"Emotions... a funny, yet necessary thing."
*
Memory loop. Playback saved file. Dated: July 1st, 2018
Wendy's feet dangled off the side of the porch's ledge. Her arms were pressed between the wooden fence. In her hands was a stuffed doll, elegantly decorated with small wings and a green dress. I watched her for a minute before glancing back into the kitchen, at my parents. With smiles on their faces, they spoke with the caseworker who had video-called them. In my father's hands were Wendy's adoption papers.
They looked so happy. But why was Wendy so sad?
Pushing off the open back door, I went to her and leaned over the top of the fence. Wendy looked up at me with curious eyes. "Your name is Javier?" she asked, her voice small and timid.
I smiled. She was so smart for a four-year-old. "It is," I said and nodded. "Javier Morales."
"Oh." Wendy went back to her doll, pulling at the yellow yarn that formed the hair on its head. "Mr. Juan and Mrs. Linda said you died. Car crash. Did that really happen?"
Regardless of the truth, I smiled and looked out at the open yard. The grass had been cut but was dying. Patches of dirt crowded over by the garage. I'd told my parents I'd fix it, but it hadn't been a priority. Their focuses had been on the state and adoption board.
For good reason.
"I did," I said, because there was no denying the obvious. When she looked at me, I pointed at the Bionic symbol on my neck. "Created July 31st, 2016. Just a few weeks after I died."
Wendy's lips parted, but she didn't say a word. She simply looked at me.
"Some people aren't used to it." I shrugged. "And others sort of think I'm a monstrosity. But I'm no different from the androids out in the streets—" With another shrug, I looked back at the kitchen as the caseworker on the tablet screen went over the final details of the adoption. "—and just as human as our parents inside."
"Our parents?" Wendy's brow pushed together as she kicked her feet. "I can't call them that. I don't even know if they want me..."
I couldn't help my frown. "Why wouldn't they?" I asked. "I think you're a great kid. They love you."
"They haven't signed yet." Wendy pulled at the yarn again. A strand fell into the dirt. "Most families sign and take me back. They think I'm weird. And say I talk too much."
There was a pressure in my chest. My sensors froze, unable to read her emotions and thoughts. But judging by the pink on her pale cheeks and the shimmer in her eyes, I knew her early life wasn't easy. Getting her to come here via the transport vehicle was even harder. The facility said she'd put up a fight with the android assistants.
Looking at her, I didn't see her fight as a bad thing. I saw fear. And it was a feeling I knew because I remembered waking up on the android bed, wondering why I was there at all. Change may be an inevitable occurrence, but it wasn't good. Not for everyone.
Holding onto that thought, I made myself comfortable right beside her. My legs barely fit through the gaps of the wooden fence, but I did it. And when she kicked her legs, I kicked mine. I smiled when she looked at me. "Well, if you're here with us, I'll take care of you," I said and stretched my arms through the openings, relaxing. "You'll never have to worry about a thing with me."
"Is it in your programming to protect me?" Wendy asked. "All androids are programmed to do certain things, right?"
With a grin, I leaned close and winked. "What if I told you I don't follow rules? No one can program commands for me. Not even if they tried."
She gasped.
"Don't think of me as an android. Think of me as your brother. I may not age or die, but that means I'll always be here, whenever you need me."
I watched Wendy's mouth open with shock, not fear. There were flecks of life dancing in her eyes, like stars. Her kicking slowed and for the first time, she stopped pulling at the doll's head. It took a minute, but once I leaned back into my space, she smiled and looked at the toy in her hands. "Do you know who this is?" she asked me.
"No," I answered honestly. It looked like a regular fairy doll to me. "Who is it?"
"This is Tinkerbell, and she's a Tinker fairy," Wendy said, wiggling the doll in the air. "She likes to follow Peter Pan around Neverland when he takes care of his Lost Boys."
