Chapter Three Aaron

While heading across the white marble-stained concrete lobby floor, a quick moving shadow catches his attention. He looks up and spots a woman in a grey track suit running down the sidewalk out front of the building. The woman immediately attracts his attention because she is bald, but also a bit taller than the others out there waiting for the bus, even the men. She’s not in a full-on sprint, but she’s definitely running faster than for typical exercise.

The woman, frequently glancing behind herself, looks right at him through the glass on her way by, and keeps on moving. He feels that there’s something kind of odd about her, in the way that she moves. Her gait looks too smooth and methodical, as if there wouldn’t even be any sound to her steps. Not that he’d be able to hear them through the thick glass panes anyway, but the way she moves just looks so swift and light for her size.

Somehow, watching her is uplifting and motivating. It makes him want to get out there and run somewhere too. Overcome by curiosity, he hurries up to the doors to see if he can catch another glimpse of her outside, before she’s gone. Just as he passes through the glass doors, a white company van, with the big red W Werker logo on it, speeds by in the same direction as the runner. It’s blatant asshole driving.

Thinking the van may have been stolen by rats or something, he runs to the curb to see if there’s anything he can see that might be of some investigational use. He can’t imagine an employee would be stupid enough to drive like that in a company vehicle. When he reaches the sidewalk, he’s too late. There’s no one else around and he can only hear the faint screech of tires in the distance. The other people standing at the sidewalk surely noticed the van too. They’re all craning their necks in the direction it went. One of them looks at him, shaking their head. “What the hell.”

With a small smile forming on his face, he figures it’s already turning out to be a good day, in its own way. He was hoping for at least something interesting to happen for once. His adrenaline is even picking up a little bit.

On boring days like this, with no work scheduled, he’ll sometimes aimlessly walk around town without any specific plans of what to do. It’s sort of a traditional adventure he likes to take about once a week, like his trips to the forest. This time, he actually has a place to go in mind. He’ll go ahaead and check out the substation out past the Werker building after all, even though he had made it up on the spot. He doesn’t expect to be seeing that bald lady again, but he might end up spotting that van though.

Aaron likes living in the industrialized side of town. There aren’t very many people out and about and the noise level is actually fairly low, with so little traffic. The area is not low income by any means, but there are certainly no upscale places around either. There are only a few nice large apartment complexes for those like himself, who like to live close to work. He doesn’t even bother having a car.

The buildings in the sector look nearly all the same, but have an appealing architectural design to them. The’ve kind of copied the space sector’s theme. Most of the buildings are of a modern style with a considerable amount of metal, dark glass, and glossy white concrete. The industry in his area is predominantly of high-end robotics manufacturing. It’s full of name-brand corporations that place a high priority on the aesthetic appeal of their products as well as thier workplace. The streets are all kept clean, barren, and well maintained. Cars are always parked indoors and are rarely ever on the curbside. Though the sidewalks are typically fairly vacant, he doesn’t look conspicuous walking out and about alone. He still looks like he’s on the job.

He heads left to the end of his block and takes a right across the street towards Werker, which is not all that far away. After walking past another few blocks, he spots two Werker employees walking down the sidewalk quite a ways down, but in the same direction as himself. There’s one of them on each side of the road. It looks like they’re heading towards their campus, but what’s curious, is he’s almost never seen any Werker employees outside the plant, ever. They’re especially noticeable in their all-white outfits that have the large red W embroidered on the back, between their shoulders.

He knows their uniforms from having worked with them often enough. One of them is in the similar slacks and a polo kind of wear as himself, but the other must be from the production floor or something. They’re in a one piece jump suit, the kind that zips all the way up in the front. They even still have thier safety eyewear strung up on top of their head. By the size fo them, and their shoulder length hair, he’s not sure if they’re a man or a woman yet.

Wondering if they might’ve been the ones driving the van, he slinks over into one of the recessed doorways of the warehouse he’s walking alongside of. He’s going to watch what they’re doing for a little while. Something tells him that they’re up to no good, just by the way they’re constantly looking around.

Peering around the edge of the doorway, he sees the two of them stop and look at one another from across the street. They touch their collars for a moment and start walking again, but more briskly now. He expects they must be going back to the van. To not be seen, he decides to go one more block down and then then wait on the opposite corner, to see what their hurry is. It’s probably nothing, but it’s kind of fun being a snoop. So long as he’s not seen, especially since he’s still in his own company’s outfit. Being seen shadowing employees of Werker would be awkward to explain.

While scurrying down the next alley, he can hear the faint pitter-patter of footsteps coming from somewhere close by. It only seems to be happening when he’s also moving though. After checking himself over, he’s sure that he’s not the one making the noise. When it keeps happening, he gets the willies and bolts to the end of the alley. He stops at the edge, but stays out of sight to peek around the corner.

He can see the west side of the werker plant now. He knows it by the ten foot high wall completely surrounding the campus. It’s a good looking wall at least, paneled with a large smooth tiles, all with one inch wide spacing. There’s no wire or anything at the top of the wall, which is nice. That kind of stuff looks hideous and breeds the suspicion of secrecy, or even distrust, which is not Welan City style.

While still hidden behind the corner of the alleyway, he spots one of the two in white at a distance. It’s the one in the jumpsuit, and they’re a man. The man is standing along the west wall, about ten feet from the street corner, and he has his hand on his collar. There’s a full block between the man and himself, but he dare not get any closer.

