Wizzy Wig - A Queer Turn of Events

A Queer Turn of Events

by Lisa Lees

2:1 – "Worthless"
Part 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Part 2: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Part One ended like this: "I think somebody made me, made me the way I am." Jami looked from Tam to Carys. "It may have been a mistake. Maybe I escaped. Maybe my parents, the people who raised me, maybe they took me away. But I think if the people who are doing this find me... if they find me, they'll kill me."

Carys and Tam stared at Jami.

"Made you the way you are? You mean intersexed?" said Tam.

"Escaped? The people who raised you? Jami darling, you're scaring the shit out of me." said Carys.

"I know I sound crazy. Listen for a minute. Please?"

Carys and Tam glanced at each other, then back at Jami. They both nodded.

"Okay. People have been breeding plants and animals forever, long before Mendel wrote his paper about pea plants in 1865. Plenty of people have thought about breeding humans, too; it just isn't very practical."

"Or ethical," said Tam, "though some cultures have practiced selective infanticide."

Jami nodded. "In the last century there was a very strong Eugenics movement in the west that advocated involuntary sterilization and encouraged breeding of 'desirable' bloodlines."

"You mean the Nazis?" said Carys, with disgust.

"If they find me, they'll kill me."

"What does this have to do with you?"

Jami shook her head. "They were almost the end of the movement, not the beginning. The Nazis made people realize how evil the idea is. Before that, eugenics was respectable. People like Charles Lindberg, the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic, were advocates.

"The term 'eugenics' isn't used much today, but if you poke around you'll find plenty of people who still believe this stuff."

"Okay," said Carys. "But what does this have to do with you?"

"I'm getting there, be patient, please. You also know that there are plenty of people who don't value human life beyond what a person can earn for them. Slavery does still exist. There are gigantic illegal industries organized around drugs and sex. Tens of thousands of people disappear every year. Children are kidnapped or sold into the sex trade and eventually disposed of when they are no longer profitable.

"Is it such a big stretch to believe there have been selective breeding projects around the world, trying to produce 'unusual' people? Sex toys, for example? People like... me." Jami broke off and buried her face in her panda.

"Oh, my God, Jami," said Carys. She moved to put her arms around her. "Are you serious?"

Jami wiped her face with her nightgown. "Yes, I am. I think I can prove it. And I think I'm one of the culls, the failures, that somehow got away."

Carys cupped Jami's face in her hands. "Jami, Jami, Jami. Oh, my darling. There isn't anything wrong with you! Different isn't wrong!"

"I know you believe that, Car, but I also know that a lot of people believe that people like me are freaks."

Tam's expression had gone very serious. "Seen any trans people on talk shows lately? You're not the only freak in the room, Jami. But..."

"Jami, Jami, Jami."

"You say you have proof?"

"Do you believe me, Tam?"

Tam chose hir words carefully. "I believe a lot of what you're saying, and that it's not impossible that someone has been deliberately trying to create..."

"Freaks."

"Jami, stop it!" said Carys. "We're all different, but we're not freaks."

"Okay, sport, mutant, whatever."

"You say you have proof?" asked Tam.

"I believe so. It's not hold-up-in-court proof. It's little snippets here and there. But it makes a pattern." She glared at Tam. "And I am well aware that given enough data, one can find whatever one is looking for.

"Jami," sighed Tam, "you are one of the smartest people I know. This does make a hideous kind of sense."

"Do I look like my parents?"

"Well, no, but not everyone does."

"All my medical details and history I know only from what my parents have told me. I've never actually seen any lab reports or records. Why should I? They explained everything to me, and I trusted them."

Thinking about how nice Jami's parents had been to her when she was in trouble in high school, Carys shook her head in disbelief.

"Carys, don't look at me like I'm crazy!"

"This is just so far out, honey."

"Can you show us some of what you've found?" said Tam.

"Okay." Jami hopped off the bed, picked up her laptop and returned, opened it up and powered it on. "I'll just go through this quickly. Reports of research. A lab shut down. These ads for sex. Runaways found, and lost, and murdered." Jami looked at Carys and Tam. "There's a lot more. This is kind of the executive summary." She smiled weakly. "Am I crazy to be worried about this?"

"Holy shit," was all Carys could say. Tam looked sick.

"And if it's true," continued Jami, "the best thing would be for me to walk out the door and never see any of you again."

"No, fucking, way," growled Carys. "Whether this is real, or you've just found a horrible possibility, I am your lover, your partner."

"Me, too," said Tam, softly. "All for one, and one for all, remember?"

"Guys, if it's true, and they find out I know, they'll come after me, and anyone else who knows."

"If it is true, and they find you, they're going to find me with you," said Carys.

Tam gulped. "How can we find out, safely, whether you're right?"

"If I'm right, my parents must know about it." Jami shrugged. "So I'll ask them."

"But there's no real danger, is there? How could anyone find you?"

Carys rubbed a hand over her face, looked at Jami.

"Yep," said Jami, "me needing to be out and proud and all. I'm on the web, and there's no way to make that go away completely. It's not that I think anyone would be looking specifically for me after so long; I'm sure my parents hid their tracks, but if 'they' are looking for someone else, and stumble across me... well, how much is my life worth? And... I'd kind of like to put a stop to this. But I'm so scared."

"I'm so scared."

To be continued...

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