David smiled sincerely at me.

"What are you doing here?" I snapped at him, relieved and heartbroken at the same time.

Beyond any doubt, my expression wasn't as approachable as his by far.

"My father said I should come. Indeed, he is the one who suggested I should look for you. He's waiting for us with Mister Abbey."

"Professor Abbey?" I said. My head was spinning. At least, I had gone back to breathing. "How do you know Professor Abbey? And how come he's with your father? I can't cope with more confusion. Tell me everything, please."

He looked flabbergasted. I was aware that I had just complaint about the disturbing disarray that clogged my head, while he stood there, astounded at my reaction. I felt selfish, but I didn't have the strength to explain it until I had filled all the gaps. Africa was conscious of my state, and took charge of the situation.

"She thought you were someone else." she told David, and then shrugged.

He seemed to understand what she meant perfectly.

"Oh, I see."

"My sister told you about Luke?" I barked, angrily.

He looked truly scared. That probably meant I looked more intimidating than I wished for. He had seen me cry, he had seen me yell at Lindsay, and fear had never shown like that on his face. I felt ashamed. Out of control. And I didn't want him to think I was crazy. I had just gotten weak to my limit over the last month. Or maybe, progressively, since Nora died. I prayed for him to understand that.

"She had to. That... individual is of great importance to our case."

He remarked the disdain as he pronounced individual. And I could tell that he had done it on purpose, and that he would have chosen another term if he hadn't found my psyque so fragile. Was he jealous of Luke? That thought surprised me by making me weirdly glad. Nevertheless, as my lawyer, he probably just wanted to protect me from my presumptive traitor. Yes, that definitely made sense. Anyhow, I couldn't snap at him anymore.

I stopped to look at him. He looked much older in his tuxedo than he did in his usual cashmere jumpers. He looked taller, too. And even hotter, I admitted to myself, if that was even possible. I had almost forgotten about Africa's presence when I said, trying to sound soft and sane:

"Okay. Let's go to meet our elderly. Just please don't come onto me like that again. I'd rather you snapped me hard than touch me softly like that."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know you were into the sadomasochism vibe. I'll take it into account for future occasions." he said, and I couldn't help but blush.

I found it weird that he was joking, almost flirting with me. A hot, flashing spark lighted in my deepest, most meltable part, and it almost made me jump. I didn't know I could feel that anymore. Not with someone that was not Luke.

David led the way, and we crossed the room, dodging enthusiastic, annoyingly nice waiters that almost obliged us to take canapés and cocktails from their porcelain trays. Luke wouldn't have led the way. He would have walked after me, to admire the curve of my butt in the pencil skirt as I walked. And then, he would've confessed it to me in a sexy, irresistible voice. David would never confess something like that to me. He had to be the irresistible one.

Professor Abbey and David's father were chatting silently, whispering over whiskey glasses, close to the entrance at the ground floor, just like intruders, ready to escape if they got caught. As we got closer, they burst out laughing hard and loud, and I considered they might intentionally want to get caught. I shook my head to push creepy thoughts out of it before we reached them. I had already acted ridiculous enough for that night.

"Oh, my dear, brave Tessa." cried Professor Abbey when he noticed me, opening his arms as a welcoming sign.

I instinctively looked to both sides, and behind my shoulders, to see if anyone had reacted to the sound of my name. Nobody had. I breathed deeply, relieved, and I smiled a smile as thankful as I could manage to. Both men looked at Africa, and then at David. I perceived they were thinking she was his date. That must mean they had been informed he had a date for the night; presumably, by him. I introduced her in order to put an end to their error, acting as a consequence of an unexpected stab of jealousy that had just pinched my sometimes whimsical heart.

Africa always managed to fit in, no matter what atmosphere she was supposed to have a place in. I supposed it all accounted to her mate, red hair and to the composure of her dark eyes. She would never have acted like me when David caught me off guard. She was strange for being a bohemian artist. Too damn calm on the outside.

"I didn't know David was your lawyer, Tessa." Professor Abbey continued. "What a coincidence, old-friend Hugh's young son!"

He laughed frantically again. Whiskey was starting to warm him up.

"Yes, the world really is small." David said, flashing his sincere, friendly grin.

Professor Abbey winked at him, and I felt embarrassed for him. I was tempted to take the glass from the professor's hand. Hugh looked at me and nodded, sympathetically.

"Your professor and I were classmates at college."

"Oh, excuse me just a minute, I just saw an old colleague from King's." Professor Abbey said, and he made his way between Africa and me, pushing us as he passed by.

Whiskey was making him funnily rude. Africa and I looked at each other and smiled.

"I just talked to Lucy." Hugh whispered to his son. "She can't have it."