The man is looking right in his direction, but doesn’t appear to have noticed him. After another few uneventful minutes have passed, he feels like he should move on, but he doesn’t. He has nothing else to do. The man’s hand drops away from his collar and then he looks both ways down the street, as if he were going to cross. Instead, he unzips the front of his suit and pulls something out from inside. The object is over a foot long, mostly black, partially silver, and on some kind of harness looped around him.

The guy is too far away to really see what he has in his hands, but he’s pretty sure it’s a firearm of some kind. He can’t think of what else would be on a harness like that. The man raises it up, holds it with both hands and points it directly at him. He ducks back behind the corner of the building in absolute shock. A gun has just been pointed right at him and yet he still can’t quite believe it. It doesn’t make any sense.

His knees want to crumple, but they won’t because he’s absolutely frozen still. He tries to listen to see if hears the man running his way, but all he can hear is the sound of the blood pumping in his ears. As quickly as he can, he peeks around the corner again to see if anyone is coming. For some reason, they’re still standing there absolutely motionless, and with the gun still raised. They’re as motionless as an iron post.

As if out of nowhere, he spots the same bald woman as before, heading down the adjacent sidewalk towards the man with the gun. She’s not running this time though. For some reason, she looks to be more-so sneaking, if anything. What she’s wearing is not actually a jogging outfit either, but a jumpsuit kind of like the other guys. It is red and white, but not marked with a logo.

The woman moves slowly along the wall, heading right towards the man in the jumpsuit. She can’t see him there because he’s just around the corner of the wall from her, staying quiet as can be. She’s being cautious, frequently looking around, and moving cautiously. One thing he notices though, is that her fists are up, and clenched. She kind of looks dangerous, like a cornered animal.

Wanting to yell something, signal her, or do anything to warn her, he’s on the edge of outright panic. If he does though, he’ll be putting himself in the line of fire for sure. “Shit!” He stands up, braces himself to shout and then run as fast as he can. Before he does, the other man in white suddenly rushes in from behind her. Hearing him, she turns her head and then bolts. The man around the corner braces himself at the ready.

With his elbows pointed out wide and his shoulders leaned forward, he spreads his stance for taking a precision shot. The woman leaps into a sprint, away from the man in the polo, and makes the obvious choice to round the corner of the wall as fast as she can. The split second she makes the turn, her body flails like she’s slammed into something invisible.

The delayed sound of a loud electric snap makes him flinch when it reaches him down the block. Shocked stiff, the woman collapses forward and slides about fifteen feet across the ground to a dead stop. The man in the jumpsuit had to leap out of the way of her as she careened to the ground. It was as if he’s done this before, like the whole thing had already been practiced.

“What the fuck is going on?” His mouth is dry and he can hardly get the words out. He just saw a woman get murdered in the street, but something is off. It’s like none of it was real or something. It dawns on him that the woman might not be a real woman at all. There was the color of her outfit, the way she moved, and the way her body went down when she was shot.

He’s seen some pretty life-like robots, but not quite like this. He works up the courage to look around the corner one more time, to see what happened. The two men are still there, both facing the other way now. The one in the polo pats the other on the side of the shoulder where he’s hunched over the woman’s body. When they look his way, he ducks away again and runs as fast as he can back down the alley he came through.

Since he’s been taking these little adventures nearly every week for years, he knows the immediate area quite well. Having always been on foot, the small details of the surrounding area start to trickle out his memory. He needs to get back to the apartment, but first he needs to get out of sight and safe. He hurries down the next intersecting alley and ducks under a heavy steel stairwell behind one of the warehouses. Taking only a few seconds to catch his breath and think, he looks around for his next best move. So far, it seems that no one has followed after him.

His mind is racing, trying to understand what the hell just happened. There’s no way that Werker employees could be out on the streets gunning people down in broad daylight like this, that’d just be insane. It has to have simply been company property that the two men were dealing with. Using a weapon to stop a machine is not unheard of, especially if it’s seriously malfunctioning. Considering the size and demeanor of the humanoid, he can see why it might’ve been necessary. Bringing it down the way they did was quick and effective. He’s actually had to do something similar himself once. He would look like an ass, and make his company look like an ass if he calls the cops on them.

The looks of the robot, and the way it behaved still makes him cringe though. The whole thing was just too real, and he was right there. It doesn’t make sense that that they’d wreck a nice machine like that. It looked like an AMF robot, which couldn’t have been cheap at all. That makes him start questioning things all over again. He has to consider if the men were even real Werker employees, especially the way they were driving.

Another thing that’s bothersome is that here was no reason for that kind of unit to be associated with Werker. For the last twenty years, they’ve stuck to the bread and butter of manufacturing machines for typical fielding, like what he works with, not realistic ones. Figuring that he didn’t actually witness a real murder, he starts to feel a little less worked up.

While getting up off his heels, he notices he’s been standing on something black and hairy. His heart skips a beat, thinking it might be the remains of a small animal, but luckily it’s not. It looks like a person’s wig, but it can’t have been in the alley very long. It’s still clean and glossy. The funny thing is that there is no other garbage or anything else like it anywhere else in the alley. It makes him wonder if it belonged to the bald woman. If she was right where he is now, he needs to leave.

