When the reporter and cameraman appeared at the door, Lauren thought, for a split second, about the instant fame she had often dreamed of back home. Had she acted as a coward on screen? Doreen pulled her in an uncharted direction. Where was she taking her? Had she any idea where she was going herself? Why was she leaving Vegan-land when she had the better of two worlds? She could be openly obedient and secretively rebellious. And why was she leading the way when it wasn't her quest?
Lauren pulled on Doreen's arm, causing her to stop running. She wanted charge of her own feet.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"To the Island of Amy MacGregor," Doreen answered.
"Why?"
"Because you don't know the way."
"I think we should go back," Lauren said without apprehension.
"And do what? Drink green crap all day long, pray in school for lambs and fishes, and watch bad news to feel good? Don't you think I'm sick of sneaking out for chocolate? Let's go!"
"I think I should have given the interview to set the record straight. I should have told the truth."
"And what's that? Nobody cares what you have to say! And they'll forget what you say before you've even said it! Get it?"
"I should have said that I wasn't kidnapped and that not all fat women are mean."
"On Vegan TV? Are you kidding me? They would have dubbed over your voice so perfectly you wouldn't have recognized yourself or what you had said. Can we go now?"
"How do you know I am looking for Amy MacGregor?"
"Do you think you're the only one with a quest in mind? You don't have to worry. As soon as I am through with what I have to do, I'm leaving you on your own. I wouldn't dream of stealing your place."
"Did someone assign you as my guide or something? Are you a shape-changer?"
"You've watched too many movies. I am Doreen now but I'm changing my name to Beatrice once I get to Gonora. I hate Doreen. God, whoever named me that?"
"I like Doreen."
"That's because you don't have to live with it."
"So, you're here to help me?"
"Let's go. You ask too many questions when we should be moving. Action is what’s demanded of us!"
It was well for now that Doreen took the lead. At this point in time, Lauren couldn't see where she was going. Doreen was accustomed to the darkness around her and could find her way out of any maze without a ball of thread. Her eyes were used to the curves and sharp turns without being amazed by the changes and differences she encountered.
Doreen ran ahead without hesitation. She didn't stumble over the uncertainties that might lie in ambush. Lauren was almost like a kite, carried on a wild wind that took her breath away. She was light, almost airy and without matter. Flying through the air at Doreen-speed, Lauren's head was empty of all reasoning. She was enjoying the flight and loving it. She didn't analyze. She didn't seek similes. She didn't compare it to anything, because there was nothing to compare it to.
When she landed on the ground, she kept holding on to Doreen's hand. The dark void was now behind them. They both stood on a shore where an orange sun was rising out of the ocean. Watching the sun come up, Lauren thought it was something special, even magical. It was unique because of the darkness she had experienced. But darkness was as unique as the sun.
"It's so beautiful," she said, like a sentimental heroine she had never aspired to be.
"It's just a sun!" Doreen said reasonably.
Lauren, however, didn't contest her reply. She didn't see the sense in convincing her of anything. Doreen wouldn't have been swayed because she already believed what she believed in, in spite of appearing to be a skeptic.
"Well, we're here!" Doreen exclaimed after a moment of silence.
Lauren didn't wonder where 'here' was since she was here. Instead, she asked,
"Do you think they miss us yet?"
"Why are you asking such a stupid question?"
"I guess because you're the only one who can hear me. I have the right to ask questions!"
"Nobody misses anybody today, Lauren. What you are really missing is yourself. Do you think Maurice and Maureen are worried about you? Give me a break! But I'm sure they called the cops. And your mug shot is all over Vegan Waves by now. They're probably accusing you of perverting my mind and leading me astray. You see, Lauren, you need to forget the past. It serves no purpose. Maurice and Maureen mean nothing to me or to you. They just passed through our lives and taught us nothing. Do you get it now?"
"I get it!" Lauren exclaimed coldly, thinking to her self that Doreen had it all wrong.
The sky suddenly became black and it began to rain hard. Doreen ran into a cave in the cliff behind her. "Get out of the rain!" she yelled. Lauren stood with her face staring up at the clouds, with her mouth open. How long had it been since she had felt rain against her face?
Completely soaked, Lauren slowly walked into the cave where Doreen lit into her for having been conspicuous.
"We didn't come here to pick shells and driftwood! The next thing you'll wanna do is to build sand castles!"
