The Son of Man

His head pounded. He shut his eyes in an attempt to block out the noise and the sound of the people around- it didn’t work. A glass landed in front of him and jolted him out of his stupor. His eyes met the beady eyes of the bartender. It blinked its eyes and continued to stare at him, waiting for something to happen.

“What? What do you want?” the man on the stool held his head again.

“Tip?” the little bartender bot flickered its fluorescent eyes.

“Oh piss off- what the hell do you need money for?” grunted the man through shut eyes. He hoped the bot would leave him alone and when he opened his eyes it had gone to the next patron seated at the bar. The man drank down the entire milky brew and pushed the large blue button that sat in front of him. A hand landed upon his shoulder.

“Should’ve known I’d see you here,” came a distinctly familiar voice, “This is where I find the Son of Man? He sat down next to him.

“I’m nobody’s son,” he winced as he finished another round. He was right. He glanced into the mirror behind the bar and noticed his gaunt expression. He was handsome- always had been by definition, but on this particular occasion he was looking a little worn-out. His brown hair was caked in sweat and he couldn’t maintain eye contact with himself for long. Instead of looking to the man on his left, he gazed at him through the mirror. He laughed to himself. Good old Santos- he thought, what did he want?

“Whaddya want you goddamned bastard?” was the only reply that seemed fitting for such a good friend. Santos smiled.

“We’ve been worried about you, Maggie and I, we-“

“You and Maggie are still going around, eh?”

“More than that Adam, we’ve been married for two years already, I sent you an invitation but I never…” his voice faded out while the man called Adam tried to recall getting an invitation to anything. Nope. He thought for a moment about her; about Margaret. Santos was always half the man she was. She was rough and intimidating. He never understood what she saw in Santos. “…have you heard from Zoe?” his voiced faded back into Adam’s head.

“No,” he paused to puff on a disc that was chained to the bar to prevent theft, “hadn’t heard from her for a while.”

“She called me last night Adam; said she needs to talk to you,” he grumbled and ordered himself a drink, “said she misses you.” Adam exhaled through his nose and made a stifled chortling sound. “Seriously Adam, I think you should go see her.”

Why? So she can tell him how much of a squandered investment he was? So she can berate him and remind him that he was given the world on a silver platter and he took that platter and he shit on it? No. He wouldn’t go back to her, he wouldn’t go back to them. “…she had mentioned something about a stipend or an allowance or…”

“Fine, I’ll go see the old hag”. He drank down the last bit of his glass and buttoned up his coat. He left Santos at the bar. The air outside was bitter. He stumbled down into the street to hail a taxi. A man in a brown hat pulled up and Adam got into the backseat. He mumbled, “The old Vitus Headquarters please,” and the taxi driver obliged.

The lights of the buildings illuminated the cab every so often as they passed, like a soft strobe. He hadn’t been to Vitus for a good decade. He caught the blood shot eyes of the brown-hatted taxi driver. “What’s your problem?”

“Nothing sir, you just look awfully familiar, I meant no harm-“ he focused back on the road. Everybody said they recognized him. Probably because they did recognize him. It was funny how life worked that way. “Have you ever been on television?” asked the driver again.

“Yeah, when I was younger.” The man nodded and must have thought that was enough to sate his curiosity. “Why do you drive the cab when a bot could do it just as well?” asked Adam. The man laughed at that suggestion but didn’t answer him. His stomach did a few flips. He couldn’t tell if it was from the man’s poor driving or his drinking.

The gate for Vitus Corp. appeared on the right. He paid the driver and shuffled into the lobby of the large building. The corporate building was ornate and luxurious. The man at the front desk waved to him.

“Good Evening sir, can I take your coat?- say don’t I know you?” the man looked him up and down suspiciously. I swear I’ve seen you before.” Adam ignored him and went to the hall on the right and entered the elevator. In the elevator was a picture of baby boy getting a bath- hardly the usual décor for an office building. He stepped out at his floor and the bellbot stopped before closing the doors. Adam wheeled around to see why it had stopped.

