New story ~ Enjoy HOW NEWS IS MADE by Susan P Hayward-Tonkin July 2014 Maisie was born in a small country town hospital, not the sort of place normally associated with extraordinary births. But Maisie was noticed straight away but the hospital staff who, like all medical staff in Australia were obligated to report the birth of anyone who showed extraordinary abilities to a government department. Maisie was delivered, and discretely removed from the family she had been born into, taken for testing, and she was scheduled not to be returned, it had not been for her father, she would have never known she was part of a family. Her mother was told that the baby was ill, and due to being ill herself, she soon was not capable of grieving for her new child as her illness progressed to a deathly stage she was transferred to a hospital in Sydney for specialist treatment. The other children in the family were sent to stay with relatives, while the father insisted on staying with Maisie, as he was determined to keep contact with the baby. During the time of the testing, the father, Jim, was told that Maisie had a rare type of blood that was not recorded and the paediatrician was concerned that she would not be able to survive. Jim was informed that the rare blood type would react on her metabolism and cause her to not visible by cones in the eye. Jim questioned the Doctor how this came about, and the Doctor just stated that it was a mutant gene and that it happens to one in twelve million people. But Jim was not convinced, the baby seemed strong and normal and soon he was demanding to take her home. But home life for the Sinclair family had been disrupted by the illness of Grace and the baby, so Jim had to make a decision. So when a local woman, who had been a friend of the family, agreed to take the baby while Grace was recovering, Jim welcomed the help and soon Maisie was taken home to another country town to stay with Christine. Jim then moved the family’s home back to Sydney, and then brought Grace to rest in her own home. Then three of the four children were brought home as well, and soon the Sinclair’s were together again, but without Maisie. Maisie finally joined the Sinclair family at the age of two, and she found them indifferent to her presence, and they seemed always to forget she was around. Grace did not seem to notice her at all, and was always shocked and dismissive when the little girl approached her for a cuddle or comfort. So always being the odd one, the child spent hours with animals, not being seen by other children, only ever finding peace and solace with her best friend, her dog. This tendency had set her apart from the pack of feral children that lived in the area and placed her in a peculiar place where she was judged mostly as non-existent. Her father seemed to be the only one that could occasionally see her, when he sat and stared at her, then she seemed to come into focus for him and he would talk to her kindly and give her affection, which she needed to survive, and it was Jim that knew that the special ability that Maisie possessed was one of being unnoticed. This ability was one that Jim realised the government would want to know about, and that all the testing was not because of her blood, so he was determined to keep her safe and not let anyone take her away again. Jim home schooled Maisie, as he realised that she would not be able to attend the normal government schools, and this suited the little girl, as she did not feel comfortable in large groups of people, and at home she could have her dog with her at all times. Her siblings mostly ignored her, but on the occasion that they did notice her, Maisie was punched or pushed around for doing something they deemed wrong or stupid. Grace had retreated into herself and was often bed ridden with depression, which made her emotionally detached further from Maisie, who would sneak in to her room and watch her sleep. As Maisie grew she was often the one who would find Grace in state of overdose from the prescription medication she would consume daily. Maisie would go in to check on her and find her barely breathing and would respond by ringing an ambulance and Jim, and Grace would be rushed to hospital to have her stomach pumped. Maisie felt that her help was not appreciated, and that the only friend she had was Kip her faithful dog, and they would spend days exploring the local creek , catching tadpoles in glass jars and making cubby houses in the undergrowth that Kip would discover and show Maisie the way in. The feral children would also explore the creek, looking for wild life to shoot with their slug guns, and if any happened to notice Maisie, she would be shot in the legs, with metal slugs, which hurt and left nasty scars. Entering the teen years is not easy for any person, but for Maisie, it was time of becoming aware of boys in the street she lived, though they did not notice her, and she found she all she need to do was hang around in a group and she was able to be in the presence of the a particular boy she held a crush for, though