Chapter 9 - Ten-Two
The sun came out and flooded the palatial apartment with golden light.
Miranda and Ferdinand had been gifted old credit from his family and had very substantial consumption responsibilities as a result.
Miranda had gone back to her party preparations.
Again, her mind wanders. Might she have traded lives if she could? There had been moments in her relationship with Angela when she might have been tempted.
Angela was not angelic but she was beautiful, like a young Grace Kelly. She was special, a child for whom both she and Bertram had given up their (not so old) age and their grey lives, after kids. Angela has been spoiled.
The two older children, who were then 10 and 14, certainly resented our investment in Angela, even though they were always told that our sacrifice was to have all three children, not one extra. I suppose that was a bit implausible.
And why had we been so desperate? Well obviously, we both wanted a boy and in this new world it was no longer legal to choose, in vitro. But somehow the 'Bertram lotto' didn't come up with the winning balls.
Originally Ten-Twos matured on the last child's 18th birthday but in some countries, adulthood is not reached until 21 so International Concordance meant that some, Miranda included, got an extra three years.
"Wow", thought Miranda, "that was a two-edged sword. All those plans changed, including this party."
Fortunately, the extension was on the cards before she had scheduled her last trip overseas; made her final family gifts and disbursements; or implemented her credit zeroing plan.
Others had not been so lucky and had to be bailed out by their children or put up in charity accommodation for their last three years.
The worst thing had been the property division plan that Ferdi had worked out.
Angela is used to Bertram's indulgence and threw a tantrum. Ferdinand said she was a spoiled brat who had never really loved him. And if that was her attitude the two older girls could have both our apartments. After I had gone, all he needed was a place to lay his head. So, he would use a spare room at one or the other.
Talk about World War Three.
When Angela took off to France the situation rang a bell.
Anne and Mary started fighting and Edmund was making things worse. Then I knew I was in the plot of King Lear.
Ferdi's suspicion that Mary might have been seeing Edmund, Anne's partner, is ridiculous. She just likes flirting with him. He's very attractive, I flirt with him myself. He does something in 'information' as well.
Fortunately, the reprieve occurred and broke the spell.
I had half expected Ferdi to go mad and the bodies to start piling up before mine and Bertram's were in the drone.
Now Angela is nearly 21 and will have independent responsibility thrust upon her, like the many other children around the world whose parents are sacrificed with their 21st birthday party.
For over-indulged Angela this will be a big change.
Miranda tries to put aside her concerns for her far too self-obsessed and reclusive youngest daughter.
Will it be suicide or voluntary euthanasia? Neither term seems to cover it. It's not voluntary anymore! Maybe deferred voluntary euthanasia.
Today it was most often described in the media as a sacrifice. A celebration of new life and noble sacrifice in the interest of one's descendants and humankind.
Miranda has planned both celebrations meticulously. The birthday party was the easiest to plan. Angela has been an adult, in this culture, since she was eighteen so there was no first legal drink or key to the door. It's just a regular party. But one with an anticlimax the following evening.
"It's good we have an excuse for holding her birthday party a day early," she thinks. Some of her friends consider it inappropriate to hold a birthday party on God Friday.
"I wouldn't want our deathday ceremony to descend into a drunken orgy, as they can do when the two parties are merged into one."
When it came to planning the deathday ceremony there were so many options to choose from. Miranda had considered a Celebrant and had been sent a brochure:
Planning your Deathday
No matter what your faith tradition we at Elysium are the best choice for your Deathday Ceremony. Common to all is the Hemlock Bowl that for our celebrants, priests, imams, rabbis and monks is central to your ceremony. Depending on your faith tradition, it maybe rustic and battered, roughly cut from wood or hand-thrown clay or it may be beautiful, in gold or platinum, inlaid, like a Fabergé egg. The table or alter may be oblong, laid with a brocaded silk cover representing the alter or it may be plain or circular. All faiths can be accommodated. Our celebrant, priest, rabbi, imam or monk will conduct a service around your chosen vessel, in the manner prescribed by your particular faith. We can tailor a ceremony to suit any individual belief system but many choose from our popular pre-designed choices: Choice 1 Our most popular service, in the Christian tradition. Your friends and relations will be invited to deliver a eulogy or roast remembering the successes and achievements of you both. Others might elect to be humorous, remembering past disasters shared or foolish moments. You will then kneel together at the alter rail, before a congregation of your friends and relations to receive the priestly blessing. The Host of bitter bread, representing this bitter life of the flesh and its suffering, as well as flesh of the Saviour is taken first. Then, taking the beautiful chalice in both hands from the priest, you will each sip the hemlock, representing the Saviour's sweet blood. Hands spread wide above your heads, our priest will make