“Tip?” the bot held out its hands.

He could see a vague specter of himself in the reflection of the marble hallway. There was another holograph of that same boy, just a little bit older. He was playing with a large shaggy dog. Another holograph appeared of him acting in a school play. Adam’s heart sunk as he continued. The holographs lined the hallway until he reached a large metallic door. He knocked upon it, hesitant of what lies beyond it.

“Adam!” the woman within embraced him and squared his shoulders, “It’s so good to see you. Come in! We have so much to talk about,” she lead him into the grand office overlooking the city. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in so long, I missed you Adam- we missed you.”

“I’ve been diversifying my portfolio... you know, business stuff.” Her face made a frown at the point.

“What kind of business Adam?” she crossed her arms. Her greying hair blowing slightly from some unseen force. She turned around and sighed, “come on Zoe, you promised yourself,” she turned around again. “Did Santos tell you I was looking for you?” her frown became a disingenuous smile.

“Yeah, but you didn’t really need him to tell me that did you?” It was true. Vitus Corp. always knew where he was, what he was doing, where he was going. They didn’t need Santos to locate him, they knew where he was all along. “He said you were going to give me some more money?”

“Why Adam? So you can continue to piss your life away drinking in the damned gutter?” Her eyes become sharpened daggers, “so you can sleep with whores and sexbots and squander our good name?”

“Our name?” scoffed Adam, “You act like you did me a favor, you act like you gave me life but you didn’t give me life, It was me that gave you something to live for!” Adam was shouting at this point.

“We gave you everything Adam- you were supposed to be the one. You were the market’s answer to what everybody needed, you were our greatest creation, why don’t you understand that?”

“I do understand that. I know what I am dammit, but what I think scares you most is that you don’t know who you’ve become Zoe,” Adam felt like he was beginning to sober up a bit, “what did you want me to become? The posterboy of Vitus? I’m already plastered all over the damn walls. What more do you want from me?”

She was facing the window at this point and Adam had realized she hadn’t moved at all. He felt sorry but didn’t really understand why. His feelings were valid- he wasn’t crazy.

“When we designed you, we made you perfect. I know because I was there. We made you the perfect child. Disease resistant, flawless complexion, genetic perfection Adam- that’s what you are, that’s what we gave to you.” She fell silent.

He knew that. He didn’t know why he was so self-destructive. All his life, people had told him how perfect he was. Even though he was perfect, he always felt like something was missing. He tried everything he could to fill that void in himself. He thought of ways that he could apologize to her, somehow try to get passed what they had done to him; what he had done to them. The words never came.

Zoe spoke, “you broke my heart when you left. When you decided to run off into the squalor of the city. I know you are frustrated with me. But together we are stronger, Adam. You are ungrateful for what I gave you and-”

“That’s exactly what I am. I don’t need your money. I’m nobody’s savior, I’m nobody’s son.” He was gone.

Zoe turned around and poured herself another drink. She sighed deeply and sat down in her chair overlooking the city. She asked somebody to play a file and a screen came down in front of the window and a film began to play.

It showed her, much younger, giving a press release to the city. She and her team at Vitus Corp. had just created the first ‘designer baby’ as they were called at the time. The footage changed to a baby being kept in an incubator. There was no sound to the video so we couldn’t hear what was being said. Then there was a toddler, learning how to walk in a simulation chamber, being fed by a nursebot and being read to sleep by a disembodied voice. Her eyes swelled as she watched the video.

The footage changed to him being taught how to ride a bicycle, to him giving his first school presentation, to him making his first friend, to him going to his first school dance. She asked for the video to be paused and she had to look away.

“The future of humanity rested on your shoulders- and you squandered it.” Her hands covered her mouth. After the Adam project, the government put an end to genetically modified humans.

“I love you.”