The Secret of Seychelles

The little girl studied the thicket of trees that loomed menacingly across the highway. She was almost certain that she had seen a pair of eyes staring back at her, although she couldn't seem to see them now. She turned to her nanny, frustrated and afraid. She was concerned not only for herself, but also for the other two girls under her nanny's care. "Seychelles, I'm scared!" she said. "I think the youngest one is watching us!"

Seychelles looked up from the sandaled foot that rested on her knee. Training wheels kept a smaller girl's bike from tipping over as she finished tightening the strap on the girl's shoe. "Okay, Kitty. You're all set. No more blisters!" Seychelles picked up the band-aid wrapper from the sidewalk and stood up. She brushed the dirt from her knee, moved a strand of hair out of the smallest girl's face, and smiled. Kitty grinned back from atop the bicycle, kicking her feet with enthusiasm.

Seychelles turned her attention to the older girl, stuffing the band-aid wrapper into the pocket of her summery overall shorts. "What's up Nikka?" she asked.

"There's a man out there and he's watching us." Nikka pointed into the forest, obviously concerned.

"Don't worry," Seychelles reassured her. "Even if he is out there, I won't let him hurt you. I would never let him hurt you or any of the girls -- not as long as I live!"

Doubting Seychelles's capabilities, Nikka returned her gaze to the thicket of trees across the road. Although she had never seen a human male in the flesh, she knew what they looked like. She had seen pictures, heard stories, and knew all about the terrible things they did to little girls. She also knew that girls who were captured never made it back. Nikka didn't care that the man they called "the youngest one" was now 68 years old. She didn't think that made him too old to catch little girls.

A twig snapped across the road and a flock of crows flew up from the trees. Nikka looked over to see the underbrush still in motion, but caught no glimpse of human features. Nervously, she inched closer to her best friend, Eve, who was too busy setting up her lemonade stand to care about stalkers in the woods. Nikka rested her hand on Eve's shoulder and leaned in closer, certain now that they were being watched.

Sensing her friend's apprehension, Eve reassured Nikka of Seychelles's strength and bravery. "Seychelles will protect us," she said. "She'll protect us, we'll sell all our stuff, and at the end of the day, we'll be rich!" As she spoke, she never lifted her eyes from the decorative cups she was filling with lemonade. She moved to the next empty cup on her makeshift table and carefully resumed her pouring. On the front of the cardboard box that served as her table, she had taped a hand-written sign that ambitiously advertised her product, "Lemonade Sale: 15 cents."

Nikka's stand, adjacent to Eve's, displayed a similar sign, although hers advertised rocks and flowers, instead of lemonade. Not wanting to take away her best friend's business, Nikka had hoped that the smooth black rocks and purple blooms would make popular take-away knick-knacks. After all, she thought, they could liven any coffee table, countertop, or shelf -- and the rocks made great pets. Nikka surveyed her collection, neatly arranged in the bed of her wagon: flowers at the front, rocks in the back.

Nikka's thoughts were interrupted as she heard another rustle in the underbrush. She grabbed a rock from the wagon in a defensive maneuver and instinctively took an aggressive stance. She expected to see the youngest one burst out of the woods at any moment and braced herself for the attack.

"Relax, Nikka!" Eve barked. "You worry too much!"

As long as they had been friends, Eve had always believed that Nikka was hopelessly insecure. She knew that Nikka had been shuffled from one nanny to another and guessed that she had probably never learned to trust anyone completely. Nikka had been under Seychelles's supervision for eight months now and Eve guessed that she probably just needed more time. She just needed to hear more stories of Seychelles's rescue missions and victories in hand-to-hand combat. Eve had been with Seychelles from the beginning and knew that she could easily protect them.

Nikka remained motionless, clutching the rock as she stood on full alert. Seychelles was disturbed by Nikka's paranoia, but wanted to convey her concern for the girl's feelings. "Nikka, really... It's okay. We're safe here. There's no need for you to worry."

"But the man!" argued Nikka, tightening her grip on the rock. "He'll hurt us!"

Seychelles lost her patience. "Nikka! You need to remember that not all men are the same! While much of what you've learned is true, each man must be considered on a case-by-case basis! Just like you don't want to be judged on the actions of Amanda Rigginson, you should not judge every man on the deeds of a few."

"She doesn't even know who Amanda Rigginson is!" Eve interjected.

"I do, too!" defended Nikka. She crossed her arms and turned away defiantly.