"What? No way!" David shrieked. His smile disappeared suddenly, and it left no trace.

Just unlike Professor Abbey, Hugh was very sober. And very serious. I was glad Africa was there. I turned to her, to give them some intimacy. It looked like they needed it.

"So this is David?" Africa whispered in my ear, knowingly.

"Yes, that's the one." I said, trying to sound like I didn't care about him at all.

I wondered who I was trying to convince, Africa or myself. She would never have encouraged me to flirt with David in another situation. I could tell that she found him too predictable. I knew Africa was desperate about me falling in love again. Nonetheless, she would probably settle with me stopping wallowing over Luke every dawn.

While we gossiped, Hugh went to join Professor Abbey, and David joined us. He didn't stop passing his hands through his wavy brunette hair, back and forth, progressively increasing the speed of his movements. Sweat drops fell down his forehead. I had never seen him out of control. This time, he looked overwhelmed. Broken.

"David, what's wrong?" I asked, worried.

"Everything, Tessa. Everything is falling apart."

He was almost crying.

"I know that, David. I meant what's wrong besides that."

"There's no besides that, Tessa. That's the cause, the axiom of disaster, and everything else is a consequence."

"And what is the deal this time?" Africa said, trying to help me out.

I needed David to spill what was really going on. I had become allergic to ignorance and confusion.

"I have an older sister."

"Lucy?" I guessed.

"Yes." he answered, and he sighed deeply. "Lucy got pregnant three months ago."

"Oh, crap." Africa said. "How old is she?"

David laughed lightly. I couldn't tell if he was being ironic or not, but I could see perfectly that he was having no fun at all. He shook his head.

"No, Africa. That's not the deal. This is not a typical teenage pregnancy story. Lucy is twenty-nine, and she's married."

"I don't get it." I said, impatiently.

"She can't have the baby, Tessa. We won't fit in here if she does."

"What do you mean, we won't fit in here?" Africa asked, and, as she repeated his words, it struck me.

I said it aloud, in order to understand it clearly. I looked at the floor as I spoke. I felt ashamed of ever having thought I was solving humanity's biggest problem, when I had just started off its ruin.

"If we live forever, we won't allow others to live. I made us even more creepily egoistical. What the hell is wrong with my frisking mind? Doesn't my subconscious function correctly?" I slapped my head, trying to reset it. "I think it doesn't warn me like it does with the rest of people. Damn it!"

"I have to admit I hadn't predicted that consequence." David said.

Africa and I looked at each other.

"We had, actually." she confessed.

"We had, but during this whole madness, I completely forgot about it." I lifted my gaze, and met David's.

His eyes showed that his soul was as lost as mine. They cried for help, as mine did. They cried a silent cry, as frustrated as someone trying to shout with his mouth shut by a strip of cellophane.

"When my father told me that possibility existed, I started to become aware of the plans of no more offspring that were taking shape in the chambers all around the world. But I figured it would take them longer to legislate it. I didn't think it would affect people that are already pregnant."

"And isn't there a way to change that? If a lot of people show disagreement..."

"Forget it, Africa. People have no power. It's time you start assimilating that. I would recommend you to start by looking at Tessa's situation." he said, and he walked away, shaking his head and taking his jacket off.

I was starting to feel very hot as well. And it wasn't pleasant at all. I felt claustrophobic. I realized the possibility of Luke being there was the only reason that had brought me to that party. And he wasn't there.

"I'm going home." I said to Africa, and I started to walk towards the entrance.

"Hey!" she said, and she grabbed my arm. "What the hell are you doing? I didn't drive one hundred miles for you to show off your body in that little dress. We have to stay."

"I can't! I think it's time I stopped making things worse. And I end up doing that every time I do anything at all, so I think hiding out in our dorm is the wisest thing I can do."

I continued walking off when she let me go. I would have run if my pencil skirt had allowed it. I didn't stop walking until I reached the Thames. I sat on the bank of the river, and I burst out crying. I could tell I wasn't alone.

"Hey." Africa said, softly, and she sat by me. "I know this is all being... hysterically crazy. But you didn't ruin anything. You have to promise me you'll stop trying to convince yourself you messed up. Things got messed up, Luke messed up... you didn't."

I jumped at the sound of his name. Then my thoughts drifted to the grief I had found in David's eyes.

"I thought of something to save Lucy's baby."

"Go on."

"Do you remember what we talked about in the car, before?"

"Euthanasia?"

"Yes. Intended death, in general. What if someone decided she has lived enough, and that she wants a child to stand in for her?"

Africa looked scared. She shook her head violently.

"Don't even go there, Tessa. That's completely insane."

