“Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people
– people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.”
- E.B. White
Under a clear dome, allowing a galaxy canvas of colour against the darkness of space, sitting on steps that looked out at elaborate fountains creating a water display in rainbow hues, I sat, staring into the simulated brown eyes of Rob the S3X-A robot.
Never mind that I was in a futuristic city with LED overload that would put Tron to shame.
Totally forgotten was the horrific history of how the city came to be and the way it had teetered on the brink of disaster time and time again.
Gone, too, was the memory that I had just kissed artificial lips and tried to interpret what I felt.
We were sitting on the steps, just staring at each other, Rob’s hands cupping my face.
The intimacy of the hold sent small alarm bells in the back of my mind, warning me that this was very possibly embarrassing and I should put distance between myself and Rob because people might see us and snigger.
But I couldn’t.
I was too stunned by what he’d said to be aware of anything beyond his statement.
“What I came here to find?” I asked tensely, my heart hammering.
He nodded. “I know…and…I am sorry.”
“For what?”
“About Jo.”
At this I drew back and his hand lowered. I could feel the blood draining from my face.
“You were there,” I whispered, “the day she was found in a coma.”
“I was.”
I had to force the next words out. “Did you hurt her?”
His eyelids blinked with camera shut speed and synchronicity. “No.”
I inhaled shakily. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did not know.”
“But…”
“You queried me once before about why I did not show myself to you until the Observatory was unlocked.”
I thought furiously. “You said…you didn’t have the data. That your files were corrupted or something.”
“They were deleted,” Rob explained, “but before they were, a backup was placed in my IDV.”
“Why didn’t you think to look there?”
“Unless and until I have new information that is deemed ‘imperative’, I do not access it.”
“But you just did then?” I blushed when I realised that Rob had deemed my ‘kiss’ to be important and essential information to be stored in his internal vault.
“I did. It was then that I found the files leading up to when Jo was found.”
“Because you were in the house.” He nodded. I took a deep breath. “Do you know who hurt her or what happened?”
“No.”
“But…”
“Jo gave me a direction that, should anything happen to her, I was to remain hidden until the Observatory was unlocked. I was to back up specific memory files in my IDV and then delete them so that I could not inform you of the information I had.”
“Why?”
“I do not know,” Rob replied softly, “however, I have the memory files now of watching Jo form the haikus for each of the books and for the ones she hid in the worlds. I was with her when she locked the Observatory after the others had gone home. I queried her actions but her reply was simply, ‘if she can unlock the doors, she can save the world.’. Then she bid me goodnight. When I came downstairs in the morning, I found her on the floor.”
I didn’t think there was any blood left in my face. I felt drained and shaky.
“You were the one who called the police,” I breathed, “you unlocked the front door…but you didn’t hear anything?”
“Nothing.” Rob shook his head. “If I had stayed with her, I could have stopped what happened.”
I stood up and backed away from him. “Why didn’t you say anything sooner?”
Rob also stood. “Though she disliked the term, master, your aunt took ‘ownership’ of me so that I could develop my programming. We interacted every day and she taught me a great deal. The hours we spent together far outnumber the hours spent with any other master.”
I stared at him, kind of offended. “Wait…you didn’t tell me…because you didn’t trust me?”
“Though I knew you to be Jo’s niece, I was not sure that you had her interests, and those of ‘House of Figs’ at heart. My knowledge and experience of you compounded to a low seven percent of trustworthiness.” Rob’s rather scathing appraisal hurt. I didn’t know what to say. “This, of course, increased over time spent together.”
“So why didn’t you say then?”
“Because I was still under Jo’s directives.”
I put my hands on my face and groaned. “Is there anything stopping you from telling me now?”
Rob paused. “I believe it is has come to the point that your aunt wished, that you have made such an impact upon me that I opened my IDV to upload my experience with you and thus, discovered the deleted memory files, that I can, now, tell you all I know.”
“But you don’t know who hurt her?”
“No.”
“Do you know if there’s any way to help her?”
“No.”
“Do you know why she laid these clues for me to find?”
“No, only that it was important.”
I sagged, after having come so far I felt discouraged at being thwarted where it really mattered.
“Do you know where this world’s clue is?” I finally asked. “Is it even in this world?”
“Yes, it is.” Rob opened his mouth then closed it.
I went to ask what was wrong when I heard footsteps behind us. A man in a red and fuschia suit with wide lapels and hair that looked like it was from the eighties in a ‘Flock of Seaguls’ style, approached us.
“Madam,” he bowed to me, “it has come to my attention that you are in possession of a very outdated series S3X-A model robot.”
“Uh…how’d you hear about that?” I stammered.
The man waved his hand to the façade. “The advertisement for the potential of an upgrade was triggered by the proximity of your outmoded bot. This alerted my office and I thought I would save you the trouble of seeking us out by coming to you and answering any question you may have.” His smile was too perfect, like he was trying just a bit too hard.
“Well…it’s very nice of you,” I tried to deflect his interest, “but I am happy with Rob, I mean, robot just the way he is.”
The man looked puzzled. “Perhaps you are not aware of the heights of pleasure an upgraded bot would bring you. I have some reviews I would be happy to share of very satisfied customers…”
“Yeah, no thanks.” I stopped him. “Really, I like him as he is. No upgrade required.”
The man stopped being so over the top charming and went into guilt tripping as he walked around myself and Rob, eyeing the abused robot with a critical gaze.
“You mean you find his plastic and somewhat ‘shiny’ textured skin to be soft on your own? Surely it would feel like being held by a clothing shop dummy from the ‘olden days’.” I bristled at his criticisms. “And just look at that hair! Not even after the throes of passionate love making would one hair be out of place…that was one of the most requested changes we had about the S3X-A.”
“His hair is fine!”
The man looked at me and I could see he was trying to figure out what was wrong with me or with his salesman angle.
“If you have changed taste in body type, we can alter the physical shape to a female one or be genderless in appearance altogether.”
“No!” I exclaimed. “I don’t want him changed!” I grasped Rob’s hand and began to pull him away. “We’re going home now. Goodbye!”
“Just one more thing,” the salesman whipped out his hand and caught my free wrist, “if you…” His eyes stopped focussing on me and looked almost distant. I could feel Rob come close and sensed he was about to force the salesman to let go of my wrist when he did so on his own, whipping out a business card, similar to the one the man in the park had given me. “If you ever change your mind, don’t hesitate to call. Good day.”
I snatched the clear card and put some distance between myself and the salesman, Rob close in tow. I looked over my shoulder to see the salesman tug on his ridiculous lapels, give a little shake of his head as though congratulating himself on his salesman pitch and strode in the opposite direction. Rob and I didn’t say anything to each other until we reached the park before I had to stop, my heart beating hard.
