Mrs. White

Before my grandfather departed from Earth, he suggested that I begin the Exode Saga with my personal written account of how physical evidence was first obtained for ancient alien visitors to this world. The most accurate description of those events was written down by me in my blog after my father suggested that I record my version of the events surrounding the discovery. I did so in the first week after the discovery during a period of time when I did not fully understand why my father was so excited about the new scientific results being obtained by the researchers who were working in his lab. Unfortunately, that account of the discovery was deleted from the cloud, so what follows below is my reconstruction of events, based on my later memories.

I admit that my memories of the original events are of questionable reliability. I believe that my memories were suppressed by a positronic robot named Nyrtia. Later, my grandfather made use of a potent nicotinic drug to push me past Nyrtia's memory block, allowing me to provide the following.....

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My story begins on the day when I first learned of the existence of Mrs. White. That evening, I was late getting home from a swim meet. The bus carrying the swim team from Burswood had gotten stuck in traffic, so the swim events had begun late and everything finished far behind schedule. I was hungry and the house was full of welcoming warm odors so my mouth started watering. My dad is a great cook and he always had meals ready for me. I raced up the stairs, heading towards my room and there he was, coming out of spare bedroom that functioned as his office. "Sorry I'm late!" I dropped my pack on the floor and we hugged.

As we pulled apart, he held on to my arms and said, "4:34, another personal best. You're on a roll." His eyes looked straight into mine and I wondered again if I was now actually taller than my father, but he looked tired and he may have been a bit slouched.

I picked up my pack off of the floor. "Let's eat; I'm starved. I'll tell you all about it." I threw my pack into my room and followed dad down to the kitchen. "My legs never got tired. All that running is paying off."

He opened the oven and pulled out a warming tray. I closed the oven and pulled the pitcher of water out of the fridge. Dad set the tray on the dining room table, lifted the lid and started serving. He asked, "Do you want some fish?"

I had filled my glass and guzzled down some water. "Yes, please. I'm still craving meat."

"You'll stop growing, eventually." He set my plate in front of me.

My growth spurt was finally ending, but I was now the tallest girl in my class. I'd been constantly hungry for the past year while growing rapidly. I picked up my fork, but I waited to eat. "I'm still struggling with my breathing. Cari says I can't be squeamish about gulping down pool water."

Dad finished serving himself and sat down across the table from me. "Carissa is a wild one. Not sure I'd emulate her behavior in breathing, gulping or driving. Did she drive you home tonight?"

As soon as dad sat down, I took a bite of food. Carissa had her drivers license suspended, which my dad knew perfectly well. After swallowing I replied, "No, we got a ride from Peter."

Dad paused with a fork full of food half way to his mouth. "Who is Peter?"

"Cari's brother." I added, "The fish is great."

"Ah, did he join the swim team, too?" He was putting some sauce on his fish. "Try my cheese sauce?"

"No." That was my answer for both questions. I sniffed. "You put alcohol in the sauce, didn't you?" I don't like alcohol. "Peter is Cari's big brother, he just graduated from high school. He started in college this week. And anyhow, he's not a jock."

"Interesting."

I knew that if I didn't explain Peter then dad's next question would be: so why was Peter driving?

"I'm not sure why Peter is being so accommodating. Cari claims that Peter is gay, but he seems to enjoy being around young girls. And photographing us."

"I see."

Translation from dad-speak: Is he a problem?

"He's tall, dark and handsome. And a perfect gentleman. He does seem to photograph the male swimmers more than the girls." I noticed that Dad wasn't really eating. "Not hungry?"

"Sorry, I'm distracted." He took another bite. "How was the math test?"

"I think I did okay." We had a rule against using devices at the dinner table. "Can I check to see if the scores are posted?" Dad shrugged. I used my phone and checked, but the scores were not yet available. "Geometry is fun." I put my phone back in my pocket. "So tell me, what's distracting you?"

"I have a new problem at work." He started pushing a mushroom around his plate, skidding it through his cheese sauce.

"More bad data?"

