Re-Wired (6 page)

“Would you like to come over tonight and watch a movie?” she asked. “Maybe have dinner?”

“I would love to,” he replied as they strolled out to her car. But he couldn’t help but feel a little déjà vu with the Mika situation of the past. He got in his car and followed her home, and they arrived at a new apartment complex.

“Welcome to the mansion,” she said playfully.

He hovered behind her as she walked to the door and let him in.

“What do you do for work?” he asked as he removed his shoes and sat at her bar.

“I’m a pharmacist. Uh, and I don’t cook alone, so get up, come over here and start chopping up these carrots.”

He loved her personality and the way she could playfully make demands and he just had to comply. She was making shrimp fried rice, so she had him handle the vegetables while she did the cooking. When they were finished she handed him a bowl with a decorative set of chopsticks. They settled down on a mat in front of her television to watch an old, classic movie by the name of
Splice
. The movie was about two scientists that played god and developed a genetic mutant from several animals. The mutant grew into a beautiful girl with a scorpion-like tail, and due to the way she was raised by her scientist parents, she began to transform into something else completely. It struck a chord with Brad and he wondered if Tricia was undergoing the same thought process as the creature Dren in the movie.

When it was over Priscilla was laughing and wondering why Brad looked as if he had been scarred.

“Well, that was freaky,” she said as she prodded him in the ribs. “This movie proves that guys will sleep with anything.”

Brad thought about the mornings when he would wake up next to a powered-down Tricia and wipe her memory. A wave of sadness overtook him. “I feel sick,” he said before thinking better of it.

“Oh, no, did the food upset your stomach?”

“No, the food was great. You’re a brilliant cook. It’s just that movie was a little disturbing y’know? It really made me think, and it speaks to how messed up we humans are.”

“You’re such a nerd, Brad. Only you would find the intelligent, big picture in that weird thriller.”

She got up and collected his plate and he used her bathroom to wash his hands and face. There he was in the home of a beautiful pharmacist but despite his new confidence and her friendliness, he didn’t know whether to kiss her, or take things slowly out of fear of her running away. Splice had put Tricia on his mind and he felt cruel for creating her only to discard her whenever he got into situations with other women. It was out of rage and hurt that he’d developed her into a beautiful woman, and he’d had ulterior motives he would have acted on if the pills hadn’t changed his luck with real women.

Tricia was in a closet that would be her home for a time until he worked up the urge to tell Priscilla. How would he break it to her? He stood at the sink for a long time, thinking things through until she popped her head in the doorway.

“That movie really got to you, didn’t it? Can I get you something? I have ice cream and we can watch something else. Just let me know.”

“I’m okay, really. Thanks for a great time. We should do this again—“

“How about Friday? Do you work on Friday?”

“No,” he lied, and thought of what his excuse would be to call in sick that day.

Priscilla was sexy, and he had never dated a girl like her before, so he looked forward to seeing her again. They had the same sense of humor, liked the same movies, and she teased him constantly which made it easier for him to be himself around her. She was almost too good to be true.

When he got home, he found Tricia out of the closet and seated on the couch, watching television. She seemed confused and looked at him as if he were a stranger.
How did she get out?
  She watched him as he entered, but said nothing to him as he looked over some discarded dishes in the sink.

“I went out with a beautiful girl today, Trish. She cooked for me and we watched a movie.”

“Should I be congratulating you?” she replied sarcastically, and then got up to stand in front of the mirror to do her hair.

“I’m sorry for lying to you about the closet. I panic sometimes when I think of how people will judge you, and call you names—“

“Are you worried that they’ll do that to me or to you?”

“Touché…”

“You’ve changed, but I don’t think that you understand the change. As your android I have watched you transform from a bashful, kind individual, to a dark, cocky version of yourself.”

“You need to say nicer things to me unless you want to spend more time in the closet.”

“Don’t bother,” she said and then walked back into the dark closet and shut the door.

She powered herself down and went to sleep and he stood watching her, feeling powerless and stupid for his empty threat. When she awoke, she was back in the bed next to Brad’s sleeping body.
How did I get here?
She wondered,
why is this becoming a recurring thing
? When she had asked Brad about it a few weeks ago, he had said that he wasn’t laying her in the bed with him. If she was the one voluntarily doing it, she would have it in her memory—yet she didn’t. Brad muttered the name “Priscilla” and rolled over to embrace Tricia’s body tightly and this further confused her. She couldn’t stay upset with him, but she wondered about his erratic behavior and the memory lapses that had been occurring.

She decided that she would do something about it, as she suspected that Brad’s change was more than what she was experiencing. She slid out of his arms and pulled on a robe as she went into the living room to find the pills.

0 1 0

The next time Brad saw Priscilla she came by his apartment to get him. It was spontaneous and unexpected, and he wondered what would have happened had she seen Trish, or another woman in his place. When she called him to tell him she was there, he quickly threw on some shorts and a shirt to check if she was lying. When he went outside she was at the base of his stairs, and she was dressed as if she had been jogging.

“I was in your neighborhood so I decided to check in on you. There aren’t any girlfriends in there that will beat me up for calling you, are there?”

He laughed at her joke, and then despite his better judgment, put on some tennis shoes and joined her on her run. Exercise was foreign to Brad, but he gave it his all and they took off on the sidewalks of the busy street.

“You do this all the time, Priscilla?”

“What, pop up at people’s houses like a stalker?” She grinned. “I jog every morning, but I don’t typically come this way, so consider yourself special, sir.”

