I\u2019m not supposed to be hanging out with a human, but Mother can\u2019t tell while she\u2019s in sleep mode. When I wake in my deck chair, she is still asleep in hers\u2014the skin receded from her shoulders and scalp to reveal the solar-paneled skeleton beneath. Once the nanobodies expand my body enough to be an adult android, I\u2019ll also need to sleep for long hours during the day to recharge my energy. Until then, this window of time between my awakening and hers is the perfect gap to meet with my friend in secret.\n<\/p>\n
\nHe\u2019s walking on the other side of the street. He has a crooked nose, brown skin, and a body so thin I always imagined a strong wind could carry him away. So fragile, even for a human. Or a \u2018devourer,\u2019 as Mother and most androids would call him.\n<\/p>\n
\nI never saw him that way. Taka loves all things, and he eats no more than he has to. Nature left him no choice.\n<\/p>\n
\nI leap over the railings and land in front of him. \u201cHey, Taka.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHey, Goro. Ready to carve?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nI nod vigorously and take his warm, soft hand as he leads me to his home. The streets are busy with androids and humans walking in segregated rows, and I\u2019m acutely aware of the distasteful glances they throw our way.\n<\/p>\n
\nThey can tell by our gait, by the gleam of solar panels at the corners of my bare scalp, by the way Taka breathes that we are different. They don\u2019t understand our friendship. Taka listens to me. We share secrets.\n<\/p>\n
\nHe teaches me carving. We have fun together. What does the skeleton beneath matter?\n<\/p>\n
\nTaka bravely defies the world around him, but I keep my head down. I steal furtive glances of the passers-by, dreading to catch a glimpse of those zealot androids known to assault humans on sight\u2014they call themselves\n<\/p>\n
\nSolarminders, wear a label of a silver sun. I\u2019m being paranoid though. These androids have specific territories they operate in\u2014alleys populated solely by other androids where no one would bat an eye. No way they\u2019ll be here in the neutral areas.\n<\/p>\n
\nWe finally reach Taka\u2019s place and shut the door on the hostile din outside. There\u2019s tatami on the floor, and it makes crunching sounds against my tough feet\u2014like walking atop the crust of freshly baked bread. A scent of beef ramen and a clamor of utensils come from the kitchen. We shouldn\u2019t be seen together, but with his mother busy cooking, we have enough time to work on the carving if we work on the shed outside. Taka learned to carve wood from his father and inherited all the tools he needed to continue the craft\u2014a series of whittling knives with handles ten times the blade size.\n<\/p>\n
\nTaka picks two blocks of limewood\u2014one for him, one for me\u2014and we go to the shed. It\u2019s dusty, filled with shelves hosting buckets, sprays and old knives. He lays the tools on a table covered by a blue sheet for us to work. Not work, not really. It\u2019s more like play. I love the feel of dead wood peeling away at the push of the knife, the visions of pretty things taking shape in my hands. We have an elephant, a dwarf, and a fox from previous times.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cLet\u2019s make a kodama today,\u201d Taka says.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhat about an owl?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cOr perhaps a red panda?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cOr a totem with monkey faces?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAll of them!\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nI smile. \u201cYou take the kodama. I\u2019ll do the owl first.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nWe nod at each other and get to work. Draw the design on paper, attach the paper on the wood, and finally the best part: push the blade on the wood and peel away flakes. Shhhk, shhhk. Part of me always expects to find something at the wood\u2019s core, like if I peel away enough, a solar-paneled skeleton will reveal itself. And once it touches the sunlight, the carving I make will be alive, and the owl will fly away. It makes me think of my own body as a woodblock, and now I imagine Mother popping up from behind me saying, See, Goro? All things should harvest energy from the sun. Not survive at the expense of others.\n<\/p>\n
\nAs soon as I finish the beak, a shriek erupts behind us. Taka\u2019s mother has puffy bags below her eyes, and something about the way she glares in my direction makes me think crows will start flying from the hoops of her sleeves to peck at my scalp.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhat is he doing here?\u201d she asks.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe were just carving. Didn\u2019t mean no harm by it,\u201d Taka says.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cNo harm? Do you know what they\u2019ll do to people like us if they find him here? Do you want to have your family accused of abduction?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nWhy do adults act like that? Once, my mother humiliated Taka when she caught me hanging out with him on the streets. Called him street urchin and a plague to the planet. His mother looks at me as if I\u2019m some dangerous animal that escaped from the zoo. All I want is to hang out with my friend. Why can\u2019t they leave us in peace?\n<\/p>\n
