Alone

A short story.  


Eerr!  Eerr!  Eerr!  Click.

“Je m’appelle Cory.”

Tck.  Tck.  Tck.

“Ich heisse Cory.”

Tck.  Tck.  Tck.

“My name is Cory.”  Rising from dark, army-green bed sheets came the upper half of a silver body.  Blue eyes lit up above a hopeful smile spread across a metallic face.  The face spoke up in a high pitched, childlike voice.  “I wonder how much I grow for today.”  Clanking sounds could be heard on the hardwood floor as tiny, tin feet popped off of the bed and headed for the bedroom doorway.  The empty doorway had a single, deep gash about three feet from the ground on its left side.  The metal boy leaned backwards up against the wood and the top of his head lined up perfectly with the gash. Taking a finger up to the top of his head, a red beam appeared, causing smoke to steam from the wood.  He turned around to take a look.
“Still no grow!”  Cory swung a fierce punch into nothingness.  He would have hit the door had it still been there.  With his fists now clenched at his sides, Cory clunked down the stairs.   “Lex!  I still no grow!  Why?!”  By the time Cory had reached the bottom, there were streaks of oil streaming down his cheeks.  He swallowed a sob that had been building up and made his way to the front room.

Sitting in the only chair in the room was a kid who looked no more than fifteen.  Aside from the chair the boy was sitting in, the only other visible items in the room were a battery powered alarm clock and a window.  The boy, it appeared, had just recently woken up, too.  He was extremely pale and grey veins could be seen through his skin.  This other boy was also very skinny and the few brown strands of hair on his scalp were stringy and thin.  “You’re probably just not ready.”  He looked Cory up and down and frowned.  “Please don’t be sad.”  

“But I no can help it.  I feel strange inside because I feel not like normal child.  Normal child grow much.  I stay same for whole year since made.”  Cory slumped his shoulders and made wobbly movements towards his creator.  The anger he originally felt had dissipated and now he was just sad.  “Am very-

“Oil change needed.” A feminine voice sounded from Cory’s chest area through a tiny speaker.

“Am very- …”

“Oil change needed.”  

“Take a couple steps closer to me buddy.”  The metal boy did as told.  Lex pulled out a white, paper bag from under his chair.  From the bag a rag and a dirty, yellow bottle were pulled out.   Lex used the rag to clean the tears of his pal.  “Poor thing.  Alright, now open wide.”  Cory opened his mouth and let Lex proceed in dumping all of the liquid from the yellow bottle into the opening.

“Oil tank full.”

“There. All full.”

“Thank you.”

“Sure thing buddy.  Now, you should probably hold off on crying for a while.  That was the last bottle and I’m not sure when I’ll be able to go to the store next to get more since I haven’t been feeling too well lately.  Plus, you shouldn’t be crying anyway.  Not growing is no reason to cry.  It’s just going to take some time is all.”

“Okay.  But, how much time?  How much more longer ‘till I get taller?  Am very not happy that it taking so long.”  

“I’m not sure when.  But you will eventually.  You’ll just need to be pa- …”
 
Wwwrr.  

“ … You’ll just need to be patient.”  Lex made a movement to cover his stomach by crossing his arms low.  

“Lex tank is empty, too.  I go get fuel for you now.”  The tin body made a move for the kitchen.

“We’re out of everything in there, remember?  I finished the last box of noodles we had yesterday.  I’m just going to have to wait until I feel better so I can go get some more food.  Thanks though.”

“That could take forever. Plus, how can get better with no food?  Did not you say pale boys need eat food to be healthy?”  

“Yes, but there’s nothing I can do about it now.  I’m just going to have to wait.”  

Cory rubbed his hands together and looked at the ground.  He already knew the answer to the question he wanted to ask. “You need eat.  Why not I just go get food?  I get more fuel for me too if g-”

“No!”