she had no idea how to get him to see her. It was around this time that Jim received a visit from two men in black suits who told him they had come to discuss Maisie. Jim was suspicious of the men, but allowed them to tell him why they had come for his daughter. Jim took them into his study and closed the door. The men sat in chairs in front of a large wooden desk, and Jim took his position behind the desk in a large black chair. One of the men then introduced himself and his colleague. “I am agent Kreport and this is agent Belkin, we have been sent by the Department of Undisclosed Abilities, and we have come here to discuss Maisie. Is she about Mr Sinclair?” Jim felt fear start to bubble in his stomach; he had no idea of where she was, but assumed she must be down the creek with Kip. “No agent Kreport, she is not home, what do you want with her?” “Mr Sinclair are you aware that Maisie has a special ability?” “Yes I am aware, but she is just a child what do you want with her?” “The Department has need of her ability for a special project, and we aware of her age, which is why we are here.” Jim was surprised with the statement from agent Kreport, but the fear in his stomach was making him feel nauseous. “What kind of project do you want her for?” Agent Kreport shrugged his shoulders; he was not about to disclose the project to this person, his order was to bring the girl in for training and he was not going to leave until he had her, regardless of what the father said. “Mr Sinclair, I appreciate your fatherly concern for your daughter, let me assure you that we have Maisie’s welfare in mind. As you may be aware she was unable to attend a normal school, am I correct in this assumption?” “Yes I home schooled her, but she is very bright and needs to have a normal life.” “But what about her future, how will she support herself? She will not be able to maintain normal employment Mr Sinclair, you must be aware of this fact. We must ensure she can contribute to society and aid people with her abilities.” “Yes she has a lot of wonderful qualities and has a lot to offer.” “So let us take her for training, and she will have an important position that only she can fill, it is what she was born to do Mr Sinclair.” “What kind of training are you talking about?” “She will be taught about her ability and how to control it, as she gets older, she will learn about society, how it functions and the trends it takes, this is very important for her to know, then later, she will be trained to help society with the knowledge and always remain unnoticed, so she will never have fame but will be very well compensated.” Jim thought about what the man had said he knew that he was not capable of showing Maisie how to control her ability, and instruct her on how to get work when she was grown, maybe this man was telling the truth, he was confused and did not know how to respond for Maisie’s best interest. “She only thirteen Mr Kreport, will we ever see her again if you take her?” “Not while she learns how to control her ability, but she will have the best care and will able to see you if she wishes once she is eighteen, but that will up to her.” “But that is five years! You can’t make me give her up Mr Kreport.” “Well actually I can, you have no authority over her, she belongs to the government Mr Sinclair and I am an authorised agent for the said government.” Before Jim could disagree boisterously the door to the study opened and in bust Maisie. The two agents rose instantly from their chairs and collected the stunned girl in their arms and carried her kicking and screaming out of the house. They deposited her into the back of a large black vehicle, and she continued to try and get out, pulling on the door handle. Kip ran to the car barking and clawing at the door. Mr Belkin started the car, but Mr Kreport suddenly got out of the car and picked up Kip, and deposited him in the back with Maisie, so she may have lost her family but she was able to keep her dog. Maisie was taken to a bricked building that looked old and unoccupied in the back streets of Sydney. The men dragged her inside, Kip following behind. The men walked her through a large marble foyer and to an elevator. Traveling to the eighteenth floor, the three people and one dog left the lift and walked down a long corridor to a room. Entering the room, Maisie found she was in a beautifully decorated bedroom, equipped with a Queen Anne bed with lots of pillows and a large fluffy doona, a dressing table and wardrobe to match. A table with a stereo on it, fluffy toys on an antique chair and pictures of popular pop stars in glass frames mounted on the walls. Maisie stood looking around the room in amazement, while Kip jumped onto the bed. “Does your room meet with your approval then Miss Sinclair?” Mr Kreport asked. “Oh yes its beautiful, there is only thing missing.” “Oh what is that?” “There is no window.” In the background, Mr Belkin had slipped a collar and chain onto Kip and had removed him from the room while the other agent talked with Maisie. “You get some rest now, you