\nTaka attempts to defend our actions further, but I stand, bow, and say \u201cI\u2019m sorry for any distress I caused you Mrs. Bencraft. I will leave now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nI cross the threshold to the outside world, knowing Mrs. Bencraft\u2019s is glaring at the back of my neck.\n<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nDays drift by, and I visit Doc\u2014the only android whose company I enjoy, forty years my senior. His father was a kind android who created him to help around with the gadget shop. Now, Doc lives out his retirement surrounded by the ancient electronics and paraphernalia he has crafted throughout his existence. A fan on the ceiling makes a low hum and spreads the dust and smell of rusty copper. Geniuses love their chaos.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cSo you just left?\u201d he asks me as he drives a screw deep into one of his new devices.\n<\/p>\n
\nI shrug.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYou could have given her a piece of your mind.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhat good would that do? If I am respectful, maybe one day she\u2019ll see there\u2019s nothing to hate me for. Perhaps she\u2019ll allow me to hang out with Taka then.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nHe shakes his head. \u201cNaive. Prejudice never changes.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nI fiddle with one of his screwdrivers, twist it in my hands. \u201cYours changed.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nHe looks at me, proffers his hand and I hand him the screwdriver. \u201cGoro, you know how much history, biology, and neuroscience I had to study before I changed my mind. Most people aren\u2019t like that. They don\u2019t realize we are the same\u2014they can\u2019t accept that the difference between the android and human brain has narrowed to the point of being nigh nonexistent. Heck, many of them have forgotten that we are made in the image of man, by man. That they sprinkled us in the population to bring balance to the world.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe could educate her.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cDid your mother listen when you tried to explain our origins? Does she believe man made us as we are and helped us achieve our independence?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nI bite my lip. \u201cNo. Even though she works as a quality control inspector in android production facilities, she is clueless as to our origins. She believes humans stumbled upon us by accident.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cRight. And no doubt Taka\u2019s mother sees the truth as android propaganda. The truth in her mind is\u201d\u2014he waggles the screwdriver to punctuate his words\u2014\u201cAndroids were made by evil Solarmind Corp to steal our lives and our jobs. Hanging out with one can only lead to trouble. Solarmind Corp love their toys.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cBut that\u2019s stupid,\u201d I say. \u201cOur independence from Solarmind Corp was established decades ago.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThat ain\u2019t enough time for the dust to settle on the human mind, though. She did say, They\u2019ll accuse us of abduction, didn\u2019t she? Who do you think she was referring to by \u2018they\u2019? You\u2019re Solarmind Corp property in her mind.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nDoc leans a hand on my shoulder. \u201cTrust me, Goro. You can\u2019t change the world. Just lessen the time you spend with Taka. Find other androids to hang out with. And when you raise an android of your own, teach it to be better. That\u2019s as far as you can aspire to reach. Change comes slowly.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cNo,\u201d I say. \u201cTaka is my friend. Our friendship will be a symbol. A seed from which change will start.\u201d I pause. \u201cLike the rough wood that will one day become a beautiful sculpture. We just need to keep scraping away.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n
\nI meet Taka again the next day. Mother is in her solar sleep cycle again, but my smaller body recharge is done early. Taka waves from the street below, woodblocks tucked in his elbow and a beanie bag around his waist filled with carving tools. If neither parent accepts our friendship, we\u2019ll find our own place to do woodcarving.\n<\/p>\n
\nI leap over the railings and land down on the pavement.\n<\/p>\n
\nTaka smiles and tosses a woodblock to me. \u201cAn eagle today?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nI smile. \u201cOr maybe a raccoon?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cOr a bear!\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cLet\u2019s do them all!\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cDeal,\u201d we both say and walk to a quiet alley three blocks away where Mother won\u2019t see us. We lay down on the hot pavement to start the work\u2014no, the play. First to draw, then to attach, and finally to carve. The light breeze carries the peels of wood away, and some get into the street grille. I imagine the peels slowly rotting in their long journey down the pipes, little abandoned boats stinking of refuse and urine.\n<\/p>\n
\nA breeze picks up some of the shreds, and I look up, startled they\u2019re flying so far. They twirl and drift on the wind, away from the alley, into the shrubbery on the other side of the road. A few whirl out on the sidewalk and get crushed beneath the footsteps of a group of three androids. A group that\u2019s now entering the alley, heading toward us with certain strides.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWell, well, well,\u201d the biggest among them says. \u201cWhat have we here, Bit?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cLooks like a human, Batu,\u201d says a shorter one. \u201cI detect respiration.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAnd it\u2019s hanging out with an android,\u201d says the shortest of the three.\n<\/p>\n