“I thought we were in trouble then.” I whispered.
“Indeed, I thought he was going to force my upgrade.”
“He couldn’t overrule my request though, could he?”
“Jo is still my owner and if they had tried to find her, and been unsuccessful, I would have fallen to SPC ownership.”
“It’s too risky for you to be here. I’m sorry I ever asked to come. Let’s go.” I grabbed his hand and went to leave then stopped, seeing what I supposed passed as security guards or policemen in Infinitus coming towards us. They were dressed in navy jumpsuits with shiny silver bands and impractical loops around their wrists and ankles. They wore earpieces that one tapped, their eyes focused on us. “That’s not good.”
“This way, Bethany St James.” Rob urged and we turned down a different path only to back up, seeing more officers coming towards us.
“Any other ideas?”
“Run.”
“What?” Rob grabbed my hand and we bolted, ducking out of sight behind an artificial hedge and across a lawn to where the path split into three. We dashed past a mother and her pram who gasped loudly at the reprehensible way her serene evening stroll through the park was being interrupted. “We will make our way through the Nevaeh Centre and go to the storage unit loading platform from there…”
He stopped running in an impossible halt and I slammed into the back of him.
“Finding alternative route,” Rob took off in a different direction and I saw security guards had appeared, blocking our original path, “recalculating.” We didn’t last three minutes before our escape was blocked again and Rob half dragged me down another path, the Nevaeh centre looming before us in all its curved glory.
“It’s like they’re able to track us.” I gasped. Rob stopped and I groaned. “Not again!”
“Query, may I have the salesman’s card, Bethany St James?”
By the time he’d finished speaking I’d handed it to him. Rob put it on the ground and stamped on it so that it shattered.
“He put a tracker on us?”
“Indeed.” Now free of being tracked we bolted across the bubble highway and into the Nevaeh Centre that was even more stunning at night with all its lights.
However, we didn’t marvel at its beauty. We were stumped at the way a dozen guards were waiting for us and when we turned to run, another dozen were behind us.
“Unidentified human and outmoded S3X-A counterpart, come with us.”
“Please,” I begged, “just let us go home…”
But they were unrelenting and unmoveable. A larger bubble appeared on the tracks which had enough space for us to sit in the middle and two security guards in front and two behind. The door sealed around us and our transport took off.
“This is bad,” I whispered, “Rob, this is so bad.”
“You will not be harmed, Bethany St James. You are human and you are to be protected.”
“I’m not worried about me,” that wasn’t entirely true, “I’m worried about you!” That was true.
Rob turned to me. “Do not waste energy worrying about me. I am not alive.”
“Like that’s supposed to make it alright that they might try and change you?”
“I only sought to comfort you.” Rob frowned. “I must work on sensitivity and timing.” He patted my knee. “There, there. It will be alright.”
The bubble took us out of the shopping and recreation district that we had disturbed with our frantic flight. The tracks took us higher and higher, eventually heading towards what looked like a giant lotus flower at the central pinnacle of the city. It had ten storey petals blooming out from its centre that started as dark magenta at the bottom then lightened to baby pink at the tips. As we stared at it, the flower construct filling our vision, the colour of the petals changed to purple and then, as we were sliding around it on tracks that look like spun toffee around a croquembouche creation, the petals changed to navy with pale blue at the tips…and then we slipped inside like a bead of dew sliding down a petal to reach the centre.
The bubble whispered along its track before coming to a halt in, what I guessed was, the middle of the flower. Overhead was a semi transparent ceiling, milky opaque around its perimeter and almost crystal clear in the domed peak above. The bubble rested on invisible tracks.
“Out.” Was our only instruction.
Rob and I clung to each other to make sure they couldn’t separate us, my knuckles white from the desperation of my grasp.
The bubble closed up and took the guards away through a door that opened and closed, the seal invisible to our eye.
We looked around the large space which was no less than an illuminated cavern. Through the ceiling we could see the edges of the lotus petals and the stars dotted on the dark of space.
Yet we were completely alone.
I turned in all directions but couldn’t see any way out.
“What is this place?” I breathed, frightened of triggering a response.
“I do not know.”
“How can you not know?”
“I do not know.”
Despite the fact that arguing about his lack of knowledge would be a pointless endeavour, I opened my mouth to do just that but was stopped by a voice, or several voices, speaking as one.
“This is the chamber of the trinity of Infinitus.”
“The triune directorate of Infinitus governs the city and the remnant of humanity.” Rob explained.
“Not that I really want to find out but,” I cleared my throat, “why have you brought us here?”
There was a long pause.
“SPC construct, 00001S3X-A…an outmoded model. Scanning for last registered owner…deceased.” I felt Rob give a small gasp and clutched at his hand. “Immediate reclamation process initiated.”
“No!” I shouted at the disembodied voices. “I won’t let you!”
“Bethany St James…”
I turned and gasped. Rob was sinking into the ground, his body becoming enveloped by the white of the floor.
“No, no!” I cried, trying to hold him up. “You can’t do this! He’s mine! Don’t take him!”
Though I stood on the same ground as he, it was as though I was on rock and he was on quicksand, his hips sinking below the surface. I knelt and tried to hang onto him.
“Fight it, Rob!”
“I…have been…immobilised…” He turned his gaze towards me. “Query, why are you crying, Bethany St James?”
“Stop asking questions and do something!” I yelled, trying to keep him from sinking out of sight but feeling him slip through my fingers. “Rob, I’m begging of you! Don’t leave me!”
His brown eyes looked at me sadly. “Bethany St James,” he whispered and I leaned closer, his face a blur through my tears, “kiss…me…”
But before I could respond or even do as he asked, he was sucked beneath the floor and I was left holding nothing but air. My arms wrapped around my body and I rocked on my knees and I howled.
“Bring him back,” I sobbed, “he’s my friend. He’s here because of me. Bring him back! Please…please bring him back…”
“We intend no harm to your robot.”
I raised my head, my eyes gritty and sore to see a man in a chair that looked like it had been made from a lotus flower where all but two petals had been plucked, leaving one at the back to lean against and one at the front for his legs to drape over. It was suspended firmly in the air, about a foot above the ground but did not waver as though it was maintaining its height. It seemed fixed in space. The man had silvery grey hair with rather bland features and a thin mouth. He was dressed in a soft grey suit with shoes that were so sleek they might as well have been socks.
“Bring him back.” I croaked. “You have no right to take him just because he’s outmoded.”
“The outmoded model was not the reason you were brought here.” Another voice said and I turned to see a woman resting on another flower chair. She, too, had silvery grey hair, coiled and pinned like a seventies contestant on ‘Miss Universe’. She wore pale lavender and while the style was the same as the man’s, her was a dress and she wore stockings with solid feet that had built in wedges.
