Mechanical (5 page)

I laughed too, seeing how strange and tacky
it looked. “Well, what about a lance?” I asked, imitating a knight
holding one.

Jessica held up a toothpick. We both burst
out laughing as we tried to figure out some way to attach the
‘lance’ to one of the figurine’s small, plastic hands. All of a
sudden, I stopped short, my breath caught in my throat where a
laugh had threatened to escape only a second before.

Jessica stopped momentarily and stared at me.
“What’s wrong?”

I looked at her, suddenly realizing how
strange it must have seemed. “I just have a headache,” I said,
conjuring up a plausible lie.

“You want something for it?”

“It’ll go away soon,” I assured her. I
frowned in thought. I had laughed many times before, but it had
always been a forced laugh, never an authentic one. I hadn’t even
known what a real laugh felt like or what it was like to be happy
enough to laugh, to
really
laugh ... until now. I had
laughed with Jessica over something so small and meaningless, but I
had actually felt something. I stared at the tiny, plastic
statuette, wondering how something so trivial could bring this out
of me. I shook my head. No. That couldn’t have been the case. I
wasn’t human. I couldn’t become human.

Jessica said something about food,
interrupting my thoughts, and I distractedly followed her as she
left the room and went downstairs. As we made our way to the
kitchen where Jessica said the snacks were stored, we passed the
living room and I saw Michael sitting on the couch. He turned
around when he heard our footsteps and smiled at seeing me. “Hey
Drew,” he called, getting up from the couch and following us into
the kitchen.

“Ugh, Michael, go away,” Jessica groaned,
grabbing a bag of chips from the cabinet. “This is a girl's
only
night.”

“I was just saying hello,” he protested.

“Well now that you’ve said it, goodbye,”
Jessica said, waving him out of the kitchen.

“See ya, Drew,” he called, laughing as
Jessica swiped him with a dishcloth.

I smiled back and waved.

Jessica came back wearing an annoyed grin and
shaking her head. “Brothers,” she said with a laugh. “You got
any?”

I shook my head.

“Lucky you.”

We headed upstairs to her room and started
snacking while we worked on the diorama. Awhile later, I heard
footsteps from the doorway and turned to see Michael. “Hey, guys,”
he said.

I heard Jessica sigh. “Whatcha want now,
Michael?” Exasperation threaded her voice. She tapped her fingers
on the desk beside her and waited for him to respond.

“Mom told me to tell you that there’re
brownies downstairs,” Michael said to her, though he was looking at
me. His gaze lingered a moment longer than my brain calculated to
be normal. I stared back at him until he broke away.

“Thanks,” Jessica said, her tone urging him
to leave.

Michael stood there.

“You can go now.” Jessica waved him from the
room. Then she turned to me, revealing an impish grin and whispered
with a giggle, “He likes you.”

Chapter Seven

“So, what did you observe?” Glen asked me as
I sat in his study across the desk from him. The room was dark. Not
dark as in lack of light, but that the color choices were dull and
uninspiring. The book shelves were a maroon red and the gloomy
portraits seemed to stare down at me as I contemplated my answer.
Glen leaned back in his chair, watching me.

“Well, they were very pleasant. It seemed
normal for them to welcome a stranger into their home. They were
very ... accepting.” I told him after a brief pause.

He nodded. “Did they act different than when
you’d seen them at school?”

“They seemed much more relaxed. They goofed
around more.”

Glen nodded once again. “And what were the
relations between family members?” He studied me, as if cataloging
my expression. I wasn’t sure that what I was divulging was normal
human behavior or whether what I told him was helpful or not. I
hoped I had done well and that he would highly esteem me for this,
but you could never tell with the creators.

“They seem very close. They laugh with their
parents and I didn’t see them fighting or even having mild
disagreements. Jessica and her brother, Michael, get along well
also,” I answered.

Glen nodded. “Okay, Drew. That’s enough for
today. You can go.”

With one last glance at the pictures on the
walls, and a brief wait for a possible word of praise that didn’t
come, I left the study.

