Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town

by Cory Doctorow

his drunkenness. First a clammy armaround her shoulder, then a casual grope at her boob, then asloppy kiss on the corner of her mouth. That was as far as shewas going to let it go. She waited for him to move in foranother kiss, then slipped out from under his arm so that hefell into the roots of the big tree they'd been leaningagainst. She brained him with the vodka bottle before he'd had achance to recover, then, as he rocked and moaned, she calmlytook the hunting knife she'd bought at the Yonge Streetsurvivalist store out of her bag. She prized one of his handsoff his clutched head and turned it over, then swiftly drew theblade across his palm, laying it open to the muscle.

  She hadn't been sure that she'd be capable of doing that, but itwas easier than she'd thought. She had nothing to worryabout. She was capable of that and more.

  #

  They climbed into bed together at the same time for the first time sincethey'd come home, like a domesticated couple, and Mimi dug under herpillow and set something down with a tin *tink* on the bedstand, a soundtoo tinny to be the hunting knife. Alan squinted. It was the robot, theone he'd given her, the pretty thing with the Dutch Master craquelure upits tuna-can skirts.

  "He's beautiful," she said. "Like you." She wrapped her wings around himtightly, soft fur softer than any down comforter, and pressed herdimpled knees into the hollows of his legs, snuggling in.

  He cried like a baby once the pain in his hand set in. Shepointed the knifepoint at his face, close enough to stab him ifneed be. "I won't kill you if you don't scream," she said. "ButI will be taking one joint of one toe and one joint of onefinger tonight. Just so you know."

  He tried not to fall asleep, tried to stay awake and savor that feelingof her pressed against him, of her breath on the nape of his neck, ofthe enfolded engulfment of her wings, but he couldn't keep his eyesopen. Soon enough, he was asleep.

  What roused him, he couldn't say, but he found himself groggily awake inthe close heat of those wings, held tight. He listened attentively,heard something else, a tinny sound. The robot.

  His bladder was full. He gently extricated himself from Mimi, from herwings, and stood. There was the robot, silhouetted on the end table. Hesmiled and padded off to the toilet. He came back to find Mimi splayedacross the whole bed, occupying its length and breadth, a faintlynaughty smile on her face. He began to ease himself into bed again, whenhe heard the sound, tinny, a little rattle. He looked at the robot.

  It was moving. Its arms were moving. That was impossible. Its arms werepainted on. He sat up quickly, rousing Mimi, who let out a small sound,and something small and bent emerged from behind the robot and made adash for the edge of the end table. The way the thing ran, it remindedhim of an animal that had been crippled by a trap. He shrank back fromit instinctively, even as he reached out for the table light andswitched it on.

  Mimi scrunched her eyelids and flung an arm over her face, but he hardlynoticed, even when she gave an outraged groan. He was looking at thelittle, crippled thing, struggling to get down off the end table onMimi's side of the bed.

  It was the Allen. Though he hadn't seen it in nearly 20 years, herecognized it. Tiny, malformed, and bandy-legged, it was still thespitting image of him. Had Davey been holding on to it all these years?Tending it in a cage? Torturing it with pins?

  Mimi groaned again. "Switch off the light, baby," she said, a moment'sdomesticity.

  "In a sec," he said, and edged closer to the Allen, which was huddled inon itself, staring and crazy.

  "Shhh," Adam breathed. "It's okay." He very slowly moved one hand towardthe end table, leaning over Mimi, kneeing her wing out of the way.

  The Allen shied back farther.

  "What're you doing?" Mimi said, squinting up at him.

  "Be very still," he said to her. "I don't want to frighten it. Don'tscream or make any sudden movements. I'm counting on you."

  Her eyes grew round and she slowly looked over toward the end table. Shesucked in sudden air, but didn't scream.

  "What is --"

  "It's me," he said. "It grew out of a piece of me. My thumb. After Daveybit it off."

  "Jesus," she said.

  The Allen was quaking now, and Alan cooed to it.

  "It's hurt," Mimi said.