He was pleased to hear that she had detoured her route for him, and though he struggled to keep up, he felt lucky to be in the company of a pretty girl. After about a mile he felt as if his chest was about to explode so he stopped with his hands on his knees and Priscilla jogged back to check up on him.

“Aww Brad, you aren’t a runner, are you?”

“Does that disappoint you?”

“No, but you should really exercise. Come on, we’ll walk the rest.”

When they got back to his place, Priscilla pushed him inside and pointed to his bedroom. “You need a shower buddy; you smell a little funky.”

He popped her with his rag playfully, which resounded in a satisfactory squeal, and then he hopped into the shower as she’d commanded.

While he was in there, Priscilla walked into his bedroom. “Hey Brad, I’m really tired,” she said and he peeked outside the bathroom door to see her playing with the statues on his counter.

“I’ll be doing laundry tomorrow. You can sit on the bed and rest till I get out.”

He hoped that his invitation didn’t make her think him a pervert, and he hoped that Tricia would remain hidden and powered down so that there would be no issues. Even the accusation of a human owning an android for relations outside of work came with legal ramifications, so losing Priscilla romantically would be the least of his problems if Tricia revealed herself. After about twenty minutes, he walked out of the bathroom in an old jogging suit that he wore for leisure. Priscilla—who had taken him up on his offer—was on the bed asleep, and her legs hanging off the side let him know that the exhaustion had gotten the better of her.

I have a beautiful girl in my bed
, he thought, and wondered how it was that he was so lucky to have the privilege of hanging out with her. He shook her awake and pointed to the shower, but she shook her head and groggily asked him to drive her home. When they got to her apartment the tables turned, and she went to take a shower while he looked through her video files for a movie to pass the time. He found a catalog of new releases, selected one, and started watching it. He was starving but he didn’t feel comfortable enough to raid Priscilla’s fridge. When she finally made an entrance, she was in a flowery frock, her hair wrapped with a matching bandana.

“You look like a Carly Venice video,” he said, referring to the young pop singer who prided herself on dressing like the neo-soul divas of the 1990s.

“Shut up,” she said, smiling, because she took it as a compliment. She sat next to Brad, who was showing no interest in the movie. “I’m starving, how about you?” she asked, and it was as if she could read his mind.

He drove her to
Benito’s
, a Greek eatery, and then they walked to the liquor store so that she could buy some Chardonnay, and then back home to her apartment. It was late, and they finished the movie while eating their leftovers and drinking wine. At one point Brad looked over at her and saw how shapely she was in the light of the television, and wondered if it was appropriate to sneak a kiss. She was obviously interested, having spent an entire day with him—part of which was in his bed—but he didn’t want to chase her away.

“What?” she said as she turned to him smiling.

“Oh, nothing. Just looking at you. Sorry…” he said, embarrassed that she’d caught him staring.

“It’s alright Brad. You can look at me. Today was nice. I like hanging with you.”

He didn’t realize how tired he was, but by the time the movie ended he was asleep on the end of Priscilla’s couch. When he woke up, he had a comforter covering him and a pillow beneath his head. Priscilla’s bedroom door was closed, possibly locked, but it was dark everywhere, and the bright blue numbers on the clock below the television read 4:15 a.m. He went back to sleep, and then woke up to the sound of Priscilla walking around.

“Good morning, light weight,” she teased him, and he ran to the bathroom to release the urine that he’d held for over an hour so as not wake her. 

“Want a bagel?” she asked when he emerged. She spread cheese and tuna on hers.

“I’d love one, but crap—I’m supposed to be at work.”

0 1 0

The next week while walking the aisles of a grocery store, Brad saw Mika, who made to wave at him until she saw Priscilla walk over and place some food into his basket. Priscilla had them shopping for the meal she would prepare later. They were going to do their customary movie night, and she wanted to make tacos to go along with it. He didn’t know why it mattered to her who Priscilla was, but it seemed to affect Mika’s mood, and she turned to keep walking, as if she had never seen him. It was a small victory in his head, especially if his wishes had come true and she was now single and regretting the way she’d led him on.

Brad and Priscilla had gone through two movies when he decided to put in
A Hero’s Redemption
by R.F. Chambers. It was an independent film that explored the life of a couple made to live with one another in a small, secluded house. He sat next to Priscilla on her couch, and while every urge in his body was to pull her in for an embrace, he worried that doing so would end their new friendship, so he kept his hands to himself. This was their third movie night in two weeks, and nothing had transpired past a few playful touches, and a hint here and there. His heart was racing, sitting next to her, and she had gotten so comfortable with him that she wore a nightgown and had pulled her legs up on the couch.

He kept trying to steal glances at her through his peripheral vision, but she would catch him every time and then offer up a small smile that he couldn’t read to save his life. Things got really uncomfortable when the main character in the movie had a sexual encounter, and the director decided that it needed an entire ten minutes to play out in graphic detail. Brad, without thinking, brushed his hand across Priscilla’s thigh and she paused the movie and stared at him, shocked.

“Why did you do that?”

Because you are irresistible
, he thought. “I thought I saw a bug on your leg. It was a reaction.”

“Ooh, I think I see a bug on your arm,” she said, and she thumped him on his arm with a big grin on her face.

He brushed her thigh gently again, and this time she relaxed her legs and leaned back a bit. He took the invitation and got closer to her and kissed her lips. The movement was awkward, and he kissed her the way one kisses the cheek of a relative, or a close friend. This prompted further teasing by Priscilla, and she took matters into her own hands and kissed him deeply. They kissed for a time, Brad still afraid to let his hands roam where he wanted them to go.