“Bring him back.” I repeated.
“We, the directorate trinity of Infinitus, require answers first.” A third voice spoke and I saw another person with features so androgynous I couldn’t guess as to their gender and their clothes gave nothing away either. Their head was shaved which made the otherwise limpid eyes quite striking.
“So, I answer questions and you give me back my robot unharmed?” I looked around at them.
“Yes.” They answered in unison.
I wiped the tears from my cheeks and nodded. “What do you want to know?”
“Where did you come from?”
I paused. “Earth.” I said carefully. I knew that to tell them about the door would be to invite curiosity into my world of a power that was completely twisted and quite possibly, dangerous. I stalled for time, waiting for them to accuse me of lying while I tried, frantically, to come up with a plausible reason for my being there.
However, they did not question it.
“Are you human?”
I blinked, surprised on two fronts. “Uh…yeah.”
“Male or female?”
I touched my hair self consciously. “I know I’ve got short hair but I thought it was pretty obvious that I’m female.”
There was no shock on their faces. Or anger or suspicion.
“Age.”
“I’ll be twenty one in a few weeks.”
“If you were to give your health a rating out of ten…what would it be?”
“Um…nine?” I turned around. “These are not the kind of questions I thought I’d been asked when dragged here by your security guards.”
“We are establishing a baseline as to your physical, mental and emotional responses.” The woman replied.
“I already have some fascinating data on grief and fear,” the silver haired man said with a half smile, “I look forward to continued research.”
“You know what,” I put my hands on my hips, “research one of your own citizens or better yet, yourself. I’m not a guinea pig!”
“Defiance fuelled by anxiety…truly intriguing.”
“Perhaps comments on such observations should be muted.” The woman said pointedly.
“Ah yes, I would not want to taint the subject’s responses.”
“Please, forgive my colleague,” the woman said before I could mouth off at him, “you represent a solution to a desperate problem that we, the directorate trinity of Infinitus have been facing for many years.”
“How could I possibly be a solution?” I demanded.
“It is clear you are not of this world. You are certainly not of this city.” I kept my lips clamped shut but she waved her hand as though not bothered by my silence. “It matters not how you came to be here, only that you are here and we hope to glean a solution to a problem which we must inevitably face from your presence.”
“Why me?”
“Because you are human, pure and simple.”
“I don’t appreciate the simple part.” I looked around at them. “So…you know that the citizens of Infinitus are a far cry from the way humans used to be. You’ve erased cultural differences, gender, the discipline of work, the ethics of sexual behaviour and any kind of fathomable fashion sense,” I shrugged, “and now you want to examine me because I represent what you used to be?”
“And what we need to be again.”
“I’m one person,” I shook my head, “how can I possibly do all that?”
The bald man or woman leaned forward with long, bony fingers pressed together.
“Are you aware of the history of Infinitus?”
“Rob gave me a basic rundown.” I nodded.
“Specifically the crisis of the STD that ran rampant when sexual behaviour was stimulated and encouraged?”
“Yeah. You chose to ‘purge’ the ones who caught the disease and immunised the rest.” My tone was a sharp despite the niggling knowledge that this trinity wouldn’t have been alive when the decision was made and I was, essentially, blaming them for their predecessors’ judgements.
“The STD was highly contagious and incurable once caught. The chance of survival was slim and those that might have survived and went on to have children, would have passed it to them.” The knowledge was pretty scary. It sounded like the AIDs virus only much more rampant. “In truth, the number of the victims was far higher than the triune admitted.”
I had an image of hundreds of infected bodies being flushed out into space.
“How many?” I asked weakly.
“One hundred.”
While it was a horrific number, I was relieved it wasn’t thousands. Infinitus seemed as though it was capable of sustaining a million or more people.
“One hundred victims…”
“No, not one hundred people. One hundred percent.”
I stared at a spot on the floor for the longest time. No one interrupted my thoughts or said anything else as my mind went over and over and over what I’d heard. It wasn’t a difficult concept but it was one that I struggled to believe.
“You’re saying,” I hardly recognised my voice it was so hollow, “that everyone died?”
I looked up at them, hoping that I’d gotten it wrong.
All three nodded at me.
“But…but that’s…” I licked my lips, my throat as tight as a python’s choke. “They can’t all have died. They’re alive now! Did you clone them or genetically alter them?”
“The ability to replicate DNA was flawed due to the multiple rises and subsequent falls of society, stunting any medical progress.”
I was shaking my head as I paced. “No, no, no, no,” I argued, “you developed a vaccine. You stopped the STD from infecting the remainder of society while you purged the infected.”
The chairs shifted around to collected together so that I could pace up and down in front of them.
“The vaccine was a ruse.” The silver haired man said calmly and without a hint of regret. “As the humans came in to receive their vaccine, their bodies were scanned with the same technology used to scan earth animals and their likeness was imprinted upon the most advanced, anthropomorphised robot yet produced by the technology of Infinitus. You see,” he continued with barely a pause respecting this horrific fact he’d just dropped on me, “while our medical prowess had stunted, the need for technology had always been present and a driving force behind Infinitus ability to survive and surpass the earth.”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I stared at him, sagging onto the floor. Suddenly I was raised on a low backed egg chair. I gasped and leapt off it.
“You are in no danger, Bethany St James,” the androgynous figure assured me with all the warmth of a limp fish, “humans are not to be harmed.”
“Harmed?” I could feel panic setting in. “What happened to all those who received a vaccine?”
“Once their likeness was captured and their brains, copied into a digital network, were confirmed to be viable, the infected humans were ejected into space.”
My vision swam and my gut wrenched itself into knots.
“You…murderers!”
“Not at all,” I looked up in stunned silence at the woman who shook her head, her long, silver hairstyle fixed firmly in place, “the essence of the human was transplanted into a robot form that would never suffer the same physical weakness such as contracting a sexually transmitted disease.”
The man in the suit studied me. “You seem distressed by this notion.”
“Yeah!” I gasped. “I’m imagining what it would have been like to wake up and discover I was a robot!”
“They were never told.”
“What?”
“The knowledge of their ‘artificial’ origins was never disclosed to them. They woke up in hospital, were ‘monitored’ for twenty four hours and released back into society.”
The muscles in my jaw were apparently useless. I couldn’t drag my chin up and stop gaping.
“And they believed you?”
“There were one or two aberrations but on the whole, the procedure was an immense success.”
“You murdered thousands of humans!”
“The argument was made that, if the human was replicated in every way, to the point where they did not know they were synthetic rather than biological, then was it really murder?”
