Creatures of God

Inhaled Her Presence

Hello Again! You're still here! Amazing! Thank you!

Okay, in this chapter, Mimi meets Alessandro for the first time. What do you think'll happen? Close your eyes, imagine it now. Yeah, you got it! Now let's read and see how close you got. Let me know how you did. Love you guys!

"Okay Mimi, close your eyes."

Elliot gently pulled Mimi through the hallway, and in doing so, re-lived a certain happiness from his younger, carefree days; when a manual laborer named Georges had shown up at the Center and brought his daughter Mimi to work with him. Despite a prosthetic leg, the young girl was filled with endless energy; bounding around, exploring nearly everything she saw at the Center -- geographic sets, micro and macro scopes, the history simulator -- the girl was enthralled with Anderson from the second she set her cyborg foot inside.

And talkative. Elliot had never met someone who could talk so much, and so fast. Immediately, Mimi approached him with questions -- what his name was, who he was, what he was learning. Elliot had assumed she was actually joining the program until later learning she was only there to have her robotics assessed. Instead, she was being raised by her father outside. Educated outside. Georges had taught her everything he could about the Outer World.

Amazing, Elliot thought.

Mimi was brave, undaunted by her life outside of Anderson. It was normal to her. In comparison, Elliot had grown up scared of the outside World. He had imagined monsters and otherworldly creatures. He had grown up spooked. But with Georges' and Mimi's help, he had become more exposed to the outside; more informed, less afraid. It had made him wish he'd had more of an upbringing like Mimi's -- with a father or mother. Maybe then, he thought, he could've ended up with a different outlook on life, maybe with a different endpoint as well.

Back in present time, Elliot found himself with Mimi at his side once again, traversing the hallways of Anderson. He remembered themselves as children, running through a maze of corridors and discreet passageways, having a trove of secret adventures. Walking the hallways again was like taking a trip down memory lane. Now, however, instead of an imaginary mission, Elliot had a real, true-to-life objective -- to introduce Mimi to a certain boy from Earth's past.

Thuddd!

"Ughh," Elliot exclaimed.

Memory lane apparently had its share of obstacles.

"What the -- ?" Elliot rubbed his temple, and stared at the corner of a wall.

"What happened?" Mimi asked, opening her eyes. "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine," Elliot said. "I could've sworn... "

Mimi scrutinized for a second.

"It was nothing, okay?" Elliot said, turning red. "Close your eyes again."

Mimi smiled. "Watch out for the wall, you nomnoid." She giggled and shut her eyes as requested.

Elliot smirked. It was nice to see Mimi smile, he thought. It was good to see her happy again.

Over a year ago, Mimi's father had passed away in a work accident, and for a time thereafter, Mimi had stayed in her shelter, eating and sleeping very little. She might have simply faded away had it not been for the love and support of the rest of her community. Elliot, too, had tried to keep Mimi engaged and involved. In fact, it was he who had suggested she join the Human Protection Unit in the first place. The work provided her a much needed focus away from her grieving.

"Okay, Memes, you can open your eyes now."

The pair had entered the isolation room in the pathology lab, and there, sitting on the top of a table, was a foreign teenager.