Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 104

by Kressel, Matthew

  The woman said, “How would I, a weak woman, know what you want?”

  Jason said, “But you know about the book, right?”

  The woman shivered, but quickly composed herself. “What book?”

  Jason took everything in his gaze. Calmly, he reached inside his jacket and pulled out his tablet. Its screen changed as he swiped it.

  A front cover of a book appeared on the screen.

  The front cover was bronze colored, with the title at the top.

  The title was only five words. Five ordinary words.

  But the woman looked as though she’d seen a ghost. Her face changed expression.

  The Domestic Robot Administration Amendment

  Peter, who’d been silent so far, started to speak.

  His words were like his body, lean and taut. “We have information. You’re hiding an LW model robot.”

  Jason said, “And according to the amendment, all the robots must be reclaimed.”

  The woman said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Jason said, “Of course you know. Your face betrays you.”

  The woman said nothing.

  Peter looked at her with care. His voice grew gentle. “A month ago, a PRW model domestic robot, while its owner was asleep, severed his throat. The deceased was an Alliance assemblyman. The Alliance has already passed a law. All robots are to be reclaimed.”

  The woman shook her head. “There’s no robot here.”

  Jason laughed coldly. “I’m afraid you don’t get the last word here.”

  With that, Jason pushed the woman away, then entered the room.

  The woman crashed into the wall.

  She looked to Peter for help, but Peter lowered his head, his expression difficult to read.

  Jason narrowed his gaze. He looked all around the room. No robot.

  Peter said, “There’s no robot. Let’s go.”

  Jason raised his hand. His gaze fell on the bed, the snow white sheets, the neatly folded blanket. The foot posts were made of a metal alloy. They were coated with dust.

  This woman with the meticulously arranged room, how could she put up with the dust on the foot posts?

  Jason laughed. His laughter was joyous.

  He pointed at the bed. “Is something hiding under the bed?”

  The woman’s face instantly went pale.

  Jason lit another cigarette. “Now you have two options.”

  The woman quickly nodded her head.

  Jason said, “Option one, I take the robot back. It’ll be melted down and, for the crime of hiding it, you’ll be put in prison.”

  The woman said, “Please, I beg you. Don’t take away LW31. It’s the only thing my parents left me.”

  Jason said, “Then you have option two. Give me five thousand points and I’ve seen nothing.”

  The woman furrowed her brow. “But I don’t have that much money. Take everything else in my home. Just leave me LW31.”

  The corners of Jason’s mouth curled into a slight smile. His gaze slid from the woman’s face down, “Even if I took everything in your house, it still wouldn’t be enough.”

  Jason’s gaze felt like a serpent. Clammy and cool, it slithered over her skin.

  The woman’s chest tightened.

  Calmly, Jason stared at the woman. He enjoyed the fear that spread across the woman’s face. He was pleased, and a certain part of his body began to respond.

  A long time had passed before he spoke. “I want you for ten nights.”

  The woman violently shook her head.

  Jason made an apologetic sigh. “Then say goodbye to your robot.”

  Before he’d even finished speaking, the woman raised her hand to hit him.

  She only needed one chance. This one chance was enough to subdue him.

  She assembled machines at the factory. Her work every day was to reach her hand in to shove motherboards into the machines.

  So, she’d already practiced this move for four years, five months and twenty-eight days. She was absolutely certain that no one in this room could stop her.

  But, this once, she was wrong.

  Astonishment gradually solidified on her face. One hand, one fat, white, and strong hand clutched her throat.

  The hand belonged to Jason.

  No one had ever thought that someone short and fat could reach his hand out so quickly.

  The woman implored him. “LW31 isn’t dangerous. It’s just responsible for taking care of me. For a long time now. I can’t lose it. I beg you.”

  Jason said, “I’ll give you a chance to beg, but it’ll be when we’re both naked. People who try to hit me don’t come to a good end. You’ll quickly know how living can be worse than dying.”