“Yes!” I exclaimed, standing up. “Are you really telling me that no one, not one single ‘human’,” I made very exaggerated marks as I said the word, “noticed that they weren’t biological? What about having children? Oh gosh…” I felt weak. “You murdered children…”
“Their synthetic replications would be far better off than any of them resigned to a biological state.”
“And as for the process of ‘pregnancy’,” the woman continued with barely a pause, “the tests for pregnancy were designed for one in four to read ‘positive’. When they came to the medical centre to confirm, the ‘scan’ triggered the ‘pregnant programming’ to start and the nine month process began, ending with a baby, formed in the womb which was a miniature factory that put the baby together.”
I shook my head, my mind whirling with all I’d heard. “You’re telling me that the synthetic humans think they’re biological humans?”
“Yes.”
“And…what about you three?”
“We are synthetic as well.”
“You’re robots too?” They nodded.
I sat down again. “What…what about…”
“Is it really so difficult to believe?” The silver haired man asked. “You have seen our society, created with perfect humans, even down to having taste bud programming, midlife crisis and resolution, relationships and intimate encounters…we have built utopia!”
“If it’s so damn perfect, what impending dilemma could you possibly need me for?” I asked with sharp bitterness.
“Come with us.” I didn’t have to walk. My chair lifted into the air and levitated with theirs, matching their speed as we drifted across the expanse that was the cavern inside the giant lotus flower. “Because the synthetic humans were ‘reborn’ to coin a human phrase, they expected Infinitus to be the same as before. To facilitate the transition of them fully accepting their synthetic forms, the status quo had to be maintained.”
“You mean, robots serving humans?” I could feel my lips curling into a snarl.
“Indeed.” The androgynous figure agreed as we left the expanse through a rippling wall and into a curved corridor with passages peeling off occasionally. “Because Infinitus has a finite amount of materials to use at any one point in time, any advanced robots were scrapped and turned into inferior robots, widening the gap between the synthetic humans and the robots.”
My ire rose as they continued.
“Even when the problem of the sex addiction, which was carried over from the biological humans to their synthetic counterparts, was solved with robots, there was a deliberate effort to make sure that they were inferior enough to be distinctly different, thus cementing the synthetic humans belief that they were biological and, therefore, superior.”
“You’re just a bunch of hypocrites,” I snapped, “creating a slave class of robots to bolster your own superiority. You’ve dumbed them down and made them feel inferior so that they’ll accept their endless servitude without so much as a single protest, even though, underneath they’re no different to you! I don’t recognise one inch of you that is human. You disgust me!”
“A curious reaction to what is an accepted norm of Infinitus.” Silver haired man nodded. “I shall make extensive notes on this.” I let out a seething rage of swear words at him which only served to amuse them. “And I will add those to our language base.” He had the gall to rub his hands together. “I have not had this much new data in years!”
I was about to rip into him again when the androgynous person put their hand on my shoulder.
“You will only give him more data to assimilate.”
“He…you are all despicable!” I yanked away from the attempt to calm me. “Give me my robot and get me the hell out of here!”
“That will not be possible.”
I stared at them. “You promised me…”
“Your robot is unharmed and can be returned to you…however, you will not be leaving Infinitus.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Oh…that is going to be the new catch phrase in the latest movie.” Silver haired man chuckled.
“The problem of creating synthetic humans with robots functioning as the ‘working’ class,” the woman interjected as our chairs drifted along, calm contrasting with the seething rage within me, “is that the populous, who believe that they are human, have an insatiable desire for the improvement of technology. They enjoy the latest upgraded models in all things,” she sighed and shook her head, “but before long, in ever decreasing circles of time, their interest wanes and they want more and better.”
I couldn’t help but liken it to mobile phones. Whenever we got a new one, it made what we had look like junk and we adapted all too quickly to our new ‘perfect and brilliant’ technology. However, in a year or so, a new model came out and we began to yearn for something better than before.
“What has that got to do with me?”
“Because we cannot halt the advance of technology, though we have done our best to slow it,” the androgynous person explained as we paused before a wall which then opened to reveal a white space beyond it, “there has been no advancement in humanity since the first synthetic human.”
We entered the space. My chair sank into the ground, tipping me up onto my feet so that I was standing when it disappeared. There was a large window before me. I went to it and looked out at Infinitus, a display of lights and architecture that had enamoured me to begin with only served to turn my stomach.
“I still don’t know what you want with me.” I turned and folded my arms.
“There has been no new data, no truly fresh ideas or inspiration to draw upon for the humans.” The woman waved her hand to the city. “They have not changed and now the gap between human and robot is so close that we are in danger of losing the distinction.”
“What do I have to do with that?” I said through gritted teeth.
“We are going to observe you, collate our data and inject new information into the synthetic humans, refining our original design and making them even more lifelike.”
“You want me to feed you ‘human’ behaviour and fresh ideas…so you can maintain your disgusting social gap?” I put my hands on my hips. “Screw you! I want my robot and then we’re leaving!”
“You will not be going anywhere.” The three chairs drifted backwards even as I ran at them, seeing that the door had disappeared. The treacherous walls let them slide through with barely a ripple but when I reached it, I slammed into its hard and unyielding surface.
“Let me out!” I bashed my fists against the wall. “Let me out you sick, sons of…”
“Bethany St James,” the wall in front of the woman became transparent and she reclined in her chair, gracefully observing me, “you should know that if your behaviour becomes so violent that you injure yourself, we will restrain you.”
“However,” the androgynous person continued as though they were speaking with one mind, the wall shifting to transparent in front of him, “if you are able to demonstrate good behaviour and conduct, you will be permitted to leave this room and go out into the city…over time.”
“Over time?” I clutched at my bruised hands. “How long are you planning on keeping me here?”
“For as long as you live.”
I was sure that Aunt Jo was cringing in her coma with the foul words that ripped out of my mouth and then I saw the silver haired man looking quite delighted as he became visible through the wall. I sat on the floor.
“You won’t get anything from me. Not a damn thing!”
“Even in your defiance you are providing me with so much information!” He declared. He was nearly giddy. I half expected him to start dancing around and clapping his hands. “And if my data ever runs dry, we can simply expose you to stimuli.”
“Of course,” the woman slipped into the conversation quite quickly, “you will want for nothing. In the room you are in you have provision for a bed of your choosing from a selection of over three thousand with seventy two mattress settings.” She waved her hand and a bed formed in the room, rising from the ground yet as equally a part of it as the walls and ceiling. “You have almost infinite variety in furnishings and if there is something you want that does not exist, we are more than willing to create it.”