"I can't remember ever having built a single sand castle. Why is that?" she asked.
"Probably because you never did."
"Why don't we?" she asked as she stepped out of the cave, ready to construct a castle Doreen would envy.
Doreen grabbed Lauren by the neck, pulled her back into the cave and warned her to take orders or she would put their lives in danger. She told her that armed goons guarded the Island of Dr. MacGregor. They were on the constant lookout for intruders and possible terrorists.
As they waited for the cover of darkness, Doreen related that she belonged to Animals First, a terrorist organization that fought against animal cruelty. Many of her friends were serving prison sentences for what the government considered criminal activities.
Doreen spoke with great compassion in her voice for her friends, who had freed dogs, cats, birds from pets shops. Some had even opened cages at the zoo and let lions, panthers, tigers loose on city dwellers. They had even returned seals, walruses, dolphins back to the sea. They had burned down labs that tested chemical on rats, mice, chimps. . .
Doreen made numerous poignant statements regarding the meat industry. She told Lauren that the killers at cow, sheep, and chicken factories amused themselves by abusing these creatures physically and even sexually. Ten men were caught on camera fornicating with ewes. But the most evil of these animal abusers was Dr. MacGregor.
Doreen described the nasty equipment used to perform experiments on apes. She used such graphic details that Lauren almost threw up. Seals lived in small cubic containers no bigger than bathtubs. They were fed sardines and algae three times a day. Then, Dr. MacGregor and her assistants cut the seals' bellies to inspect their stomachs, where, without exception, they found remnants of sardines and algae. Some of the seals had had their hearts cut out and been given pig hearts to see how well the exchange worked. All was done in the name of science.
Dr. MacGregor received a Science Achievement Award, more prestigious than the Nobel Prize, three years in a row for preventing chemical harm to women's eyeballs, women's scalps, women's faces and lips.
The labs on the Island of Dr. MacGregor tested perfumes, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, nicotine, viruses, and an assortment of drugs to see how much harm and pain poor, helpless creatures could withstand.
Doreen couldn't stop talking. After a while, Lauren began to doubt everything she had believed at the beginning of her tale. With so many details and facts floating in her head, Lauren couldn't help but doubt that Doreen was exaggerating.
Lauren's lack of response and interest caused Doreen to say, "You don't believe a word I'm saying, do you? I guess you'll have to see for yourself. We're going across to free those poor tortured souls! You'll see then! Here, I brought you this!"
Doreen handed Lauren a dagger. Why was she giving her a weapon? Would she have to defend herself against rabid wolves, venomous snakes and other sick animals? Lauren was puzzled by the ‘gift,’ which was made of gold and rubies.
"What am I supposed to do with this?"
"Are you that forgetful? You're supposed to cut Amy MacGregor's heart out, bring it to your dad and make him eat it so that he can love your mother and you!"
"How do you know this?" Lauren asked, confused by Doreen's knowledge of things she had told no one in Vegan-land, where she hadn't had a chance to express herself.
"You talk in your sleep!"
"Suppose she isn't the right Amy MacGregor?"
"There is only one such Amy MacGregor among all the Amy MacGregors you've met. This is she! She's a marine biologist with a waterlogged brain. She's insane. She's good-looking and she was married to your dad, Philip Anderson. For a while she did good things for the environment. She tried to save many sea mammals. But with the lack of funding from the government, she went commercial. She established this testing facility and put people above animals, when it should be the other way around. There's too many people, not enough animals.
“This Amy MacGregor is evil, and villains like her need to be erased from the face of the earth. Just think of it as killing two birds with one stone. You'll be doing Animals First a favor and you'll have the heart you came for," Doreen stated with certainty.
"I need proof!" Lauren said.
Doreen pulled out several pages from an old issue of National Geographic and handed them to Lauren. She drank in every word of the gospel, which now made sense to her. The article gave her a renewed purpose. Doreen's stories were no longer just stories. They were the truth. The dagger burned in her palm. It wanted action. It needed blood to feed its blade. Lauren sensed power surge through her veins. Her heart was beating like a herd of horses stampeding through her fields of passion.
Like a heroine from novels she had read, she felt she was on the path to right a wrong. She was now certain of what she believed in as she imagined herself pulling out Amy MacGregor's heart and bagging it for her dad. As she imagined the heart still beating in the bag, even though it was no longer attached to the corpse, Lauren had a strange idea.