the blessing reminding all that you do this in remembrance of He who died for you, so that you are now forgiven all your sins, and may surely join your maker in heaven. Two coffins on their plinths await you. Mounting the steps you will lie down, enveloped in a cushion of soft down and silk representing a heavenly eternity. And as you lie in your cloud, contentedly, with pure heart, passing away, the congregation will slowly and formally circle your open coffins looking down upon your mortal remains; as the choir sings the 23rd Psalm; and your souls depart to a better place. Choice 2 The New Age service. In your preferred forest, park or garden a small rustic table is set amidst a circular arrangement of flowers. An old and battered bowl stands on the table as the congregation assembles. It contains a bitter concoction. You and your partner will be led in by the guardians you have chosen. They will force you to kneel and take a sip from life's bitter cup; representing this life with its tribulations. Then, released from the guardian grip, you will rise; the bitter, burning taste in your mouths; and walk slowly clockwise, seven times around the abundance of flowers. As you walk, our celebrant monk will rub a Tibetan prayer bowl, with a thick stick in a circular motion, making it sing, while making an incantation for the continuation of your souls. As you complete the seventh revolution the beaten old bowl has disappeared and you will happily kneel again to receive the beautiful prayer bowl, into which the sweet hemlock has been decanted. As you drink, you are assured that you are about to go to yet another life: to be reincarnated; perhaps to rise to another plane of consciousness. You will then lie on flower strewn litters and descend into a final sleep in this life as the congregation prays; gongs are struck; and prayer wheels are spun, to guide your passage to their next incarnation. Choice 3 A Hindu service after which your mortal bodies will be prepared with ghee and wrapped in linen, before being flown to Varanasi in India to be burnt and your ashes added to the holy Ganges. In a variation, your bodies will be exposed to birds of prey, that will carry off your mortal flesh, in a more environmentally friendly way. Elysium - Your first choice in Deathday Ceremonies |
"Uhh, there's something creepy about that," thinks Miranda.
Bertram has been quite insistent that they do not give any impression to others that they endorse this nonsense about souls passing to another world; or to another being; or rising up to look-down on the world 'left behind'. He believes that the perpetuation of such beliefs is positively harmful. So, Miranda has devised her own ceremony.
Today she and Bertram are going to bake and decorate a traditional birthday cake for Angela's party for everyone to share.
The cake will represent their joint contribution to the future. Because it's a day early Angela's party will anticipate the future for the whole family, particularly the next generation, Alexandra and little George. In our speeches Bertram and I will recall touching and amusing moments in the lives of all three of our children, perhaps producing some laughter and tears.
"Then on Friday it will be our turn. We will not accept a bitter cup; or bitter bread. While we've had the usual share of disappointment and pain, we do not acknowledge that our lives have been characterised by suffering; but by love, achievement and happiness. And it would be terrible otherwise; grounds for wisely ending it even earlier. Neither of us believe in a life to come. There is only one life per person; and for us this good one is about to end."
"Now everything we have is for those remaining alive. For a while we will continue to change the future, through our lasting works; our children; and through the memory others have of us, good and bad. We would like that ongoing impact to be as positive for the living as possible."
"Our final party will be small, very close friends and family. The deadly bowl will be handed in turn to those present to contemplate before we receive it and drink from it."
"Just before Bertram and I cease to be, each of our girls will be invited in turn to formally acknowledge and accept our deaths as our final, and greatest, gift to them."
"I hope ungrateful Angela has the grace to be thankful for this gift and to accept her share of our final bequests. Mine will be substantial. Bertram and Samantha live comfortably but he is not 'old money', like I am. But it's as if Angela has no interest in wealth. She never accepts any financial support from either of us. She says that she just wants our attention, our love, as she terms it."
"Not so the other two! They have been hanging out for the property ever since we signed the Ten-Two."
"I don't want my property bequest to start another war between the girls and their partners. Maybe I should have disinherited all of them and set up a charitable foundation instead?"
"Too late now!"
Et je ne sentais en moi-même, Je ne sentais qu'un seul déisr, Un seul désir, un seul espoir:
Te revoir, ô Carmen, ou, te revoir! ...
[And I felt within myself, I only felt but one desire. One desire, one hope: To see you again, Carmen, oh, you again!]
The voice of Placido Domingo as Don José in Carmen announces a visitor.
Long ago, in another flight of somewhat malicious whimsy, Miranda had assigned this snippet of Bizet's Aria to Bertram, her ex.
Bertram has arrived to help make the cake.
"How appropriate was my choice of music," she thinks. "In just fifty hours or so we will end our lives together, side by side with our new lovers looking on."
Miranda begins to cry.