“Where have you been?” Anna asked, settling back down on her chair behind the counter, the metal seat dinging as she shifted her weight.
“Just did a visit to the mall. Got some good stuff to trade this time too. Rain and haze kept us away mostly though.” Nora averted her gaze as she added the last part only in her head.Oh, and I also found an android that is sort of changing everything.She glanced back guiltily at Anna, itching to tell her.How can I not tell Anna what’s happening?
But Anna took the problem away from her once she sent Tilly into the back area to see the other children, lemon lollipop in her mouth. Anna leaned over and gave a sly grin to Nora. “And when were you going to tell me about the hunky dude you found?”
Nora’s heart beat wildly and she sputtered into the tea Anna had made her. “Huh?” Fear raced down her spine.How does she know? Max? Do others know? Already?
In answer, Anna pointed to a closed-circuit camera feed next to the register. The camera was salvaged from long ago and repaired. The half-cracked camera screen displayed a hazy picture of the outside, where Nora’s hover sat parked. “Saw him get out with you on here when I heard the motion alarm go off. You forget we got these installed a few months back after the looting problems we had? All the gang scum coming up here flooding the place until we paid double the dues to have them enforce order.” Anna turned and muttered under her breath, “Freaking extortion.”
Nora had forgotten and relief flooded through her. She sat frozen in the chair.Should I lie?She shifted in the seat, guiltily, a lie already on her tongue as she looked at Anna’s friendly face.
Anna awkwardly leaned over her belly on the counter, her curled brown hair swaying. “He is so handsome, Nory. Where did you find him?”
I don’t have to lie. But I don’t have to tell exactly the whole truth . . . yet. Nora knew she would tell her someday, and soon, but not at this moment. Her eyes flicked over to the door that led to the baking area where Paul’s loud, angry voice was muffled into background noise.Paul can barge in at any moment. I’ll tell her for sure when he’s nowhere around.She went with a half truth. “Found him at the . . . mall. When I went scavenging. He was . . . he was there.”
Anna’s eyes grew wide and she chuckled as her small fist hit the counter in emphasis. “Shit, there’s another person crazy like you living in that wasteland? And he isn’t off his rocker? No wonder you two hit it off! Where’d he go now?”
“For a walk . . . I wasn’t ready to bring him around and introduce him.”
Nora’s face was feeling hot from blushing when Anna turned to her and patted her hand. “I get it. New relationship. You don’t need to look so scared, Nora. I’m happy for you as long as he treats you right. Makes me feel better about you being out there all alone.” Anna leaned in closer, her voice dropping. “He does treat you and Tilly okay, right? Because I know Paul can be an ass, but I can ask him if he ever doesn’t . . . you know who he is and what he used to do . . .”
Nora sputtered at the mention of Paul.No. No way.She didn’t ever want to owe any man here a favor or be involved, especially not one like Paul that had used violence, used being a hired gun in the gang, to earn the bakeshop and status he now had.“No, no. It’s all fine.”
“Tell me then, Nory.”
She put a strand of hair behind her ear. “His name is Simon and he’s great. It’s just new and I’m . . . shy with it all. It’s different having someone.”
“I hear that,” Anna said, rubbing her pregnant belly. She added a second later, a sly grin on her face, “Can I at least say hi?”
“I guess that’s fine, once he comes back.”
Anna scoffed. “You guess.”
“Yeah.” Nora laughed as Anna rolled her eyes skyward.If only she knew . . .She struggled to keep a grin off her own face. “Don’t you start, Anna.”
Anna barked out a laugh back and Nora relaxed a bit after that, steering the conversation back to Anna and things happening in the town.
Chapter twenty-one
Simon
Simon walked all over, scanning and seeing without engaging as his silicone boots made footprints in the dirt. The mood that clung to the streets was a mix of poverty and despondency. As the atmosphere coated his processors in misery, he began to understand why Nora lived away from here, in her own area with Tilly and their home decorated with their drawings.
His processors spun fast, categorizing and making sense of all the information he could about the town. He stepped carefully down the street, back toward the shopping district that Nora had rushed them through earlier in her anxiety after Max.
All of his calculations boiled down to one thought as he took in his surroundings.I can’t picture Norahere at all.Infact, the thought of her roaming the streets, unprotected and alone, Tilly at her side, caused him stress. His face crinkled in disgust as he kept walking. If the exchange with Max earlier hadn’t convinced him that humans still had their problems, then walking around here would have.Humans haven’t changed that much.
If anything, the town matched what he thought would happen with the androids not around to keep everything running smoothly. It was disorderly, and the smell of sewage hit his senses. His eyes stilled on the trash that littered the alley.Androids would never let that happen.The humans were always lazy.
But that thought rang hollow, replaced by visions of Nora working in the garden by his side.With exceptions.
He walked farther down the path, determined to see as much as he could in the time allotted to him. One thing was for certain: he had no desire to stay here any longer, even though he could. Not only because he did not want to disappoint Nora by leaving, but also because this place held no real interest for him.The town had signs of life, but it wasn’t alive. His eyes swept the street, taking in the data.The soul is missing here as well.Everything felt disconnected, the same as he felt in the past, only in a different way.It really is a different world being out there with Nora than here.He was grateful, yet again, that it was her that woke him up and not any of these hard-eyed others that watched from doorways.
His silicone boots stirred the dust as he walked and observed. Women were going about their daily chores, cooking and cleaning for babies that cried from hunger. Others just sat, vacant-eyed, in doors to houses in great need of repair. Already, fear ran through his cortex due to Nora being at her friend’s place, alone. The bakery area seemed to be in a safer part of town than he was in, judging from the evident bullet holes on the buildings and both the long-healed scars and fresh wounds on those he passed.
Although, on the wall . . .Gang symbols had started appearing on walls and signs. Somehow, through his aimless walking, he had wandered back to where the shacks lined the road . . . right to where Nora had told him to not go.
Simon paused, debating, before he continued without turning.I’ll go a bit farther.He wanted to see all the areas of this town. Not just the nice and cleaner ones closer to where Anna lived. If he was truly going to learn where he’d ended up . . .
