A story (C) 2004 by ZUSTARA ORUR. Contact address: zustara@hotmail.com 2.0 May not be redistributed, commercial use prohibited!
Please see chapter 1 for standard disclaimer blurb and such.
2 - Carbon in the flesh.
Mrs. Fitzgerald came walking from the back of the house, still carrying the tray with milk and cookies she'd intended to present to her son and his new friend. "What was that all about?", she asked. Then, after taking a look at her husband's face she knew. "Oh." That was all she knew to say. Then she gathered herself again. "I'll go talk to him", she added softly. "You... You take care of...it. Okay?" She didn't know what to call the small robot, so she simply chose not to.
Mr. Fitzgerald nodded. "Alright, Simon. Come with me please, I'll show you around."
"Yes, Sir."
Mrs. Fitzgerald knocked softly on Brian's door. "Brian...? Can I come in?"
"No!", he replied, and she heard he was sad. Probably crying.
She sighed quietly to himself. He was so difficult to deal with sometimes! "Sweetheart! Why not?"
"You KNEW I wanted a dog! You BOTH knew! And instead I get THAT?" She heard him starting to sob, and she felt a little guilty.
Another sigh. "Brian, you know we can't have a dog in the house...", she tried. "Do you know how expensive it was to get Simon? How difficult? We did it because we CARE about you! We know you're alone a lot, so we did it because we love you!"
"ALL the other kids have dogs!" It wasn't true of course, but Mrs. Fitzgerald understood what her son meant. She knew about every kid in school with a dog, Brian would tell her of them and their canine friends all the time, Kris and Bobby and Sheila and Anna and all the others. Some of which Brian knew, and some he didn't, except that their family owned a dog - or in some cases, several. Of course he knew which breed of dog it was and even their names, even if he didn't know the kids themselves.
She knew it wasn't going to be easy. Brian was going into pouting mode, reasoning with him wasn't going to produce much of a reaction. But she still had to try. "You were really rude to Simon you know, you hurt him." She used the robot's name in an attempt to try to spark a reaction in her son. "You have to apologize you know."
"So what if I was rude?! It's just a machine! Turn him off and take him back where he came from!"
She almost didn't catch it. He almost certainly unwittingly changed from calling Simon 'it', to 'him'. Maybe it was an angle she could continue working on. After all, after twelve years, she did have a pretty good idea of how her son functioned. "Brian... We CAN'T turn him off. He's ours now, wether you want him or not." She paused, knowing he was listening. "Don't you at least want to say hello? Simon really wants to be your friend." It was a wild gamble. Even mentioning him needing more friends (actually: A friend) could send him off on a sulking fit that might last literally for days at a time.
Mrs. Fitzgerald's son was silent for so long she thought she'd gone too far with him. That he was going to hide in his room for the rest of the day and become ever more unreasonable as time went by. Maybe they'd actually be forced to get him a dog after all despite the fact she despised the very idea of bringing a filthy stinking animal into her ordered home. Then she heard the door click as it opened just a little. "If I don't like him I won't talk to him", Brian said quietly but in an utterly determined voice. She knew there was nothing she could say that was going to be able to change his mind, so she just nodded at that eye of his that stared at her through the small gap.
"Very well, Brian. If you don't like him we'll take him back. But promise me you'll give it a good try, alright? If not, you can just forget about ever getting a dog." She wasn't sure that kind of blackmail was going to work, but it was the only thing she could do. "Don't forget I'll be keeping a close eye on you young man!"
"Okay mom." That was all in the way of an acknowledgement she was ever going to get, and she felt satisfied with it. Brian slipped out of his room and followed his mother downstairs. He found his father and Simon standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting for them, him feeling very hesitant all of a sudden and he hid himself behind his mom, only peeking out from behind her back.
3 - Alien life: first contact.
What he saw kind of surprised him. He hadn't taken a good look at him... It... Simon...the first time 'round. He had been too shocked. He had expected to find a puppy instead, one that would leap out at him and run up to him and try to jump up at him, a puppy that would lick his hand and face when he crouched down to greet it, and they'd do all sorts of stuff and be best friends always, always... And instead he'd seen...a kid. A boy. A machine. Except, it didn't LOOK like a machine. He really looked like a real boy!
Simon was about his own height, maybe just a little shorter even, and was dressed in a plain blue shirt and a pair of just as blue jeans. He had an olive-colored complexion, deep-brown eyes (that looked shiny and moist just like a human's) and black straight hair. He had a mouth like any other boy, lips a shade or two darker than the skin, and slightly parted, hints of white teeth visible inside. A small straight nose, all the other features you associate with a human, a human boy-child. Brian was surprised to find himself thinking, Simon was actually rather cute. Even pretty you might say... Oh yeah! Like they'd ever manufacture UGLY fake children!
"Hello...", he said in a weak-sounding voice, still hiding behind his mother. "I'm Brian."
Simon didn't move. Maybe he was scared or something, Brian was thinking. He really HADN'T been very nice the last time they met! "Hello", the little robot finally responded, just as quietly and hesitantly. "How do you do?"