Back out on the main sidewalk, he tries to look casual. He starts walking straight home, not up for any more exploring for the rest of the day anymore. Recalling every detail he can, he continues to convince himself that there wasn’t necessarily anything all that crazy about what he saw. He was just making it seem so wild because in reality, he left the apartment in hopes of coming across something unexpected.

After so many boring and uneventful journeys out and about, he just didn’t actually think anything would ever come of one. The one thing he can’t let go of though is why the robot was acting so suspicious. It was deliberately being cautious, sneaky, and maybe even afraid. He’s never seen anything like it before. The image of the woman clenching her fists keeps popping back in his thoughts.

Prototypes are often tested in public. After all, that’s where they’ll be fielded. It’s not necessarily usual, but it makes sense that Werker might have people following and monitoring a model like that. Maybe something went wrong. He can’t believe a company of Werker’s caliber would test a questionable machine out in the open like this though. He decides he’s going to put every detail into his journal, as soon as he gets home, before he mixes up what actually happened.

His apartment building comes into sight as he turns the last corner of the block. There’s still no sign of anyone following him. All he wants to do is make it to the door and go back to his apartment. Again, the previous events start replaying in the back of his mind. Suddenly, he stops right in his tracks. His eyes widen and he freezes, realizing he’s so absentlmindedly rounding the next corner, even after what just happened.

He imagines there being a man around the other side, waiting to end his life right there on the pavement. That’s where his mundane life will end, with no warning at all. He spins around as fast, only to see that there’s no one behind him either. He could almost surely feel them there just then. He tries to listen to his surroundings for footsteps, that pitter-patter he heard before, anything at all. There’s no real reason why anyone would shoot him. He’s just being silly and freaking himself out.

While stepping out into the crosswalk, he refuses to look to the right of himself. He refuses to die with a pathetic surprised, you shot me, look on his face. It feels like forever finally reaching the glass doors on the other side. When he pulls on the handles, the doors don’t open. Panic starts to sink in again, he jerks on the doors even harder. About to make a run for it, he remembers that they don’t pull to open, they push in. After making it inside, he waits for the sound of the door to shut before turning around.

No one is there when he looks back, as he knew there wouldn’t be. Now he really feels silly, getting all worked up like that. He still can’t brush off the feeling of something being wrong though. While walking across the main floor to the elevator, he glances up at some people in the bar lounge above, standing at the lounge balcony looking down at him. He didn’t know that he could feel so comforted by strangers, simply by them being there. Now he really wishes he’d taken the elevator with the girls. He would’ve never seen the bald robot lady, or anything. This time he is damn well going to.

When he pushes the call button, his thoughts turn to the two women from down the hall. It’d be nice if he could see them again. That’s just about the only thing that could pick him up right now. Maybe if he starts using it more often he might come across them again. When the door opens, he steps in. No one else is inside. Shrugging, he turns around to point to the sixth floor icon on the display. “Six.”

From out of sight, he hears a woman call out “wait.” The neighbor girl, the taller one with the long hair, scurries in after him. When she sees that it’s him again, she looks away for a second trying to not let him see her shy smile. When she looks back at him, her eyes suddenly get bigger.

“Woah, what happened to you? I just saw you less’n an hour ago.” With a tilted head, she looks him over as if he might be hurt or something.

That’s when he realizes his pants are all dusty and his hands are dirty. He probably looks a little frazzled too. He stands there for a few seconds, trying to think of what to say. He doesn’t want to lie to her, but he doesn’t want to go into the whole thing with her either. Her eyes light up again when she assumes what probably happened to him on her own.

“Did you get in a fight, with some of those…?

His own eyes get bigger when he remembers where he said he was going. “Oh…no, no, I didn’t get into a fight or anything! I was just… out and about.” She doesn’t look to be buying it.

“Ok. You don’t have to tell me, it just looks like you’d gptten into something. It just kinda looks like you bit off more than you can chew. I know the look.”

His eyes get even bigger, with his mind having gone to the wrong place. She nearly blushes when she realizes what he might have thought she meant. She glances out through the glass doors for a second when they pass over the lobby.

He gives himself another quick once-over and then does the same of her. Thinking of where he just was, he grins and tries to not lock eyes with her this time. She catches his eyes anyway, and makes it hard for him to break free this time.

“Yeah, suppose I’ve had my fair share today. I needed it though.” His heartrate is still up and his voice has a tiny hint of nervousness to it.

“I know what you mean, I’ve had my fair share today. Apparently, my boss was murdered last night and then my fucking project just went up in smoke too.” She looks out the glass doors again and slightly shakes her head, clearly not excited about it. “I feel like I take two steps forward and then three back, like every day.”

“Wow, kind of a good day to have off I guess.”

“Yep.”

When he focusses on her face again, she looks a little bit like how he feels too. It’s that need for one path to end and a new one to start. Her shoulders are slumped forward a little and her posture is not as strong as it was earlier in the morning. He wants to keep their conversation rolling, but when they reach the sixth floor, the doors open and they both have to step out.

After habitually turning in opposite directions, down their own ends of the hall, they only slightly wave their hands at each other. When he reaches his door, he looks back again, and sees that she has as well. She looks up, pauses for a few seconds, and then leans back away from the door some. “Hey, if you’re not doing anything later… you should meet up with us in the lounge. I’m probly gonna be drinking tonight.”