“Lex plea- …”

 “What if you get lost or what if it starts raining!  You remember what I told you about rain?  You’ll rust or short circuit or something.  What if something falls on you.  You stay- …”

Wwwrr!

“Please, Lex.  Sound very not good.  Your tummy make noise mean you empty.  I promise I no get lost or get breaking.  I be careful.”

“I said no.  That’s that.”

“But-...”

“No!”


“Straight from side of house, left turn at melted swings, and straight on. Field vision off.”  Opening his bedroom window with a soft squeak, Cory popped through and gracefully landed on his feet.  “His nap last should for hour so should get back in time.  Destination not far.”
 Cory stood still for a moment and took a good look at his surroundings.  The town looked even worse from the outside.  The houses still standing seemed shabbier and the ones that had fallen looked trashier. The dirt on the ground appeared greyer and the roads looked more cracked.  “Straight from side of house.”
The little bot started his journey, clunking down the sidewalk.  
“Turn left at melted swings.  Straight on to store place.”  

After crossing two blocks, Cory stood before the Wal-Mart store.  “This very big place.  Hope find suitable food for friend.”  Cory climbed into the pile of broken wood and began digging through the fallen boards and shelves.  “Ah-ha!”  About ten inches in, he could see something that wasn’t metal, concrete, or wooden.  He shoved his hand down in the small space where he saw color, grabbed, and pulled.  Out came a neon, purple sneaker.  “A shoe.  Not ah-ha.”

 Cory stood up and stumbled across the rubble about twenty feet to the right.  In this new spot he saw spaces where boards and beams were cleared away and the floor of the store could be seen in these areas.  “I bet this about place where Lex usually look for food.”

Cory scooted over a couple more feet and started throwing beams and pipes aside.  A few minutes in, he saw something through the new hole he had made.  He launched his arm down in and wrapped his fingers around a cylindrical shape.  He pulled the item up, fearing that what he stumbled upon was just some rubbish, but to his relief it was just what he was looking for. “Green beans!  I see Lex eat that before!”  The bot reached into the hole again and wiggled his hand around and felt another can and brought it up.  “More green beans!”  Cory reached in two more times, both times retrieving even more green beans.  Satisfied with what he had, Cory held the cans in his arms like they were all one big baby. “Hope Lex like these things greatly.”

Ching. Ching. Ching.

“Searching for fuel.  Searching for fuel.  Searching for fuel.  Search- …  Fuel found.  Fifty-seven feet East.”  
The boy walked the distance towards where oil was said to be, dug around, and found a couple of bottles of it.  
“There.  Everything needed got.”  Before leaving the heaping pile of building, Cory glanced back at all the spots where he had rummaged.  He set down his gatherings and headed back to where he found the cans.  “Need make look like I no was here.”  He covered the hole where he found the cans back up with some wood pieces and made his way to where he found the purple shoe.  As he approached, a bright yellow caught his eye from underneath a broken shelf.  Curiosity overcame Cory.  “What that?”  He paused at the shelf, knelt down, and flung it aside.  “What is?!”
Cory picked up the yellow high heel gently.  “Shoe?  Very strange shoe.”  He looked down and saw the heel’s match and grabbed that, too.  “Why shoes such high heel on it?”  Cory thought about how Lex’s shoes looked.  

“Lex shoes flat bottom.  Good for protecting feet.”  He then thought of the neon sneaker he happened upon many moments ago.  “That had flat bottom.  Why not these?  Not very good protection like how are.”  Cory pondered a minute more while examining the woman’s footwear.  “ All seem to be useful for is to make … person tall.”  The boy’s eyes grew wide with excitement.
“Oohh!! I wear!”  The robot child sat flat on his bottom and strapped the heels on.

Eek, eek.

Cory tapped the tips of the shoes together and smiled.  “I be taller now.”  He crossed his fingers  and closed his eyes. He slowly and shakily stood up.  “One.  Two.  Three.”  The blue eyes opened up.  “Woah!”  Cory’s vision was practically unaltered, but he was able to notice that his visual perspective was a little different.  A little higher up.  “Oh wow!  Very happy I am!”  He took a couple of steps forward while spreading his arms out wide.  “Very wiggly, but I deal with.”  Walking might not have been so difficult if the shoes weren't three sizes too big on him.