"No, we seem to have resolved that issue. It was a calibration problem. We were using a bad standard sample." Dad shook his head slowly. "My new problem has a name: Mrs. White."

I was busy eating and said nothing. I knew he'd tell me the problem with Mrs. White. Hearing that there was a new female in dad's life, I could not stop myself from thinking about my mother. We had not seen mom in the seven years since her sudden disappearance.

After a long pause, dad finally looked up from his plate and explained, "She's a new research student who just started in my lab this term."

"Why is that a problem? No research experience?"

"She's competent in the lab. I checked that carefully, first thing. She did research as an undergraduate. The problem is going to arrive this weekend." He looked very uncomfortable and mumbled quietly, "I'm sorry to do this to you, but I'm going to need your help."

"Dad, you know I have a swim meet on Saturday. Away. A meet for the whole division."

"Yes, I know you'll be busy all day Saturday, so I scheduled White for her first field observations on Sunday."

I set down my fork and took another long drink. "Mrs. White. So she's married?"

Dad looked back into the depths of his plate and did not answer my question. "She'll pick you up after the swim meet and drive you two out to the trail head. We're going to photograph the Helena watershed, looking for landslides that might have been triggered by the recent thunderstorms this week."

I knew that dad was always on the lookout for newly-exposed rock. Geology students had repeatedly crawled over ever outcrop of exposed granite within easy driving distance of Perth. I moaned, "Why me?"

"Sorry, sweetie, but nobody else is available."

Mercifully this kind of scheduling problem did not occur very often. This had happened only twice in the past two years, but it was part of a larger problem. "Dad, you don't need a chaperone for Sunday. Particularly if she's married. And why can't you drive me?"

"I'll be setting up the aerial drones on Saturday and testing their telemetry systems." Dad gazed directly at me for a few seconds then his eyes drifted back to his plate. "If Mrs. White drives you out then you two will have a chance to get to know each other."

"Dad, the people in your lab are all such boring science nerds. After the swim meet I'll be tired and hungry and I won't be in the mood for hearing a flood of scientific jargon from some beginning graduate student."

"Please, Vee... I need you to help me out. I'll make it worth your time." He tried to smile, but only managed to produce a pained twist of his lips. "Name your price."

I said, "Dad, you know my price. Same as last time." I was going to nag him.

Dad went and got a bottle of wine and a wine glass. He poured himself some wine and settled back in his chair. We'd been through this all before, but I had time on my side. My plan was to wear down his resistance and get him to change his ways. I began with the usual: "You need to move on." Tired of having my opinion on this matter ignored by dad, I was not gentle. "Mom is not coming back."

His reply was mild and automatic. "We don't know that."

"Nobody at the university cares if you are out in the field, alone with some woman, while you hunt for rock samples. We're the only two people who even remember that you're married." He drank some more wine. "Look, dad, I've move on. It would not bother me if you... found a girlfriend and started dating."

He drained his glass and poured it full again. "You know me, Vee, I'm not interested in finding someone to replace your mother. First of all, that would be impossible. Nobody could replace her. But more importantly, I've built a new life around you and my work at the lab."

"In a few more years, I'll go off to college and then you'll be lonely and bored. Now is the time to start looking for someone that you can grow old with."

"Yes, darling, you are absolutely correct. However, I'll be perfectly fine growing old with my precious memories of your mother."

I was certain that dad had no rational reason for stealing my Sunday from me, so I did not try to further press my argument. Reason was not going to have any effect on him. "Okay, I've had my say. When will we get home from this trip?"

He replied definitively, "I'll have you back for your classes on Monday." He mused, "The days are so short now. We'll have to hustle on Sunday to collect all the data. It's the equinox, you know." He pulled out his phone. "Thank you for being such a good sport about this. I'm sending you White's contact info. She'll pick you up in the taxi loading zone outside the sports complex. What time will you be ready?"

"The bus is scheduled to take us home at 5:15."

"Fine. Contact her and make your plans so you don't miss each other. Remember, you need to get out to the trail head and hike in to the camp site before it gets dark."