Not wanting Nikka to miss the point that she was trying to make, Seychelles expanded on her story. "Nikka, Amanda Rigginson was a famous biotechnologist, but she was best known for overreacting when she was passed over for a promotion. When her boss made her mad, she released these tiny little things called nanobes -- er, uh, Y-Destructors -- into the atmosphere. That happened on the day we now call Y-Day. That was the day she started the gender war."

"A woman started the gender war?" Nikka asked, now curious.

"Yes, at least the physical part of it... And we've been dealing with the consequences of her actions for the last 68 years. It's been difficult. Sure, we make up 99% of the population now, but we didn't always have it so easy. When it all started, just over half the population was male -- when there were suddenly no more baby boys being born, many of the men went crazy! They started killing women, then women started killing men -- it was awful! Thousands of innocent people lost their lives. And that violence was even worse than the Y-Destructors."

"Wow," said Eve. Nikka was speechless.

"I still think the hardest thing to believe, though, is that Amanda Rigginson kept her secret for 45 years." Seychelles's tone indicated that she was now more fascinated than angry. "No one ever expected that the answers would show up on the day she died, but Amanda Rigginson's will revealed everything -- and I mean everything: the design, the attack plan, everything you could ever possibly want to know about those nanobes... And none of us would have ever believed that she could have single-handedly started what she herself described as 'the slow annihilation of the male gender'."

The girls watched Seychelles silently, hoping that she would say more.

"One other thing I bet you didn't know," Seychelles added matter-of-factly, "is that I got my name from Y-Day... Tara named me after the country in which Dr. Rigginson released the first strain. It's off the east coast of Africa. By Madagascar." Seychelles smiled, appearing proud to have a personal tie to the chain of events that had restructured human society.

But Nikka was no longer listening. She had always thought that men had been responsible for starting the gender war. Now, it seemed that wasn't the case. If Amanda Rigginson, a woman, had been the one who started it, Nikka thought, then that meant that women could be just as evil as men. She thought of all the men on whom she'd wished curses -- the ones who had killed her nannies, those who had taken her best friends, the one now lurking in the woods, and all the others whom she had despised just because they were men. Perhaps they weren't so dangerous, after all. Or perhaps, she thought, they were only as dangerous as women...

Nikka cupped her hands spontaneously and began to yell across the road. "Hey, Mister! We know you're in there and we're not afraid of you!" Her voice revealed no trace of the fear she had felt earlier. "We serve all kinds, so if you want some lemonade, come and get it! We've also got rocks and flowers! They make great decorations!" Nikka felt as though she was speaking into a whole new world.

Sensing Nikka's joy, Eve chimed in, "Lemonade! Rocks! Flowers! We serve all kinds! Come on over! Check it out!"

Nikka and Eve took turns shouting and waving as they skipped back and forth in front of their stands. Occasionally, a car passed and some even honked at the girls, though none pulled over. After twenty minutes, the girls had spent most of their energy and Nikka noticed that she was getting hoarse. She suggested that they take a break. Eve agreed and handed her a cup of lemonade, also taking one for herself. They sat on the sidewalk and watched Seychelles and Kitty meander up the street. Soon, Eve thought, Kitty would no longer need those training wheels.

As the two girls sat and enjoyed their lemonade, the long-forgotten underbrush once again began to stir. Nikka looked up, surprised to see a scrawny old man step out of the thicket. She nudged Eve gently and whispered, "Eve, don't say anything, but look!"

Eve looked up, also surprised to see the aging man watching them from across the street. He had shaggy gray hair, a long white beard, and had propped himself up with a walking stick. He craned his neck as he looked at them and seemed to sway from side to side as he breathed. He caught Eve's eye and winked at her. A dark smile crossed his face as his parted lips revealed a mouthful of missing teeth. He nodded at the girls, acknowledging their attention.

The girls watched as the old man raised an open, empty hand and extended it toward them as though he wanted something. He licked his lips, lowered his hand back to his side, and leaned against his stick. It was as though he was waiting for a response.

Nikka turned to Eve and spoke quietly. "I think he's thirsty. What should we do?"

Eve raised her cup and pointed to it. The man shook his head approvingly and Eve immediately motioned him over.

"Eve, I'm not so sure that's a good idea!" whispered Nikka. She nervously looked up the road at Seychelles and Kitty. They were now four houses away and were still headed up the street away from them. Nikka looked back at the man, who was now crossing the road.

Nikka's fear returned and, in a wave of panic, she called out to Seychelles, "Seychelles! The man! He's coming! He's crossing the road!" Nikka jumped up and down, making big sweeping circles with her arms as she tried to get Seychelles's attention.

