This Broken Wondrous World

by Jon Skovron

  “I can see the truth of things,” said the dwarf. “The secrets begin to crumble. Starting now.”

  I heard footsteps behind me.

  “Eh . . . Boy?” came Henri’s voice, a little higher pitched than usual. “Am I going crazy, or are you talking to a little magical man?”

  The dwarf squinted his bright blue eyes as he looked at Henri.

  “You are not mad, Henri Frankenstein. Not yet.”

  Then the dwarf drew his gray coat up over himself so that he looked like part of the stone. A moment later, there was nothing but rock.

  Henri’s eyes went even wider as they flickered back and forth between the now-empty rock and me.

  “Did he just . . . what the hell . . . I—”

  “Uh, yeah,” I said. “Why don’t you sit down. I might as well just tell you everything.”

  I TALKED FOR a long time. The sun was starting to sink behind the mountains by the time I was done. And the whole time, he listened quietly as I explained that all the stories he’d ever heard about monsters and mythical creatures were at least partly true. Things that defied what humans understood about science did exist. Although I was quick to point out that the stories were almost never completely accurate.

  “A world of monsters.” He shook his head and turned to look out at the lake, now red with the setting sun.

  “So . . . I know that’s a lot to take in.”

  He laughed, but his usual short burst sounded strained. I couldn’t tell if he was handling it well. I still couldn’t quite believe I’d just dumped it all on him like this. It felt really good, actually. But then I immediately felt guilty about that. I’d just turned his world upside down. Granted, the dwarf hadn’t left me a whole lot of choice. But still, I was pretty sure this was not going to go well.

  “I fucking knew it,” he said quietly, almost to himself.

  “You . . . knew that monsters are real?”

  “Well, no, not that part,” he said. Then he turned to me suddenly. He had a huge grin stretched across his face and his brown eyes seemed to sparkle with glee. “But I knew that there was more out there. More than these dull people around us would or could admit. I knew the world was still full of impossible things!” He hopped up off the rock he’d been sitting on, came over, and grabbed my shoulders. “Werewolves, trolls, ogres, sirens! I have so many questions for you, cousin!” Then his grin turned into a smirk. “But the first and most important one is, who are these two English ladies you talk about so much? Sophie and Claire?”

  “Oh, uh. They’re my . . . girlfriends.”

  “Girlfriends! You have two?”

  “Well, sort of. I mean, it’s complicated.”

  “I should hope so!”

  “Their names are Sophie Jekyll and Claire Hyde.”

  “Any relation to . . . ?”

  “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were their grandfathers. And like their mother and their grandfather, they switch back and forth. I guess you could say they’re kind of a package deal.”

  “I like this world of yours more and more!” He nudged me in the ribs with his elbow. “So do you get to pick which one you hook up with?”

  “Uh, no. That’s kind of an issue with them, actually. They try to stick to a strict monthly schedule. Otherwise, they get really competitive about who has more time out.”

  “Out?”

  “Well, the way Sophie described it to me once is that even when one of them is there, the other is still conscious inside somewhere, seeing what she sees, hearing what she hears, feeling what she feels, but not in the way she feels it.”

  “So, when you make love to one of them, the other is right there with you?”

  “Uh . . .” I said, feeling really uncomfortable. “Yeah.”

  “That must be a little . . . weird, no?”

  “You have no idea.”

  “Okay.” He waved his hands, like he was clearing the air. “So tell me—and this is important—are there any nymphs?”

  “Oh, yeah, loads. But I’m not sure—”

  “And are the stories at least right about their beauty?”

  “I guess, but—”

  “Then I must meet them!”

  “Look, you’re not even supposed to know any of this.”

  “It wasn’t your fault. That dwarf gave you away.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “And I’ll take full responsibility. You won’t be blamed for anything.”

  “Henri, that’s the problem. We have to worry about more than just my parents. There is a vampire who has dedicated his life to the secrecy of monsters. He is convinced that our survival depends on it. If he thinks you are any kind of threat, he won’t hesitate to kill you.”

  He stared at me for a moment in silence. I let it sink in.

  “So . . . I should be worried for my life?”

  “I hope not. Vi and I will do everything we can to protect you, of course. But—”

  “Who is Vi?”

  “Oh.”

  “Oh?”

  “She’s . . . uh . . . it’s really complicated. . . .”

  “Don’t tell me you have three girlfriends!”

  “No, no, it’s not like that. It’s just . . .” It was getting dark and I didn’t know how much longer this conversation would take. “Maybe I should just show you.”

  WE WERE QUIET for a little while as Henri steered us back across the lake toward the twinkling lights of Villa Diodati. We were most of the way home when we heard a loud splash about twenty feet behind us.

  Henri glanced back, scanning the black water for a moment. Then he slowly turned to me.

  “The mermaid is real, isn’t she?”

  “I don’t know for sure,” I said. “But yeah, probably.”

  He shook his head. “Everywhere I look has been altered. It is as if I am seeing a new world all around me. A world I always hoped existed, but feared could not.”

  “So . . . you’re not scared about there being monsters in the world?”

