Page 33

Chapter thirty-three

Nora

From the angle of the sun, Nora could tell that she’d woken up early today. She was awake fully, not lingering like usual, pulling her shirt on fast as she got out of bed.

As she got ready, she didn’t think too hard about the soaring feeling in her stomach at wanting to see Simon again. She shook her head at herself. Excited to get up just to spend more time with him. She tried to control her emotions but failed, letting her vague excitement take over while pulling on her socks. A bounce was in her step as she moved out to see Simon in the kitchen, with muffins, and Tilly’s bed already empty.

“Good morning,” she said brightly. Her stomach gave a little flip, not related to hunger, at seeing him.

“Good morning, Nora.” He turned around and gave her the metal plate with a muffin. “Tilly already ate and is outside.”

She ignored her stomach’s flipping and forced herself to sit down and eat instead of standing there to watch Simon work. “Oh good, thank you. Luckily we got up early to go into town today. Let me just go find where Tilly went and get her ready.”

After eating, she went and found Tilly out back by the chickens, talking with them like they were her friends. She was sitting on the ground right outside the coop, pushing some of the chicken feed through the mesh opening.

Nora waved at her. “C’mon Tilly. Did you feed the chickens a big amount already?”

“Yeah.”

Nora leaned over to riffle through her hair, earning a grumpy look back. “Okay. Let’s go to town.”

Tilly’s eyes lit up as she stood and ran ahead of her. Nora followed as she glanced up at the drone overhead that had been there the moment she walked out of the house. Yep. Drones and androids. She shielded her eyes and gave a shy wave upward. There was no response.

At some point, after thinking hard and sleeping on everything Simon revealed, she made peace with the drone’s presence in her life. It honestly was a better outcome than her being worried about it and Simon nonstop. And feels good to get some answers for why it’s always hovering.

Nora also knew she was going to need to talk with the drones, and the androids behind them. She hurried her footsteps. That’s gonna have to wait a bit though. Not right now, when she hadn’t had time to think through what she wanted to say. Her feet pounded the dirt walkway in her haste. Can’t do that when I’m in a hurry .

Her eyes, though, trailed up to watch the drone as she walked back to the house to finish getting ready. Androids. Really. What would everyone else think if they knew? Nora shuddered as she finished hustling Tilly to leave. They wouldn’t think anything good, that’s for sure. Would they?

When all three of them got to the garage, everything was still in the hover from when they scavenged, before they got sick. It was all sitting there just ready for them to go. All except the emergency scooters, one of which Tilly had taken out and was playing with in the yard while Nora did the final checks. She looked over her shoulder. “Tilly, get that scooter back in before we go.”

Simon was also dawdling, standing by the smaller hover, the one he had taken to town himself a day before. “A moment, Nora.”

Nora went over to him as he trailed his hand over the smaller one, her eyes snagging on his fingers as he spoke. “I worked on it in the night some more. Look inside.”

Nora saw the cables neatly organized in the engine. Places where it was tangled were now repaired and oiled. “Did it run fine yesterday when you took it out?”

Simon nodded, and Nora’s eyes lingered on his frame as he organized the wires and closed the hood. “Yes. I fixed what remained of what was off with it last night while you slept. But let’s just keep this little hover as a backup instead of selling.”

“Okay, that’s fine. We got enough scrap anyways.” She pointed at the third, mostly in pieces, hover in the corner of the garage. “We got this one too if we wanted to fix up another one to resell anyways.”

“Yes, but that one is missing a lot of what it needs to be functional.”

Nora considered, looking at it carefully. “I don’t know if Max would even consider that scrap for our deal. Might be able to sell that outright elsewhere.”

“Depends on how much it would be worth for us to take the risk.”

“Probably not worth as much as some of these magazines, but still a lot.”

“Hmm.” Simon's fingers tapped on the tiny hover's side.

Nora didn’t respond to that but instead went to her normal, larger hover and got in. Simon climbed in next to her after lifting Tilly into the back, the scooter put back in with her. They had put on the jumpsuits again, as the haze was strong.

Simon didn’t have a jumpsuit, only the shirt and pants, but there wasn’t time this morning to fix that. Nora watched him get settled as she put a mask on to filter the dust. Does he even need to breathe? The dust didn’t seem to bother him as much.

Nora reached back to help Tilly with her goggles. “I hope that maybe after this atmosphere sweep tonight, they’ll fix this haze a bit. Would be nice to travel without the goggles all the time instead of only right after some rain.”

Tilly yelled something from the back but Nora couldn’t catch what it was as she turned on the hover. The engine made a deafening roar as it started before it settled down to idle. Nora checked the glove box for her gun and slipped it into her pocket before taking the hover out, leaving their small house and possessions behind.