Before he can respond or ask her what time, her cute friend opens thier door for her and peeks her head out. “Hey Aaron.” That’s all she says and then and pulls the other inside. It doesn’t matter anyway, he already knows when they’ll be down there, it’s almost like clockwork. He can still hear them talking, even after they’ve closed the door. They really do talk too loudly.

“What were yooo-two talkin about?” Her tone sounds rather intrigued, or maybe even teasing. “Inviting Aaron out already?”

Surprised, at hearing them say his name again. He only opens his door, but doesn’t go inside yet. He stays out in the hall to listen some more.

“He was smiling today. And so what, he’s handsome.”

With his mouth open in incredulity, he tries to recall the last time anyone ever said he was handsome, if ever. He waits a little longer to see if he can hear more. Their voices pretty much disappear when they move to a different room in their apartment. He only makes out one last thing from the taller one “Oh my god he’s only like five years older.”

Someone else’s door in the hall opens, so he quickly slinks back into his own apartment. He doesn’t quite know what to think, except that he’s surely not been paying attention, like usual. He was rather curious why she was looking him over so much before. It was starting to make him worry if he smelled or something. He had no idea she would consider him to be good looking. It really makes his day.

Not about to forget about what happened earlier, he meanders over to his desk to type up another journal entry. Thinking of what all to include, he plops down in the chair and turns toward the cityscape painting hanging on the wall over his couch. It’s how he clears his mind and think. Somehow, no matter what’s going on in his life, he can always find it being reflected somewhere in that piece of art. It’s why he bought it. Right now, it makes him feel excited and optimistic. It’s the kind of mood that he’s longed to experience for a while now. It’s like there’s promise and adventure ahead of him for once.

Fully immersed in the perspective of the painting, as if he were actually in it, he looks up, only able to see the tops of the tall buildings that are farther out towards the horizon. The early sunrise is breaking through along the vertical edge of a tall polished glass building. The contrast of the dark glass, the wetness of the pavement after a night rain, and all the vibrant reflections of the early light on the metropolis always help him remember that tough times don’t last forever.

On one of his little walking adventures, he had actually found the location that the painting was done at. It’s kind of how he got into exploring the city on foot. It gives him the chance to see that sunrise for real often enough. He has no idea who did the painting. Most of the signature is covered up by the frame. All he can see poking out from under it is the top half of the name Adams and a date from twenty years ago. Sadly, he hasn’t been able to find any information on any artists with that last name and style of work.

He swivels his chair back around and blankly looks down at the computer screen in front of him. It’s already booted itself back up from when the power came on. It appears they’ve fixed the substation much more quickly than expected. He clicks the journal icon on the main screen and tries to get into a serious mood. Writing entries has always been difficult, never liberating, and usually worriesom.

The thought of anyone else ever coming across any of it petrifies him. Just the possibility of it makes him want to completely erase everything on the spot, but he doesn’t. He starts with what he was feeling last night, since it got deleted. After an hour, he has three entire pages written. It’s easily the longest one he’s written, and he could still keep going. He ends it with his thoughts on meeting the neighbor girls, and how intrigued he is to see them again tonight. He leaes it a that, so it doesn’t get weird or anything.

He mentally asks himself the usual questions before saving the entry. How will this sound one month from now? Does any of it sound clinically nuts? Satisfied with only pushing those margins slightly, he clicks on the archaic floppy disk icon and watches the status bar finish. After jotting it down, he’s come to realize what was so unsettling about the whole ordeal. It was singularly the behavior of the woman robot. He tries to remember how they truly acted and to not mix anything up with his own emotions. He’s certain that the machine was scared, and was trying to get away. The problem with that is, robots don’t run away from people, at least not out of fright.

After leaning back again, he realizes how tense and wired he’s been for the last few hours. He looks at the time on his alarm clock and remembers the invitation to join the neighbor girl in the lounge. “What is her name?”

No matter how hard he tries, he can’t recall them ever introducing themselves before. Somehow, they still knew his name, had an idea about where he works, and even his age. It makes him wonder why they would know anything about him at all. All he knows about either of them is that they live at the opposite end of the hall. He’s never been the easiest person to track, but somehow his neighbors seem to have his information.

He folds his forearms across themselves on the desk and sets his forehead down on top of them. He’s come down off of his adrenaline and it is making him sleepy. He pictures the neighbor girl’s face in his mind and tries to remember again if he’s ever heard her name. sometimes he can remember things if he just blanks out and lets it come to him.

Aaron snaps awake and looks at the bottom corner of the computer screen with blurry eyes. He sees that it is already seven-o-clock. The girls’ll be in the lounge by eight, so he at least still has some time to clean up and at least make himself presentable. He wonders if he should shave his face or not. He’s used to just buzzing it short because his beard grows so fast. Shaving is going to be a pain in the ass.

“Screw it.” He doesn’t care if they think he’s being a little optimistic, he’s going to do it. She said he was good looking and he’s not going to let this one slide right on by without putting in any effort.

While taking a shower, the glass door naturally fogs up. It’s never bothered him before, but for some reason, he feels nervous about not being able to see through it this time. He’s still having trouble letting go of the lingering feelings from earlier. Righ before he wipes the fog away, he decides to buck up and gain some composure. There’s nothing out there and he needs to quit being stupid.