My laugh brought crinkles to my eyes, deep lines I could feel. Peter Pan was a story my cousins knew and made me watch over and over again. If I had to choose between that or Aladdin, I went for the thief who got the girl in the end. Not the boy who never died.
But I saw pure happiness come off Wendy in electronic waves when she mentioned Tinkerbell's name. And when she pulled her doll back through the fence to hug it against her chest, I knew the story was more to her than just the doll.
"That's really cool." I pulled my arm back to ruffle the hair on the top of her head. "Nothing wrong with fairies. Or fairytales, for that matter. Keep that imagination, it's a good thing."
"Think so?" Wendy glanced back into the kitchen. "Will Mr. Juan and Mrs. Linda like it?"
I looked back with her as my mother lowered the tablet and ended the voice call. "They'll love it," I said, honestly. "I had a wild imagination growing up. I think it was their favorite thing about me."
"Yeah?" Wendy smiled so big I felt the joy come off of her like rays from the sun.
"Yeah." I couldn't help but smile, too. But then I leaned close and spoke softly, with care, "But you know you can call them Mom and Dad, right? You're a part of our family now."
Wendy scooted away from the porch's ledge and fixed the bottom of her green dress. "I can?" Smiling, she stood, with Tinkerbell still pressed to her chest. "I am."
Nodding, I leaned back on my hands.
"And I'll call you Peter Pan, is that okay?"
No one had ever given me a nickname before. I was either Javier, Javi, or you—nothing else. But for someone to see me as more than what I was and what I used to be, was nice. Refreshing. And my next smile was more than a programmed reaction. Cheerfulness rang in my core.
"That's fine," I said as my parents walked onto the porch. I kept my eyes on Wendy, and asked, "Will you be Tinkerbell?"
"Nope." Wendy pulled up the hem of her dress and curtsied. "I'm just Wendy. And I can be your Lost Girl."
When she turned to give me the same bow of respect, I stopped her midway. As her big eyes peered up at me with curiosity, I ruffled her red hair. "If I'm Peter Pan, and you're my lost girl, then know I'll always protect you. You know why?"
Wendy, with the biggest smile ever, said, "Because no one calls Peter Pan a coward and lives!"
I laughed. Nothing could destroy her fantasy world. So, I reached over and tapped her nose once. "Whatever you say, Wendy."
|||
The sun beat down on my face. Grass brushed against my cheek with a gentle push from the wind. A wind that carried the quiet sobs of a woman. But not just any woman.
Mary.
I opened my eyes and waited as my computers recovered from my sudden power outage. My sensors ran over the usage left. The data appeared on the edges of my vision.
Thirty-six percent.
Groaning, I turned my head and looked up at the sky. As the clouds passed over the clear blue, everything that occurred over the past fifteen minutes replayed with high speed. At first, it was backward, beginning from the moment my computers died and the panic that had filled me because of the android, his voice, and my sister. A replay of her cries echoed in my head and I remembered slamming my hands against the van.
Why hadn't I done more? I could've ripped the doors off the hinges. Smashed my hands through the windows. I could've saved her.
I failed.
The pressure on my chest eased, and my sensors came to life. I sat up fast, but before I could call out Wendy's name, a hand came over my mouth, my face, and pulled me back.
"Don't," Mary's panicked hiss hit my ear as I fell back into her chest. Her heart slammed against my back. Fingers trembled over my mouth. I tasted the salt of her sweat as it touched my lips. But I didn't look back at her. I looked ahead.
The parking lot was filled with flashing lights, the police reds and blues. I counted seven squad cars and fifteen officers. The teachers who had been inside the school cried as they spoke. Some shouted, pointing at the streets. The officers who spoke to them recorded their answers on tablets, calling to the other with new details. Different findings.
And I picked up the feedback that applied to me:
Androids. Malfunctioning. Defective.
