Loud and Clear

The sun was creeping over Seventy-Seven, making the town and ivy hills shine in the morning dew. Birds sang to greet the dawn, a chorus of mockingbirds, doves, cardinals, and more. The calm and music of nature almost made Lavinia not want to finish repairing the old radio. And yet, her curiosity beckoned her on. It was a beautiful morning to work to, like every other one she’d spent out at the balcony table. Just herself, a cup of tea, her current project, and a scattering of spare parts and tools spread out before her.

After relaxing a few minutes to take in the sunrise, Lavinia turned back to the radio. She flipped it on, extended the antenna, and turned up the volume.

“What do you think li'l guy, is today gonna be the day you finally work?” she asked the radio.

It said nothing in response, which was the problem. From everything she taught herself, all the wiring should be right. She let the batteries recharge all night. What was the issue?

Lavinia frowned and picked up the small device, lightly tapping it on the table. The resulting burst of static nearly made her drop it to the floor and scattered every bird for two streets. After a brief fumble, she put it back on the table turned the volume down. Despite the surprise, Lavinia took a long gulp of tea in silent satisfaction. She set her mug down and turned the station dial.

“Let’s see what we got…”

As she scanned the frequencies, most of what she got was static. By the time she neared the 100s, Lavinia was beginning to fear there was something else wrong with the radio. Then a voice came through.

“—EVACUATE NOW,” the automated voice announced. “THIS IS FOR YOUR SAFETY. REPEAT, MANDATORY EVACUATION FOR ALL RESIDENTS HAS BEEN ISSUED. THE IMPACTED COMMUNITIES ARE AS FOLLOWS—”

She wrinkled her nose and turned the dial away from that station. It was surprising that those old broadcasts from Back Before were still even transmitting. Luckily for her, she didn’t have to scroll too far before finding the station she was looking for.

“Goood morning Seventy-Seven!” a charming voice said. “This is Morning Mae coming at you from the beautiful Ivy Tower Station.”

Lavinia smiled and leaned back in her chair, sipping her tea.

“For all you poor souls up at dawn with me, we’ve got some tracks and the latest news to help get you out of bed,” Mae continued. “I know I could use some coffee and I bet all you early birds could too, so let’s start off with an upbeat number while I go fix mine. Here’s the first track I saw when I sat down a minute ago, it’s Billie Holiday’s ‘On The Sunny Side Of The Street.’”

As the song started playing, Lavinia looked out from her balcony. She could see the radio station off in the distance across town. Before she finally fixed her mama’s old radio, she could only hear Ivy Tower Station on the one at Vic’s. And it was also the only place she could both hear and occasionally see Mae… It was silly, but Lavinia felt as though she were talking and playing music just for her.

Maybe I could put in a request for one of them sappy love songs sometime…

Lavinia paused. Then her whole face turned beet red and she furiously chugged the rest of her tea. How did a simple thought like that turn her into a bashful schoolgirl?

“Well, can’t sit around all morning…” she said, clearing her throat.

She gathered up all the scrap wiring and components and dropped them into her toolbox, closing the lid as Mae came back on the radio. With the toolbox in one hand, the radio in the other, and her empty mug awkwardly balanced in the middle, she shuffled back inside. Mae was talking about expected deliveries at the Blackwell Market while Lavinia stood over her table, mapping out how to set everything down without breaking something. But all the plotting in the world wouldn’t have mattered when her roommate made his unexpected appearance.

“Ms. Lavinia, I can help with that!”

She dropped the toolbox onto its side on the table with a horrendous crash, and the mug fell to the floor before Arlo snatched it up.

“Ow…” Lavinia said, wincing from the noise. “You scared the heck out of me! What’re you doing up so early, Arlo?”

The boy sat the mug down on the table. “There was a loud static noise, then I saw you trying to carry all this.”

Though her heart was still racing, Lavinia smiled down at the boy. That noise must have really spooked him. From his crooked eyepatch to his empty, hanging left sleeve, the boy was in a far more disheveled state than he preferred. He looked plumb exhausted. Though she still didn’t understand how mechas from Back Before could even be exhausted, that didn’t matter.

