Feelin’ Lonely

“Oh, wow… I can’t hardly recognize this place anymore,” Lavinia marveled.

“Your feedback is recognized and appreciated,” the Builder replied.

It’d been a week or two since Lavinia was last out near the ruins, and the difference was clear from the moment she biked over the old bridge’s peak. It wasn't even fair to call them ruins anymore. At least half the city looked brand new—or as near to it as she could imagine. Though there was still a big pile of broken glass near the bridge, and she wasn’t sure what that was about.

“How much longer do you think it’ll take to finish?” Lavinia asked.

The Builder looked out across the landscape. “My estimations are that the rebuilding process should be complete in roughly one month.”

“Wait, that’s all? What happens when you finish?”

“I follow my programming and relocate to the next site, then commence rebuilding there.” It looked down at her, “It is in the name, after all.”

Lavinia frowned. “I know I shouldn’t be surprised or disappointed, but… I’ve gotten used to you being over here. Even if it’s only been a few weeks.”

“There is no need to be disappointed. You will grow accustomed to my absence just as you did my presence.”

“I guess… But I do wanna introduce you to Arlo before you go,” she said.

“Who is Arlo?” it asked.

“Just my lil roommate. He’s a mecha, like you.” She paused. “You are a mecha, right?”

“Technically. Though there is an ocean of difference between we Builders and the common creations of the old world.”

Lavinia couldn’t dispute that. Not that’d she’d consider Arlo to be common or simple; it took almost a month to figure out how to get him functioning again. She leaned forward against the handlebars of her bike, gazing over the town.

“Hey, do you ever get lonely?”

“Lonely?” the Builder repeated.

“Yeah. I mean, Builders don’t work in pairs, right?” she asked, looking up at the giant.

“No, there is no need for such a partnership,” the Builder replied. “While we understand the concept of loneliness, we Builders do not experience it ourselves. That would be counter-productive to our purpose.”

“Hm. What happens when you finish rebuilding everything?”

The Builder turned its featureless head back to her. “I wonder if every Builder receives with such questions from their visitors, or if it’s only me.”

“Heh, sorry. I’m just naturally curious…” Lavinia said.

“Did you plan to visit your mother’s flower garden again?” it asked. “There should be an acceptably clear path through the construction zone now.”

Lavinia smiled awkwardly. She was actually there because Mae was doing radio stuff and Arlo was out of the house with his new friend. She was still unsure of how they met, but at least he had a friend for once. It left her feeling something she hadn’t known in the prior ten months since she found Arlo in those ruins—loneliness. She’d been on her own plenty of times before, but that was by choice. Now it was because everyone else was busy except for her. It didn’t help that she didn’t have any pending repair work to do either.

“Well, if I’m being honest, there wasn’t much going on back home,” she admitted. “So I thought I’d come see you! N-Not that I think of you as a last resort, though. I just don’t wanna get in your way while you’re working, as you are very large and distracted and I am very small and squishy.”

“You need not worry about interrupting me. Considering I don’t eat or sleep, a brief distraction wouldn’t be the end of my work. And I have sensors to prevent me from stepping on you,” the Builder added.

“Oh. Great! Then I’ll… I’ll come back more often.” Lavinia paused again. “So, I’ve got one more question, but it’s a little weird.”

“Frankly, most questions I receive are like that.”

“Were you… y’know… builtbyaliensandsenttocolonizetheplanet?” she asked in a single quick breath.

The Builder paused, staring down at Lavinia as if trying to comprehend what she was saying. Then it just turned away from the bridge and went back to repairing the town. Its blank face couldn’t actually display emotions, yet somehow, Lavinia saw how unamused it was.

Looks like Mae’s source had the wrong idea…

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A Trip to the Lake

Arlo anxiously shifted in place on the creaking wood porch as Lavinia reached over his head. She knocked on the cabin door, and a voice shouted “I’m coming!” They heard shuffling from inside, which only added to Arlo’s movement. Mae was behind them, glancing around through large sunglasses at the cabin, the garden, the lake, and the surrounding woods.

“Your mom lives out here?” she asked Lavinia. “By herself?”

“Yep!” Lavinia said. “She said Seventy-Seven got too noisy, so she moved a couple years ago. I think she was born here, actually…”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Arlo looked up at her. “Are you sure she’ll like me…?”

“Arlo, I have never been more sure of anything in my entire life,” Lavinia replied.

The child considered her general flightiness and realized that wasn’t the most reassuring statement, but kept that to himself. He couldn’t doubt her sentiment, at least. After a few more moments, the door opened and an aging woman stepped out of the cabin. She wasn’t much taller than Arlo and looked a bit like Lavinia if she were dried out. Her poofy, dense hair—though now grey rather than black—was still tied back with a green bandana like in the old picture.

“Mama, I missed you so much!” Lavinia squealed. “I brought—”

“If you missed me so much, where you been?” Georgette interrupted. From the look on Lavinia’s face, not even she was expecting a scolding. “Nearly a year and not one visit! And I know you’re not too busy from your tinkering and repairing.”

“Actually… I have an answer to that.” Lavinia rested a hand on Arlo’s shoulder, “Mama, this is Arlo!”

Georgette stepped up to the nervous boy and tilted her head up above Arlo like she was staring at the clouds. Both he and Mae shot Lavinia a questioning look, but her mother spoke up again before they could get an explanation.

“Nearly a year and you don’t tell me I got grandchildren?!”

“I-I’m not actually—” Arlo began, before Georgette pulled him into a tight hug.

The boy paused at first, before his defenses broke. He closed his eyes and hugged back, practically dissolving at the embrace. Lavinia watched and frowned; he normally shied away from physical contact like that. At least, he always did with her… Maybe he’d just softened up overall since—

“Are you Vini’s girlfriend?” Georgette asked, immediately snapping Lavinia out of her own thoughts. She realized her mother had moved from Arlo to Mae.

