Forever a Villain (The Forever Institute Book 2) by Yolanda McCarthy

Author:Yolanda McCarthy [McCarthy, Yolanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Geneva, 1969.

We’re on the moon. I stare at the television as if hypnotised. It’s a thing of wonder in itself, but there’s even more reason to stare at it today, and stare I do, at the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. It’s incredible, the progress made by the human species in only six decades.

It’s a discovery almost as big as mine. I shift on the Italian leather sofa, and take another sip of apple-martini. Well done, Mankind. Well done.

The little grey astronaut bounces in huge slow steps, making his way across my screen. Across the moon. I sip again, and through my martini haze, I am jealous, so jealous. Why didn’t I train as an astronaut? I’ve had plenty of time to do so. That could have been me.

I could still train as an astronaut, perhaps. I roll an olive round my mouth, then crunch it into a delightful burst of flavour as I plot out what steps I’d need to take to become an astronaut. The effort gives me a headache, and I gulp back more martini.

Clarissa nestles closer against me. I ease away. No matter how large a sofa I purchase, they always sit too close. She takes the hint, getting up and wandering away to the white lines of powder on the glass table.

I slide my legs into the space she left, my toes liking the warm leather as I let my head loll back, imagining spinning through the dark, my outstretched hand huge in its white glove, holding back the vacuum, waving to the stars while the whole world watches in wonder... The highest man in the universe… If there is such as thing as high, in space?

Clarissa – or was it Sara? – wanders out to the balcony to smoke. The door clangs loudly behind her. That’s her third strike, time to find someone else, I can’t spend my days with someone who slams doors. The ladies I knew as a child would never have dreamed of clanging doors, they wafted across the room like swans. Do swans waft? Glided. They glided like swans, that’s it.

Perhaps Clarissa is bored of me, and I am certainly bored of her. I’ll tell her today, and go to The Cove, find someone who takes less of my coke – and ornaments, I’m sure there used to be a lot more around the place. It’s not that I mind, I can certainly afford to replace them, but no-one likes to caress a thief. Except in roleplay, I suppose. But that’s become boring, too.

Everything is boring.

Men on the moon. That’s not boring. Who knew? If Mankind can go there, we can go anywhere, one day. Especially with my serum.

I feel the familiar twinge of guilt at not yet having shared my discovery. What if I’m killed in some terrible accident, and the world never knows of my achievements? I must share this knowledge. At first I waited for the war to be over, then for the shadows of fascism to fade… Then I was busy.

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