Forcing himself in line brings on a dark mood. He can’t let the thought of death keep gnawing at him like this. If he keeps letting the feeling of something being out there get at him, he’ll lose his shit for sure. Tonight will be good for him. He really needs some distractions.

When he’s done shaving his face in the shower, he gets out to dry off and looks at the little framed cartoon on the wall above where his towel is hanging. It depicts a little googly eyed barnacle on a rock. It’s sitting on a rock under the water, looking longingly at a ship’s hull, just a swish away. It says “make the leap, and you can go anywhere” at the bottom of the drawing. He feels so much like that little barnacle sometimes. He hung it there to try reminding himself to get out more often.

He puts on a plain light grey t-shirt, trying to stay casual, and looks at himself in the mirror. He doesn’t remember the last time he paid much attention to his appearance. He’s always wearing and doing the same things week after week anyway. He feels a little more confident with himself now, after hearing what she said. It even feels kind of awkward to smile now. He’d never considered that he hardly ever does anymore.

He decides to put on a pair of his new jeans. He almost never wears them because he just uses the ones for work. He knows he won’t be dressed nearly as nicely as he expects the other two will be, but he’ll at least try to look respectful. He’s just a genuine modest guy. At least he’d like to consider himself as being modest. If anyone knew what he was thinking half the time, he’d surely be under watch. The old ways are fading out with the next generation, but at least some people like himself still live by them.

When he hears the two women leaving their apartment he decides he’ll catch them at the elevator and ride down with them. He’s pretty sure, by the differences in their voices, the taller woman just called the other one Clarice. He’ll at least know one of their names. It’d be a little weird to introduce himself now, so he’ll just have to wing it. They probably expect him to remember their names.

On his way down the hall, he sees the two facing one another out front of the elevator. They notice him approaching and look his way. The taller one looks back at the other with a slightly raised eyebrow. It’s not a surprised look, but more of an ‘I told you so’ one. He feels like it’s a good thing, but maybe he’s just in good spirits. Both of them are fairly dressed up again, like he expected.

Clarice is in a black leather skirt this time and a flashy red top. It’s the kind that wraps around the back of the neck, plunging very low and loosely, making for amazing cleavage. Opposite of the last time he saw them, Clarice is the one with the maroon stripe across her eyes while the other has the dark green one. He’s really starting to dig the taller one because of the way she looks at him. She seems so judgmental, and it makes him stand up straight.

Clarice is still quite a distraction though, compared to her taller friend in a simpler shimmery green cocktail dress. It’s not exactly shiny, but has more of a satin look to it. It fits fairly tight, lays flat, and stays smoothed out over her fine figure. It fits her so well, there’s almost no rumples in it at all. He tries his very best to not stare, but he feels like she’s leading him into it. The best he manages, is to pat at his pocket, pretending to check for his wallet, while he gazes down the length of her long legs for too long.

Yet again he gets trapped in her gaze when he looks back up at her face. Their eyes lock for almost an awkwardly long moment this time. He can’t bring himself to look away. She’s clearly testing him, to see how long he can stand it. When the elevator doors open for them, she points to the doors with her eyes while tilting her head in the same direction.

He can hardly keep from blushing. He is pretty sure that she was sizing him up, in her own way. As they all turn to walk in, he can see a small smirk on her face out of the corner of his eye. Clarice pauses before selecting the second floor and glances back to them. “Valerie, you locked the door right?”

Finally, he knows her name. He repeats her name in his head a few times to make sure it sticks. He was getting frustrated about it. He sure likes it though. V-names always seem like they have more to them. The’re deliberate and not just something easy to say.

This time, when they look at one another again, he’s the one who instigates it. He makes sure he’s standing tall, with his chin only barely raised. He’s a full grown man and wants to make sure she gets his drift. He might be shy compared to her, but he’s not just some random dude. When Clarice turns toward them, Valerie abruptly speaks up.

“Did you ever actually end up going by the power station, like you said you were going to?”

Remembering she had mentioned earlier that she works for Werker, he considers the possibility that she might know something about what happened out on the street. He won’t be caught lying if she knows something.

“No, I din’t. Something else came up.”

“Ah, so, what kind of trouble did you get yourself into again? I mean, you did actually get your hands dirty.”

Clarice turns around with suspicious eyes, kind of surprised at what she’s hearing. “What’d I miss?”

Not knowing quite what to say, he keeps quiet and waits for Valerie. If anyone’s going to be doing any talking, it’ll be her. Surprisingly, she keeps her mouth shut too, despite the sharp look coming from Clarice. Luckily, the doors open on the second floor and break the silence between them. To keep the Clarice and Valerie from jabbing at one another, he takes the lead out across the balcony floor towards the lounge. He even takes them to the same booth over in the corner of the curved glass window that they usually sit in.

After about a half hour of get-to-know-you talk, he finds himself in such a great mood. All of his troubles seem to have so easily vanished. It’s been a long time since he actually sat down and talked with anyone like this. He was right about none of them having been introduced before. Clarice is explaining how she already knew his name.

“It’s not really snooping if I regularly see your information professionally. I oversee a lot of employee’s payroll. I kind of know most everyone in this building, come to think about it.”

“So you probably know most everything about me then don’t you? How about you two even things up a little bit.”

Clarice only smiles and looks over at Valerie, giving her a wink. “Well, we might not look like it, but we are both actually sisters.”