\nI swallow hard. Maybe if I act polite. Maybe if I show them nothing\u2019s wrong with what they\u2019re seeing, we can all be friends. I stand, legs shaking, and proffer my hand. \u201cI\u2019m Goro. It\u2019s all right, T-Taka here\u2019s with me. He\u2019s one of the good ones. We just\u2014\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nBut then I notice it: a silver sun emblazoned on the shoulders of the large android. Solarminders. They encircle us slowly. Taka takes to his feet, chest inflated, head up high. \u201cSo what if we hang out? What\u2019s it to you?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThe big android is deadly serious. \u201cFilthy devourer,\u201d he says, and the other two kick Taka\u2019s knees from behind, forcing him to kneel.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cStop,\u201d I say. \u201cI told you he\u2019s with me!\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThey kick him again. I leap at the shortest android. \u201cI said stop!\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nBut the big one grabs me by the shoulder and yanks me back. I fall on the pavement headfirst.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe know,\u201d he says calmly. \u201cWe know he\u2019s with you. We\u2019ll just teach him to be a good member of society so he remembers to stay in his place.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nA scream. The world spins and I struggle to stand. They have Taka pinned against the wall, and the big one punches him in the gut. One of them snaps shafts of rusty solar panels from the garbage nearby.\n<\/p>\n
\nI take a step and before I can scream, something sweeps my feet, and I drop to the ground again. The big android sits on top of me.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cSit still, little one. We don\u2019t want to hurt you.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nWhy are they doing this? Why? Please stop hitting him. Please, oh please, leave us alone.\n<\/p>\n
\nBut the androids hit him with the solar-panel shafts on the shoulders, and he kneels, then kick him down to the ground and they keep kicking.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cStop!\u201d I scream, but they remain indifferent to my pleas and keep kicking his fragile body with their powerful android feet. The alley echoes with fleshy bone-crushing sounds. Taka screams and screams, and I can\u2019t do anything.\n<\/p>\n
\nI can\u2019t do anything to save my friend.\n<\/p>\n
\n
\nI hoist Taka over my shoulder. His breathing is ragged, and by the time we reach Doc\u2019s place, his grunts have waned to a painful wheeze.\n<\/p>\n
\nDoc brings forth a chair for me to rest the body. \u201cWhat the hell? What happened?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cSolarminders ambushed us. Can you do something?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cMe? I don\u2019t know jack about human physiology. Take him to a hospital!\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nI shake my head. \u201cCan\u2019t. Android hospitals won\u2019t accept him, and the human ones need money. We don\u2019t have any. I know his family doesn\u2019t have any. I\u2014I had to act fast. I could only think of you. Please, Doc.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nBut Doc seems lost. The certain elderly android I know is gone. His eyes shift helplessly between me and Taka.\n<\/p>\n
\nI lift Taka\u2019s hand and feel the pulse in the wrist. Weaker. Slower. Almost gone. I know enough about human anatomy to realize what this means. He\u2019s dying. How can we help him? What can we\u2014\n<\/p>\n
\nI turn to Doc. \u201cYou know how to transfer consciousness, don\u2019t you? You can save him if you store it out of his body.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nHis eyes widen. \u201cGoro, that\u2019s for our kind. I can\u2019t do this on a human.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYou said their minds were just like ours!\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI said almost like ours. And I don\u2019t have a powerful enough computer even if I wanted to.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHow powerful does it need to be? Can\u2019t we just\u2014I don\u2019t know, uh, use\u2014\u201d For a moment, my mind pictures a wooden figure, carved in the shape of Taka, carved specifically to accept his soul. A woodblock with a solar-powered skeleton inside. \u201cUse me,\u201d I say.\n<\/p>\n
\nDoc runs a hand through his hair. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019re asking. I\u2019d have to partition your mind, remove half your memories. And what\u2019s lost \u2026 I ain\u2019t got the equipment to store a backup.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nMemories. Memories make us what we are. Will this change me? Will I forget our past, the memories I shared with Taka, and end up hating humans like my mother? Or like those android bullies that beat Taka within an inch of his life?\n<\/p>\n
