We sat in chairs in the high school gym. A circle of seven people, half lit by the dim, malfunctioning lights that hung over head. There were fewer of us tonight than normal but all of the regulars were here. We had heard from a few of them so far tonight. There was a pause as we waited for the next to speak.
“I’m still struggling with the idea.” Frank began speaking. “One day my wife is my wife. Next day she isn’t. The next day she is human. Married to a human man and doesn’t even know who I am.” His fingers brushed the point of his elven ears as his eyes fell to the floor. The room fell silent for a moment. Every one here felt his pain.
The support group meets every Thursday, at least this one does. There are support groups almost every night at locations all over. Almost everyone has been affected by the merges in some way. Some lost companies that they founded, many lost their homes, but those of us here tonight lost loved ones. For Frank, that loved one was his wife of 5 years.
“She’s happy though.” Frank paused as if to catch his breathe. “She has a family with him. They live in our house.” He continued without look up from the floor. “I haven’t even spoken to her since that first day. I don’t want to cause problems for her. I don’t want to cause problems for their family. She’s not my wife anymore.”
“How long has it been Frank?” The question came from Chuck, a rather large man, human. He stroked his long red beard as he looked towards Frank. This group didn’t have a designated counselor but Chuck filled the role well. He was always well spoken and sympathetic towards others. I think that helping was through our losses was a path for him to cope with his own. Maybe its his shaved head in contrast to his long beard, disguising his youth, but we all believe in him none the less. Chuck didn’t have a wife or child the he lost, but instead it was his siblings. All of Chuck’s stories are about Sunday’s being spent with family, holidays shared with them, and meeting one of them for happy hours after work. Chuck’s siblings all died on a car crash 10 years ago. In fact, Chuck died in that same car crash. Chuck doesn’t remember it that way though. It was only a few years ago that he was having family dinners; obviously he never died, that he can remember.
Frank paused on the question, thinking for a second before responding. “It was nine months ago. I left Phoenix and came to Phoenix Prime shortly after learning about the merges.” I remember when Frank first came to our group about six months ago. We were still recovering from the most recent merge. Prior to that, Elves weren’t a real thing. Neither were dwarves or gnomes, fairies or goliaths, orcs or so many others. They are all very real now. Frank was the first in our group though and it took a while to feel comfortable around him. He continued, “Shortly after I came to Prime is when I met Chuck and you all know the rest.” He paused again. “Well, I guess you don’t. I don’t talk much here.”
Chuck chimed in, “And that’s okay Frank. We are all struggling and we handle things in different ways. Its just important that you understand that you aren’t alone in this.”
“I know. And I just want you all to know that I appreciate hearing your stories. You all have helped me a lot.”
“That’s why we are here.” Chuck looked around the room, pausing to see if anyone else was eager to talk tonight. No one else spoke up. “Well why don’t we stop here for the night. Same place next Thursday?” There was a group mumble of confirmation as everyone began gathering their things.
I grabbed my backpack and began walking towards the door on the far end of the gymnasium. There was only a single set of footprints that followed me. It seemed that Craig was the only one going to that door while everyone else was walking to the other. As soon as we were far enough away from the others that they wouldn’t hear, Craig began to grumble at me, “I still can’t believe we let them in our group.” I didn’t say anything in response. He took a few quick steps to catch up to me. “You know, the other fucks. First the elven fuck and then that gnome shithead, who is next? A fucking orc?”
Continuing my pace, I walked through the doors that led outside. Craig followed right behind me. “You know that I don’t agree with your shit Craig. Why do you even try to talk to me about your human elitist bullshit?”
“Because we ere here first Linc! We were here FIRST!” He began to yell before stopping himself and stepping in front of me.
“And they remember being here first. Everyone remembers being here first.”
He looked like he was going to yell at me but he caught himself once more and began walking backwards slowly. “You should be on our side Linc. All of you Other Sympathizers are gonna suffer along with them.” He then turned and walked away from me, heading towards the bus stop in a quick shuffle. I assumed that Craig was heading to the western edge of Phoenix Prime. That’s where he would be able to satisfy whatever vice he was currently using. In general, he uses all of them. But nothing seems to help him. He wasn’t always a species-ist. In fact, he and his wife were making progress after losing their daughter to a merge a couple years ago. It wasn’t until he lost his wife t othe most recent merge that Craig turned to drugs and began spending all of his time in the western zone. I do genuinely feel bad for him. We’ve all tried to help but he always refuses.
I walked to my car and got in driver’s seat. With the push of a button, the car started and the radio came on.
Another protest is scheduled for this Saturday as citizens of the world come together once more in hopes of preventing another collision event. With every collision event getting worse and worse, the protestors are begging the governments of the world to step in. Meanwhile, Jackson Vergus, the President and CEO of Hexagon Technical And Research who is the company responsible for the Hadron Collider, was quoted saying that the merges should not be referred to as collision events since there is nothing linking the merges to the use of the Hadron Collider. This response from Vergus triggered a world wide response so expect many traffic delays that Saturday in you live in a large city.
Every time I turn on the radio, there seems to be a protest of some sort. Having protests against HTAR is at least the better protests to have. I often think of Craig when I hear about the many anti Others protests. People taking to the streets to protest the welcoming of anything not human to our world. I can’t help but to think that Craig has attended a few of those protests over the past couple months. If it wasn’t for that fact that Craig is usually high on some substance, then I would say that he would probably be organizing them.
