and locked. It had been several years since Cheryl had passed away. In that time, he had never strayed from her memory. ‘No harm in looking though.’ On his computer, the mystery woman began to dance. The movements of her legs were lithe and agile. The dancer stopped and adjusted the camera again.
“Wow,” he didn’t bother checking the door. His hand slid down and he adjusted himself as he saw the tiny black g string with red fringe barely covering the woman’s labia. “Shaved,” he said in admiration. The figure turned, and just above the crack of her ass was drawn a red rose tattoo wrapped in chains. ‘Hah, nice ass, cute little tramp stamp.’
The video went black again. ‘Ok, odd joke, but not bad. I’d fuck her, whoever that was.’ Half hard, Phil released himself to delete the email when a message popped up at the very end of the video.
Send reply if interested in spending a night with this model. Her name: Allie Corbyn.
“No,” Phil whispered as a wave of nausea killed his erection, “that’s impossible!”