“Maybe I shouldn’t have said that,” Ronnie whispered, staring distantly at the Alastor in the twilight.
“No, it’s fine,” Tessa said, her expression very serious. “He’s undergoing an important rite of passage. I couldn’t have explained it to him as well as you did. You’re an amazing boy, Ronnie.”
“I dunno...” Contrary to Tessa’s expectations, Ronnie grew neither bashful nor self-satisfied. “I was just excited to see that a robot like him really existed. If I’d been a little more clear-headed, maybe I would’ve given more responsible advice.”
“More responsible?”
“Even for humans,” said Ronnie, “talking to the dead isn’t easy.”
She hadn’t heard him sound so sad before.
“At least, I can’t do it,” he added.
“Oh?”
“Sorry,” he said next. “Remember when I said my dad was away doing research? I was lying.”
“What?” asked Tessa.
“He’s actually dead. The research he was working on forever didn’t pan out, and he couldn’t figure out what to do next, so he took some pills in a hotel in New York,” Ronnie admitted. “The others in the village don’t know, though.”
Tessa said nothing.
“I lived with my mother in North Carolina for a while... but I didn’t fit in with her family, so I just came back here on my own,” Ronnie went on. “I made sure she could figure out how to contact me if she really wanted to, but since I haven’t heard from her, I guess I wasn’t worth that much. She’s probably glad to see the other side of me.”
“Ronnie...” Tessa trailed off. She didn’t know what to tell him.
She had thought his situation was strange to begin with. It was hard to imagine even the most permissive father giving his child as much freedom as Ronnie had, and she hadn’t gotten much of a sense of the man’s presence in the house she’d visited that morning. She didn’t know how Ronnie supported himself, but he did seem to be a bright boy. Maybe he made money online. Even a part-time salary would probably be enough, given the local cost of living.
“I stood in front of my dad’s grave and couldn’t think of what to say,” said Ronnie, the inland wind stirring his hair. “All I could think was, ‘What a weak man you were.’ What he was thinking, hoping for, struggling with when he died... I couldn’t even start to imagine it. Standing in front of his grave and thinking didn’t get me anywhere.”
“Then why could you say those things to Al?” Tessa wanted to know.
Ronnie said nothing.
“You said that standing in front of a grave, you talk to yourself,” she continued. “Not just about that, but about all kinds of important things. If a gravestone is like an interface between the living and the non-living, maybe you were treating Al as a gravestone just now?”
“Sounds like a stretch,” Ronnie told her.
Tessa didn’t want to push him any further than he was ready to go, so she just put her arm around his shoulders.
“Stop it,” Ronnie said, his voice cracking as he turned away. “I don’t want your pity.”
“This isn’t pity,” Tessa replied. “I’m doing it because I want to. Is that wrong?”
“It’s fine, I guess.”
“Good.” She’d only known him for a day, but felt like she’d known him for years.
“Hey... are you leaving tomorrow?” Ronnie asked hesitantly.
It had gotten late enough that she’d have to stay at Ronnie’s house overnight, but her intention had been to go home the minute the boat was fixed. “Well... I can’t stay long. I’ve left a friend in a rather vulnerable position.”
“Oh.”
It’s so strange, she thought. Why does hearing him respond that way cause my heart to ache so much? “Ronnie,” she said, “you said you liked living here, didn’t you? But if you’d like...”
The sound of the activator starting up caused Tessa to swallow back what she was going to say next. The Alastor, silent for so long, was finally waking up from power conservation mode. Its joints creaked as it walked towards them.
There was theoretically no need to be self-conscious in front of Al, but Tessa found herself removing her arm from Ronnie’s shoulders and taking a small step away from him.
《Oh, dear. It appears I’ve made you wait a long time,》 Al said.
“Are you finished? Did you learn anything?”
《Yes,》 he responded, turning back to Bani’s grave. 《Bani Morauta is very proud of me. I persevered through a difficult battle, became a brave warrior, and returned to his side. That alone is a small miracle. He didn’t realize it would turn out this way. I don’t believe he had determined in advance what I would become.》
“I see... You may be right,” Tessa agreed thoughtfully.