“I sure Lex no notice I look over here.”  Cory was eager to go home and show himself off.  “Lex be happy for me.  I grow!”  The robot stumbled and fumbled back towards the cans and bottles.  He very slowly bent down, picked them up, and made his way for home.  The clunky noise that he made earlier on the sidewalk was now more of a clack.  “I see melted swings.  Soon be home!  Oh, I not been this happy since day I was made whole year ago.”
He approached the swings and paused.  The brightness in his eyes seemed to dull and the his mouth gaped open slightly.  “Wait.  Wait second.  I can no show friend!  He then know I sneak out.  How I even would explain oil and food?”  Cory started for home again, making sure to move slowly.  “Need to think of good lie of where found stuff.  Can say found food and fuel in basement.  But I not know yet how to explain shoes.”

“Cory!  Cory come here!”  The immobile child was starting to get fussy.  He had awoke from his nap about twenty minutes earlier than usual with a powerful urge to pee.  “Cory please!  I need help getting to the bathroom!”

 For the past two days Lex had been unable to do anything on his own.  He had relied on his little pal to assist him in pretty much everything.  “Damn that robot.  Coooorrry!!”
Again, the boy received no reply.  Tapping the armrest, the child waited for another two minutes.  
“Maybe he’s still upset.  Oh, I hope not.”  He shouted out again, but this time less demanding.  “Buddy?!  Are you okay?!  Are you still feeling bad?!”  No reply.

He muttered quietly to himself. “There’s no way he shut down.  I poured a whole bottle in him.  That should last him at least a week.  He can’t be napping.  There’s still a couple of hours before that command kicks in.”  Lex reached under his seat where he had once pulled out a white bag and brought up what looked like a notebook.  He flipped through to almost the end of the book and started skimming.  “No commands that would cause him to be unresponsive and no reason as to why he would shut down.  His parts should last a couple years.”

Lex put the manual back.  “Cory!”
Still no response.
“Answer m!- …”

Wwrrr!

Lex’s jaw lowered.  “That sneaky punk.  Ugh.  I really shouldn’t have given him so many human traits.”

Cory lay in the middle the street just six blocks away from home.  Half of his face in contact with the warm tar.  The other half of his face, along with the rest of his body, were being acquainted with the dented up, greeting sign for the city. Welcome to Aurora, Illinois!

The green beans were to his left,  just inches away from the white outline of green sheet of steel.  The oil bottles were just a bit farther.  And in between the cans and bottles, a computer chip.  

Cory sighed in defeat.  He had been stuck like this for about ten minutes.  “I such dumby.  Should not tried hop over sign.  Guh.  Just when thought of good excuse, too!  Was gonna say found shoes in bathroom closet.”  He could feel the weight of the broken heels on his feet as if they were taunting him.
He sort of wished that he could, instead, feel that weight in his side.  His fall had caused a sealed compartment in the abdominal region to open, causing one of  his his motor instruction chips to slip out.  He considered trying to yell for Lex, but he knew it would be pointless.  

“No way he can hear from there.  Even if could hear, no way can come get.”  
Cory allowed his mind to wander, as that’s the most he could really do in his situation.


“Well hello there.  How do you feel?”

…

“Can you speak?”

…

“My name is Lex.  Do you know your name?”

…

“Your name is Cory.  Can you say your name?”

“Name is Cory.”

“Very good!  Cory, do you know why you’re here?  How you came to be?”

“Am here to be Lex’s friend.  Keep Lex company.  That’s why built me.”

“Uh-huh.  That’s right.  Do you know why that is?”

“‘Cause no one else here.”

“Yes, that’s correct.  You will be my friend until the day that I die.  Do you know when that will be?”