  “I suppose I am. But that is not the most important thing.”

  “No?”

  “Listen, when I was a boy, I always daydreamed of magical places and creatures. This world seemed too narrow, too confining for my vision. But as you get older, you learn to give up those childish dreams. As painful as it is, you learn to accept that life just is not as cool as you imagine it to be. But then my father told me about you and your parents. It was like . . .” He opened his hand like a little explosion. “Hope. For foolish dreams. And now that hope has been realized.”

  “You know you can’t tell your parents,” I said.

  “That’s okay. I like being the only one who knows.”

  We were quiet again as Henri brought us up to the dock and tied off the boat. During the walk back, he kept looking around at everything, like he expected magic creatures to be hiding in bushes or under rocks. I actually started to feel a little excited about it, too. It was silly, of course. I’d grown up around monsters and magic. But Henri’s sense of wonder was infectious. And it felt nice. Like I was part of something special, not terrible.

  “So where are we going now?” asked Henri once we got back to the house.

  “To my room. I want you to meet Vi.”

  “Meet?”

  “You’ll see.” I wiggled my eyebrows mysteriously.

  I’d made a point of mentioning Vi because I’d set it up so that she could “see” and “hear” things inside the house. I wanted to give her a little heads-up that she was about to meet Henri. She seemed oddly preoccupied with him for some reason, and I had a feeling she’d be nervous.

  When we walked into my room, a female computerized voice said, “Hello, Boy. How was your mountain hike?”

  I smiled. She was showing off the new text-to-speech software we’d been working on.r />
  “Good,” I said. “Weird. We met a dwarf.”

  “Swiss dwarves?” she asked. “Sometimes called Bergmännlein? I can’t quite figure out the difference between those and kobolds. I suspect they may be the same thing.”

  “Whatever he was, he blew our cover,” I said. “So Henri knows everything.”

  “Henri Frankenstein, I have heard so many wonderful things about you,” she said. “It is so good to finally meet.”

  “Eh, hi?” he said, looking around the room. Then he spotted the laptop sitting open on the desk. “Are we Skyping with someone?”

  “Nope.” I pointed to the laptop. “That’s Vi.”

  “The computer?”

  “She’s based on the laptop right now because she needs the CPU for processing, and her range is somewhat restricted. But she’s a fully independent virtual intelligence. Eventually, she’ll be able to connect with any digital platform in the world.” I turned to the laptop and winked at her. “When she’s ready.”

  “You winked!” she said. “That’s a facial cue that implies a shared knowledge between us.”

  “Or?” I asked.

  “Facetious flirtation.”

  “She’s using the camera in the laptop to try to read our facial expressions,” I told Henri. “It’s still pretty new.”

  “It’s an extremely nuanced communication layer,” said Vi. “Sometimes it seems that a millimeter of skin displacement can be the difference between happiness and anger.”

  Henri just stood there and stared at the laptop, his mouth open.

  “Are you testing me?” she asked. “I’m not sure I’m reading this one correctly. Shock? Horror?”

  “Amazement.” He turned to me. “This is . . .” He turned back to the laptop. “You are . . . the most amazing thing in the world.”

  “Do you really mean that, Henri?” asked Vi. “I . . . still have trouble parsing figurative language sometimes.”

  “Of course I mean it!” he said. “In the whole world, there is nothing else like you! You are singular! Unique! A brand-new life-form!”

  “Henri . . . I . . . thank you,” she said.

  “Vi is the reason I’m studying biology,” I said. “I’m going to build her a body. Not from dead body parts like Victor did. New. From scratch.”

  “Interesting.” His eyes narrowed in thought. “You are talking about cellular engineering. It is going to take a long time.”

  “Yeah,” I admitted.

  He pursed his lips for a moment, then turned back to the laptop.

  “Vi?” he said.

  “Yes, Henri?”

  “Would you be interested in another way to interact in three-dimensional space while you are waiting?”

  “Of course!” she said.

  “What do you have in mind?” I asked.

  “Well, learning to recognize facial expressions is only part of visual communication. She should also learn how to do them.”

  “Good point,” I said.

  “And why stop at the facial? Our whole bodies have a language of expression!”

  “True . . .” I said.

  “But don’t you see, Boy? This is why I am here! I can design her a three-dimensional avatar! Combined with your speech and facial recognition software, she could have a truly seamless interaction with the real world! Art and technology in complete, functional union!”

  “Vi?” I asked. “Does that sound like something you’d want?”

  “What would I look like?” she asked.

  Henri leaned in toward the laptop and gave her an extra helping of his sly grin. “My dearest Vi, you can look however you want.”

  “Will you . . . help me decide? To make sure I look okay?”

  “Of course! I am an artist, after all. I would be glad to give you my input.”

  “That would make me very happy, Henri.”

  4

  Good Neighbor

  VI’S GIGANTIC PURPLE eyes narrowed slightly beneath her pink-and-purple bangs. Her tiny mouth curled down into a pout.

  “You don’t like it?” she asked.

  “You look like a manga character,” I told her.