"I am not considering sacrificing my life, Africa, if that's what you're thinking. My survival instinct is still sufficiently alright. I am just wondering, because all these dilemmas are not hypothetical anymore. We have to consider everything."

She looked partly relieved, but also as if she didn't quite believe me. It still surprised me, and preoccupied me, how bad she thought my mental health was. It concerned me, because she was the one that spent most time with me, so what she thought must be the most real version of reality.

"And if someone died accidentally, or was murdered, would that mean someone new can take his place?" she said.

By the way she looked at me, I could tell that was not a question. It was a way of making me discard my idea. She knew me well enough to know that I wouldn't change my mind based on someone else's arguments. I needed to say no myself. And I knew her well enough to know the strategies she used to manipulate the direction of my cognitions. I smiled on the inside when I realized how easily we could predict each other.

"Are you trying to say that people would act crazy in order to be able to have children?"

She nodded. My interior smile faded.

"I think I changed us into a new species that is made of the worst of what we have. I altered the bases. No offspring? What is the human race without offspring? Even more, what is any animal without offspring? I mean, I have never been one of those people who are sure they'll have two children, Alan and Helen, and Helen will have red hair."

Africa laughed.

"But one thing's the possibility of me not having children, and another very different one is it being prohibited for everyone." I continued. "Before I altered nature, the only cells in the human body that had telomerase, and thus could go on living forever were the gametes: oocytes and spermatozoids. The body put much more effort into the replication of DNA from one cell to another in the gametes than in any other cell. It chose to make sure the information it passed on was perfect, and, in order to do that, it set aside checking the DNA copying in its other cells. That might be the reason why the other cells had that many mutations and errors."

Africa lit up a cigarette without ceasing to look at me and listen to me attentively, to get my point.

"What I am trying to say is that the body wasn't egoistical. It was arranged to put global survival or survival of the race, before its own. It took better care of what was for others, than of what it was always going to be its. In a corny way, we could say the body was ruled ultimately by love. And now it's ruled by... self-preservation instinct and narcissism."

"We can still love without having children, Tessa."

I shook my head fervently.

"I don't think we can understand what love is, if we don't get the concept of giving our lives for someone else."

She sighed. I could tell that was her way of silently agreeing with me.

"It's a disaster, Africa. We'll lose perspective if no one grows and evolves anymore, if we can't see the different phases of life anymore."

"We'll have perspective, I reckon. Time's what gives us that. And time will still go by, even if it doesn't pressure us like it does now. And we'll see different phases, surely, lots and lots of phases! Please don't let me miss the one in which you turn punk and dye your hair blue!"

We laughed so hard at the idea, out of despair, that I didn't hear the steps of someone walking towards us.

"I've been looking for you, ladies. I'm glad you're at least having a good time." Professor Abbey said.

He looked tall like a tower, looking at him from the ground.

"I was afraid you were feeling out of place." he said, looking at me. "David and his father left. They are going through quite a rough time as well, those two."

"Yes, David told us about Lucy." I said.

Professor Abbey nodded with his eyes half closed, showing his sympathy for their grief.

"I just saw Kate Rosewood around, wearing a show-off dress." he said, and, looking at my scared eyes, he added: "I understand it if you don't want to come back inside."

"I don't feel strong enough to face her, Professor."

"That's alright. By the way, Hugh told me to ask you if you could meet him tomorrow morning. He wants to tell you many things that I believe will help you."

"Of course."

"Fine, then, this is his cell phone number." He handed me a small, white card. "I'll go back inside now, ladies. Have a good night."

I noticed Africa was looking at me, bewildered and angry.

"Have a good night! Can you tell me where, please?" she shouted at me. "Because I can't drive you tomorrow morning, Tessa. I have an exam, remember? I still have a normal life to attend. Why did you agree to tomorrow morning?"

I couldn't answer straightaway. Africa's words had moved the clog from my brain to my throat.

"Because I don't depend on you, even if you feel that way. I don't depend on anyone. I simply can't. I'm staying here. You go back home."

"What do you mean, you're staying here?" she asked, in a loud, trembling voice. "Why do you always have to act so weird? I'm tired as well, you know."

Her eyes didn't show composure anymore.

"I'm going to Luke's." I said. Yes, I had made up my mind.

"Just like that?"

"I need to see him and know if he did it."

"He did it." she stated, in a know-it-all tone I couldn't stand.

She normally used it when she was talking about her paintings, and, in those cases, I didn't mind. But I hated her when she acted like that about other things, with that superiority, her red hair looking as threatening as flames.

"You don't know that!"

I got up, and, this time, she didn't follow me. The roaring 1920s music faded away as I run along the Thames.

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