"I don't know if I want her heart," she said to Doreen.
"Make up your mind, Lauren. It's either yes or no. Maybes don't get you anywhere. Walls are meant to be smashed not stared at! Rules are meant to be broken or you'll always be a wimp!"
"You didn't let me finish! Why am I following you? I can find my own way without you!"
"Why are you digressing?"
"I'm not! I am going to kill her, but I don't think I want my dad to eat her heart."
"And why not?"
"Because she's evil. Her heart is probably rotten from all the poison she has been feeding on. I don't want him to be infected by her evil blood."
"That's a thought. To tell the truth, I wouldn't eat any organ from any animal, especially from a human or this particular Amy MacGregor. But she does need killing."
"I thought you were a Vegan and you were against killing?" Lauren asked, wondering about Doreen's lack of principles.
"We don't kill animals. Some people don't deserve to live, especially those who harm the weak and helpless. Enough said!"
Lauren no longer wanted the heart, but she supported Doreen's thesis that evil must be eradicated. That was that! The dagger grew hotter as she imagined the blade going through Dr. MacGregor's chest. Lauren saw herself as the heroine of her own tale, doing humanity a great service by ridding the world of a monstrous beast.
"When do we go?" Lauren asked, eager to fulfill her role.
"We must have the right conditions," Doreen replied.
Lauren didn't ask what the conditions had to be, since Doreen seemed to be aware of them. She had obviously been preparing to break into the labs for some time. Lauren was now drawn to her courage and determination. Doreen's voice resonated with great freedom. She, too, was now part of Animals First, and she was making a difference in the balance of the world.
"Is it time yet?" Lauren asked, without wondering how they would cross the body of water to get to the island.
Since Lauren was enthused and ready to do her duty for humanity at large, Doreen felt she should speed things up before Lauren's mood changed. She pointed at the sun and as it went over their heads, she said, "It's going to be dark soon."
"It got dark so quickly," Lauren said, amazed.
"Time does fly!"
"What do we do now? Shall we swim across? I can swim, you know," Lauren said.
"I don't swim. Besides, the water is so cold you'd die of hypothermia before you got to the other side. And they say the nuclear waste created such a mix of sharks and crocs they'd eat you alive as soon as you got in the water."
To facilitate their crossing, a Jeep with two kayaks was already parked on the beach. A tent stood near a campfire with two longhaired and bearded young men sitting and eating out of aluminum bags. The smell of chicken suddenly made Lauren hungry but she said nothing. Doreen looked at her and pulled a couple of candy bars out of her pocket. She handed her one.
Once the fire went out, the two young men zipped up their tent. Doreen and Lauren sneaked up to the Jeep, unloaded the kayaks into the water. Without giving any thought to the young men, they paddled towards the island under a sky full of stars. As she glided through the water, Lauren recalled a night when she and her dad sailed on his fishing boat. She still remembered the names of some stars and their mythological origins. Doreen paddled ahead of her, almost invisible to Lauren.
It didn't seem like she had paddled long, because as soon as she got into the kayak it was time to get out. She was amazed at how strong her strokes had become, since the Island of Dr. MacGregor had been invisible from the shore.
Their kayaks hit the pebbles at the same time. Doreen and Lauren pulled them out of the water. They would leave the same way they came in.
Lights were casting shadows in search of intruders. Doreen noticed an armed guard in the distance. She led the way. Lauren followed, her heart excited by the thrill of the adventure. No words could ever fully capture what she was feeling now. Doreen seemed to know which direction to take to avoid the guards, who were there to shoot all trespassers, shadows, and ghosts. Dagger in hand, Lauren's feet were more certain of the ground beneath her. She was now as determined as Doreen. They reached the back door to the lab. Crossbones warned of radiation and danger in general. Yet, the door was wide open inviting Doreen to action. Lauren thought it strange to find the door to a well-guarded lab unsecured. Doreen was already in.
Caught up in Doreen's spontaneous movement, Lauren followed in her footsteps. Doreen instantly began opening cages and letting rabbits, rats, pigs, chimps and other tested and untested creatures out, without thinking of any consequences that might happen to her or to the animals.
Lauren was horrified to see what she saw as she, too, opened the cages. Chimps in cowboy hats were smoking cigarettes to see if the MacGregor Studies would disclose a definite link between smoking and lung cancer. Had Lauren had time to ponder this particular experiment, she might have wondered about the reasoning power of Dr. MacGregor and her associates.