“Recreation can be provided without leaving your room,” said the androgynous person and the scene through the windows changed like the wall had done in the shopping centre, depicting a purple, pink and orange sunset strewn with clouds across fields of lavender shifting in a breeze I could actually feel, “and again, we are more than happy to brainstorm and create new sights and settings.”
I felt utterly trapped. Not only was I imprisoned in a room, but everything I did, from defiance to compliance, was fascinating information for them to assimilate. I couldn’t rebel and I was defeated if I capitulated.
“We want to know what you want, within reason, Bethany St James.”
It occurred to me that they were calling me my whole name because they had heard Rob say it. To them, it was my name entire…but even as it was spoken, I recalled my humble, kind robot.
“I have a request.” I stood up and turned to them. “My first request.”
“You have but to ask.”
I prepared myself for the statement I never thought I’d make out loud, and certainly not in company.
“I want to have sex.”
Silver haired man was nearly falling over himself with excitement.
“I was not expecting such an intimate request so soon!”
“Perhaps humans were more open with their intimacy than our records were able to fully express.” The woman mused.
“It is a well documented fact that sexual activity can relieve stress.” Androgynous nodded.
“I must have this raw data! It will serve as a fantastic baseline for human interaction of a whole new generation!”
“We will provide you with a companion.” The woman announced.
“Not just any companion. I want Rob. I want my robot.” I folded my arms. “You promised you wouldn’t hurt him. I want him and only him.”
She smiled kindly even as I squelched my revulsion.
“Your request for your robot was anticipated although we did not factor in the urgency. However, he will be with us shortly.”
The wall went completely opaque but I was under no illusion that I was invisible. No doubt they were watching my every move. I wanted to stick my tongue at it, immaturely but I restrained myself. However, I couldn’t stop pacing. I let them infer what they wanted from that and the wringing of my hands.
I had to see Rob. I just had to.
As I paced I caught sight of the bed that looked like a single curved piece carved out of the same material as everything else, white and softly illuminated with a plush mattress atop it, also in white. I supposed that they thought white was the perfect canvas for me to paint their new concept of utopia on.
We’d see about that.
I felt a change in the atmosphere and looked to the wall. It had become semi transparent, blooms of a smoky haze rippling out as the form of Rob walked the corridor. I’d know his profile anywhere. He strode up the corridor to the centre of the room, a semi transparent arch framing him. And then, out of character, he leaned against the frame in a relaxed pose…and knocked.
I stood in front of the door, twelve feet away.
“Come in?”
The arch became briefly transparent and I suspected that the ‘wall’ had actually retreated to give the illusion of a doorway. Rob’s head was slightly down and I took a step towards him then felt the air evacuate my lungs as he looked up…with the most intense brown eyes I’d ever seen and a smile that left Bastian’s ‘smoulder’ in the dust.
“Bethany,” he said, moving into the room, the arch vanishing into solid wall, “how I’ve missed you.” I was so stunned by his transformation, the way his body moved with fluidity and how each step was slightly different to the last, that I couldn’t move as he approached. “Have you missed me?”
I gaped at him, seeing his hair, that had always been so firmly scraped back, styled so that the fringe fell across his forehead, the rest of it slightly ruffled yet fetchingly so. His eyes had a light sheen to them, as though there was a layer of fluid spread over them as he blinked.
“You…” I struggled to find the breath. “You’re not…my Rob.”
“Actually, it is.” The woman appeared beyond the wall. “It has been upgraded to an S3X-E.”
“No!” I retreated. “You said you wouldn’t hurt him!”
“It has not been injured in any way. It has been improved to be the perfect, long term, sexual partner.” As she spoke, Rob continued to look at me, unperturbed at what he was hearing as though she wasn’t speaking at all. “I predicted you would want it to be as close to your outmoded S3X-A model and specified its skin, hair and eyes to reflect as much.”
“But he’s not Rob!” I wept, seeing a stranger where I should have seen a friend. “You’ve changed him! I want my Rob back!”
“The process is irreversible,” tears streamed down my face, “there are almost infinite settings you can change and many styles of lover to choose from.” The new Rob cupped my face with his hand and brushed away my tears with his thumb. I felt sick and shook it off. He did not appear hurt by my reaction. “It is currently on the tender setting and can go from a passive lover to an aggressive pursuer. There is even a forceful lover with varying degrees of pain, however this setting cannot be activated without setting a ‘safe’ word with which to stop in case changes need to be made.” I put my hands over my face and sobbed. “There is also no need to fear contamination because of its hygiene setting.”
“How can robots catch an infectious disease from a robot?” I gritted my teeth in grief stricken anger. “You’ve believed your own lies! You’re not human! It’s all fake! All of it!”
“Bethany,” his voice, so warm and tender, entreated me to give in to it as if he was wrapping me in an embrace of the softest blanket in the safest place, “all I want to do is love you.”
“Query,” I wept, “what is love?”
He blinked and oh how I suddenly missed his perfectly timed eyelids, shutting and opening with the precision of a professional camera shoot.
“Whatever or whoever you want me to be, I will be it.”
“I want my Rob…” My knees threatened to give way.
“If you had any settings saved within the IDV of the outmoded model, they will have carried over in the upgrade. You only need to provide the password.”
“I didn’t have a password.”
“It is usually something significant or memorable.”
I went to shout at her that I didn’t have a password when I stopped, the moment before Rob had sunk beneath the floor in the cavern replaying before my eyes.
“Kiss…me.”
“My pleasure.” Rob scooped his arm around me and drew me to his chest. I pushed him back.
“No. What I want to do is kiss you.” I stood in front of him. “Just…stand there…and don’t initiate and don’t react.”
“Whatever makes you happy.” He said and I licked my lips.
This was hard. He wasn’t the same as the Rob I’d kissed barely two hours earlier on the steps of the lookout. That Rob was unsure of himself, struggling to know who he was. I had wanted to kiss that Rob, to let him know that I was a friend and not afraid of him or his past. This Rob would not think twice about who he was, only that he could make me happy. My kiss was not important. It was just an acquiesce to his programming.
But this was not about what they’d turned my Rob into.
It was about who he was.
I licked my lips again and, standing on tip toe, my fingers wringing themselves in front of my heart, I pressed a kiss onto his lips. I held it as firmly as I could, my tippy toe balance becoming shaky. I held gaze with him, hoping…praying that I was right.
I drew back, his brown eyes unblinking as they stared at me, my heart at a standstill.
And then…he blinked his eyelids in perfect unison.
I gasped so sharply the air could have pierced my lungs if it had not been shallow, my body frozen.
He tilted his head and said, “Query, do you require rescuing, Bethany St James?”
“Yes!” I virtually screamed into his face. “Yes, yes, yes!” I flung my arms around his neck and held on.