“Oh. Uhh… No, not exactly,” Mae said. She looked over at Lavinia. “Vini, huh?”

Lavinia’s face turned crimson. “Mama, this is my friend Mae. She runs Ivy Tower Radio.”

“Mm, that’s why you sound familiar.” After looking above Mae’s head for a few moments, Lavinia’s mother turned and went back inside. “Alright, come on in.”

Arlo followed in behind her, while Mae smiled at Lavinia. “After you, Vini.”

Lavinia blushed again but smiled back and followed in behind the boy and her mother.

***

It wasn’t much later that Mae was playing in the shallows of the lake with Arlo, who was careful not to let too much water splash up into his exposed shoulder and body. Even though he still had a shirt on with the sleeve pinned up, he wasn’t taking any chances. Lavinia smiled at them from the shore beside her mother.

“Is your eyesight getting any worse?” Lavinia asked her.

“About the same as before,” Georgette replied. “Can’t see hardly nothing from the front, but I can see enough on the sides.”

Lavinia frowned. “If you need to, there’s still room with me and—”

“Where’d you find that boy?” her mother interrupted.

“W-What makes you think I ‘found’ him…?”

“Vini please, I lived with you nearly your whole life,” Georgette said. “I know you didn’t have him yourself.”

Lavinia blushed at the implication. “I found him in the ruins. There was a little bit of scrap under a rock, but when I pushed it, a whole avalanche of rubble came down and Arlo came with it…” She looked out at the boy. “He was busted up pretty bad and missing some parts, but I never saw a near complete mecha before.

“I dunno what I expected, but then he woke up and was confused and I had to do something with him. He’s still a little boy even if he’s a mecha, and he didn’t have nowhere else to go. I let him stay with me until he got things figured out, and I call him my roommate, but I really care about him…” Lavinia sighed. “But I dunno how to help him, mama… He’s been having a real hard time lately. Spacing out, shouting at ghosts, and acting all sorts of strange that’s scaring him just as much as me…”

“If you wanna help that boy, then you’ve got to stop treating him like he’s only staying for a visit.” Georgette turned to her daughter. “He’s from whatever world they had Back Before, meaning everyone and everything he knew is gone. Whatever them people built him like this for, he’s only a child. Boy’s probably scared witless that something else’ll come along and take away this world he’s got now.”

She pointed out in the general direction of Arlo. “That boy’s haunted, no doubt. But he can’t come to grips with his past when his present ain’t anymore secure.”

Lavinia listened and thought back over the last ten months. About all the times she’d come and go at home, sometimes not even leaving Arlo with an explanation about where she was going or when she’d be back. He’d never outright complained to her, but… could he even? Then when Georgette called him her grandchild and hugged him, Arlo practically collapsed into her arms. Was that the kind of thing he’d really wanted all that time? Maybe she hadn’t been as good to the boy as he deserved…

She put her arm around Georgette’s shoulders and leaned in, hugging her.

“You always have the answers…”

“I have too baby, I’m your mama,” Georgette replied. “Now why don’t you start by going out there and playing with that boy and your friend?”

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Home Again

“Thanks for coming with us,” Lavinia said.

“Thanks for inviting me,” Mae replied. “Your mom’s really, uh… interesting.”

“Heh, yeah… I should’ve gone to see her sooner.”

Mae glanced around; they were alone outside her home. “You were asking her about Arlo, right?”

Lavinia nodded. “He’s been acting a little weird lately. Well, he’s always been like that since he first woke—since I met him.” She almost slipped up there. “But lately it’s been getting weirder. Like, before when he’d be distracted with cleaning, he’d sometimes call me ‘Ms. Luisa.’ And that was fine, getting to know new people can be like that. Except now he’s been having some serious identity questions lately, and one time he shouted at me when I came home because he thought I was someone else, and I’m running out of answers.”

“That… doesn’t sound good,” Mae said. “Listen, I’m not exactly skilled at whatever’s going on, but if you ever need help with anything, just let me know. Even though I haven’t known him as long as you, I can see he’s a good kid. I think you’re both good together.”

Lavinia smiled, but the worry remained. “Thanks, Mae, I really do appreciate it. I’m gonna go up and talk with him, but we’ll meet up tomorrow.”

“Sure thing, Vini.”

Lavinia blushed at the name, and even more so when Mae hugged her. She was left standing there like a fool and staring as Mae walked off into the golden glow of afternoon sun, all thoughts processes completely derailed. When she finally turned the corner and Lavinia snapped out of it, she went inside. Past the door to her workshop/garage, and upstairs to the living room where she found… nobody. Arlo wasn’t there. He’d been the first to get inside, and normally when she forced outside for longer than a few minutes, she’d find him busily catching up on dusting or mopping for no real reason.

Did he go to tidy up the workshop…?

“Arlo?” she called out. “Are you here?”

There was a long pause. Then, “I-I’m in my room!”

She walked across the living room towards the hall. “There’s something I wanted to talk about. Can we—”

“I would, but I’m—changing clothes. And really tired,” he added.

“Oh.” Lavinia stopped and frowned. “Well… Alright, we can talk tomorrow then. I just want you to know that if there’s ever something wrong, you can tell me about it. Okay?”

Down the hall and through the door on the right, Arlo was pressed up against the door inside his bedroom. The boy was fighting hard to keep his breathing steady and mask the fear in his voice as he stared ahead unblinking at the girl in the white cardigan. Not a hallucination and not a fractured memory, but truly there. She sat on the edge of Arlo’s bed with a finger over her pursed, perpetual smirk. A warning—not just to him, but to Lavinia too.

“O-Okay,” he replied to both of them, “I understand.”