The Fox Inheritance (3 page)

"Because you're nasty," I tell her.

She gently slaps me on the side of the head. "And you're a good boy," she says. "Even if you don't know it."

"Miesha, I am not a boy. Look at me. Do I look like a boy?"

"Height has nothing to do with what's in here." She pokes my forehead with her finger. "Now, turn around!" She pushes at my shoulder to spin me, and I comply. I know she will win anyway--she always does. She swipes away wrinkles that aren't there and pulls the cloth in unnecessary directions to make sure the fit is perfect. I already know that when she's done she will give my back two pats. I don't think fussing was in her job description. She does that part for free.

When I'm with Miesha, I can almost forget where I am. I could be in my old house on Francis Street. I almost feel normal. She asked me about my family once and I lapsed for two hours, so she doesn't go there anymore. She doesn't talk about the past or the future, only the moment, and that's where I try to stay when I'm with her, because my future is too uncertain, and my past is something she could never understand.

Two pats squarely in the center of my back. Done.

"Done," she declares, and I smile.

I turn around and look in the mirror at the new clothes Dr. Gatsbro has requested I wear for today's visit. As usual, he knows exactly what fits me. The shirt is green, a color I don't usually wear. Miesha says it goes well with my eyes.

"My eyes are brown, Miesha."

"But with flecks of green."

There weren't green flecks before. At least I don't think there were. I honestly never looked that closely. How can anyone look in the mirror every day of his life and not notice something like that? But I didn't. All I noticed were emerging blemishes or a nose that seemed too big or facial hair that I wished was thicker so I could actually grow a beard. Green flecks were not even on my radar. I turn sideways, taking in my image from all angles, thinking I need to pay closer attention to such things.

There were, however, a few details I checked out right away. Any guy would. I have the equipment. Dr. Gatsbro made sure of that. And I've tested it, so I know it works. But was Gatsbro as careful with Kara's particulars as he was with mine? I can't ask. I don't want her to think it matters. It doesn't. It shouldn't. But it's almost more than I can bear. I am, without a doubt, the oldest virgin in the history of the world. It's not a record I want to keep.

"So, Miesha," I say, looking in the mirror and pretending I'm adjusting the collar again, "who's the mysterious visitor today?"

She grunts and looks sideways at me before she resumes tidying my room. "You know Dr. Gatsbro never tells me anything." She grabs the shirt I wore this morning off the floor and holds it up. "I'm just the nanny for two spoiled children."

"A nanny? Hardly." I take the shirt from her and fold it. "But you see a lot around here. And hear a lot. Do you think I should be worried? We've never had a visitor."

Miesha stops and folds her arms across her chest. She can't be more than five and a half feet tall, but she makes herself look like a ten-foot wall. That's something my mom could do too. I look at the scars on her forearms, long ragged lines that crawl across her skin like barbed wire. She's never told me how they got there, and I wonder, with everything they seem to be able to fix now, why she hasn't had them removed.

"You worry too much," she says. She's right. I do. But I have to.

She returns to her tidying, pulling at the blanket on my bed. I am silent. One thing I have learned about Miesha is that she doesn't like silence. I wait for her to fill it.

"And I'm not a snoop, either, if that's what you were implying. I know better than that." She punches my pillow and then fluffs the pit she just created. "I need this job--and I'm grateful for it. No one else would hire me. And I am well aware that Dr. Gatsbro could have used a BioBot for you two instead." She turns around to look at me, one brow raised. "You kids aren't rocket science, you know?" She busies herself with my lunch dishes, returning the antique porcelain plates and silver utensils to the tray. "But that doesn't mean I always like what I see. I didn't check my brain at the door, either." She sets the tray on the end of the bed she has just made and steps closer. "This estate is old, and that makes a lot of it familiar to you, but out there..." She pauses and shakes her head. "There's a whole new world out there that you haven't seen on your Vgrams. He may say he's protecting you, but sometimes I think..."

"Think what?"

She pauses, her fingers absently tracing the raised lines along her arms. She sees me looking at her scars and abruptly grabs the tray from my bed. "Nothing. We're both thinking too much. Now, finish getting ready," she says, looking at my bare feet. "And comb your hair. I need to go put a fire under Queen Kara. God save me if Her Fickle Highness has gone for another stroll in the gardens." The door shuts behind her, my question still unanswered.