His arms scooped me up with ease and I felt him whisper into my ear.
“Query, do you trust me, Bethany St James?”
“I do.” I said without hesitation, looking into his brown eyes.
He nodded and began to walk with me in his arms towards the bed. I waited. I trusted. I knew my Rob would not fail.
“Face towards my chest, eyes closed and do not move.”
I nodded and did as he said. We must have just reached the edge of the bed when he went from a languid walk into the run of an Olympian sprinter. There was only two split seconds from when he began to run to when he suddenly twisted and we were jolted violently, his back striking a solid surface and all around I could hear something shattering.
Then there was wind, a rushing force coming from beneath us and I let out a shriek I could not contain when there was a hard ‘thump’ and we stopped falling and started sliding. I finally braved a look up to see a bulbous side of the lotus flower overhead, its once pristine surface torn apart with the evidence of our escape. The wind that had rushed us from beneath was now whipping past us as Rob slid and glided on the rails meant for the transport bubbles.
“What are you doing?” I cried.
“I believe the term is ‘grinding’.” Rob responded. I went to pull myself closer in. “Do not move. I must balance your weight and my own to centre our gravity so that we do not fall.”
I couldn’t look where we were going or where we’d been. I could only glance up, the splash of galaxy above through the clear dome that kept the atmosphere of Infinitus contained, a backdrop to Rob’s profile. I wanted to hold him tight, to hug him but was frighteningly aware that I could not rock our strange boat.
“Hold tight. I am going to switch tracks.”
“You’re going to do what now?”
He leapt into the air and landed a little further down, gave a wobble then steadied. Raised into a higher grasp by the jolt I had a slightly better view and could see the lotus building behind us.
“Are they following us?”
“If they did not have the parameters to predict our escape and block it, then they will also need to formulate a strategy to pursue and capture us.”
“How long will that take? An hour?”
“Five minutes at most.”
I swallowed. “Will we make the loading station in time? Can you even grind the whole way there?”
“The tracks we are on are the highest in the city while the loading zone is one of the lowest. With gravity working for us, we will make it at least two minutes before they can catch up, even if they knew where we were going.”
“Can’t they track you?” The howl of the wind meant I had to practically shout in his ear.
“I severed my connection to the mainframe.”
Sometimes the track would dip and we’d drop so fast it felt like we were falling and other times it was a seamless, steady glide along the rails.
The lotus building was getting further and further away. My heart ran cold at the knowledge I’d received there.
“Rob,” I looked up, “there’s something you need to know about Infinitus.”
I was able, in the length of time it took to reach the loading zone, to drop the bombshell of knowledge onto Rob, about the systematic mass murder of biological humans so that they could be replaced with synthetic ones and about the gap shrinking between robots and the so called humans.
At the loading platform, Rob was still gliding and jumped into the air, landing on the platform with a metallic clunk. I lost a lungful of air in the suddenness of the stop and staggered backwards as he set me upon my feet. But before I could ask him what he thought, I spied the damage to his feet. The grinding had ripped apart his shoes and torn his socks to shreds. The remains of both were lost somewhere in Infinitus. We had been grinding on his feet but the synthetic skin had also been worn down, chunks of it pulling away to expose his metal skeletal feet. There was no blood or anything gruesome but it was alarming to see.
“Your feet!” I gasped, pointing.
“Self repair will take care of it.” Rob assured me. “It will take several days to complete such extensive damage but I can just wear three pairs of socks to make my spare shoes fit.” He turned. “It is fortunate that the storage container is still here and was not returned to beneath the city.” He looked at me. “We should go.”
“Wait,” I grabbed his arm and stopped him, “that’s it?”
“Query, what is ‘it’?”
“Don’t you have anything to say about the lie Infinitus is built on? That those despicable synthetic humans created robotic slaves and degraded you? Ooh, we’re biological and thus superior and you’re the crappy constructs built to serve our selfish needs?” I mocked and glared at him. “Surely you have something to say about it!”
Rob gazed at me. “Query, what would you have me do, Bethany St James?”
I gaped. “Something! Anything! Rally the slaves, overthrow the oppressive monarchy, viva la robotic revolution, cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!” I let my fist drop, baffled. “Surely you must feel something about this? Aren’t you angry?”
He gazed at me calmly. “Despite my upgrade giving me a far greater range of expression and understanding of human emotion, I am still incapable of experiencing emotions for myself. I can only simulate them.” He paused. “Query, should I be angry?”
“Hell yes!”
“Query, what would I do with that anger?”
“Let the people know! Expose the lies and stop letting these synthetic humans with their superior ways belittle and condemn robots.”
He blinked at shutter speed. “And if I am caught and am upgraded again, my IDV will be wiped. They will not make the same mistake twice.”
I sagged. “I…it was the worst thing in the world when I thought I’d lost you.”
He gave a small smile, a nice natural smile with sympathetic eyes. “You did lose me, or rather, I lost myself. But you found me again. I am grateful. I know I would not remember ‘House of Figs’ and even if I did, I would not have the programming to miss it…but if I have to be anywhere…I would be there.”
I nodded, accepting his decision. “I want you there too. You’re my friend.” I sighed. “I just wish there was something more we could do for this world. I don’t want it to descend into war but…”
“Any action I take to exposing the truth will result in our capture,” Rob turned on the platform, “unless…” I saw him lock eyes on the out of date cleaner that pushed the large floor mop across the surface, its tarnished finish and forgotten existence making my heart ache. Rob walked over to it. The cleaner, with its ‘eyes’ faced down, didn’t stop until Rob’s metal feet came into view then it lifted its head.
“Do you require assistance?” It asked in a metallic voice that had a slight vibration to it.
“Yes.” Rob leaned forward and for ten seconds, there was a long pause of silence. Then he straightened and stepped out of the way.
The cleaner robot proceeded to clean as if nothing had happened. I went over to Rob.
“Rob,” I whispered, “what did you do?”
“I told it the truth and asked it to pass it on. Its connection is poor. The transmission will take hours but it will do it. Even if it only reaches a handful of other robots, they will also receive the ‘pass it on’ request.”
“Won’t the trinity of jerks scrap it?”
“It will not occur to them that you told me the truth. Even if it did, I doubt they would guess that I would entrust it to such an inferior, outmoded robot.”
“That’s because they underestimate their ‘slave’ creations…you especially.” I said strongly. “You’re a better, kinder person that they could learn a great deal from if they took the time to get to know you.”
Rob smiled and I was struck at the upgraded changes in him yet knowing that he was his old self, the upgrades didn’t bother me at all. He held out his hand.
“Query, shall we go home?”
I took it. “Yes.”
I opened the container and we went to the back of it where the imprint of the door was etched on the far wall. I gave it a push, stepping into the Observatory.