“Soon.”

“Yes.  Do you know why?”

“Because radiation killing you.”

“That’s right.  But I’m okay with that.  Do you know why I’m okay with that?”

“‘Cause now am here, you will no die alone.”

“That’s right.”

Cory remembered that day he was made.  The day he met his friend.  “What have done? Am not going to be able to fulfill initial instructions.”   For the second time that day, dark tears spilled out from his eyes.  “Am sorry Lex.  Will not be there when it happens, whenever that be.  I fail.”

“He should have been here by now.  It’s been hours.  It’s starting to get dark.”  The boy attempted to shift his bottom to the right, but could not do so.  “Eerg, this is getting really uncomfortable.”  Lex scrunched his nose, the urine obviously starting to stink after a half hour of being released.  

Wwrr!

“Shut up stomach!  Cory, where are you!?”  The absence of his robot friend was starting to bring about an unpleasant memory.  


“You promise you’ll be back?  You won’t leave me alone?”

“We promise, sweetie.  We’ll be back before you know it.”

“Mmkay  How long will you guys be gone for?”

“It’ll only take twenty minutes tops to get supplies from the store.  You’re father and I aren’t gonna let you go hungry.”  

“Okie dokie.  Just come back soon.”

“We will, sugar.  Cross my heart.”



“Lex, why I no look like you? Pictures upstairs of you and your parents show you looked like your mom and dad.  Why I no look like?”

“It’s ‘cause they were my parents.  They made me.”

“Lex make Cory.”

“Yeah.  I suppose that’s true.”

…

“Come on Cory.  Don’t be like that.”

…

“Seriously.”

…

“Fine.  I’ll tell you.”

“Am listening.”

“Ummm, well, you’re just a baby.  That’s why you don’t look like me yet.”

“Baby?”

“That’s right!  Everyone starts out as a baby!  And until you grow, you’ll look like how you do instead of how I do.”

“Ohh!  When do I grow?!”

“It’s different with everybody.  Some take months.  Others can take a year or so to grow.  You’ll just need to be patient.”

“I see.  Make sense.  But, why you no tell me before?”

“Well, ya see, I uh wanted it to be a surprise is all.”

“So I will look like you soon?”

“Warning.”

“Huh?”

“Warning.”

“What? Something wrong Lex?”


“Warning.  Warning.  Oil tank empty.  Oil tank empty.  Warning. Warn-...  System shutdown in progress.  System shutdown in progress.”

Cory awoke to his system’s alarm and his face resting in a dark liquid.
When he spoke, his voice was a low whisper because he didn’t want to open his mouth very wide.  “Must have leaked tears in nap mode.”  
Cory puckered up his lips so he could drink some of the oil and was about to, but stopped.
“If no drink, I shut down.  If do drink, I just shut down another day.”

“What the heck!  Why isn’t he back yet!  It’s pitch black out!”  Lex took his glance from the window to the clock.  It was nine o’ clock.  His pal had been gone for nine hours now.  

“Cory, did you run away?!  Did you get lost?!”  The boys eyes fluttered.  “No, stay awake!”  

They fluttered again.  “Stay awake!  Cory, jesus christ!  Where are you?!”  Lex felt his eyelids twitch yet again.

“Stay aw- … You know what?  No.  I’m going to sleep.  I’m going to sleep until he comes back.  He’ll wake me up if he comes back.  If he doesn’t come back, then I’ll stay asleep.  And when I eventually wake up, I won’t open my eyes.  I’ll keep them shut.  I don’t want to open them unless the first thing I’ll see is him.”  The pale boy allowed his lids drop.

Beep.  Beep.  Beep.  Beep.

A red glow pulsed throughout Cory’s body.  
“Wonder what Lex thinking.  Is mad?  Bet is.”

Beep.  Beep.  Beep.  Beep.

“Wonder how long will stay ali- …”

Beep.  Beep.  “Ending all programs.”