Mostly.

She may not know who the visitor is, but she's as uneasy as I am. I go to my dressing room and find the shoes I want to wear. Even the simplest things like shoes are so different now. I have spent the past year getting used to this new world, and Dr. Gatsbro has spent as much time teaching us about it. We have learned centuries' worth of new technology and history. Some of it has made me gasp, other parts, laugh, and still other parts, cry. But I allow myself to cry only when I'm in my room alone and no one can see me. Maybe Miesha is right. Maybe I am just a boy. But I saw my father cry three times, and he seemed like more of a man than anyone I ever knew. I wish I knew what happened to my family. I think about them every day and wonder if what I did destroyed their lives.

I slide my feet into the shoes on the floor. "Shoes. Fit." I think brown goes with what I have on, so I add, "Dark brown." The shoes comply, molding to my feet, so it truly feels like I'm walking with nothing on them, then they change to the color I have requested. My mom would have loved shoes like these. She always complained about her feet after working long shifts at the market, and kicked off her shoes the minute she walked in the door. Some things have definitely improved. Other things not so much.

When I was poisoned by rogue BeeBots in the garden, I realized how different the world was now. BeeBots don't have the ability to sting but have developed a defense system by concentrating plant toxins on their back legs. They leave nasty welts if you try to obstruct their purpose, and now their purpose, like any other animal, is to survive. About the only real honeybees that exist anymore are in Insectoriums. They've tried reintroducing them into the environment, but they can't compete with the BeeBots that pollinate crops now. Eradicating the rogue BeeBots has proven difficult too, since they developed a unique way to procreate--splitting their bodies in half and then repairing themselves as they were already programmed to do. In all our historical and environmental studies, there was no mention of rogue BeeBots, and until I showed him the welts on my hands and arms, Dr. Gatsbro never mentioned them, either.

All the changes he has told us about or we have viewed on Vgrams are good. Like waste to energy. I secretly laughed when I thought how my visits to the bathroom were helping to energize the world. And I thought robots performing most dangerous tasks was a good idea. My uncle was a police officer who had his brains blown out when he was making a routine stop. I wish there had been Roboticers back then. And I love my iScroll--a tiny patch on my palm that allows me to do just about everything. There isn't a game I can't play. I'm even getting good at boxing with my Vgram instructor, Percel. He says I'm one of his best students. Of course, I know he isn't real, and I am probably not one of his best students, but his holographic punches still manage to hurt and land me on my ass. A lot.

Ass.
That's another change. They don't blink at some words anymore. In fact, I can use a lot of words right in front of Miesha and Cole that would have launched one of my mother's classic lectures.
If you can't say it in God's house, Locke, then you can't say it in our house
. It's like Miesha and Cole don't have a clue. But maybe I don't have a clue, either, about a lot of things. Maybe that's what Miesha was talking about. Maybe there's a lot that you can't learn from holographic lessons--like the kinds of things I used to pick up on the streets of Boston but we never talked about in the classroom. What am I missing? Is there more Dr. Gatsbro hasn't told us?

I walk back to my mirror and comb my hair with my fingers. My hair looks exactly like it used to, the dark brown color and texture a perfect match, but there's still a difference, a subtle one that I miss. The cowlick above my right eye that I used to hate is gone. My hair all lies in the same direction. I lick my fingers and pull a strand out of place. It bobs over my eye. Miesha wouldn't approve. Dr. Gatsbro, who is always so perfectly groomed, wouldn't approve, either. But I do.

I turn away from the mirror, but then remember. The visitor. I look back at my reflection. A man. A boy. A something. I really don't know what I am anymore, but I slick the strand back into place. For Kara's sake--and mine--I need to follow the rules. I can't take a chance. The last time I took a chance it cost us 260 years.

Chapter 9

Kara walks into my room, letting the door bang into the wall. "The maestro has summoned us. You rehearsed for our song and dance?"

"Is that what you call it?"