  He wasn’t lying. Jason never lied. If you met Jason one day and he told you he wanted to kill you, there was only thing you should do: go home and make out your will.

  You couldn’t resist and there was no escape because he was Jason.

  The woman’s face filled with despair. This time, her eyes suddenly widened. She saw something she absolutely wasn’t supposed to see.

  A gun pressed against the back of Jason’s head.

  Peter said, “Let her go.”

  Jason said, “You want to betray me because of her?”

  Peter, his face expressionless, said, “I can’t take it any more. Searching for robots as an excuse, you’ve extorted nearly two hundred thousand Alliance points, raped seven women, hounded nineteen residents of the city to death.”

  Jason said, “And you’re a good guy?”

  Peter said, “I’m not, but now I want to be.”

  Jason sneered. “I bet you can’t kill me.”

  Peter laughed. “Why?”

  Jason said, “Because you wouldn’t dare.”

  Peter pulled the trigger.

  Blood splashed.

  The man fell.

  The woman looked at Peter. Astonished, she sized him up. Tears fell from her eyes. “Thank you.”

  Peter shrugged. “Peter upheld justice for you. He begs you not to cry. If the world is unjust, get drunk, wave a sword, then cut off heads.”

  The woman nodded. “But you killed him and he died in my home. Maybe I should get ready to flee.”

  Peter said, “But, one person fleeing will be very lonely.”

  The woman said, “What do you suggest then?”

  Peter studied the woman.

  For a long time, they looked at each other and laughed. Peter extended his hand. “Hello, my name is Peter, Peter Griffin.”

  The woman said, “I’m Xue Yi.”

  Peter took a step forward, then held the woman.

  The woman felt his embrace.

  He was very tall.

  Very thin.

  His face was cool.

  His arms were stiff.

  But his chest was warm.

  “That night, we spent a lot of time digging a hole and buried you in it. Afterward, he took me and we fled here, there, and everywhere until the Alliance collapsed. We didn’t return until the orders for our arrest were canceled.”

  LW31 looked at her serenely. After a while, Mrs. Griffin let out an inaudible sigh.

  She said lightly, “But the good times didn’t last. Not long after we settled down, he grew ill and died. In the years when we were on the run, he always gave the good things to our daughter and me. All the injuries and illnesses accumulated in his body . . . ”

  “I remember him a little. He was laconic, capable, and he loved you very much.”

  Mrs. Griffin exposed her wrists. She tossed the grief from her mind. “I want to open an blood vessel. Come and help me.”

  LW31 nodded its head, then took a thin knife from a drawer. It gleamed as though it were lacquered with a layer of light.

  Mrs. Griffin held out her wrists. The knife edge immediately pressed down on an old, wrinkled, pulsing vessel. A chill started at her skin then oozed into the blood vessel. She began to shiver.

  “I’
m going to start cutting. Are you ready?” LW31 asked.

  “I’m ready. Just get on it.” Mrs. Griffin snapped. She closed her eyes then immediately opened them again. Shivering, she asked, “What happens after you open an blood vessel?”

  “That depends on which one I cut. If it’s a vein, then your blood will flow out right away, but not like a river in volume. That’s because your platelets will have already congealed at the wound. If it’s an artery, then you’ll die quickly. However, in that scenario, blood will spurt like a fountain. It may be hard to keep this within the limits of propriety. Blood will drench your body. I fear that you’ll look horribly mutilated.” LW31 spoke at a steady pace. “Should I start cutting now?”

  “In that case, is there some other way?”

  “Yes, there’s a way that is highly appropriately for you. However, before I tell you, you have to tell me again about someone who loved you.”

  The photo frame’s screen flickered. Quickly, a smiling girl, bright and beautiful, pulling a suitcase behind her appeared. The screen also displayed three short arcs. That indicated that this photo also had sound. Mrs. Griffin’s trembling hand touched the screen. Immediately, a graceful but ordinary voice surrounded the room.

  In the winter of 2335, dragging my suitcase, I returned to the small town I left seven years ago.