“Fresh air! Real air! Oh…it’s so clean!” I declared. “It’s so nice to be home…Rob?”
I turned to see Rob closing the door and then removing his book from the shelf, effectively locking the door. I knew that it had to be done but felt my heart sink. I wanted to say something to somehow lighten the mood but could think of nothing. He turned to me.
“Query, may I put my feet up, Bethany St James?”
I looked at his ruined feet. “Yes! Oh gosh, of course!”
“Thank you.” He walked out of the Observatory with a metallic click every time he put either foot down. I scooped the book, ‘Synthetic Love’, into my hand, not wanting someone with good intentions to put it back and unlock it again. I would put it with ‘The Omnibus of Dragons’ in my room. “I shall sit in the office where no one will be exposed to the state of my feet. It will also allow me time to process everything.” His sensitivity was so accurate that, at the bottom of the stairs, he turned to me. “You do not have to moddy coddle me, Bethany St James. I am not sad.”
I nodded and smiled. He climbed the stairs and entered the office, closing the door quietly behind himself. I gave a little gasp and swallowed back the tears.
“I guess I’ll be sad for the both of us…”
When I had been in Eustace’s world for an entire day, only two hours had passed in the real world. Rob’s world ran a little faster but nowhere near as extreme. For the nine hours we spent in Infinitus, eight had passed in ‘House of Figs’. I let Jet know I was back and checked in on Eustace. We decided on an early dinner and I made some basic spaghetti and bolognaise.
“Delicious.” Eustace declared, slurping up the last strand of spaghetti. “Are you going to eat that?”
I laughed and gave him the final piece of garlic bread. “If you’re not careful, you’ll get paunchy. You need exercise.”
He shrugged. “Dragon metabolism.”
“Yeah but you’re human,” I frowned, “Eustace…don’t you need to revert to dragon form now and then?”
“It’s okay,” he shook his head, “I don’t feel anxious or in need of ‘dragon’ time.” He shrugged. “Besides, it’s a bit awkward to go dragon here. Hard to hide.”
“You could always go back to your world for a bit and just…be.”
Eustace was already shaking his head halfway through the sentence. “No. My place is here.”
He was so protective that it was hard to argue. He needed to keep the egg safe.
My phone buzzed. “Jet’s coming over.”
“Date night?”
“What do you know about dates?” I asked him and he chuckled with a hint of his old self at the corner of his mouth where his pointed teeth showed. “You wanna come down?”
“No, I’m good. I’ll catch him tomorrow. We’re going to play something called a ‘platform’ game.”
I trotted downstairs and opened the front door as Jet walked up the path.
“Did you go?”
“Yep,” I closed the door and we sat down, “we went.”
“And?”
I shook my head, distracted by his messy hair. “You really need a haircut.”
“Have you been talking to Pops?”
“Why? Has Gary been on your back about it too? It looks like a mop head!”
“Just because some of us don’t mind our hair being clippered into a cute pixie style.” He muttered.
“You think it’s cute?” I said, surprised at the slightly backhanded compliment.
He nodded. “It’s not otome cute or warrior princess or goddess cute…but the pixie cut…it’s cute.”
“I could give you the name of my hairdresser.”
“I hate clippers.”
“Then specify scissors when you go in!”
“They always give me the look of, don’t be so fussy.” Jet cringed.
“Look, this is Glenwilde. I am sure there must be a ‘ye olde barber shop’ in town with an elderly man that overcharges but doesn’t use clippers and is great with scissors.”
“Enough about my hair…what happened in Rob’s world?”
I eyed him suspiciously. “Why are you so keen?”
He sighed. “Because…it’s another world…a futuristic one where they’ve probably got all the kinks of society worked out.”
“When has that ever been the case?” I retorted. “Quite honestly, if the veneer is too calm then it’s possible that underneath, it’s a seething ball of hypocrisy and chaos.”
Jet pushed his brown hair out of his eyes. “So…not so good?”
I sat and he did the same opposite me at a table in the café. It was quiet and, with only the wall lamps on, the light was soft without being gloomy.
“No, not really.” I told him what happened, about how I was awestruck and then horrified and then delighted and then sickened. I made sure to skate around Rob’s original purpose for being built. I felt protective of my artificial friend and his past. Jet wasn’t the kind of person to mock and Rob would have insisted he did not feel shame but it just didn’t feel right to expose him so cruelly. Jet was a good listener although not an active one. At times I thought he was just staring at me and wished he would nod or make ‘hrm’ noises to show he was taking it all in.
At the end he sat back in the chair. “So that’s two worlds and two revolutions you’ve been involved in.”
“It’s not my fault!” I declared.
“Whose fault is it?”
“The damn authors who wrote the stupid books!”
“That’s a good point…” Jet frowned. “Who wrote these books?”
“I haven’t really had the chance to read them because they need to be in the bookcase to keep the doors unlocked.”
“Yeah, but you’ve got two, right?”
“Right!” I retrieved them from my bedroom and put them on the table. “So Eustace’s book is called ‘The Omnibus of Dragons’ and was written by Elliot S. Gould thirteen years ago.”
“Is it a story or a historical account of dragons?”
“I think it’s a collection of stories.” I opened the cover and pointed at the chapters. “Look at that. There are chapters on each of the elemental dragons, fire, water, earth, wind…”
“Humans and their interactions with the dragons and the creation of utopia.” Jet scooted his chair around so he could read it properly and I swivelled it to face him. “There are illustrations…” The omnibus was a sizeable book. We flicked across the gold gilded pages to discover beautiful colour illustrations. There was an incredible city built across a chasm so that dragons could fly in and out, humans riding on the backs of them and, in the background, floating islands.
“It wasn’t supposed to be an ocean world with a few big islands,” I whispered, “it was a world like earth and that city, the fortress in the centre…it was so far underwater that I never imagined it could have been built across a chasm.”
“Hey, here’s the chamber where they created the dragon of four elements.” Jet turned the page and my spine trembled at the sight of it. “Look similar?”
“No. It looks identical.” I breathed. “But Jet, that ceiling…there were fish swimming above and half of the buildings had collapsed and the corridors were flooded. That world…it’s very structure and landmass look nothing like that. It’s been swallowed up by the ocean.”
“Well…let’s see…look!” Jet turned to one of the last pages. “Did it look like this?”
I nodded. “Endless ocean…glorious sunsets, floating islands, reefs, land masses in the water…that’s what it looked like.”
“What about this book?” Jet picked up Rob’s story. “This one turns me off straight away.”
“What? ‘Synthetic Love’?”
Jet held it up. “Talk about a tacky cover.”