\nI shake my head. My voice is low and serious. \u201cI can\u2019t let Taka die, Doc.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nDoc sighs and nods slowly. \u201cYou can never let anyone know. Hear me? I\u2019ll be terminated if anyone finds out. You and your buddy will be, too. They\u2019ll call you an abomination!\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI understand.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nDoc points me to a recliner, fishes through his cabinets, and places a helmet over my head. I look up at the mossy ceiling and it whirls into a blurry, nauseating whirlpool as tendrils of electricity tingle along my scalp. Flashbacks from my life come and vanish like hazy dreams, the kind of dreams that leave behind a sense of loss once you awake. A craving to return to that made up and forgotten world, but it\u2019s floated off in the ether.\n<\/p>\n
\nAfter a long while, I feel the right side of my lips move. It\u2019s Taka. Speaking through me. \u201cWhere, where am I?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019m still befuddled by the experience. Doc\u2019s the one that speaks. \u201cYou\u2019re in Goro\u2019s body,\u201d he says. \u201cThey messed you up pretty bad, kid. I extracted you moments before your body gave out. Your buddy gave up half his memories to save you by making room for your consciousness.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhat\u2014what?\u201d Taka says through my mouth. My eyes drift to Taka\u2019s gray and bleeding body.\n<\/p>\n
\nTears are coursing down my left cheek. Taka\u2019s tears. He\u2019s seeing his own body through my eyes, broken and lifeless. What pain is he going through? I have to be strong. For him. \u201cDon\u2019t worry, Taka,\u201d I say. \u201cWe\u2019ll find you a new body. Mother has connections in the production line of maintenance automatons. They are void of consciousness. Perfect vessels. We\u2019ll get you a solar-paneled body.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cBut \u2026 your mother doesn\u2019t even like me.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cDoesn\u2019t matter. She won\u2019t let me live like this. Trust me, she\u2019ll want you out of my head. There\u2019s only one way I\u2019ll agree to, and that\u2019s putting you into an android body.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d Taka says. \u201cI\u2019m sorry. So sorry. You risked everything and I\u2014it\u2019s\u2014\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nI wipe off the tears. \u201cI risked nothing. I only exchanged something of value for something of greater value. You. My friend.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nDoc smiles at me. At us. He wipes away a tear of his own.\n<\/p>\n
\n
\nTaka\u2019s new body was meant to serve as a janitor. Mother proclaimed the body a reject and wheeled it out for disposal. It was not easy to convince her, but I insisted I wouldn\u2019t erase Taka from my consciousness unless we found a host for him. And now that we found a solar-powered one, she\u2019s warming up to me hanging out with him.\n<\/p>\n
\nHis mother, however \u2026 she lashed out at Taka, calling him an abomination that stole away her son and sought to replace him with lies. She screamed for him to give her her son back. To prove it was him, Taka went into her room, pulled off her dresser and revealed a carving he had once made. For her.\n<\/p>\n
\nShe broke down crying and in the end she hugged him. I realized change comes slowly, and it starts with a mother\u2019s love.\n<\/p>\n
\nBut an android cannot stay among humans without being discovered. Taka\u2019s staying at our place for now. I enjoy having him around, and for the first time, other androids are not looking down at him. In their eyes, he\u2019s one of us, but to me he is the same. Not a solar-powered android, but my human friend.\n<\/p>\n
\nWe got his father\u2019s tools, too, but he’s not used to his new hands yet, and his carving is awkward. And me?\n<\/p>\n
\nIt seems the half of the memories I erased included all my skills. So, we\u2019re learning from scratch again.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHow about we make a sphere today?\u201d he says.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cOr perhaps a spoon,\u201d I say.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cA sphere in a spoon. Like a droplet of water!\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAnd a pyramid, with an opening for the tomb.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cLet\u2019s do them all.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYeah.\u201d I say with a smile. \u201cYeah, let\u2019s do them all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m not supposed to be hanging out with a human, but Mother can\u2019t tell while she\u2019s in sleep mode. When I wake in my deck chair, she is still asleep in hers\u2014the skin receded from her shoulders and scalp to reveal the solar-paneled skeleton beneath. Once the nanobodies expand my body enough to be an …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107948,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,20131],"tags":[20132],"class_list":["post-140303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-tcl-49-autumn-2023","tag-the-colored-lens-49-autumn-2023","entry entry-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/107948"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=140303"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140569,"href":"http:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140303\/revisions\/140569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=140303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=140303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=140303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}