  The airport was deserted. Wind from a distant place blew here and my hair fluttered in that wind. I grew dizzy at the sight of a sky that was filled with clouds, a vast expanse of exquisite grace sweeping past the town. I began to understand that when a woman was looking at the sky, she wasn’t looking for anything. She was just being still.

  The stillness oozed into my veins, like ice-cold lips kissing my bones.

  There weren’t many taxis at midnight. Once in a while, a few passed by on the suspended tracks, their headlights scratching a line in the dark.

  I stood by the side of the street, watching flowing light drag shadow behind it. A taxi stopped in front of me. A dark window rolled down revealing the driver. He was a good-looking man. When he smiled, his teeth were white. The corners of his mouth tilted gently. The expression in his eyes was as clean and flowing as water.

  “Where to?” he asked.

  I stepped in, then told him my destination.

  Once we got on the road, we didn’t speak.

  I plastered my face to the car window. Colors faded as I rode. I saw the town through the gray forms that emerged. Nothing had changed in seven years. This small town, old and broken, still made people’s hearts bleak and desolate.

  “Everyone is emigrating now. Very few returned.” The driver was the first to speak.

  I nodded. “I’m also planning to leave. I applied for the Pegasus star system, the planet called KG6. My application’s already approved.”

  “Then what are you returning here for?”

  “To say goodbye.”

  The driver didn’t say any more.

  The taxi stopped in the north end, at a house I knew intimately. I got out. The driver, still stopped by the side of the road, wasn’t in a hurry to leave. I think he must have wanted to tell me something. At last, though, he just started the engine. The taxi slowly glided into the night.

  I knocked on the door. The dull thuds sounded like the beating of a lonely heart.

  The door opened with a creak. The robot’s face revealed itself. Facial features had been carved on its black face guard. The childish scratches formed a weird smile.

  The robot came out and took my suitcase. “Miss, you’ve returned.”

  I looked inside. The house was a black cavity. “Is she here?”

  “Yes, she’s home. She’s been waiting for you for a long time. Why don’t we go in?”

  I hesitated. I stood at the door. Below my feet, it was as if a deep trench had split open. A great and frozen wind blew down that vast gap. I had no way to cross it. I simply sat down. The woman inside the house, who was also sitting, opened her eyes, as though she was looking back at me.

  She was my mother. Or, rather, she was once my mother.

  The first seventeen years of my life, I spent at her side. In my memory, this little house will always be cold and damp, like the years I can’t bear. The place always carried the faint smell of rot and the young me hated it. After I escaped, though, not a night went by that I didn’t secretly long for this house.

  I was born in the final age of Earth’s exhaustion. No one felt secure. When I was small, I saw too many pallid faces grow alarmed and bewildered, but I didn’t know why. Until I was five, I roamed the world with my parents. Or rather, we were fugitives.

  Then the once colossal Alliance crumbled. We settled down with lots of robots to help with the housework. But not long after, my father, lying in bed, swallowed his last breath. I remember his eyes, withered and cloudy, staring forever at her and me. Deep grief was buried in those eyes.

  After my father died, she became frail and stubborn. She wouldn’t let me out of the house. She wouldn’t let me have any contact with boys. If I defied her, she didn’t hit me or yell at me. She just kept staring at me, her dark eyes shining like a wolf’s.

  So I stayed by her side. Time flowed like water. It washed over me until I was clear and slender. However, it wore her down until her face grew ashen and wrinkled. Did time retaliate against her on my behalf? I’ve never dared to imagine.

  I let go of a silent breath. A fierce wind screamed under the cover of night. The town let out a loud and lonely cry. Yes, the town was also lonely. One after another, people emigrated. The center of town was deserted, like a great beast that has lost its heart, lamenting without end.

  “Miss, let’s go in.” The robot had waited a long time before finally speaking. Its voice was as flat as ever. This time, though, I seemed to hear an imploring tone in its voice.

