The dance of a hundred Jo's: 12, 34, 40, 98 and 100
The baby just sat there crying. Its tiny little face was turning a violent shade of maroon in effort.
“She has to stop soon, right?” Jo Twelve asked.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if she kept on going through the whole practice until the gig, we have no idea what physiology she gave herself. It’s probably meant to be a joke or something.” Jo Forty replied
“Yeah but I’m returning to my normal form, isn’t that the point of this place?” Jo Thirty Four questioned, as her tentacles retreated into her body.
“Don’t you remember that there is a cat roaming around somewhere?” Forty responded with the lightest sprinkling of sarcasm.
“I just assumed that wasn’t us. I thought that was actually a cat. I though Seventy Six had done something to make sure that we returned to our natural state.” Thirty four had to raise her voice as the wailing was threatening to drown her out.
“Shouldn’t someone do something?” Twelve queried
“I haven’t had kids for a couple of lifetimes, I have no idea what to do.” Forty stated matter of factly.
“The race I just inhabited cannibalise their runts. That baby looks like a runt to me… I have to admit that I’m starting to salivate… It’s probably for the best if I don’t go to near to it.” Thirty Four slavered, a strange glint came to her eyes which had nothing to do with the vascular tunic reknitting itself from diamond.
“It’s not an it, it’s an us. A Jo.”
“Pick it up then” Forty challenged.
“ummm….” Twelve hesitated
“What’s the matter?” Forty asked
“I’m… I’m not really a baby person.”
“None of us are, what’s your point.”
“Listen you have number 40 on your t shirt, that means you must have had more children than me. It must do, right? We still have children going forward, right?”
“Yeah but it doesn’t mean anything-
“So, we can eat it then?” Thirty Four drooled
“NO!” twelve exclaimed, stepping between Thirty Four and the baby.
“Go and join the others” forty pushed Thirty Four away forcefully. “Look, what I was trying to say is that we just naturally don’t particularly like children. In the Commonwealth we probably would have tried to find a way to get out of having the mandatory two. Yeah, sometimes we have children when we are living lives that are not our own but in our natural state, like this, we’ve never really known what the fuck to do with something like this. It’s just awkward. It looks like an alien and that ain’t normal.”
“Oh. I thought we would get used to it. I mean I do think about the children that I have had, mostly I feel guilty but…” Twelve trailed off.
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
The two of them stood there looking at the bawling child, not knowing what to do.
“Sorry kid, you’re on your own” Forty finally said. The two of them turned away from the crying baby.
“You know you get real preachy when your trying to explain something.”
“You do too”
“Yeah guess so”
The two of them left.
After a minute or two another Jo walked up to the crying baby, this Jo was wearing number ninety eight on her t shirt. Awkwardly she picked the baby up.
“Sssssh now. Just because you are number one hundred doesn’t mean anything. Not even we know what happens next. Life goes on for us, forever and ever. You have to be brave. Can you do that for me, please?”
The baby looked at Ninety Eight through blood shot eyes, momentarily turning silent. The two shared a moment of recognition, of understanding, for so long the dance of a hundred Jo’s had been part of their immortal life, now one was nearing the end while the other was actively experiencing it.
Jo One Hundred started bawling again.
“This is why I hate children. If you don’t shut the fuck up I will feed you to number thirty four.” Jo Ninety Eight said coldly.