"No problem, as long as your Mrs. White does not drive like an old granny." For a moment, dad stared into his phone's screen as if he saw a ghost. I started realizing that something out of the ordinary had happened and was really bothering him. "Admit it, dad, I'm not going to be around here forever. This house is going to get very quiet when I go off to college and you are living here alone. Your insistence on not ever being alone with women is not rational."

He set down his phone and nodded. "I know that, but I'm still in love with your mother. During the past seven years I've gotten used to playing this game of protecting myself from other women. Thank you for helping out this Sunday, I really need you to be there."

I took out my phone and pulled up White's contact info. I looked at her Facebook profile. "Hey, it looks like she's got kids who are older than me. Is she married?"

Dad said, "No." He got up, carrying dishes to the kitchen.

I followed. "But her profile mentions kids. Divorced? You know, this could be perfect. What's she like?"

Dad said, "Please don't try to play matchmaker. You go do your homework, darling. I'll clean up the dishes."

I was still going through White's social media posts. "She looks to be about your age , dad."

He muttered, "You know better than to believe anything you see on Facebook."

"Well, tell me about her."

He shook his head. "I can't." After an awkward pause, he continued in a tense, faltering voice, "Save your questions for Saturday, that way you two will have things to talk about on the drive up to the Scarp. Now, please go do your homework, darling."

I gave up. "Yes, daddy."

_______


Just before 5:00 on Saturday, Mrs. While pulled her minivan into the taxi loading zone at the sports complex. She fastidiously went past me, up to the front of the zone, stopped and the rear hatch door popped open and swung up. There was a "S⚽CCER M⚽M" sticker on her rear bumper. She called to me, "Jump in, Verella." There was hiking equipment in the back cargo space. I tossed my pack in and closed the hatch.

I climbed into the front passenger side seat and she immediately pulled away from the curb, not at all driving like an old granny. Mrs White looked just like her Facebook picture: carefully sculpted hair and pancake makeup. I complained about the temperature in the van, "It's very cold in here."

Mrs. White shut off the air conditioner. "Sorry, but I drove over here directly from the lab. Take the wheel for a minute." She let go of the steering wheel and her seat moved down and back. She pulled off her jacket and tossed it into the back seat. Then she reached up and started messing with her hair. She hadn't slowed down any and I was having to carefully steer us onto the highway. She pulled off her wig and threw it into the back.

I watched her unpin her real hair and shake it out. Suddenly she looked ten years younger. I exclaimed, "What the hell!"

She laughed and moved the seat back up next to the wheel. She again took full control of the van and said, "Your dad saw through my disguise first thing on Monday."

I asked, "Why do you need a disguise?"

"I went through hell in college. I decided to fake my age for graduate school."

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen. I was only 14 when I went off to college."

"But..."

"They never would have awarded a graduate research scholarship to a seventeen year old."

"What are you, some kind of science wiz kid?"

"No not really." She seemed to contemplate her past for a moment. "I just found my purpose in life at an early age. I'm going to solve the mystery of where we came from."

I guessed, "You mean the origin of the Earth and the Moon?"

She laughed, sounding more like a giggly girl than a mom. "No. I'm not a geologist. My interests are in biology."

My dad studies rocks that are billions of years old. In my freshman science class I had learned about microfossils and I had done my term project on the microfossils that had been discovered in Australia. I asked, "Microfossils?"

"Yes. I'm searching for the first eukaryotic cells. I'm going to find out where they came from, which is the story of our own origin. Was it some lost branch of the Archaea?"

I was only vaguely aware of the Archaea as one of the ancient branches of the tree of life. I knew that eukaryotic cells differed from Archaea cells in that they have intracellular organelles like mitochindria. I asked, "Can you find ancient fossils that show evidence of endosymbiosis?"

"That's my dream. We will see."

"But why are you in my dad's lab? My dad isn't a biologist."

"His lab is positioned within striking distance of ancient rocks. And I could not go too far from home. That was my mom's price for letting me start graduate school before turning 18. And your dad is perfect. He promised not to blow my cover."