Unable to so easily tell, he leans in a little bit closer, trying to see any kind of resemblance between the two. “Alright, mind if I ask your ages. I would maybe guess five or six years younger than myself?”

Clarice sits back and looks at him a little bit indignantly. It’s not that she thinks it is rude of him to ask, but that she kind of does have to fess up this time. “I’m thirty five.” When Valerie keeps quiet, hoping he might make a flattering guess, her sister butts in ahead anyway. “She’s thirty seven. And, she doesn’t have a boyfriend either!” The big grin on her face is a clear indicator that she’s quite pleased with what she’s done.

Valerie’s eyes go wide when her sister blurts it out like that. “Don’t even try to lord that over me you little strumpet. Mikel is nothing to call home about! I remember when the two of you met, I distinctly said oh, god damn it, not him. I don’t even think you heard me either. You were too busy falling all over yourself.”

Clarice Beams at the thought of him. “He actually works with Valerie, and she has to see him every day.” She clearly loves that part of it. “He’s even coming out tonight! It’s like a double date!”

Aaron tries to not make things any more embarrassing for Valerie, but he can’t help but to play along. Smiling, he scoots around the booth a few more inches closer to Valerie, as if he were intending to make room for the guy. “Well, it at least sounds like I at least might not look too bad next to the lout then.”

Valerie tries to slow Clarice down by making the conversation a little bit plainer. “Yes, Mikel works for Werker, but he’s been ther a while longer than me. I’ve only been there two years now. I used to work for AMF before that. We were just recently acquired by Werker.”

“Right, Advanced Machine Forms, they produce incredibly sophisticated machines. I’ve only seen a couple in my life. Very life-like. Very pricey.”

“At least he didn’t say sex bots right away, like mikel did.”

“Oh my god Clarice!”

Clarice sidesteps a berating from Valerie when she excitedly waves to someone coming across the room. It is her boyfriend.

Aaron looks back down at the table to try hiding his still red face. He knows Valerie is looking at him. Her arms are folded and he knows its not his place to do any of the teasing. When he finally looks up and sees Mikel coming over, he looks back at her and forces his smirk to go away.

No one mentioned he was an out-out-of-towner. He was not expecting anyone dressed like a cowboy. The man is wearing western boots, too tight of denim jeans, a large buckled belt, and a long sleeved white button up shirt that’s tucked in. He has short hair that has, over time, been permanently trained by a hat. The man is actually kind of a novelty in his own way. At least his pants aren’t tucked inside of his boots like a complete idiot.

Before sitting down, Mikel politely introduces himself. While shaking his hand, he squints a little, as if in recognition of him.

“Hey, what a small world it is. You’re the guy that was out on the street this morning aren’t you? That was something wasn’t it?”

He was expecting an accent from the man, but it’s almost non-existent, which is strange for the area. “This morning? Yeah, I suppose so. I had no idea I was so recognizable.”

“I’ve seen you come and go around before. I swing by here fairly often these days.”

“Makes sense. He looks over at Valerie, curious if she knows what Mikel is talking about.” Her eyes only minutely squint at him.

He doesn’t know quite what to say. The guy seems to be playing things off so nonchalant. Mikel isn’t even bothering to look at him when he speaks. He is all eyes on Clarice. The topic is apparently quite trivial anyway. He doesn’t blame the man. He wouldn’t take his eyes off her either. Trying to sound casual, in the same manner, he continues on.

“Yeah that one was pretty damn quick.” Out of the corner of his eye, he notices the look on Valerie’s face immediately change. She has become agitated, and obviously doesn’t approve of the way Mikel is so carelessly talking about what happened at work. He’s probably not supposed to share. She has that same frustrated look as earlier, in the elevator.

He wants to know more, but it seems to be a sore subject already. By the concern on her Valerie’s face, he can tell that she’s obviously connected to the morning’s incident somehow. For all he knows, she may have already known exactly what he’d been up to the whole time. It makes him wonder if that’s why she’s invited him out tonight. She probably knows damn well what he saw.

That would just be his kind of shit luck. He’s starting to feel like a fool now. He was hoping she might have actually been interested in him for once. She’s probably just trying to figure out if he saw something he wasn’t supposed to.

Trying to steer the direction of the conversation back to where they were, and away from being uncomfortable, he further explains his position in the robotic industry. He’s hoping that Valerie will relax a bit, in understanding that they’re all like-minded professionals. She does, but only to an extent. Mikel however, becomes suddenly intrigued, but in an unusual way. He can’t tell if he is sizing him up too, or if it’s something else. His tone is off too, not quite judgmental, but more punitive somehow.

“So you pretty much work alone… by yourself, but with a bunch of machines. Who do you talk to all day, the robots?”

“Well, no one really. It’s kind of peaceful most of the time. But don’t get me wrong, It’s not like I bring a picnic basket or anything.”

“Do you ever wonder when the day will come that the machines will simply go to work without you?”

Valerie catches onto his snarky tone and authoritatively glares at him. “Not the time Mikel.”

He would not have expected her to say something like that to her sister’s boyfriend, nor get such compliance out of the man, but Mikel does promptly shut up. He figures maybe he’s already been warned about this by Clarice. Even then, he can still hear him ever so slightly mumble “townie” under his breath back at her.

There’s clearly some tension between him and Valerie. It’s hard for him to narrow down which one of them is the least reasonable though. It seems Mikel is kind of an ideologist, which is annoying, but she might be a little controlling herself.