  But I shook my head. If she didn’t open her mouth, I wouldn’t go in. She and I were two sheafs of wheat in a wheat field, leaning against each other, but always pushing against each other too. We could never hug.

  When I was seventeen, I decided to leave.

  That summer, I had worked everywhere in town. I carefully saved every cent. After that muggy summer, I already had enough money for a bus ticket. As far as I was concerned, all I needed was a bus ticket and I could lead my own vagrant life.

  So, that September, I told her, “Ma, I’m going to buy a book.”

  “Hm,” she said in the dark.

  I turned to the door, and just like that, I left home. The moment I bought my bus ticket, tears filled my face. Soundlessly, I sobbed.

  And she waited for me to return. It took exactly seven years.

  In those seven years, I traveled to many places. I saw warm sunshine and was drenched in dark rain. I never stopped moving. Until I met him.

  It was on a main street in the south. He stood on a platform simultaneously passing out leaflets to passersby and, in a loud voice, extolling the virtues of the interstellar immigration policy. The instant he gave me a leaflet, I saw his beautiful eyes. Furrows wrinkled his brow. His gaze, clear like spring water, flowed past the seething sunlight and crowd, surmounted the air, then flowed into mine.

  And just like that, I was lost.

  The man always liked to hold my face in his large palms, nuzzle my forehead with his nose then tease me like a small animal. I never refused him. Later, when he wanted to take me away from Earth, I still didn’t refuse him.

  He said, “We’ll settle down in the Pegasus star system. There’s already a terraformed planet. The atmosphere is as fresh as your breath. Six satellites orbit the planet. When you walk outside at night, six shadows spread out beneath your feet.”

  I said, “Fine.”

  My only request was to return to see her, to say goodbye.

  But, now, I hesitated at the door. It was a chilly night but I didn’t dare go in.

  The person in the room and I exchanged gazes. After I don’t know how long, I stood. “LW31, give me my suitcase. I want to leave.�
�

  “Miss, you really don’t want to visit her?” The robot said, hurriedly. “She’s missed you so much these past few years.”

  I nodded. I’d also missed her. Instead of sending a message, if I had a chance, I’d come back to visit again.

  The robot stayed silent. Dew condensed on it, like tears weeping down its outer shell.

  She still hadn’t come out and I decided I wouldn’t wait any longer. I took my suitcase, turned around, then left. Clouds floated across the sky. A strong wind howled past.

  I knew she was in the back looking at me, but I never turned around.

  “I know what happened next.” LW31 said. “The spaceship she rode on was hit by a meteorite. The ship’s cabin was damaged. All the crew and passengers suffocated to death.”

  Mrs. Griffin didn’t say anything. A long while later, two thick tears fell down her face. They hit the photo frame. The display slowly faded to black.

  “So, those who loved me, they’re all gone.” Mrs. Griffin put the photo frame back into her pocket. “I no longer have any meaning to my life. Tell me the way to kill myself. Let me die, please?”

  “As you wish. The most suitable method is . . . electrocution.”

  “Won’t that hurt?”

  “Electrocution is the most beautiful way to commit suicide. It best preserves the original appearance of the corpse. In fact, if it’s done correctly, it doesn’t even leave any burn marks. In the moment of electrocution, you’ll feel a sharp pain then you’ll stop breathing and your heart will stop beating. The process is very quick. Practically no pain at all.” LW31 said earnestly. “But what you need to make sure of is this: the electric current must pass through the heart in order to cause death. No other way will do. But I can help you with this bit. I will use rubber tape to attach copper wire to your solar plexus. I guarantee the electrical current will pass through your heart. Moreover, I will use cotton balls moistened with salt water to lower your resistance. Mrs. Griffin, would you like to do this now?”

  Mrs. Griffin nodded her head.

  “Very well. I exist to serve you.” LW31 turned to look for copper wire, rubber tape, and cotton balls, but when he reached the door, he stopped. “Mrs. Griffin, before you are electrocuted, I want to give you a warning. You’re wrong about a few things.”

  “What things?”