Seychelles spun around and watched with anxiety as the man approached the two girls. He was now in the second lane and was nearing the sidewalk where Eve and Nikka stood. Seychelles estimated that he was now only 20 feet away from them and she knew that he would reach them before she could. But at least, she thought, she could try.

Seychelles ran as fast as she could. "C'mon Kitty!" she yelled over her shoulder. Kitty struggled with the bike, trying to turn it around as Seychelles ran ahead. Three houses away, Seychelles watched the man as he reached out to take the cup from Eve's extended hand. He seemed to tower over the girls, two feet taller than Eve despite the pull of gravity on his distorted, hunching back.

Two houses away, Seychelles continued her sprint. The man raised the cup to his lips, supporting himself with his stick as he leaned back and let the lemonade flow through his weathered lips and missing teeth. The little girls looked up in amazement as they studied the wrinkles on his face, the gnarled and twisted joints of his hands, and the wiry gray hairs entwined in the white of his beard. His body odor filled their noses as they looked over this strange human being who was unlike any they had ever seen before. They could now honestly say that they had seen a real live man.

Seychelles reached the girls just as the man finished drinking the cup of lemonade. He offered his empty cup to Eve, his frail hand shaking as she pulled it from his grip. To their surprise, he reached into the pocket of his threadbare cotton pants and pulled out a handful of change. Licking his lips, he handed each of the girls a silver dollar and spoke. "You girls sure know how to make a mean cup of lemonade." He smiled and again leaned against his stick to rest.

Eve and Nikka smiled up at him and Nikka offered him the rock from her hand. "Here you go, Mister. It's yours."

He took the rock and thanked her kindly. "A souvenir," he said. "Great! I'll keep it." He stuffed the rock into his pocket and took one last look at each of the girls before turning away.

"Thank you, Mister. Have a nice day," said Eve.

"Nice to meet you," added Nikka. Seychelles watched the girls say goodbye and all three wondered if they would ever see another human male again.

"You girls take care," said the old man, raising his stick in farewell. Slowly, and with much effort, he shuffled back across the road and disappeared into the woods. The girls watched, fascinated, until the underbrush again grew still.

Seychelles smiled at the two girls and reached out to hold them close. Not only had they learned a valuable lesson, but the experience had restored her faith in humanity. "See there, now?" she said. "You really can't judge a person based on the actions of another." Seychelles hugged the girls tightly, her heart filled with love as she reflected on their kindness.

Their peaceful moment was destroyed as a scream pierced their ears. It was Kitty! Seychelles, Eve, and Nikka looked up to see a balding man lift Kitty from her bicycle two houses up the street. Kitty was kicking and screaming, but the man was much stronger than she and he barely felt her resistance. He tucked her under his arm and ran across the road, carrying her like a stolen carnival prize. He ran into the woods and Kitty's screams faded into silence as he pushed his way deeper into the thicket. In a moment, Kitty had been lost.

The empty bicycle remained upright on the sidewalk. Supported by the training wheels that Kitty had longer needed, it served as a hideous reminder that what they had just witnessed was real. Seychelles screamed in anguish, recognizing the powerless of her position. Time was of the essence, but she couldn't run to Kitty's rescue without leaving Eve and Nikka vulnerable to the same fate. She had no choice but to stay with the two girls and protect them from further harm.

Seychelles imagined the pain that Kitty must have been enduring. She wondered if she was still alive. Seychelles slumped to the sidewalk and grieved helplessly as she clutched Eve and Nikka. Tears streamed down her face to meet the tears of the girls, who were also crying. Robbed of their companion and their security, they were engulfed in a dark cloud of uncertainty.

Several minutes passed and Seychelles regained her composure. She brushed away her tears, crouched to meet the girls at eye level, and held each of them by the hand as she spoke. "Eve, Nikka... one day, you'll be making some very important decisions. When that day comes, remember today. Remember Kitty."

Seychelles swallowed, painfully trying to hold back the grief that was consuming her soul. "Amanda Rigginson gave us more than you know. She gave us the power to make it all go away -- if that's what we want. She gave us the disabler."

Seychelles looked at Eve and Nikka with increased sternness. "They must never learn of it. Never. No matter how nice a man might seem, remember that there's always another one who's twice as mean. The disabler is our secret and we must take it to our graves. You must promise me that you'll never, ever activate it."

Together, Eve and Nikka promised.

Meanwhile, in the dense growth of the forest, the old man rested against his stick, gripped the rock in his pocket, and hoped for the best.