The Son

The Son is a story set in the not-so-distant future. It's a story that starts off in a remote government facility located somewhere near Roswell. A long time ago, at a military base, now reused as a research and storage unit, the world was an awful place! Disease, war, and civil unrest engulfed the planet (i.e., war of the worlds). At the facility, behind the giant metal fence, there were two large grey buildings separated by an old tarmac now used as a courtyard. Only two dudes lived there, one in each building. The first building was a massive warehouse, owned and run by the World Historical Society. The World Historical Society housed millions of artifacts collected over the centuries by many nations. It had everything from Genghis Khan's skeleton to Nixon's head fermented in a jar! All preserved, documented, and recorded by Dr. John Fisher, the underwater archaeologist and historian.

Across the courtyard stood a large almost windowless, ominous grey building. It was state of the art. A giant laboratory where cloning research was conducted by Dr. Alex Cobb. Alex was a colorful young man, born in Texas. Alex's dad was a true cowboy, he owned a horse farm and competed in big-time rodeos when the world still had such a thing. His mom was a math professor from Japan. As for Alex Cobb, he was a child genius who grew up to be the world's leading scientist in the field of cloning, helping hospitals around the world.

One day, while John Fisher was making his rounds at the historical warehouse, he came across a jar with a little piece of brown cloth in it. The cloth was labeled, "Sample jar of the bloody shroud of Jesus Christ. Germany 1944." John was intrigued, to say the least.

He could not wait to show his friends, including the dude across the courtyard, the scientist! Joined by their two friends, Lindsay and her sister Ann a.k.a. Legs, the two girls were rockers headed West, bound for stardom when they were, well, deterred back into the desert. A little town called Roswell.

Soon, the four became obsessed with the little brown cloth in the jar as it glistened and rolled on the table. They began to dream about making a clone from the material in the jar, but it was illegal to make a whole human. However, they could not stop themselves (i.e., Frankenstein, the Thing, or the Fly). In the laboratory, the first try went horribly wrong! An unrecognizable abomination of human body parts, the creature scrambled off into the night and haunted the fenced-in compound where it was trapped! (i.e., alien.) The second try, they made a baby! In the lab, of course. With thunder and lightning flashing, sparks flying and chemicals bubbling, the lab was alive and he was born!

They named him Jonathan Lindan Cobb! A clone of Jesus himself.

Though he would live most of his life not knowing who or where he came from, John and Alex put the baby in the care of Lindsay and Legs' family, Aunt Jackie and Uncle Joe. They were really good people who lived in Kansas. Jonathan was a strange little boy, but he was loved and grew up normal enough. Soon, people started to notice that there was something special about this kid (he looks like Kurt Cobain, your basic stoner dirty upstart teen). He hung out with the bad kids, farted, burped, shit, pissed, and all that good stuff. Kind of a badass, you could say, but there was something about him people could not escape, they could see it.

He was good.

However, Jonathan had no idea who he was or where he came from. He only knew his parents, Joe and Jackie, the happy couple on their farm in Kansas, not a cold laboratory in the desert. People that were sick, hurt, or just fucked up in the head got better by just having casual contact with Jonathan! People loved to be around him.

Jonathan and a few of his friends started a band and of course, they became huge. The band toured around the world, what was left of it. The war had wiped out many cities. Whole countries became wastelands! Still, the people would show up first by thousands then by the millions! People would endure anything just to see the band and hear Jonathan talk. He would talk about life, his thoughts on the world, and they would listen. Grey-faced and grim, they would come clutching their children, sometimes sick, tired, burnt out on life. But when the music started and Jonathan sang, told jokes and stories about right and wrong, common sense, just doing the right thing by each other, the people would laugh and dance and you know, scream and shout! A rainbow of color would wash over their faces! And at the end of the show, they all felt just that much better. Things were getting better because of him, but you and I know that can't last.

Yup! The powers that betook notice of Jonathan was not good! Fame and fortune came as a double-edged sword as always. People loved him and hated him for it, some wanted him dead. No one could touch Jonathan! Anyone of ill intent was helpless to move against him. Their weapons would fall apart in their hands, but the same was not so for his friends and family. Evil was clamping down on the earth! Jonathan had to lay low to take the heat off everyone. Some friends hid him in the swamps, and that's where he lived for some time. When he emerged from the swamps, he made his way back home, at all costs! Risking life and limb to get to and save his family! Running a gauntlet of millions, Jonathan makes it to the family farm! Ripped up, battered and bruised, wrapped in a bloody sheet, he rescues them. In the backyard out in the cornfield, stood an old cell tower, ominous and dark. Large birds flew around it as it creaked in the wind. The lead sky cried as Jonathan Cobb looked the structure up and down.

How could anyone know what would happen next when he started climbing? (Think King Kong.) But he knew. He just knew. Jonathan Cobb had a gift the world will never forget. Yes.

Read The Son.

-- D.A. Thomas