"So that's why he wouldn't tell me anything about you and he let me be fooled by your Facebook profile."

"Yes, he's a perfect choice for keeping my secret. Most importantly, he's intrigued by my project."

I rode in silence for a while. When I'd recovered from the shock of learning her age I asked, "Do you expect me to call you Mrs. White?"

"Please don't. My name is Georgy." I noticed that she was now chewing gum.

"Tell me Georgy, how are you going to find the first eukaryote?"

"So far, all I've done is find the right tool: SIMS. But when I find the right fossils, SIMS analysis will do the trick. SIMS will let us know if the original cell that first had a mitochondrion was an Arhaean cell."

"What is SIMS?"

"Its a microscale analytic tool, a way of studying the chemical composition of microfossils. With SIMS, we can tell the difference between fossilized archaea cells and bacteria."

I asked, "How did you get interested in this kind of science at such a young age?"

Georgy explained, "I was home schooled, on my parents' farm. Back when I was ten, I read about microfossils. I fell in love with the idea that fossils have been waiting for billions of years, hidden in ancient rocks, just waiting for me to find them."

"Waiting for you?"

"I'm a romantic. In my fantasy, the whole world has been waiting for me to figure out the mystery of our origins. I like to imagine how amazed everyone would be if a little farm girl could crack one of the great remaining puzzles in the evolution of life."

I stared skeptically at her profile. I muttered, "You're not very little."

She glanced at me and followed my eyes to her breasts. "I decided to disguise myself as a married woman with children. That picture on my Facebook profile is actually my mom's body with the face slightly modified to look more like me. She nursed all her children and now has the bust that four pregnancies and four hungry baby's built. Take the wheel again." This time she took off her blouse and then the fake breasts she was wearing on her chest. Her real breasts were only a little bigger than mine. She put the blouse back on and took back the wheel. "That's a relief. I think that fake boob thing is bad for my back, and it definitely makes me sweat."

The rest of the drive, Georgy told me about her experiences at college and being younger than all of her classmates. When we pulled into the little parking area at the trail head, I saw dad's car. I phoned him: "We're here."

"I see you on the tracker app. Don't dawdle. It's getting dark. I've got dinner cooking."

Georgy took off her shirt, pants and her shoes, tossing them into the back seat of the van. I put on my pack then watched as Georgy pulled her larger and much heavier pack out of the cargo hold of the van. She opened a bottle of water and dumped the contents over her head, then took a towel to her face, washing off her makeup. Now she looked like a 17-year-old farm girl; in particular, her legs had bulging boy-like muscles. She was an impressive sight, glistening in the last rays of the setting sun, wearing only her cheeky bikini bottoms.

Georgy pulled on a tank top, put on high-top sneakers and clipped a pair of shorts to her pack. She drank a bottle of water, belched delicately and then put the big pack on her shoulders. For a moment she examined me. "You're taller than I expected." She looked skeptically at my long, skinny legs. "I'm hungry, so try to keep up the pace." She took off, running down the trail.

I had no trouble keeping up with Georgy as we ran down the trail towards the camp site. It had been a warm day and soon we were both sweating. The trail finally dropped down into the narrow river valley and soon I could smell cooking onions. Georgy stopped running and pulled on her shorts. She said, "I don't want to give your father a heart attack."

I said, "I'm beginning to understand why dad did not want to be out here alone with you."

Georgy laughed. "Within the geology world, he's renowned for never being alone with a woman. That really helped put him at the top of my list of potential research mentors."

We climbed down to the canyon floor and into the camp site where dad had already pitched two tents on a shelf some 10 or 12 meters above the level of river. I dropped my pack and for a minute gazed down at the river. Due to the recent heavy rain, it was flowing with greater volume than I'd ever seen previously. Georgy immediately took off her shoes and went barefoot whenever we were in camp.

Sunday morning we were up well before dawn. The plan was for Georgy to use a flying drone to photograph the river upstream while dad photographed downstream. Hiking along the river valley, we reached a wide meadow just as the sun was brightening the sky. After seeing that Georgy was receiving data from her drone, dad set off towards the west. He would launch another drone from another meadow, about a kilometer downstream. I started to follow him, but he said, "Keep an eye on her, at least for a while."

