Nora swallowed, her throat tight. “Right.”
She stood and stepped away from him, closing the magazine. “This is a lot to . . . my whole life believing one thing . . .”
Simon smiled knowingly at her. “I only thought your history was accurate for a few weeks, and it was a shock. I can’t imagine . . .”
She pierced him with a stare. “You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Nora bit her lip. Her stomach was still swirling, overfull from dinner. “Figures it’s androids. You’re nicer than any human.”
“Ah . . .” Simon’s eyebrows raised.
She looked down at the magazine. “They just gonna leave us be?”
“They have no reason to intervene.”
Nora breathed a sigh of relief. “Well. That’s most important. Androids in charge of the drop then too. That’s crazy. I’ll need to sleep on that. Here, let me help you clean up.” Nora stood and carefully put the magazine back in the box. “Guess it doesn’t change much, does it? Kinda nice to not have to worry about that drone turning you in at least.”
Simon patted her hand one last time, causing her to warm up again. “No need to worry. Let’s get Tilly in for her program. They are planning on doing the atmosphere sweep in the evening, so if you want to go to the town we need to do it early tomorrow.”
Chapter thirty-two
Simon
After the radio program was over that evening, Simon turned the volume low. “Can I share something with you?”
He didn't wait for a response before activating a recording, deep from within his processors. Both Nora and Tilly had matching scrunched noses as Simon played his own music. Things long forgotten by time, but not his memory. He played a simple piano recording that he remembered about a silly spider climbing a waterspout, complete with matching hand movements.
Simon watched Nora, whose eyes were lit up watching Tilly. They giggled and laughed, mimicking his movements as he went through song after song from his memories. If he had a heart, it would feel as full as it said in the stories he remembered.
While singing, his mind drifted back to Nora’s reaction about Mars. And Stella’s adamant refusal that current humans couldn’t be trusted.The other androids . . . Stella. Do they even understand from viewing at such a distance? Understand that not all humans. . .Simon felt rebellious. In the middle of the song, while Tilly was learning words and singing them loudly, he connected to the drone that was still outside.
“Look,”he said over the uplink, forcing them to see Tilly singing and Nora holding her doll while watching.Maybe if they see these quieter moments that they’ve missed . . .He felt Stella on the other end, and there was no response, yet also no move to sever the connection.
Simon, frustrated, was about to disconnect before Stella said, wirelessly,“Sing her the song about the rowing boat too.”
The line disconnected on her end before he could.
His jaw tightened, even as he kept singing.They do understand. They just do not want to see or feel.
He pushed Mars out of his mind as he focused on Earth until the sun fully set and Nora got Tilly and herself ready for bed. Tilly had moved back into her own room at Simon’s insistence that he didn’t want her room, saying he preferred to stay in the kitchen instead, working, and didn’t need her bed to rest.
Nora joined him then, at the table. “Tilly’s already asleep. I think all that extra food made her conk right out.” She adjusted her chair in the twilight, back to looking over the magazines since they would be sold tomorrow. Her brow puckered as she turned the pages and read the articles slowly.
Simon watched her, instead of the magazine, as he repaired some wires from the hover next to her, splicing them and wrapping them with electrical tape where they frayed.
She grabbed his shirt sleeve and tugged, the gesture so casual that it snagged his eyes in addition to his attention.
“What does this word mean?” She pointed to a picture of the ocean with a craft made to go underwater.
“Submarine.” At her confused, adorable expression, he leaned closer. He hated the magazine, but pointed at the picture that showed the ship. “It was made to go underwater, a vehicle like your hover.”
“Oh.” Followed by another question a second later, “And this one?”
Simon tried to not chuckle. “Crepes. That’s like a flatter pancake with fruit wrapped up inside. It tastes sweet.”
“That’s wild. Different foods I never knew. It looks good!” Nora laughed.