Lauren opened the chimps' cages and tried to coax them out. Every time she grabbed their hands to get them out, they slapped her hand and even bit her.
"Doreen, they won't come out!" Lauren cried out, exasperated by the semi-human monkeys' stubbornness.
"Take the cigarettes away and they'll follow you!" Doreen exclaimed.
As soon as Lauren stole their cigarettes, the chimps jumped out and attacked her, slapping, kicking, and causing a wild ruckus. Lauren's face was scratched as she ran and tried to shake the monkeys off her back. Once at the door, she threw the cigarettes on the ground. The chimps let go of her and ran after their precious smokes. They could live without Lauren!
Relieved, she ran back in and stood face to face with a droopy-eyed orangutan that looked disgusting. The orange man was holding his drippy penis and masturbating to a pornographic video. She didn't bother to open his cage, aware how much trouble he would give her if she tried to free him from the pleasure he derived from playing with himself.
Abandoning the orangutan to his perversion, Lauren entered another lab, which smelled of flowers and perfumes. The room was full of caged white rabbits with red eyes and collars that reminded her of satellite dishes. The rabbits' eyes had been sewn open, and were being bombarded by a constant spray of chemicals, cosmetics, and perfume to see what effect they could have on the human eye. She began to cry uncontrollably.
Instead of freeing the miserable rabbits from their condition, Lauren stood so emotionally involved that she took one of the rabbits out, sat down on the floor and petted it the way she had her stuffed bear when she felt a separation from herself. And she wept, not only because of the pungent smell.
She forgot where she was or why she was here as she caressed the soft fur of the rabbit she was about to name when she felt a swift kick from Doreen's foot.
"Get up! What do you think you're doing? We got work to do and you're crying! Help me free these rabbits!"
Lauren let go of herself. She got up on her own two feet and helped Doreen empty the cages. The rabbits hopped blindly towards the grass they could no longer smell.
"We gotta go now!" Doreen cried out.
Doreen started to run with the rabbits, when Lauren noticed the chimps had returned to their cages and locked the doors. They were again wearing their cowboy hats and smoking like chimneys.
"They're back!" Lauren exclaimed.
"Leave them! They're as dumb as humans!" Doreen said.
Lauren wanted to agree with her but said nothing. She wasn't about to do battle with those chimps again, still feeling their scratches and bites.
"You've made your beds, now lie in them!" she said.
When she reached the outside air, she could breathe easier. The searchlights revealed Doreen's kayak was gone as well as Doreen. Lauren was undisturbed by her sudden disappearance. Still she wondered why she had left her alone on this island. For a moment, she, too, wanted to get into her kayak and return to the other shore, but the Other prevented her from dodging the road that lay ahead. Instead of retracing her way across the water, Lauren stepped back inside the lab. To her surprise, she found the rats, dogs, cats, rabbits and chimps in their cages as they had been at the beginning.
Had the guards recaptured these unfortunate animals? And why hadn't the alarm gone off when she and Doreen were freeing the tortured creatures? Where were the guards who were supposed to protect MacGregor Laboratories? Was she dreaming? Realizing how futile Doreen's actions had been, Lauren decided to find Amy MacGregor and do what she was meant to do - cut the beast's heart out and stop her atrocities!
Fearing her own apprehension, she tore a petal from the yellow orcharosamum to give her the courage she lacked. As soon as it touched her tongue, it melted and its taste spread throughout her body. The dagger now burned in her hand. Lost in a maze of glass hallways she finally reached the Central Lab. There she saw a beautiful woman with fiery red hair injecting a black liquid into the eye of a blue lizard with white spots. Lauren watched the lizard struggle and die. She felt something die around her neck. The woman turned to her and said, "I've been expecting you!"
Without thinking, Lauren lunged forth and slashed Dr. Amy MacGregor's left cheek. It bled. Instead of having to hear that cruel woman's reason for divorcing her dad, Lauren heard her scream, "You little bitch! What do you know about life?" She quickly slammed on a red button, while pressing against her cheek.
The alarm rang. Stiff guards in black turtle shells with assault weapons quickly surrounded her. Lauren was cuffed in a scuffle of noises. As she was being taken away she heard Dr. MacGregor’s voice say, "I hope you fry on the electric chair!"
Lauren didn't answer as she looked -with pity at the droopy-eyed orangutan.