The Second Renaissance

“Just tell them the truth,” his mother whispered in his ear. If her shrill voice drowning out the drone of the car rattling along the highway could be counted as whispering, anyway.

What was Jared supposed to tell her? That he already did? That with each passing second he hated himself more for opening his mouth? He just stayed silent. It wasn’t even because he wanted to—more so because his Adam’s apple was presently a pebble in his throat, every gulp he made a choke.

His father answered for him, however. He scoffed from the driver’s seat, “Come on, Lynn. For the millionth damn time, you know that’s not gonna work. They took my coworker just the other day—”

“Because he’s a terrorist.” His mother shot her words, much like her glare, like bullets.

“Was. Was a terrorist. One hundred and thirty years ago. The poor guy didn’t even know where Somalia was. No one even goes outside the US.” his father growled, striking the car wheel.

“He was a suicide bomber who killed twenty people and escaped justice. This is different. Our boy isn’t a criminal, Andrew. We’d know.” His mother grabbed Jared’s hand firmly.

“Right. And I’m damn sure that’s what everyone said back then, too. Didn’t stop them from dropping millions off the map—”

His mother harshly hushed him, snapping “Stop it. You’re giving him the wrong ideas and you’re scaring him.”

Man, he wished he could find his voice. Then Jared could finally tell his mother to shut up. Instead, Jared simply slid his hand from his mother’s grip and focused as intently as he could at the billboards outside the window. There was nothing else to look at on this dusty empty road. anyway. Even with the paints peeling away, Jared could see the ads the billboards once proudly displayed: Memoirs of My Life as Anne Frank: Edith Baron Live! Wondering about your next life? When you will achieve Nirvana? Speak with our counselors today! Was your child Einstein? Get them tested now! #1 test approved by colleges!

Jared grimaced, glancing back at his mother. Thankfully she was looking out the right side of her window. Good, so she probably didn’t have to lament why she couldn’t have Einstein’s reincarnation for a son.

When the car lurched to a stop some time later, the pebble in Jared’s throat dropped into his stomach. No way they’d gotten there already. But his parents were already opening the car doors, his mother looking back in concern. Dammit…the longer he lingered, the closer his mother’s brows knitted together. A mere second later he was out of the car, ducking his head as he scurried passed his parents and into the unassuming white building ahead of them.

He ignored the receptionist’s greeting when they walked inside and when she directed them to the door at the end of a hallway. What he didn’t ignore, however, was the footsteps stopping behind him. Jared looked back to see his parents standing a ways from him. They dipped their heads in encouragement, his mother’s hand grasping her mouth.

So this is where they abandoned him. Jared didn’t care if it was the policy for investigations or not. It didn’t stop his chest from stinging as he trudged down the hallway.

The door opened just as Jared approached it. A man in a navy blue suit stood there at the doorway, greeting him with a nod as he beckoned him inside. The first thing that caught Jared’s attention in the dimly lit office was the woman seated in front of the desk. His eyes skipped over her floral dress, long locks of brown hair, her deepening frown upon sight of him—instead zeroing in on the silver locket around her neck. The ornamental swirls embossing the heart only reminded him of the claws closing around his own. Then he realized what he was doing and quickly averted his gaze, but the damage was done. The woman’s frown had now darkened into a scowl.

“Sit down, Jared,” the man said as he seated himself at his desk, indicating to the chair to the right side of the woman. No thanks, is what Jared would have loved to respond, but merely plopped himself down on the chair. He didn’t miss the woman angling her body to the left.

“I’m Officer Chen. I’m going to be asking you some questions today, Jared. First on the list: what can you tell me about yourself?”

His clammy hands clenched his jeans. There had to be trap here somewhere. They kept everyone’s file, traced everyone’s transmigrations…“Uh,” he croaked out, before clearing his throat to try again, “Uh, I’m Jared.” Idiot. He already knew his name…“I’m a sophomore in high school, sir. On the baseball team…never left Boston a day in my life…” Would that last part save him? It certainly hadn’t helped his father’s coworker…

Officer Chen regarded him for a few seconds, his face inscrutable. Then he asked, “What are you learning in history class?”

Right. History class—with a teacher who’d given him an assignment he probably wasn’t ever going to get done now. Jared wriggled a bit in his seat as he slowly answered, “We’re writing a report on The Second Rennaissance’s impact on global unification. Sir.”

“Ah, yes.” Officer Chen produced a paper from his file. His blood ran cold when he recognized his own handwriting. “Let’s see what you wrote here…ah, here we go…‘The discovery of transmigration sparked civil wars worldwide. Suicides and murders skyrocketed. Public support grew for terrorist organizations committing mass genocide with the promise of ‘leading people to a better life’. By time of the first treaties, half the world had been wiped away from the map.” The detective looked back up at him, steepling his hands together. “That’s right. People didn’t want to cooperate for unity, and that’s why our country fell behind before we started taking Asia’s lead in tracing the transmigration of the consciousness. And now we’re coming back better than ever. Remember that when we ask for your cooperation today, Jared.”