  "A long time ago," Andreas said.

  "No, now. It's bleeding."

  She was right. A small bead of blood had formed beneath it. He extendedhis hand farther. Its bandy scurry was pathetic.

  Holding his breath, Alan lifted the Allen gently, cradling it in hispalms. It squirmed and thrashed weakly. "Shh," he said again. His handswere instantly made slippery and sticky with its blood. "Shh." Somethingsharp pricked at his hand.

  Now that he had it up close, he could see where the blood was comingfrom: A broken-off sewing needle, shoved rudely through its distendedabdomen.

  "Cover up," Bradley said, "I'm coming up." They heard his lopsided treadon the steps.

  Mimi pulled the blanket up around her chin. "Okay," she said.

  Bert opened the door quickly. He wore nothing but the oversized jeansthat Alan had given him, his scrawny chest and mutilated feet bare.

  "It's going to die," Brad said, hunkering down beside the bed. "Daveypinned it and then sent Link over with it. It can't last through thenight."

  Adam felt like he was choking. "We can help it," he said. "It canheal. It healed before."

  "It won't this time. See how much pain it's in? It's out of its mind."

  "So what do you want me to do?"

  "We need to put it out of its misery," Brad said. "It's the rightthing."

  In his hands, the thing squirmed and made a small, hurt sound. "Shhh,"Alan said. The sound it made was like sobbing, but small, so small. Andweak.

  Mimi said, "I think I'm going to be sick."

  "Yeah," Brian said. "Yeah, I can see that."

  She lifted herself out of bed, unmindful of her nudity, and pushed herway past him to the door, to the bathroom.

  "Stop being such a baby," she told Trey as he clutched at hisfoot. "It's almost stopped bleeding already."

  He looked up at her with murder in his eyes. "Shall I takeanother one?" she said. He looked away.

  "If I get word that you've come within a mile of my brother, Iwill come back and take your eyes. The toe and the finger jointwere just a down payment on that."

  He made a sullen sound, so she took his vain and girlish blondhair in her fist and tugged his head back and kissed his throatwith the knife.

  "Nod if you understand. Slowly."#

  "The knife is under Mimi's pillow."

  "I can't do it," Alan said.

  "I know," Brian said. "I will."

  And he did. Took the knife. Took the Allen. It cried. Mimi threw up inanother room, the sound more felt than heard. The toilet flushed andBrian's hands were sure and swift, but not sure enough. The Allen made asound like a dog whistle. Bruce's hand moved again, and then it wasover. He dug a sock out of the hamper and rolled up the Allen's remainsin it. "I'll bury it," he said. "In the back."

  Numbly, Alan stood and began dressing. "No," he said. "I will."

  Mimi joined them, wrapped in a blanket. Alan dug and Brent held the sockand Mimi watched solemnly.

  A trapezoid of light knifed across the back garden. They looked up andsaw Krishna staring down at them from a third-floor window. He wassmiling very slightly. A moment later, Link appeared in the window,reeling like he was drunk, giggling.

  They all looked at one another for a frozen moment, then Alan turnedback to his shoveling. He dug down three feet, and Brent laid the littleAllen down in the earth gently as putting it to bed, and Alan filled thehole back up. Mimi looked back up at the window, eyes locked onKrishna's.

  "I'm going inside," Adam announced. "Are you coming?"

  "Yeah," Mimi said, but she didn't. She stayed out there for ten minutes,then twenty, and when Alan looked out his window at her, he saw she wasstill staring up at Krishna, mesmerized.

  He loudly opened his window and leaned out. Mimi's eyes
flicked to him,and then she slowly made her way back into the house.

  She took his pants and his shoes and left him in the park,crying and drunk. All things considered, it had gone well. WhenTrey told her that he had no idea where her brother was, shebelieved him. It was okay, she'd find her brother. He had lotsof friends.

  Alan thought that that was the end of the story, maybe. Short andsweet. A kind of lady or the tiger thing. Let the reader's imaginationdo the rest.

  There on the screen, it seemed awfully thin. Here in the house