***

Max’s eyes were big as they brought him the latest scrap. Simon’s eyes were smug as Nora saw him eye the money they received in return.

Nora looked at Max cautiously as she pocketed the money. “All good?”

“You weren’t kidding, you absolutely did find some different stuff,” Max said, examining the covers on the magazines.

“Yep. I’ll be back with more too.” Nora’s shoulders sagged in relief. Thank goodness he seems happy. The nagging tension that had plagued her on the ride in was now erased.

Max didn't even look up from the magazines. “I’ll be waiting.”

As they walked away, Nora turned around to see Max looking through the pages himself, an interested expression on his face.

She handed Simon the money and hollered her goodbyes to Max as they walked back to where Tilly and the hover were waiting.

“Still not as much as we would have gotten before for all of that,” Nora said, pocketing the amount after Simon counted it.

Simon side-eyed her, a suppressed grin on his face. “But more than enough that it replaces what I took yesterday morning to see you properly fed?”

Nora felt her cheeks heat up. “Okay. Yeah. You got me there.”

Simon chuckled next to her.

She shoved on his elbow. “Alright, alright. You were right.”

“Say that again. I want to record it.”

Nora laughed. “You can be an ass too?”

His tone became sultry. “An ass? I mean, you did already see it.”

Nora snorted. “You know what, not going there.”

She stumbled a bit when she heard Simon say in an undertone, “Why not?”

Nora looked away, blushing, while Simon continued to chuckle. Not answering that either.

When Nora reached the hover Tilly stood up, leaning over the hover’s edge. “Did you make a lot of money?”

Nora hopped over the side of the hover and started the engine. “Sure did. Can even get a bit extra at the shops today.”

They bought their standard goods as well as some extra supplies Simon insisted on to cook with. Eventually she just gave him the coin and let him wander the stalls for a minute, as most of what he was asking for he could find better just by sight. After it was all done and the grocery bags were secured in the back, Nora hesitated at the intersection where the turnoff was to go see Anna.

Simon took the hesitation out of her hands. “I want to go walk to the drop to see the board again while you see Anna. Now that I know . . .”

“Know what?” Tilly said, a lollipop in her mouth. They even had enough money for her to get one of the big ones she was always eyeing.

“Nothing, baby.” Nora tapped on the steering wheel. I don’t want to explain about the lottery and Mars right now to Tilly. But she did want to see Anna. She had extra magazines to give her too that she’d held back from trading with Max. “Alright, yes. Let’s go.”

Nora parked the hover on the side and they saw Simon off, with plans to meet up in an hour. Nora left the few magazines in her hover to give to Anna, hidden. If Paul wasn’t there, she would come back and get them.

Luck, though, was on her side, as she didn’t hear or see Paul anywhere when she walked in and Anna turned around to give her a big smile.

But, just in case, Nora leaned forward and whispered, “Paul around?”

Anna shook her head and Nora could see the relief in her eyes as well that they were alone. “Paul had some deliveries. You got good timing, he’ll be out for a few hours.”

Nora’s spirits rose. “Okay. Tilly, you go on back. Hold on Anna, in that case I got something to show you. And tell you too.”

****

“An android, Nora? Are you for real?” Anna’s eyes were so wide that her whole face looked comical. “Shit, that is . . .” Anna sat back, shaking her head. “Now it makes sense that Simon was the most handsome man I had ever seen.” She started giggling until it turned into full on laughs as she clutched her pregnant belly.

“Yes, it’s true.”

In between the laughter Anna wheezed out, “What the hell, Nora?”

Nora tried not to laugh too, a weight off her now that she wasn’t hiding a secret from Anna. “I struggled hard on whether to tell you or not but . . . you’re my only real friend here.”

“An android.” Anna choked out.

“Yeah. He liked your cookie you gave us from last time too.”

Anna laughed even harder as she started to wipe the tears from her eyes. She snorted at the end of laughing, which made Nora crack up as well. “Shoot, that’s the best . . . I’m so glad you told me.”

“Of course I had to tell you.”

“He’s so nice too.”

“Yep.” Nora’s mood sobered as she shifted a bit on the chair, her laughter fading. “Max knows too, unfortunately. I sourced too many specific parts from him while putting Simon back together and he figured it out.”

Anna’s face turned from amusement to worry fast. “Oh no. He gonna tell?”

“I don’t think so. Traded with him earlier and he seemed happy to get the new items I found. But let me know if you start hearing any rumors like he is. He’s getting a good enough deal right now from all the scrap I’m bringing in that I don’t think he will.”