Sure, sure. Now the world was united. All three billion people that remained, anyway. But Jared didn’t say that. Or that his cooperation didn’t matter. He just mechanically nodded.

Another officer came in pushing a cart bearing an electrode cap attached by several wires to a monitor. He couldn’t dare protest as the officer closed in on him. As she secured the electrode cap to his head, Officer Chen asked him, “Next question, Jared: Do you know what you’re here for?”

“I looked at a locket you guys showed me the last time you called me in.” The same locket the woman was wearing now. The officer who had secured the electrode cap to his head now stepped back and started typing things Jared didn’t even want to begin imagining.

The woman in the floral dress snapped her head to glare at him. “That’s my sister’s locket. And you recognized it, you little brat,” she hissed, venomous spittle shooting from her mouth. “Of course you did. It was the last thing she wore when you—”

“Mrs. Evers, calm down, please,” Officer Chen soothed, before turning to face Jared again. “Can you tell us again what you told the officers two days ago?”

He swallowed. “I told them it was pretty, sir.”

Office Chen raised a brow. “No, when they told you to imagine a place and a person when you looked at the locket.”

“I…I told them I pictured a dark bedroom with pink flower wallpaper. I imagined a girl with long blond hair in blue pajamas.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Jared saw Mrs. Evers’ knuckles turning white as she fisted her dress. Just shut up. Just stop talking. But what else could he do? They already had his damn statement on record.

“Right.” Officer Chen pulled out an old baseball bat from under his desk. Handing it to Jared, he asked, “You like baseball, you said. What do you think of this bat?”

Jared fiddled with it, wishing this was an interview with the Major League that existed back in the day. “It’s an old bat. I wouldn’t ever swing with it, that’s for sure.”

A pause as the detective exchanged a glance with the officer typing in front of them. “You ever seen this bat before?”

“…I don’t think so, sir.”

“Really? That’s not what your brain says.” Jared’s mind raced for an excuse, but Officer Chen didn’t give him the chance as he rapped his knuckles against the desk and continued, “On August sixteenth, 2123, in Minneapolis, Mrs. Evers here lost her sister Gemma. Her parents heard a commotion in her bedroom in the middle of the night and went to check on her. She was gone. And twenty-eight years later, we haven’t found her. But we did find her blood sample on this bat here.”

The bat slipped from his hands and clattered to the floor. Mumbling an apology, Jared hastily picked it up and placed it on the desk. Officer Chen ignored this as he explained, “This bat belonged to a man named Edward Lee. Ring a bell?”

“N-no, sir.”

“How about the name Ted Bundy?” Jared’s eyes shot up in disbelief to meet Officer Chen’s. “Oh, you know him, right?”

“Officer Chen, I swear I didn’t do anything—”

“About fifteen years ago, Lee’s neighbor found him dead in his apartment. Cardiac arrest, it looked like. No aberrations were discovered in his transmigration patterns until a hiker found this bat in the woods last month, where we received a DNA sample for both him and Gemma Evers. After more investigation, we finally traced Ted Bundy as an incarnation match. Our projections, however, indicated a large range of candidates from New York to Vienna as his future incarnation. That is, until we received a report of a fifteen-year-old boy among our suspects who provided a description matching the scene of the crime. A bedroom with pink floral wallpaper. A blond girl in blue pajamas.”

And that was when Jared finally found his voice.

He rushed up so suddenly that several electrode discs popped off his head, chair nearly toppling over. The female officer made a move to stop him, but Officer Chen raised a hand and watched Jared. Slamming his fists against the desk, he spat, “I didn’t do anything. I don’t know who this guy was, who this girl was—I’m sorry for what happened, but I had nothing to do with it. Even if I’m this guy’s reincarnation, why the hell do I have to pay the price for it? Or anyone else for that matter? For some ‘unity’, all you guys do is hunt us down because of one screw-up—”

“‘One screw-up’?” Mrs. Evers’ voice was so deathly quiet. Goosebumps prickled his skin as he realized his mistake. Somehow Jared managed to glance her way, and immediately regretted it upon meeting her baleful gaze. “My sister was not some ‘one screw-up’. You monsters do the same thing over and over again. Be thankful Officer Chen protects people from monsters like you.”

“Confirmed match, sir,” the female officer stated quietly.

Jared cowered back into his chair as Officer Chen looked down at him. “Congratulations, Jared. We have your test results. With that fine speech, we received enough information to definitively track your transmigration to Mr. Lee.” Mrs. Evers sighed in relief as he continued, “We will inform your parents that you’ll be joining your fellow Americans in our research in adjusting the transmigration of the consciousness. Thank you for your cooperation. Take him away.”

He was trembling too much to muster a response. I’m sorry, Mom. I told them the truth. The last thing he thought, as he lost consciousness at the electrode discs burning into his scalp, was that he hoped his parents found a better son in the next life.