will meet your teachers soon, you will find the cupboard is well stocked with the latest fashion for your age, and I will send some food up to you.” “Where have you taken Kip?” “He will be cared for in the kennels, we can’t have him running around the building, and you can see later and walk him around the exercise area. Now get some rest.” Then he left closing the door behind him. Maisie was then introduced to intensive training in how to allow herself to be seen, how being filmed was the best way of being visible. She was taught how to be discreet, how to act and how to present herself when talking with press. As time progressed she learned more information in these areas and participated with other children with similar abilities in mock films, advertisements, press interviews and television interviews. The years she spent training were filled with study but she did manage to find friendships and these she held above everything else as she never had friends before. By the time she of her eighteenth birthday, she was ready to take up her full time employment, and her first assignment was a bank robbery. A group of six left the brick building and casually walked down the main street, and stopped at a bank. Entering the bank they went to work making themselves visible, so they would look like they were robbing a teller. But she knew the teller they were harassing, she was a good friend of Maisie’s, so when one person shot the teller, who dropped to the floor as she had been instructed, the group ran out of the bank carrying nothing but putting away their plastic guns and jumped into a waiting car, leaving Maisie to deal with the press. Maisie steeled herself into a visible stance as a police car pulled up followed by an ambulance and fire truck and a media truck. The reporter came directly over to her, asking what she had seen and if anyone had been hurt. Maisie related the events as if she had been a bystander in the bank, and her interview was filmed by the news crew. After, Maisie resumed her invisibility and watched as Jackie was carried out to the ambulance and put in the back, then left the scene and returned to the brick building. Maisie thought the entire event was a lot of fun, and the group gathered to watch their little play on the television news. Over time Maisie was involved in many types of ‘plays’, and soon began to see that in fact they were inventing the news, especially after she was cast to do a home invasion murder and suicide, which was filmed by ten media film crews and reported around the world. She understood that society was manipulated by these little ‘plays’ to demonstrate that the area that the government wanted to shut down was necessary, maybe more important than the truth, as it was really not in the nature of people to kill each other, and if society was left to its own devices it would not be electing governments or remain horrified about anything. So Maisie continued to work in this capacity for many years, she was paid very well, and was able to amass a great deal of funds and was therefore financially free. So when she was cast to do work in Canada, she was able to fly over there with a job and a holiday in another country. It was in this country that she met Brad. The two were cast in a father daughter interview about a school shooting. Their relationship developed over time as they worked together and after a few years they were married, and produced a son, who was cast as the occasional child of a celebrity. Maisie never saw her family again, and Kip passed away when she turned twenty four, he had a long and happy life she believed. Her son grew and it was soon that they knew he was just like them, and so a family of unnoticeable people were formed. Working for governments would be the legacy they left the world, without society knowing they were helping to keep them in whatever state the government wanted them to be. By the time Ben turned five, Maisie and Brad were in the back ground as he acted as a sport person’s child, and the way that the actor wife slobbered all over her son, Maisie decided that Ben’s participation in this world would not continue. So when their contracts had finished for the year, Maisie decided it would be best for them to move to another place, but Brad was not so convinced. It took another two years of Maisie being sickened by Ben’s involvement with the business that she decided to leave with or without Brad. So unnoticed Maisie took Ben and went to the train station and bought two tickets to Philadelphia. They were just boarding the train when Maisie noticed an act being performed on the platform. The scene was horrible enough that she suddenly realised that what she had been doing most of her life, was nothing more than government propaganda, and she was walking away from it all. They moved into the carriage and the sat by a window, Maisie watched the false scene play out as the train moved slowly out of the station.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 03:32:50 +0000
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