I said, "Sure, but this is going to get boring, fast. There's nothing for me to do."

He suggested, "You know how to monitor the incoming data. Give me your phone." He connected my phone to the computer that Georgy was using to receive images from the drone. "If you like, you can watch for gaps in the photography and let us know if there are any holes in the grid."

I went back to where Georgy was monitoring the drone on a tablet computer. She was smoking a cigarette. I blurted out, "You smoke?"

"Yes, I started smoking to make my voice sound older. But now, mostly I use nicotine gum to feed my addiction."

After an hour of watching the incoming data, I wandered over to the river where it flowed to one side of the meadow. About a third of the meadow was still under water and the middle part was covered in mud and plant debris. Now in the light of day I got my first good look at the river and was amazed to see how cloudy the water was. I immediately suspected that there might have been a landslide upstream and realized that was why my dad would have his new student photographing that part of the river. He always wanted to provide opportunities for his students to find something interesting.

When I got back to Georgy, she pointed at the computer display, "Look at that."

There was a new lake where a big landslide had blocked the river canyon. River water was pouring over the slide area. I said, "You know, if that new dam is not stable, it might not be wise to stay here."

"This part of the valley is wide. I think we're safe even if that dam suddenly breaks."

"I better check with my father."

Georgy suggested, "If you're worried, why not go see how stable that slide area looks? It's only about two kilometers upstream." She tossed me a sample collection kit. "If you see something interesting, get a sample."

"Okay. That will give me something to do." I strapped on the sample kit like a fanny pack and started jogging towards the west. I called dad and asked, "Did you see the images of the new lake?"

He replied, "Ya, I see it. You don't have to tell Georgy this, but I knew the landslide was there. The park rangers told me."

I asked, "Is it safe for us to be here, downstream from that new lake?"

"If you are worried and want to be absolutely safe, you should go back to the camp site or at least get out of the meadow. However, it is not a big lake."

I knew he would not have ever let me go to the meadow if he thought there was danger. "I'm climbing up out of the valley floor right now. I'm going to get a look at that landslide."

"Don't get too close to it from below in the narrow part of the canyon."

"I won't do anything stupid."

Dad asked, "What did you say? You're breaking up."

I had moved beyond the range of any cell phone links. I put away my phone and started moving parallel to the river. I was now going beyond the range of cell phone coverage into the more wild part of the park. After a brisk run along the canyon rim, the scar of the slide area suddenly came into view. I moved further away from the river and after a hot climb up the Scarp where the canyon rim rises to higher strata, I finally got a view of the new lake. The slide and the lake were smaller than I had imagined when looking at the photographs of the site. The river water was rather gently cascading over the jumble of boulders that formed the new dam. I had no way of judging if the dam was stable or might suddenly give way, but it was broad and seemed like it was in no immediate danger of being washed away.

I turned my attention to the part of the canyon wall where the slide had begun. An area of brightly colored stone stood out on the cliff face, glistening in the morning sun where a stream flowed down into the valley. I took a set of photos and sent them to dad and Georgy.

I climbed down off the canyon rim and approached the edge of the slide area at the base of the cliff. Someone else had already been at the slide before me. Several granite blocks showed evidence of recent sampling.

A boulder with bands of red and black rock attracted my attention. I pulled the little hammer out of the sample collection kit and set it on the boulder. I took a series of pictures of the boulder and the surrounding area, then I picked up the hammer and started pounding off a chunk of the rock. This was rather soft and rotten stone of a type that would quickly weather when exposed. My guess was that Georgy might be interested in this sample of what looked like alternating layers of iron-rich and organic-rich material. Finally, a large chunk of stone came loose. I stuffed it into a plastic bag.

Next, I took a sterile coring tool out of its case and pounded it into the hole where the big chunk of rock had come off the bolder. I snapped off a small core of virgin rock and put it into a sterile bottle. I put all the smaller chips and fragments of stone into another bag and stuffed it all into the bulging sample kit.

