RoboNomics

Chapter 63 - 2016

I head straight back to Austin, who I left laying in our cubicle home. He's strong enough to speak, but he's not strong enough to follow me out of the building. 

When I return, I tell him everything.

"So, what do you think?" I ask him once I conclude with the 24-hour ultimatum Rupert gave me.

"You really want to know?"

"Of course I do. It's your life, too."

"It's unbelievable. But if it's true, it could be good for us. A change from this couldn't be wrong. We have nothing here." 

He coughs, as if emphasizing our dire straits. When his coughing turns into a fit, I become concerned.

"Austin? Austin, are you okay?"

The hacking gradually subsides as I rub his back.

"Did your father really have a lot of money?" Austin asks when he can talk again.

"I really don't know." 

The vision of a man with little hair comes into my mind. Sitting in my grandparents' basement, he smoked a pipe and drank an amber liquid from a short, stumpy glass. I have no other memory of him.

"That Mr. Jennings made it sound as if he was loaded. But I just don't know. I don't know if we can trust Jennings. I've never met my father properly or Mr. Jennings at all. And that thing about a corporation? What is he even talking about? How could anyone even have things like that anymore? Austin, what if it's a trick or something?"

"Have you always been this afraid, Andrea?"

I scowl at the question. 

"No, Austin. I haven't. Not since we lost our jobs, our home and had to fight every day for our survival."

"So what you're saying is that we have nothing left to lose. Can't you see? He has money for you. Money, Andrea. Do you even remember what that is? Because I'm beginning to forget. He's not some street ruffian, is he? It's not like he's an AR or even one of those Resistance bastards. At least, he doesn't dress like them. Why would he want to trick us? What would he get out of it?" 

Austin's voice cracks and he spasms into another coughing fit. The pills I gave him are wearing off.

"All right. It's okay," I say in an attempt to calm him. "I just don't know about all this. The flying bot? And now he appears out of nowhere in a helicopter without a pilot. Robots, Austin. Don't you remember what happened last time they came around?"

"I know what happened, Andrea." The look in his eye is hard. "But what else do you expect us to do? You expect me to rot away in this place? I'm sick, Andrea." 

He stops my protests with a gesture. 

"Maybe if we went with him, I could get proper care and get over this virus. Maybe we could eat something that has meat in it. Don't you dream of food at night? Because I do. It's all I want, Andrea. I just want a proper meal."

He's right. I do dream about food. But I have other dreams, too. I dream about the day when we can have wedding rings back again. We traded them for food years ago. We have no other outward sign that we are married. Nothing to tell the world that we are still a family.

#

Austin leans heavily against me as I drag him slowly up the ramp. With each step, the cracked green and white checkerboard tile beneath our feet crumbles. 

Beyond the bank of glass doors at the top of the ramp, Rupert leans on his cane as he approaches us. He's dressed in a similar outfit as the day before: a blazer, sweater vest and dark slacks.