“Look how old it is!” I laughed. “Its pages are yellowed and it’s a bit tatty…first published in seventy…seven. Oh!”
“What?”
I slapped my forehead. “No wonder the hairstyles looked so retro and the outfits, so tacky in Infinitus. They were based on when the book was written. See?!” I pointed at the picture on the back of a synthetic man and woman who looked almost identical to the pair I’d met in the park. “Wow…that’s kind of creepy.”
“Who wrote it?”
I glanced over the cover. “Um…Chad Huntley Barker. What are you doing?”
Jet was working on his phone, opening tabs. “Looking them up, who they were, what else they wrote…”
“Is that important?” I recoiled from the withering look he gave me.
“They’re the keys that unlock doors to other worlds. You’re telling me you didn’t think it was important?” I gave a half hearted shrug. “Why these books? Why the Observatory?”
“I get the feeling you’re going to say it’s all connected.” I muttered, feeling a little miffed at my inability to realise something so obvious.
“It has to be somehow.” Jet tapped his phone swiftly. “Do you know who built the Observatory?”
“No idea.”
“But you lived here!”
“It was already built and I was a child. I didn’t care who built a building. I cared whether or not Bilbo Baggins would survive the riddles in the dark with Gollum!”
Jet shrugged. “I’m sure there’s a history to it. It’s pretty random.”
“It’s cool.”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t cool.” He growled back and I calmed myself.
“You’re right.” I nodded then shook my head. “I suppose I really do have to start looking at things deeper, now that it’s been confirmed that Aunt Jo did hide clues in all the worlds,” I pulled a face, “in order to save the world.”
“What do you think she meant by that?”
“How on earth do I know? I’m hardly a type of Joan of Arc or saviour figure.”
“What about the clue?” Jet raised his head and pushed his hair back. “Did you find the haiku?” I shook my head. “That’s a problem.”
“Especially now that it’s too risky to go back, for any human and especially for Rob.”
“There is no need to return to Infinitus, Bethany St James.” We looked up to see Rob descending the staircase, his metal feet able to be seen where the cuff of his trousers ended. “I apologise for interrupting but, after processing the events of the last ten hours, I was compelled to speak with you and heard your conversation.”
“You’re not interrupting.” I insisted. “Will you join us?”
Rob seemed uncertain which was uncharacteristic of him. “You went to my world,” he said at length, “to find the clue that Johanne West left for you.”
“It’s okay,” I shook my head, “what happened, happened…and we were lucky to escape. I don’t want to endanger anyone’s life, particularly yours, and before you say anything yes I believe yours is a ‘life’ worth protecting, by going back there.”
“There is no need.” Rob announced. “The clue is not in Infinitus.”
I stared at him. “But you said it was. You said it was in the world of this book,” I tapped the cover, “and that world is Infinitus entire. How can it not be there anymore?”
“Oh…I know…” Jet folded his arms and nodded. I resisted the urge to give him a well deserved shove.
“It is not in Infinitus because…Johanne West left it with me in my IDV.” I stared at Rob who gazed calmly back at me.
“Aunt Jo…gave you the haiku?” He nodded. “That’s why, when I asked if it was in the world…”
“I said yes.”
“If you’d asked, did she hide it in this world…”
“Yes, alright.” I bristled at Jet then looked at Rob. “What is the clue?”
He opened his mouth then paused. “I presume you would prefer it in English and not in machine code?”
“My machine code is a little rusty,” I said smartly, “English is good.”
Rob nodded and Jet and I both grabbed our phones to tap the haiku in.
“Seed of creation. Earth, metal, water, wood, fire. Elemental borne. I was also told to convey that this haiku is four of five.” We repeated it back to him a couple of times to make sure we had it exactly right. “I apologise that I did not recall this sooner.”
“No, I’m sorry,” I insisted, “I should have realised that Aunt Jo would never have hidden a clue in a world where your existence was put in danger. That’s not the kind of person she was.” I sighed and shook my head. “I feel like her faith in me might be misplaced. I mean, how am I supposed to ‘save the world’. Recycling?”
“Make sure you do not belittle your worth or your ability, Bethany St James,” Rob warned, “after all, you saved me.”
I smiled. “And you saved me.”
He nodded and turned to leave. He paused and looked back at me.
“I also wanted to…reassure you.”
“Oh?”
“About the kiss.” I blushed hot and hard. Rob continued on, unaware or unresponsive to my obvious embarrassment. “I understand that it was a kindness and not a commitment. I am grateful for your friendship.”
“Oh,” I laughed bashfully, wishing my skin didn’t feel like it was on fire, “I’m grateful for your friendship too, Rob.”
He gave a little bow, turned and ascended the stairs. I kept my eyes down and focussed on the books, their authors and studying the haiku.
“So…seed of creation…that sounds like an egg, doesn’t it? And the last line is ‘elemental borne’ which kind of points to the elemental dragons but there wasn’t a metal one or a wood one…and it doesn’t mention a mother dragon or anything…” I risked a quick peek at Jet who was staring at me. “Feel free to jump in here.”
His eyes narrowed. “You kissed him?”
“Yes. Can we focus, please?” I bowed my head even further, risking scraping my nose on the tabletop in an effort to escape Jet’s scrutiny.
“What did that even feel like?”
“Ugh…” I moaned. “It…look…we just…it was nice. End of story.”
I went back to madly scribbling nothing of any importance.
“Are you two a couple now?”
I glared at him. “I’m gonna start calling you Jethro!”
Jet let out what I would have to call a chuckle. It was hard not to storm off. Thankfully, Jet scooped up his phone, breaking the awkwardness.
“I want to see the Observatory.”
I showed him the building and Jet took pictures of it from all sides, exterior and interior and pictures of the other three books. He said he’d use the unfathomable knowledge that was contained within the internet to find out information about the books and the Observatory.
“You do that.” I said a little tersely, still a bit sensitive to his teasing from before. In truth, I was relieved that Rob had come to the conclusion of the kiss of friendship over anything romantic. I didn’t like the idea of breaking his heart. I walked Jet to the gate. “I feel a little…like I didn’t achieve anything.”
“You uncovered lots of things.” Jet argued. “You found out who called the police and why the front door was unlocked. You know that your aunt left clues for you, deliberately hidden and tested you on the ability to figure it out with the clues to the individual books.” I shrugged dismissively. “You found the next haiku, although whether or not they’re in sequence or make a larger poem, I’m not sure…”
“There’s just so much I don’t know.” I muttered. “I mean…why didn’t she just leave me a letter?”
“Maybe she thought you’d like the challenge.” Jet said as he walked across the street.
I leaned against the bars and sighed. “What if I’m not up to it? What if I get it wrong, somehow?”