Pushing back against Mary's arms, I heard her hit the grass and rush forward, hands clutching my shoulders. Her fingers dig into the folds of my shirt. I looked back at her and caught the look in her eyes, so wide, I saw the sparks of her fear.
"I need them to go and find Wendy," I said, pulling myself free. "If I report to them the errors I detected today, they'll—"
"Kill you," Mary whispered, reaching to grab me again. "They're ordered to kill you."
What?
I looked back at the squad cars, at the officers. There was a female cop near the school's entrance, leaned against one of the cars. Her hand was to her ear, city-band to her lips. I could make out what she said, even with the feet between us. "We haven't found any of the rogue-droids, sir, but we're looking. Yes, our guns are equipped. Shoot at the mark, understood."
Rogue-droids? Shoot the mark? Destroying the mark means they'll...
"Erase my data..." I finally fell back into Mary's arms and let her pull me behind the trail of trees that bordered the school's playground. Once behind the trees, I let her check my face, my chest. Her fingers pressed and prodded against the sensor nodes under my skin. But I couldn't focus on her. I wanted to hear the other officers.
"They caught six androids off Lake St. Slaughtered the mall's assistant guards." I caught the words of an officer on the left. His hands were pressed into his red hair as he talked to another cop just as tall as he was. "The only thing we can do is shut them down. It's our asses or theirs."
"Bionics needs to step up. This isn't our mess. It's theirs."
"Javi." I focused on Mary's face, blocking out the voices around us. Searching her eyes, I let my sensors calculate her mood in mathematical form, while the color on her cheeks told me the truth before she could. "They got here half an hour ago. All the teachers came out on the front lawn. They told them the androids did it, that they had taken Wendy. And the cops got the orders to search and destroy. I couldn't..."
I listened. I focused. I felt.
"... I couldn't let them catch you here."
But I could only focus on my priorities. My life wasn't high on my list.
"You didn't go after, Wendy." Mary sat back on her legs as I spoke. The sound of another car came close. The loud whoop whoop from one vehicle to another carried on along the wind. "You stayed here with me instead of saving my little sister."
Her hands slid away from my chest, eyes darting to the side to look through the leaves that kept us hidden. "Javier, if I had left you here and they found you..."
Looking back at the cars, I analyzed the situation. Three drove off, leaving four and eight officers behind. My computers told me their names, their badge numbers, and their orders, which did not work in my favor. According to each of them, I was the criminal. To them, it didn't matter why I came here.
"The cops can find her. And save her."
To them, Wendy didn't matter. Civilians were second to technological terror.
"They're not going to find her." I turned back to Mary and shook my head. "Do you think I'm just going to sit here and wait for them to do their job?"
When I stood, she tried to pull me down. "Javi, you can't go out there—"
I snatched my hand away. "You didn't go after her."
"—because if you do, they'll kill you!" Her whispers rang with anger, shouting as quietly as she could. "If we just wait for them to leave, then maybe—"
"There's no maybe." I reached down and grabbed her wrist. It took just one hard tug to pull her to her feet. The shock on her face couldn't register with my computers. Data fizzled out of clarity, letters breaking down into pixels. They turned to dust before my eyes, blurring the edges of my vision like mist in a fog. "Their job is to protect the people they can see. Wendy is last on their list. And I won't sit around here and wait until they leave before I can do my job. My family is who I need to protect."
As another car drove past, sunlight reflected off the front hood and spread rays between the trees. Mary reacted, panicked, and pressed herself against my chest. But I didn't hold her, comfort her. I kept her wrist in my hand.
"If the broken droids took her, where would they go?"
Mary looked up at me. Her dark brown eyes were wide, confused.
"Where are you keeping them?"
"Androids sighted near August and North! A conference hall is surrounded. Move out!"
Feet hurried across the parking lot. Three of the four cars turned on and sped down the street. With the air free of constant, worried chatter, Mary slumped against me and closed her eyes. I felt her breath hot against my chest.
"Okay," was all she said.