* * * *

“Hey Drew, wait up!”

I turned to see Michael hurrying down the
hallway in my direction, and I couldn’t help but notice the large
amount of students who turned at the sound of his voice to watch
us. I looked at him expectantly, wondering what could be so urgent
to cause him to run.

He flashed me a smile. “I just wanted to walk
with you to English class.”

I wondered why he’d want to do this when we
were both going to end up there whether we walked together or not.
It seemed pointless.

“How was your weekend?” he asked.

I wondered once again why this would be
important, but pushed the thought away while I tried to find an
answer. “It was fine,” I replied.

“What’d you do?” he asked, watching me.

I shrugged, remembering that a majority of it
was spent at his house with Jessica. “Nothing, really.”

Michael stopped, letting out a small chuckle.
I stopped also and looked at him. “What?”

He merely shook his head then ran his fingers
through his hair, shifting uncomfortably for a moment before
speaking. “Drew, I just want to know a little bit about you. That’s
what I’ve been
trying
to do ever since you first came here.”
He laughed nervously. “Now, would you stop giving me the cold
shoulder and just talk to me?” He made a humorous, pleading face.
“Please?”

I had no idea what the right reaction was. I
stood there for a second, frozen. I hadn’t even realized that I had
been ‘giving him the cold shoulder’ as he had called it. “Sure,” I
said amicably, hoping to fix the situation. What was I supposed to
say? The creators should have installed me with certain programming
or a database or ... something. I felt so unprepared and
inexperienced. They alleged that I was perfect, but I was having a
frustratingly hard time achieving this for someone who was
supposedly flawless.

Michael beamed, apparently happy that he'd
succeeded in getting me to open up. “Thanks.”

I smiled back then turned to head towards the
English room. Michael followed and I realized that at least from
his point of view, our conversation wasn’t over.

“So what do you like to do for fun?” he
quizzed me as we walked through the door.

“Read,” I answered. I had found myself
forming automated responses to typical questions.

“Cool, have you ever read any science
fiction-type things?” Michael asked me as we made our way to our
desks in the back. “That’s my favorite genre.”

I shook my head. “I haven’t.”

Michael gave me a shocked look. “Then you've
gotta read some.”

I nodded, trying to appear interested. “Okay,
maybe I will.” I started to turn towards the front of the room, but
Michael kept talking.

“Mr. Walter!” Miss Clark snapped at him.

Michael was instantly quiet. I couldn't
suppress a tiny smirk at his expression and incessant talking. Miss
Clark briefly frowned at him then began our lesson.

Chapter Eight

“You know, Drew,” Yvonne lectured, “you
really should get going on your mission. I mean, I don’t know what
you’re doing but ...”

Yvonne and I were sitting at a table in the
recreation room of the Institution. I had pulled out a puzzle and
was just finishing up fitting together the end pieces when she sat
down across from me.

I stopped for a moment and looked at her.
“What do you mean, 'get going on it?' I’m doing what they’re
telling me to,” I argued in my defense, thinking about the
sleepover idea and Glen’s proud expression.

Yvonne gave me a sarcastic look across the
table. “Well, then, how come I’m farther along than you are?” It
was a question, but her tone suggested that she already knew the
answer and was only asking to bother me.

I didn’t want to sink to her level, but
curiosity got the better of me. “What do you mean?” I asked, almost
dreading the answer, knowing it would be coated with Yvonne’s usual
egoistical talk.

“Well,” Yvonne said dramatically. “They’ve
started asking me to do other things, along with just observing the
humans.”

“What kind of things?” I asked, too intrigued
to let her tone and expressions bother me.

She gazed at me smugly, leaning back. “Can’t
tell. Secret stuff.” She looked extremely pleased with herself.

I rolled my eyes and went back to working on
the jigsaw puzzle.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me, Drew,” Yvonne
snapped. “You’re just angry that you’re not as good as I am at all
this mission business.”

“I didn’t say that,” I replied without taking
my attention off the puzzle.

“You didn’t have to.”