"Don't be such a schmuck, Locke. He's obviously showing us off." She twirls, modeling her new dress, the fabric rippling out, red and brilliant like her lips. She stops, and her expression darkens. She crosses the room toward me and then, when her face is just inches from mine, she screws it into the silly Kara face of so long ago. In the next instant she presses her lips to mine and swipes her tongue along my teeth. Her lips are soft and cold. She pulls back and studies my face. I work hard to keep it blank. This is not the kind of kiss I want. It is a throwaway kiss. A pat on the head. An amusement. I want a kiss that means something.

She laughs. "For God's sake, lighten up, Locke! What's the matter with you?"

I wish I knew. I force a small smile. "Nervous about the visitor, I guess."

"Come on," she says, slipping her arm through mine and pulling me toward the door. "Nothing to worry about. We jump through a few hoops, sit up, roll over, we get our treats."

I don't like the way she talks about Dr. Gatsbro. If not for him, we would still be there, in the place we don't even mention because just a few words about it can make us both go dead for hours. Even though he can be suffocating in his own way at times, Dr. Gatsbro
is
the one who saved us.

Hey, you're the one who wanted to crush his head like an egg.

I jerk away and stop walking. "Stop it, Kara. Stop going where you shouldn't."

She smiles. "I don't know what you're talking about, Locke." She grabs my hand and pulls me through the door, her new shoes clicking on the marble as we walk down the hall. She turns at the stairs.

"Not his study?" I ask.

"No, the solarium. I guess he wants a more cheery, casual setting. Does that help put you at ease? Maybe the visitor is a gardener, or an orchid specialist, or something earthy. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Yes, maybe I would. You think that's it? Dr. Gatsbro does love his orchids."

"Absolutely."

The solarium is on the other side of the house, a long walk down two hallways and past several rooms, most of which hold various artifacts that Dr. Gatsbro has collected. One room is full of doorknobs. Glass doorknobs, brass doorknobs, wooden doorknobs, some that look as common as the ones that we had in our house on Francis Street. They are on display in suspended gravity cases so you can see them from all angles. Another room, much more interesting, is filled with books, the real kind that I remember. The kind with paper and bindings. They are in glass cases, not for reading or touching, only for admiring.

We turn the last corner and walk through the double doors that lead into the solarium. Now that I'm here, I find I'm less anxious than I am curious. A visitor. Finally. Their backs are to us when we enter. On hearing our footsteps, Dr. Gatsbro turns around and the visitor follows his lead.

"Ah! There you are! Come in, come in, Kara and Locke! Come meet our special guest." Right away I guess he knows nothing about gardens or orchids. He wears a bright blue tunic that falls past his knees. Beneath that are billowing white pants. Even for someone like me who can barely distinguish one shirt from another it's obvious that his clothes are impeccably tailored from a fine fabric. He holds his hand out to shake ours. He takes Kara's first and lifts it to his lips. He lingers. Kara coyly pulls away.

"A pleasure, Mademoiselle Manning."

"All mine, m'sieur."

He takes my hand next. "And you are Locke Jenkins." He holds my hand, squeezing, not hard, but like he is trying to feel for something beneath my skin--something like bones.

"Yes, I know. I'm Locke. And you are?"

"Forgive me," Dr. Gatsbro says. "Kara and Locke, please meet my friend Mr. Jafari. Let's go sit. Greta's brought us some refreshments."

Kara and I sit together on a wicker settee, and across a low glass table, Dr. Gatsbro and Mr. Jafari sit in large, comfortable wicker chairs.

"Where are you visiting from, Mr. Jafari?" I ask.

He hesitates, glancing over at his host. Dr. Gatsbro nods his okay, and Mr. Jafari turns back to me. "I'm from Tunisar. Are you familiar with my country?"

"We haven't visited there--yet," Kara answers. "But we'd love to. Isn't that right, Locke?"

"Yes, of course," I say. "It was once part of India, wasn't it?"

"Yes, that's right, and also China, but a long time ago."

"What brings you to the States?" I ask.

He offers another sideways glance, and Dr. Gatsbro takes over. "He's heard about some of the work I'm doing, and after visiting my labs in Manchester, he wanted to know more, so I invited him out here to the estate. I've told him a little about you two, but I think he'd like to hear more about your remarkable journey. Kara, dear, would you mind?"