  She looked down at her cartoon body, complete with sleeveless button-up shirt, tie, short skirt, and thigh-high stockings. “Henri says when you try to make a digital image look too close to human, it starts to get creepy.”

  “I understand the concept of the ‘uncanny valley,’” I said. “But I just feel like going in this direction is a little . . . uh, sexy, I guess.”

  She put her hands on her hips and cocked her head to one side. She seemed to like that pose a lot. “What’s wrong with that?”

  “I want to make sure this is what you want, and not just what Henri wants.”

  “I live in binary. I have no aesthetic opinions. He is an artist and I trust his designs.”

  I sighed and shook my head.

  “Resignation,” she said softly.

  “Yeah. It’s not my place to tell you what you should look like.”

  “Boy, is everything okay?” She put her hands on her knees and leaned forward. Her big anime eyes got even bigger. “Are you sad again?”

  “No, I’m fine. I just . . . I’ve had a lot of homework lately. Probably need to get more sleep.”

  The door flew open and Henri stepped into the room. I couldn’t quite remember when it was he’d stopped bothering to knock. A month ago at least.

  “There she is! My masterpiece!” he said.

  “Henri!” She jumped up and down, clapping her hands.

  “You know . . .” He pressed a finger to his lip as he examined her. “The bounce on those pigtails is pretty good, but I think we can make it better!”

  “You bet we can!” she said, one foot kicked back artfully.

  “I think I’m going to go study down by the lake,” I said.

  “Of course, of course,” said Henri, nodding as he sat down at the laptop. “It is lovely outside. Vi and I will probably be cooped up in here all day. Someone should get to enjoy it.”

  I headed downstairs. It wasn’t that I regretted introducing Henri and Vi to each other. It was great to see Vi bonding with someone other than me. And this would help her work on nonverbal communication. Henri was clearly enjoying himself, too. It was like the art project of his dreams.

  But I was pretty sure that he didn’t see her as anything other than an art project. Which would be fine, I guess, except I was starting to get the feeling that Vi was developing a huge crush on him. And really, I couldn’t see how that was going to end well.

  “Good morning, Boy.”

  I was passing through the main foyer when I heard William’s voice. He and Elisa were sitting in the sunroom, reading newspapers and drinking coffee.

  “Good morning,” I said. “How are you guys today?”

  “Oh, fine, fine. Thanks for asking,” he said, and went back to his paper. I stood there for a second, but neither of them seemed interested in any more conversation, so I kept moving.

  I stopped by the kitchen to grab a quick snack. The fridge was always crammed with food. It seemed like half of it usually ended up going bad. I wondered who actually did the grocery shopping. I’d never seen either William or Elisa do it. I thought maybe they hired someone, but it didn’t seem polite to ask.

  I grabbed a bunch of random stuff that looked like it wouldn’t last much longer. Cheese, cured sausage of some kind, some carrots, and half a cucumber. I tossed it all on a plate and just started to eat it at the counter. After a few minutes, I realized that Giselle was watching me from the doorway.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “Hey.” She watched me eat for a moment, then asked, “What’s Henri do up there in your room all day?”

  “An art project,” I said. “I think for class or something.”
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br />   “Why does he have to do it in your room?”

  “Oh, uh, because he’s using this, um . . . software I made.”

  “Like an app?” she asked.

  “Yeah, sort of.”

  “Oh.” Then she turned and left.

  Four months, and she still hadn’t warmed up to me. And while William and Elisa were still nice, they both seemed to have settled back into the routines they had before I arrived. Routines that didn’t have a whole lot of room for me.

  I liked school. After the first few weeks, I’d adjusted to the sheer volume of knowledge absorption, just like Henri said I would. The only problem now was that I hadn’t really made any friends. I didn’t know if that was because I wasn’t good at making new friends, or because I looked scary, or just because I was American. Maybe a combination.

  When I let Henri in on the secret, I thought I’d feel less alone. But now that Vi and Henri had become obsessed with each other, I felt more alone than ever.

  HENRI WAS RIGHT about it being a nice day. Early winter in Geneva had been pretty dark and rainy. But today was bright and chilly, with hardly any clouds in the sky. It was clear enough that I could see the mountains on the far side, now with a lot more snow on top than when I’d first arrived.

  I had planned to just sit down and study for my chem test by the lakeshore. But I had a sudden strong urge to be up there in those snow-covered peaks. William had taught me the basics of sailing—enough to get myself across the lake and back. I could study just as well over there. Maybe better, even.

  I walked down to the dock and untied the boat from the cleat. I wasn’t as fast a sailor as Henri or William, but I made it across to the far shore. Once there, I climbed up the mountain until I reached the same plateau where I’d seen the dwarf. It was covered with snow now, so I dusted off some rocks and sat down, the stone pleasantly chilled beneath me. More and more, I noticed that I craved the cold. I wasn’t sure why. It just felt right, especially sitting up here, looking out over the lake. I could see the Villa Diodati on the far shore. I imagined Henri in my room, adding some new weird anime fetish to Vi’s design.