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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 Nora here at all. In fact, 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 . . .

He forced his right eye to remain focused. But it was difficult to see, especially the children who stood, hungry, on the street. It was mostly women and children out right now, at this time of day. Nora had alluded to the daytime being safer. His processors superimposed Tilly’s image on the children he passed, making him stumble a step as he walked. This is poverty. I never saw this in person, anywhere, before. There was none of this kind of struggle back in his time, not when androids worked tirelessly for man’s comfort.

What he was seeing now was what he imagined a dream might be like. The disdain he briefly felt fled, becoming deep sorrow as he made eye contact with a little girl holding a sack doll similar to Tilly’s. Not a dream. A nightmare. He didn’t like humans, but it hurt him inside to see anyone’s suffering so openly displayed. It felt wrong. To see humanity reduced to this level . . .

“Hey, handsome.” The drawl came from his side, causing him to turn. “You new around here?”

Simon was pulled out of his musings. He glanced in the direction of the sound and saw a scantily clad group of women on the corner. They were sitting, turned to each other talking, clearly not really engaged in trying to get business. That also must be for later as well. His gaze lingered on their desperate eyes. Their defeated postures brought back unwelcome memories of himself, programmed as he was to approach his hated mistress in the same way. Only he was never allowed to show anything other than enthusiasm, never allowed to have a moment to relax.

He shook his head and walked on. “No, not right now.”

None of the women followed him, but he glanced back again, feeling the same sorrow he did when looking at the sad, hungry children and imagining Tilly in their place. Only he thought of Nora now instead, sitting there. His hands balled at his sides. These women appear even less healthy than Nora. He noted how thin they were. I do not believe they all are choosing this life. Do they feel like I did?

The woman who addressed him tilted her head as he made eye contact. “Aw, you sure? I’ll make you feel good.”

He shook his head no again and moved out of the area quickly. The woman said something as he walked away but he didn’t listen, his mind steeped in memories of how he felt with the roles reversed. Humans are the sex workers instead of androids? In his time, every home had an android that could serve that purpose for the humans they attended to if desired. His eyes darted across the dirt street as he retraced his steps back to the bakery.

It was not accurate to say that there was nothing in this area that reminded him of Nora. After all, she came from this town. And he saw breaths of life, touches of humanity that even he could recognize. Potted plants put out in the sun, in whatever kind of cracked container they could find. And the children, even though they had hungry eyes, ran in groups, chasing each other. Once he got over the shock and the dilapidated infrastructure, he could see hope in corners. More exceptions. Like Nora.

He checked his internal time to see if he should explore further. The hour was almost up. He was both frustrated and relieved that he had no more time to explore. Haven’t even been able to find a connection. He had wanted to find a neural hookup, an internet connection, to see if there was any broadband access anywhere but . . . his eyes lingered on the faded, chipped paint of a building’s rusted siding. This area won’t help me.

Simon assessed the worn-out concrete structures and refuse that lined the streets. The town was livable, unlike the mall, but just barely. There would be none of that here. Nothing electronic is here anywhere. If anything, he should have walked in the opposite direction, where the houses were bigger and electricity still flowed. His feet walked the path back to Nora. Next time.

Where the street opened in between the segments of the city, he could see more of the sky above. A drone was overhead. He squinted up at it as his feet kept up their leisurely pace. In fact, the drone might have been following him a good portion of the morning, from a distance. He was certain it was the same one that he saw on the journey to the mall with Nora; there was a dent on one of its sides that he could see as it flashed around.

He watched it out of the corner of his right eye. There has to be electric airwaves to power those. There had to be a hookup he could find . . . somewhere. He pushed upward at the drone, using his internal wireless connections, but met the same resistance. There is something there.

His feet kept him on the path back to Nora, however, worried as he was about being late. I’ll search again next time. His footsteps quickened. I don’t want either Nora or Tilly to walk the streets to try to find me.