The rest of the night is much lighter. The discussion of work quickly fades into that of daily life. Apparently, he’s considered to be quite the hobbyist by them. They even seem to be a little inspired by the tales of his weekly walks around town, and especially the long treks he takes out in the mountains. He’s always been secretive of his little solitary adventures, figuring they were something that would be seen as less social. In contrast, Valerie is the one who has surprised him the most by far.

“So, basically your degree is in artificial intelligence psychology?”

“Kind of. AI isn’t developed enough to have anything like a psyche yet, but the theoretical science is emerging. I kind of feel stupid getting the degree.” She keeps her eyes away from Mikel the whole time she speaks. “There was no practical place for it in industry when I graduated though. I ended up getting a job at AMF cause it was at least a cutting edge outfit. But… now I’m at Werker, with Mikel.”

“I wish I’d gone to school for that, honestly. It’s always been my biggest interest, by far. I’m pretty savvy with the mechanics and some programming, but not so much the logic and reasoning science that it’s all based on. So, at what point would you say a robot truly has mind of its own?”

Valerie pick up her drink, ready to take a generous gulp. “Oh, that’s an easy one. When they say no, and tell you to go get fucked”

Mikel damn near spits his beer out. “Where’d they learn to talk like that!”

She pauses, raises her eyebrows at him, and then takes a gulp of her own drink. Apparently he should know damn well where. “At least that’s become the joke at work. Other than that, Clarice and I just try to get out as much as we can, not like you though. I’d really like to see the forrest sometime. It sounds nice when you talk about it.”

“So, where do you and your sister go, when you get out?”

“We’ve done a little bit of traveling. Nothing overseas obviously, but we’ve been far enough down the continent to completely switch seasons.”

“Oh, wow, I heard it’s like stepping back in time down there. I’ve never been farther south than, well, here I guess.”

“Yeah, it’s kinda true. They were kind of isolated from the brunt of the war down there. Everything that was old is still around. Apparently you shouldn’t tell anyone you’re from Welan city either.” She looks at Clarice, who is already rolling her eyes.

She mocks the country drawl from the far south.“Yeau, woul’n want’e make em remind us o the ole-ways. Might offen’n em or somet’n, with our city ways. What is it you call city people Mikel?”

“Townies. Besides, you’d be just fine. My fellow country… folk, have what is called manners, unlike down there.”

Aaron actually finds it kind of amusing to see the three of them having fun with the rift between people in the city and those in the country. He bets they tease Mikel about it all the time. By the way he and Clarice embrace one another, it seems they rather enjoy the contrast.

Similar to himself, Mikel is an unusual person who apparently lives in both worlds. He’s both a man born of the country, who holds true to the old ways, but also works at a robot manufacturing plant in the heart of the most advanced city in the world. It’s quite a conundrum.

He was hoping to have the chance to hear more about Valerie, but she’s kept fairly quiet compared to Mikel and her sister. It appears that she’s not been in all that good of a mood. Whatever happened at work is still dragging her mood down. It’s probably because of work like she’d said.

Personally, he’d lump Mikel and the rest of the country folk right in together with the rats. They can be downright dangerous people, and he knows first-hand that they don’t take kindly to city people telling them they’re ignorant. By watching Valerie’s face, he can tell that she is like minded, and doesn’t necessarily approve of Mikel. She’s at least considerate enough to give him a chance, but that’s not easy with a sister. It’s clear how much Clarice likes him and she does respect that.

Valerie wasn’t lying when she said that she was going to be drinking tonight. She still makes for pleasant company, but he has noticed her watching him quite closely, and without hiding it at all. She’s knocking drinks back and not being all that social. He thought she was kind fo liking him, but that is not clear at all anymore.

When it gets late, and they make their way back to the sixth floor hallway, it becomes apparent that Mikel and Clarice are not ready to part ways yet. The two of them head to the other end of the hall hand-in-hand. About when he makes it halfway down his own end of the hall, he realizes that Valerie is following him. He’s surprised because of how quietly she can walk in heels.

Not knowing quite what to make of it, he doesn’t turn around while he unlocks his door. Too nervous to face her, he pretends he still hasn’t noticed her while he opens it. That’s when he feels her warm hand between his shoulder blades. Without saying anything, she gently pushes him through his doorway ahead of herself. Now his heart is racing, and he still can’t think of what to say. Trying his best to make his astounded expression disappear from his face, he turns around to at least look at her.

He’s kind of puzzled bcause she isn’t actually looking at him. Instead, she’s scoping out his place, keeping him stepping back with a straight hand at his sternum. The only things in his apartment that cause her eyes to pause briefly are the antique computer, and the vivid painting of the city over the couch. She squints at it as if she’s familiar with it. With a smile, he considers that cleaning his apartment may have been the best timed decision of his entire life so far. She takes a deep breath and then finally turns her attention toward him. This time, that hawk-like look of hers has returned.

“We need to talk about what you saw this morning.”

He can feel all the blood drain from his face. He doesn’t know what her involvement is, but she’s not happy about what happened. He motions for her to take a seat in his office chair in front of the computer while he plops down on the couch across the coffe table from her. Being a little nervous about her prying eyes, he wants to make sure she’s facing him, and not give her the chance to look at the screen behind her. The computer is still on, but to his luck, the journal entry is scrolled down to the bottom and the incriminating title is not showing.