I spent another hour photographing the cliff face and trying to figure out where the boulder that I had sampled originated in the canyon wall. At that point, Georgy's drone flew over. I knew that it was about time for the drones to be re-fueled and I was also feeling hungry. I headed back to the meadow. Finally, I got back in range of a cell phone tower and I called dad. "I'm almost back to the meadow."

He said, "Good. We're just about ready to grab some lunch. See anything interesting?"

"I'll show you what I found. It's red and black."

Georgy stopped eating her lunch when I handed her the sample bag. She looked at some of the rock fragments with her magnifier.

Dad just kept eating, but he asked me, "No quartz?"

I pulled out a lovely piece of quartz that I has found and hand it to him. I knew that he was interested in granite and other types of rock that held easy-to-date zircons. I handed him my phone and he looked through the pictures I'd taken.

Georgy said, "Maybe we should cancel the rest of the drone work. I'd like to see the site where this sample came from."

Dad shook his head. "No. We go ahead as planned with the drones. If you like, you can sleep over tonight and go sample the slide area on Monday, but Vee and I are going back to Perth this evening."

Georgy said, "You're mean. You planned this whole thing didn't you?"

"That's my job, to plan field trips for new students. After you prove that you can do a terrain survey then you can move on to sampling."

After the lunch break, Georgy and dad launched their drones again and continued photographing the entire valley. I ate my lunch then hiked back to the campsite and packed up the tents. I carried the tents back to the car and spent the rest of the afternoon doing homework. Just as the light was fading, dad and Georgy returned to the parking area. I had a quick dinner ready for them. We loaded up the drones and I handed the rock sample kit to Georgy. "Let me know if you find anything useful in this rock."

Georgy set the bag on the passenger seat of her van. "I'm tempted to take this directly to the lab, but I should probably get a good night's sleep before starting to probe your sample. I've got a long drive home. Thanks for finding such an interesting sample."

I asked, "Where do you live?"

"I'm still at home, on the farm. That was part of the deal for allowing me to start college at such a young age. I won't really be be free until I turn 18."

"Well, thanks for allowing me to get the sample. Otherwise this would have been a boring day for me."

I got into my dad's car. We headed back to town and I quizzed him, "Why didn't you warn me that Georgy is a child?"

He chuckled. "I figured you deserved to be just as surprised as I was. Anyhow, you were so quick to agree to this trip that I did not have to twist your arm or reveal her secret. Thank you for making this weekend a success, Vee."

"Thanks for inviting me. And arranging for me to get that rock sample." I added, "Someone had already been there at the landslide before me."

"Ya, Bill and Jeff from the lab went out there this week as soon as the park rangers told us about the slide. You don't need to mention that to Georgy, although she'll eventually figure it out."

Everything happened fast that week. Monday evening I got a text message from Georgy, telling me that she had found microfossils in the rock sample that I'd collected on Sunday. Over dinner, dad congratulated me on finding an interesting sample for Georgy to study. He told me, "I need you to write a detailed description of how you obtained the sample."

Before falling asleep, I wrote out a long description of the photographs I had taken during the sample collection and posted it to the blog that I had used for my microfossil project in freshman science.

When I got home from school Tuesday there was a rental car in the driveway. When I opened the front door, a stranger, a woman, was there in the house. She looked like she had an interesting mix of European genes and genes from the native peoples of Australia. She said, "My name is Maria Green. I'm a science reporter."

I asked, "What are you doing in my house?"

Maria said, "Hello, Verella. Sorry to catch you by surprise. Didn't you get a warning from your father to expect me?"

I pulled out my phone and switched it on. I soon saw that I had gotten a text message from dad.

"Your father gave me the door code so that I can interview you. I'm a reporter from Science Now. I understand you are the one who collected the exciting new rock sample on Sunday."


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Next: Ms. Green
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A Search Beyond is copyright John Schmidt, but the text of the story is  licensed for sharing under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) license.