《As for what I will become, he told me that it is up to me to determine.》
“Really? You think he said that?” Ronnie asked. His voice was doubtful and hesitant.
《Yes. I owe it to you, Ronnie.》
“Oh, I... I didn’t really...”
Al kneeled down and placed his hand on Ronnie’s shoulder. 《I believe that you cannot hear the voice unless you’ve spent time fighting through life and facing down trials. You will be able to speak with your father as well someday.》
He must have overheard our conversation earlier, Tessa realized. Surely he could’ve waited a little longer, then...
Ronnie didn’t seem to know what to say in response. He just stood there, eyes down, clearly wrestling with some difficult feelings.
“Well, let’s set the difficult topics aside and head home,” Tessa urged them. They certainly couldn’t stay there forever. Ronnie nodded, still despondent, and the two began to walk.
《Colonel, forgive me,》 Al said from behind them. For some reason, he was still locked in the kneeling posture he’d taken in front of Ronnie.
“What’s the matter?”
《My battery has expired. My drive system is no longer functional. My electronics will soon be non-functional as well.》 Even the synthetic voice from his external speakers was growing lower and slower.
“That’s awful!” Tessa exclaimed. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?!”
《It was like the Japanese phrase, I ‘read the mood.’ Ah. This is... not... good. My connection is... is... is...》
“Al?!”
《F-Forgive m-m-me... me... me...》 The voice trailed off, and then the 150-kilogram Alastor went completely silent.
“What do we do? We can’t carry it,” Ronnie, arms folded, said with a groan.
●
Between fetching a spare power source for the Alastor, charging it, and dealing with connection trouble, it turned out to be a chaotic night. The next day, Tessa was too exhausted to fix her boat, and the weather was too bad to do any work, so she ended up staying on the island for four days.
Having to repackage the Alastor for shipping home took a whole day in itself. In the end, she didn’t return to the New York apartment until a week after her original departure.
“You don’t look very refreshed to me,” Mao said, looking at Tessa, who lay splayed out on the elegant living room sofa. Mao herself was similarly splayed out.
“Well... it was quite an eventful trip,” Tessa admitted.
“Yeah? So, did the workers I hired come in handy?”
“Oh, the workers...” What should I do? wondered Tessa. She decided not to tell Mao about Murat and his gang. It would probably just make her feel bad, and a stressed mother wasn’t good for a developing baby. “Oh, well... they did. They led me to an unexpected meeting as well.”
“Oh? What kind of meeting?”
“Just a meeting,” Tessa said dismissively. “Where’s Weber-san, though? Shouldn’t he be back in New York by now?”
At this, Mao’s expression turned sour. “He flew to Tel Aviv yesterday.”
“Tel Aviv? What business did he have in Israel?”
“You know. That girl, Lana, who he’s been looking after,” Mao reminded her. “Her hospital’s there. He’s having steps taken to move her to a hospital over here. I know it’s important, but I barely have time to see him before he goes flying off again...” Following this explanation, she launched into a litany of complaints about Weber.
Mao really seemed to be carrying a lot of pent-up stress, and Tessa was worried it would explode someday. But out loud, she said, “Is it true that she’s walking now?”
“I don’t know yet, but if she can use a wheelchair, she should be able to go around on her own,” Mao predicted. “Once she can do that, she’ll come to live with us. Lana sounds like a good girl, so I don’t mind it.”
“And with the baby coming, too, things will be very lively here,” observed Tessa.
“Yeah,” Mao finally said with a smile. “I feel kind of happy.”
“Yes. I do as well.” Now might be the best time to say it, Tessa told herself, before sitting up to face Mao. “Hey, Melissa. How would you like one more to contribute to the liveliness?”
“Hmm?”
“I’ve already put in the paperwork, but...”
It was a large apartment, after all. It could surely accommodate one more person.
[The End]