I heard footsteps and looked up to see
Jeremy, another android employed on the same mission we were. “Hi
guys,” he said and sat down at the table with us.

“Hi, Jeremy.” I paused for a moment.

“Hello,” Yvonne added.

“What’re you guys talking about?” he asked,
situating himself so he was comfortable in his chair.

“Oh, Yvonne was just telling me all about how
far
she’s getting in the mission,” I announced, sending a
sidelong glance at Yvonne then began irritably looking for a puzzle
piece that had escaped me.

She gave me a dirty look. “Well, it’s
true.”

“Oh, you mean about the part where we bring
people in?” Jeremy asked eagerly, leaning forward.

Yvonne groaned, glaring daggers at him. “You
weren’t supposed to tell
her.
” She sighed with disgust and
looked away.

Jeremy looked taken aback and utterly
confused. “Why not?”

“Because she’s not there yet,” Yvonne quipped
with a toss of her shiny, black hair.

“That doesn’t matter.” He shook his head in
protest. “The creators never said anything about not telling
her.”

Yvonne didn’t reply. She continued to glare
at us with a disgusted expression instead.

“What is this about bringing people in?” I
directed my question to Jeremy, knowing Yvonne would never tell me
anything and not wanting to get my answers from her, anyway.

“Well,” Jeremy began, glancing briefly at
Yvonne before going on, “they’ve started asking some of us to bring
people to the Institution.”

There was a pause while I digested this.
“What for?” By now I had completely abandoned the puzzle.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s the thing.
I’m sure they have a reason, though. They always do.”

“Oh,” I replied, but my mind was
whirling.

Yvonne jumped into the conversation as though
we’d never had the earlier disagreement. “Yeah, they just give you
a name of someone at the school and you have to bring them back
with you.” She hated being left out of anything, and since her
exclusion of me hadn’t worked, she had probably just decided to go
along with it.

“Huh ... I wonder why they want them,” I
murmured.

Yvonne gave me a bored look. “Doesn’t matter,
really.” Her nonchalance was back, the polar opposite of her
earlier excitement.

“Hmm,” I said and went back to finishing the
puzzle.

Chapter Nine

“Drew,” Glen said, greeting me as I walked
through the doors of his study. He was sitting behind his desk, as
usual, doing paperwork. He leaned back in his chair, one elbow
propped on the armrest, holding the book open to review.

“You wanted to see me?”

He nodded. “You can sit.” He gestured to the
chair and I sat down. “You’ve been doing well on your mission,” he
said, his expression truthful. He leaned forward to set down his
papers.

I watched him closely, hoping to hear what I
was expecting. My mind whirled to the possible conclusions,
stopping on the one I calculated was the most probable and the most
inviting.

“And I want to ask you to do something else
for me, as well.”

I nearly sighed in relief. This was it. He
was going to ask me to start bringing people in like Yvonne and
Jeremy were doing. Finally, I wouldn’t be behind anymore. I
wouldn’t be the lesser android.

“There’s an android that ran away from the
Institution,” Glen said.

My mind balked. What was he talking
about?

“She’s ... not the same anymore. She’s
confused and we need you to bring her back.”

I tried to hold back my puzzled expression.
This couldn’t be right. An android? They wanted me to fetch a
runaway android for them? A simple rebel they couldn’t control?

“She’s been wounded and will be easy to bring
back. Her name is Marian. We just got word a few hours ago that
she’s hiding out at a hotel downtown. Here’s the address.” He
handed me a piece of paper.

I reached out and took it numbly. I couldn’t
believe he was deploying me on such an unimportant mission while
Yvonne and Jeremy were doing things significant for the creators.
But I nodded to Glen anyway, even though my insides burned with
disappointment. You never doubted the creators. I took the slip of
paper and left his study.

I hurried on my way to find Marian. I ran all
the way downtown and by the time the hotel came into sight, I was
calm again and had accepted the mission Glen had given me. He must
have had a good reason for assigning this to me. Maybe this smaller
mission would lead to something bigger.

But I couldn’t smother the feeling inside
that I wasn’t valued as much as some of the other androids
were.