“Oops, sorry about that. But good news!” She sat the radio by the toolbox and mug as instrumental music played from it, “I got the radio to work.”

“That’s wonderful, Ms. Lavinia!” Arlo said, beaming up at her.

“C’mon Arlo, how many times I gotta tell you to call me Lavinia?”

“Sorry. But now you can hear the woman you like,” he said.

She froze for a moment, before setting off blushing again.

“What woman? Mae?” She forced a laugh, “W-Who said I like her? I never said anything, about that, she’s—she’s just—”

Arlo blinked tiredly as Lavinia kept on stammering. After a moment of it, he just turned and walked back to his room. Not everything was as easy to her as figuring out an old radio, it seemed.

A Hard Day’s Work

The Builder crouched low over the structure as it carefully lowered the final window into place. Database records showed the location was the old city’s botanical garden, and nearly its entire surface was covered in glass. That was always the trickiest object for the Builders to repair. Even after reforming shards into whole pieces, they often had to create entirely new glass from scratch. So tedious.

Deeming that the more laborious task, the Builder diverted most of its attention to repairing it first. After arriving in the area and establishing a protective barricade—then taking a short trip to a nearby flower garden—it set to work gathering all the glass it could find. That inevitably led to repairing several smaller buildings in the surrounding area. The other Builders always did say it had less focus than normal units.

But now, finally, the garden was complete. Its giant fingers pressed the last window into place, and the Builder took a few steps back to admire its work. The glass building below gleamed in the sunlight.

That human could establish a garden of her own here… it considered.

Then it heard a CRASH and felt something fall around its foot.

Looking back, it realized it stepped through one of the smaller buildings it repaired while seeking glass. The Builder sighed and squatted down beside it, picking up the broken pieces again.

***

Several hours later, most of the repair was complete. The sun was beginning to set by the time the Builder sprayed the last bit of mortar between bricks. Repairing the same building twice was tedious, but as long as they were careful, that should be the last time. With the final piece in place, it stood up carefully. It only took three steps backward to step on the smaller building, and it would not make the same mistake with the completed garden.

Rather than back up and admire the re-repaired structure, the Builder turned to move down to the next set of buildings. As it did, though, it kicked an old car on the side of the street. The rusted-out wreck bounced forward and crashed straight through the first-floor windows of the botanical garden.

The Builder just stared down at the broken glass.

After sighing again, it removed the car and set it off to the side where it was out of the way. The damage to the first floor didn’t seem extensive; there was only an eleven-meter area of glass to repair. That was considerably less than the overall structure which only took a week to complete. The Builder reached down and began vacuuming up the shards of glass into its finger. Only a few more hours of work to complete it again.

***

The moon was high above the ruins as the Builder inserted the final pane of glass. The botanical garden was even more beautiful now, shimmering like a diamond in the pale moonlight. But despite how pretty it was, the Builder was relieved it was finally done. It stood up as slowly as possible, glancing to the left and then the right. Everything looked clear. The Builder took a single small step backward. So far, so good. It took another step back into the street, without stepping on or kicking anything.

If it had a respiratory system instead of just auditory features to express a range of emotions, the Builder would have sighed in relief. It never had a day like that, where seemingly every move destroyed something. That was counter to its primary directive—not advisable.

The Builder turned and crept by with its arms up above the tops of the buildings. If it could just make it to the next construction zone, it could prove to itself that every setback that day was pure coincidence. Even Builders have off days. But according to its internal chronometer, the time was now 12:01 AM per the local time zone. It was a new day, and now everything would return to normal operations. One step, then another. Everything was fine.

Then it stepped on the same car it kicked before. The resulting honk from the vehicle’s horn made the Builder yelp and stumble back. It lost all balance and fell, kicking straight through the botanical garden and landing onto the small building across the street. In the span of half a second, it managed to demolish two of the only structures it spent a week repairing.

The Builder lay there, staring up at the moon for a time. Far up in the sky, cut off from all troubles below… that must be nice. After a time, the Builder sighed and sat up. It looked over at the demolished garden as bricks tumbled down its back, examining the shattered glass building. Maybe it was better to start again on the other side of town.