Anna bit her lip. “That man. Anything for a good deal.”

Nora shook the box she carried. “Speaking of new scrap. I brought you some of the stuff we gathered. Just in case. You’ve helped us out a ton, and we got a lot the last time we went scavenging from where Simon knew to look.”

She brought out the magazines and watched as Anna’s eyes went wide. She set them down in front of them both.

Anna, just as gently as Nora had, flipped the pages. She spoke in a hushed tone. “Damn, Nora. What you found out there in that desert . . . look at all of this. It truly was a different world. Max must have flipped.”

“Crazy, huh?”

“I’ll say. And all them androids are now gone. Look how beautiful they all were. What your Simon must know . . .”

It was on the tip of Nora’s tongue to correct Anna about all the androids not being gone, but she refrained. It is enough that I told her about Simon. I don’t want to say any more about Mars. A part of her was afraid that the drone might do something to protect that secret if she told it freely.

Instead she checked on Tilly, who was swinging on the swing set in Anna’s backyard, before she came back and giggled over the magazine photos with Anna. She wondered if women from the past also laughed when they looked at these pictures brand new, so many years ago.

“These past people. They sound ridiculous.” Anna pointed at a photo with the caption that read, “Fit girl summer! How to keep your figure summer ready.”

“Right. But more than that, these pictures. Isn’t the sky so clear?” Nora tapped on the picture beyond the “Toned and Firm” sign, at the water and clear blue sky above it. “And that’s an ocean I think? That doesn’t look like dirt on the ground near it. Must be . . . sand.”

“Sure does look like an ocean. Yeah, I think that’s sand. Dang, it was different. Even back here. It’s talking about not eating all the time . . . fasting?” Anna laughed and snorted again. “Man, I would love so much food that I had to be worried about how not to eat it all.”

“No joke. There’s fruit and things I’ve never even heard about eating before.”

“Shit, at least I’m fit for the beach.” Anna gestured down at herself, resting a hand on her stomach.

Nora looked at Anna’s pregnant belly and laughed again. She flipped the pages to show her more. She pressed the magazine on Anna. “Simon was right. Things were wild back then. You keep this one. Okay?”

“These are priceless, though,” Anna said, bending low to read the words on the beach scene.

Nora watched, a warm and fuzzy feeling in her chest. She felt good inside, seeing that she could give her friend something so valuable. “Well, find a price. I think you need some money of your own, just in case. Heaven knows you helped me enough when Tilly was real little.”

“Okay, Nory,” Anna said, chuckling, pointing to another picture of an appliance sale for a bread maker. “Look at that.”

They talked a bit more and went through every magazine Nora brought until Simon returned.

“He’s back.” Anna pointed at the clock as she slid out of her chair. “And you guys should be going. Paul’s gonna be back any minute. Deliveries are not gonna take all day. I want to see Simon again anyways.”

Nora checked the time. “Yeah, getting late.”

Anna closed the magazine and put it back in the box Nora carried it in, sealing it away and out of sight. She stood up, the box with the magazine under her arm. “Lemme just get this in a safe spot. I’ll meet you out front.”

“Okay.” Nora went in the back and collected Tilly from the playground.

Tilly took her hand and tugged on it as they went back through the shop. “Anna knows now?”

“Yeah, she does.”

Nora and her both went out front, where Anna was already talking animatedly with Simon. Anna looked up and down at Simon in wonder, objectifying him in a similar way to how Max did originally. The only difference was that there was wonder and warmth in her gaze. “Shit. I would have never known.”

Simon chuckled and spun around for Anna. “It was intended for us to blend in completely. But here.” He pushed down the bandana around his neck to flash a bit of metal at Anna before hurriedly covering it back up.

Anna laughed, stamping her feet on the dirt-covered street. “Never would have known.” She checked the clock on the post outside the shop. “Okay, we need to talk about this more, but . . . come back soon, alright?”

Nora took the hint to leave, not wanting to run into Paul again, and started to walk to the hover. “Probably be a week or so with the atmosphere sweep tonight.”

“That’s alright. Yeah. Thanks again for that magazine.” Anna gave them hugs as they left, Simon included, and said in Nora’s ear when she got close, “I’m glad you have him regardless, Nora. It’s good you’re not alone out there.”

Simon turned his eyes to her. Nora squirmed under the intensity in his gaze. She loved the way he looked at her. As if she was something just as valuable as the magazine she gave to Anna. His attention made her heart pound fast in her chest.

Nora gave him a genuine grin back, matching his eyes with gentle ones of her own. “Me too.”