For some reason, the politely delivered formal greeting just seemed incredibly amusing to young Brian, he found himself smiling quite involuntarily. Simon really WAS scared of him it seemed, but wanted to please all the same. He was trying to be as nice as he could, and did not want to offend or upset like he'd apparantly done the first time they met, hence the polite, if rather stiff greeting. Brian snuck out from behind his mother and skipped down the last few steps. Simon jerked and took a step backwards, bumping into Mr. Fitzgerald. He spun around and started to apologize, but Brian's father stopped him with a gesture to show no harm was done.
"It's alright", the young boy said to the robot. "I'm fine thank you, hello again!" He held out his hand at Simon like the other had done the first time they met.
The small robot stretched out his own hand too, doing it slowly, and they both gently grasped each other. Both as hesitant as the other... Brian was amazed to feel the robot's skin smooth to the touch, and warm. Not rubbery at all like he had expected, but warm and silky-smooth like a real kid's hand... He was so surprised he forgot to shake Simon's hand, he just held it, feeling it. Smiling wider and wider.
Simon smiled too, just a little, still a bit uncertain perhaps. Not knowing what to do since you're supposed to shake your hand when shaking hands, and Brian wasn't shaking his. The robot was uncertain if it should initiate the shaking-procedure or not, maybe doing so would anger Brian again? Maybe NOT doing it would anger him...?
"Would you like to see my room?" Brian suddenly asked, somehow feeling much more at ease for some reason.
Simon felt relieved all of a sudden. This was stuff he was expecting when introduced to his new young master! As a result, he smiled wider out of pure instinct, his smile touching his eyes and all of his face. He stretched a little straighter, a little taller even without noticing it. "Yes please! I'd really like that!" The relief the small robot experienced reflected in its voice in the form of sincere enthusiasm.
"Okay, follow me, alright?!" He dragged Simon up the stairs and through the upper hallway without ever letting go of the little robot's hand, leaving two rather surprised and slightly confused parents standing there. They shrugged and gave the other a wry look, saying, 'kids...!' to each other. They had perfected the art of silent communication years ago, such short phrases never needed being uttered. They went to the kitchen and proceeded to consume the milk and cookies themselves without really thinking of what they were doing, simply glad they would not have the headache of having to figure out how to back out of a binding lease contract and the additional hassle of getting their son an accursed pet! Neither wanted to intrude on their son now that he finally seemed to be bonding with his new friend. They knew if he wanted something to eat, he'd ask them sooner or later.
Brian sat Simon down on his bed and himself in his cushioned armchair. He sat there studying the little robot without saying anything (but still with a small smile on his lips). Simon sat there unmoving, not speaking, blinking every once in a while just like any real boy would. He too was smiling a little, not QUITE as hesitant anymore. After keeping his eyes on Brian for a while, he began to look around in the boy's room, studying it, taking it in for real. He saw most of the things he expected to find in a young boy's room. Model airplanes and spaceships hung from the ceiling in thin, almost invisible strings, on the walls he saw a couple posters of artists popular amongst young kids, as well as a big wall-mounted video screen opposite the bed. The wall opposite the door had three big windows in it covering the entire width of the room making it bright and airy. Beneath them stood a desk, and the head of the bed was just below the rightmost window. On either side of the door Brian had lots of wall-mounted shelves with more models, some toys, racks of datacrystals for the computer terminal and such. Overall it seemed rather sparsely equipped, and somehow gave the impression of belonging to a person that spent a great deal of time on his own. Spending time not playing, but building models... Many of them were quite intricate, and painstakingly painted in the correct colors, with all the right symbols and markings. A few even had internal lighting too.
"So...", Brian finally said, and Simon's head snapped back to look at his young master. "You're a robot, huh?"
"Yes, I'm an Asenion robot." It wasn't a curt reply, in fact it was said in a rather eager voice. Simon really wanted to please his new master!
Brian looked sharply at the other. "What's it like...?", he asked slowly. "Being a robot, I mean." It was as if he was reminded all of a sudden that Simon really was nothing but a machine. A construct, even if a well-made one. Not like a dog, which had a soul and all that. If souls really existed, which Brian wasn't at all certain of.
Simon hesitated. "I'm not quite sure I can give an appropriate answer", he said equally slowly. "I have nothing to compare to." He hoped he would not anger his master! It wasn't a very good answer after all!
"I wonder how well they built you...", Brian mumbled to himself, seemingly having forgotten all about the question he'd just asked.
"Actually, I was grown... Apart from my brain and power system that is", Simon responded, though Brian didn't really hear it. He was lost in thought.
Then, suddenly he'd made up his mind. Brian walked over to his door and locked it. "We're going to play a game, alright? A special game", the boy told the little robot. At the mention of the word 'game', Simon shone up. At last a chance to please his new young master, a chance to prove himself! "It's a SECRET game", Brian continued. "You can't tell anybody about it okay? Not ever."