Incognito, ego some

In the workshop of their home, Lavinia and Arlo were at their usual stations. Even though he was created for domestic tasks Back Before and repair work fell outside his regular functions, he enjoyed spending time with her. Also, Lavinia’s hands were too big to clean some of the smaller parts of their projects. Even though he only had one arm, Arlo was busily scrubbing the inners of a toaster he held between his knees.

Morning Mae was on the radio reporting on continued Builder activity across the river. Lavinia always tuned into Ivy Tower Radio whenever they were in the workshop. Glancing over, he saw her dissecting a pocket watch with magnifying goggles that always creeped him out. Arlo looked over all the cogs and gears, then back to the toaster he was working on.

“Do you ever think about the Ship of Theseus, Ms. Lavinia?” he asked.

“No, but I do think about tigers a lot,” she said. “And it’s just Lavinia.”

“What? Why tigers?”

“Like, how’re they doing over on the other side of the world? Have they got enough food? Are they okay?” She shook her head, “We may never know.”

Arlo stared at her, bewildered.

“What’s that Ship of Theseus about?” she asked.

“It’s a thought experiment related to the metaphysics of identity.” He held up the toaster. “Mr. Clifton’s toaster needs a new electromagnet. But what if, after he dropped it off, you discovered it needed even more work. New wiring, a new lever, until eventually you replace everything about it. When Mr. Clifton comes to pick it up, do you return the same toaster to him, or have you actually given him a new toaster?”

Lavinia considered that for a moment. “Hm… I could charge him twice as much if I considered it new!”

“I’m not sure that’s the point of the question…” he said. “And you don’t charge for your work anyway.”

“No, but I could.”

Arlo sighed some and went back to cleaning the toaster. Lavina frowned and looked over at the boy; the borderline frustrated response wasn’t like him.

“I was just having a little fun, that’s all.” She sat the watch down and spun around in her chair towards him. “If you wanna talk about that ship thing a little more, we can do that.”

“It’s not really about that, it’s… I guess I’m just confused.”

“Confused about what?” she asked.

“Myself,” he said. Arlo sat the toaster on the table and looked down at himself. “You had to replace a bunch of my internal components to repair me, and I’m still missing some pieces… At what point do I stop being myself and become something else?”

Lavinia took her goggles off and sat them on the table with the pocket watch. She shuffled in her wheeled office chair over to him.

“How long have you been feeling like that…?” she asked.

“A little while. I don’t think about it all the time, but I start feeling like an imposter whenever I do…”

“Aw, Arlo, you’re not an imposter. You’re exactly the same as you’ve ever been, just a little newer in some places.” She took his hand, “See, humans go through that sorta thing too. I read in this old magazine that our cells are constantly getting replaced as we grow up—I must have gone through at least two or three Ship of Theseuses by now.”

He looked up at her, “And that never makes you feel weird or unsure about yourself?”

“Nope. See, way, way Back Before, people would doubt their existences all the time. But there was this philosopher guy who came up with this concept. Erm… incognito, ego some, I think it was called. It meant that you think, so you exist. Because how can you doubt your existence when you’re able to doubt at all?”

“I… don’t think I follow,” he said.

“Well, you still remember stuff from Back Before, right?”

Arlo nodded.

“So, you’re still thinking the same as back then, just like I remember things from when I was a little girl. That means we exist the same as we did back then, even if we don’t look the same. We get older and change, but that doesn’t mean we replace the people we used to be." She ruffled the child's shaggy chestnut hair, "You’re still the same little cutie pie you were Back Before!”

He blushed and smiled, “Okay, okay, I believe you…”

Lavinia hugged him for about a full minute before shuffling back to her desk. She slid her goggles on and went resumed working on the pocket watch while Arlo returned to cleaning the toaster. A new song started playing over the radio and for a few minutes, everything went back to normal. But soon, Arlo stopped and sighed again.

“What’s wrong?” Lavinia asked, looking back at him. “Still feeling unsure about yourself?”

“No…” he said, “now I’m thinking about the tigers too…”