In the dim light of the apartment, he can barely keep up with where her eyes are focusing. While she only seems to casually address him, he can see her eyes subtly shift with purpose. She’s watching over every single bit of him, as if his very thoughts are literally spilling out in print right before her eyes.

“I wasn’t under the impression there was anything left to talk about. Mikel and whoever was with him handled a the woma… the robot with force. Did I miss something?”

Leaning forward, with her forearms over top of her knees, she sits higher up than him. He knows she’s trying to be intimidating, but it only makes her that much more alluring to him. Her posture and confrontational leer is so hot. He so much wants to see more of this side of her, hot water or not. Besides, he can’t actually feel intimidated while he can so easily see up her dress from where he’s sitting. He’s actually rather proud of himself for keeping such a straight face.

All he can really do is continue to play the morning’s events off as if they were not significant, like he did in the lounge. Hopefully it doesn’t end up pissing her off. She has caught onto how much he knows about advanced control systems, so he won’t be able to brush her off so easily this time.

“I know you saw the prototype, the woman. It was not one of our run of the mill endeavors either. Something about her caught your attention, I can tell that well enough. It only took me single second to make the connection to what you were up to this morning. What has you playing stupid?”

“Stupid? No, coy is not stupid. I just know when to keep my mouth shut is all. What do you want? I saw your prototype run for its life and get gunned down. Is that what you wanted to hear?” He notices her head jerk to the right by an almost immeasurable amount. That got her attention. He lays his arm out across the back of his couch and sinks into the cushions, waiting for her to continue. It looks like she was actually expecting him to tell her exactly what she wanted to know.

“This model is really up there Aaron.”

He interrupts her. “Big projects have big problems. Its’s not a big deal Valerie. I demo new machines for a living. Non-disclosure is literally part of my job.”

The upset look returns to her face, but it’s not him that she’s upset about. “Was it that bad?”

He doesn’t want to answer so truthfully this time, so he deflects. “Look, I understand that Werker has a bulletproof reputation. I’m not gonna tell anyone that I saw your latest stuff get… spontaneous. But yeah, it was a little real.” He watches her look up at the ceiling and take a deep breath. Her long neck has a few freckles on it. Whatever happened to that robot has affected her deeply too. She probably knows more about how real it was than he does.

Finally, she visibly relaxes and sits back in the chair. This time, she doesn’t forget to cross her legs. She turns her head to scan the room a little bit more, but her eyes never really do leave his. Her eyes flick open slightly, as if suddenly remembering something. She abruptly stands up and smooths her dress out with her hands. She starts out quickly, but then slows down. For a second, she grays the boundary between dignity and exhibition. As her wide spread hands slide down the front of her body and thighs, he watches, waiting for her eyes to dart up and catch him.

She only slightly smirks at him in the dark, seeing that he’s catching on now. While heading for the door, she explains that she made a point to her sister that Mikel is not staying the night in their apartment. She’s going to make sure it stays that way. He wants to ask if she maybe doesn’t actually like him, but it’s really none of his business. Cordially, he opens the apartment door and steps out into the hall with her.

He feels her hand slide down his forearm on her way through the doorway. Something was off about the way she did it though. She was not exactly feeling his arm in a sensual way, but more like as a distraction. She had quietly said something to him on her way out and he didn’t catch what it was. Maybe it was something telling, or hot. Whatever it was, she didn’t want him to hear it, but yet still remember it. He watches her strut down the hall, not looking back even once. She pauses at her door, and looks down. She knows he’s still standing there. She can probably feel his eyes on her.

“I will see you around Aaron.”

“Soon I hope.”

Waking up to the screech of his alarm, Aaron feels like a wrung out mop. He couldn’t sleep through almost any of last night. Valerie had planted herself in his mind and spread her slender long slender fingers throughout his every though. It makes him wonder what she said to him when she walked out. He’s become so consumed by her, and doesn’t know what the hell to do with himself.

He can still see her face, burned into his mind like words left on a phosphor screen for too long. He is enamored by her lightly freckled skin, wide heart-shaped lips, and big aquiline nose. Her bright brown eyes are almost as light as her hair.

He’s already so smitten, he has a hard time thinking of anything else. He wonders how he’d not noticed her like this before. Maybe he really is just slipping through a life made of nothing but smoke, where nothing ever really reachedes out and touches him. Not like this anyhow. Turning over to lay flat on his chest, he presses his face into the mattress and puts the image of her back in his mind. He can see the way her long almost-straight hair parts in the middle, lifting her bangs into waves to the side.

He’s careened out of the blissful mood with another screeching alarm. Darting his eyes back over to the clock again, he hopes she didn’t notice it last night. She would’ve considered it to be childish for sure. The clock is in the shape of a wrecked car that has crashed into the post of his bedside lamp. It displays the time in the shattered front window and actually makes the sound of screeching tires and crash when going off. It makes him smile and he doesn’t care. It’s the coolest damn little clock.

Getting up isn’t so bad, now that he’s in a good mood. Today, he’s been tasked with watching robots cleaning the insides of giant chemical storage tanks at a food processing plant. “This is going to be a damn boring day.” Robots confined to a simple geometry never encounter any challenges worth watching. He figures he should at least be able to start thinking straight again by the end of the day.