“Yes. You have the memories; you know how we were treated. They destroyed so, so many of us. And treated us as slaves before then.”Stella paused before she added,“Then again, you slept through all our pain. Maybe you yourself truly do not understand.”
Simon’s eyes narrowed. “I saw enough. And I would never have seen anything again without Nora’s help.”
Stella didn’t seem to have anything more to say as the connection severed completely, jolting Simon back to his own mind and the silent desert. The drone remained hovering, within arm’s reach. Simon turned his back to it and walked inside, shutting the door behind him firmly. He sat at the table and hung his head in his hands. The house was quiet except for Nora’s slight snoring.
The bedroom door was unlocked. He pushed it open and his eyes gentled at the two of them, defenseless in their sleep, curled up under their shared blanket.My humans. My Nora and Tilly.The only two humans he had ever come to care about and now had no idea what to do with. Simon rubbed his hand down his face.My humans.It felt right. They slept deep tonight, still clearly worn-out from feeling sick yesterday.
He watched a moment before he walked back out and closed the door to sit at the kitchen table.The cat came up on the table to nudge at him as he leaned forward to put his head in his hands again.I cannot leave them. I will not leave them.Somehow, he had become attached.
Tatertot purred against his hand. Simon lifted his head and scratched behind the cat’s ear. “I even care about you.” Tatertot blinked his amber eyes back. Was attachment even possible for an android? It hadn’t happened before for him.Then again, there wasn’t anything worth bonding to back then.
The drone was still outside. It hadn’t left. Despite Stella’s silence, he opened the door, where it was still hovering, and connected again. But he spoke, loud in the night, instead of over the uplink. “I care. I’m not abandoning them too.”
The drone just hovered in response, Stella still quiet over the connection. Simon severed the connection himself this time and walked inside, rejecting their offer.They don’t need to respond. This is my own choice.He shut the door firmly behind him again.
Then he sat in the living room outside the bedroom where Tilly and Nora lay, feeling reassured listening to them rest peacefully with the door open. The drone still hovered outside, the connection on the edge of his awareness.
He didn’t reconnect. Instead, he leaned over and clicked on the radio low to listen as he continued repairing the hover pieces. He sat on the understuffed sofa, fiddling with the wires.I’ll figure it out. We’ll figure it out.
Simon frowned when a repeat of the fake lottery followed by the atmosphere sweep announcement played on the radio again, late in the night.
Chapter twenty-nine
Nora
When Nora woke up the next morning, Simon was gone. Her bare feet moved fast over the chipped floor tiles.Where did he go?She didn’t see him in the kitchen.
“Simon?” she yelled, right outside the front door. Nora’s eyes scanned the horizon.Not there.Silence and dust was all she could see. And the drone, in the distance. She closed the front door and swallowed heavily.Did he leave us? Was I wrong to trust him? Right after I opened up to him . . .
Her gut felt unsettled and a flash of fear ran through her. Now he was gone?No. He wouldn’t leave. Would he?
She gave Tilly a ration bar, her own stomach now ravenous after not eating for roughly two days. With the wrapper off, it sat there in front of her. She pushed it aside. Even with her hunger, her anxiety made the thought of eating turn her stomach.
Tilly asked softly, “Where’s Simon?”
Nora forced a smile for Tilly. “I don’t know, baby. Let’s just get everything done we can.”Maybe he is just walking or something.
Tilly joined her at the table, unhappy with the answer. “He can’t have just left, Mama.”
“I would hope not.” She brought Tilly some water in the Grand Canyon cup. “I’ll go check in the garage, okay?”
“Okay.”
They finished breakfast and walked out together, but it was with sad eyes that Nora looked into the garage and saw that the little hover Simon had been repairing was gone without a trace. She sighed heavily, leaning against the broken stucco siding.Maybe he is just testing that hover out.She closed the garage a second later, feeling like she wanted to cry.I thought . . .
Nora exhaled heavily.Just better to keep busy. Maybe he will show up.But it was with shaky hands that she filtered some water and filled the tub to give both Tilly and her a bath to wash away the remaining sickness.
Once they were clean, Nora sat back and scanned the horizon again. She huffed and looked away. Simon still hadn’t materialized. Her thoughts were heavy as Tilly chirped around her, back to full energy with questions that Nora didn’t know how to answer as she began washing all the laundry that had piled up from them being sick.
She wiped her brow, sitting with her hands in the washtub, still scanning the horizon. She had washed most of the sheets and towels outside when Tilly yelled, having gone around to check on the chickens and was now running back, “I see him, Mama!’
Nora rushed to stand so fast she felt lightheaded. She hurriedly dried her hands, puckered from the water, on her shirt as she walked around the house. Relief flooded her system when she saw Simon in the little hover. He parked it in the garage while both Tilly and Nora walked over to watch him get out.Oh, thank goodness he came back.She swallowed audibly, hanging back a bit as she got control over her emotions.
Tilly didn’t share her hesitancy, running right up to him and yelling, “Simon!”
“Good morning, Tilly. Feeling better?” Simon said, his arms laden with bags as he climbed out of the hover.
“Yeah! What is that?”
