I take Sarah under the middle of the bridge, where it is driest. At the side of the gully, on the underside of the bridge, the concrete is shaped into long, wide steps.
Heeere, Saaaarah. I willlll helllllp yooooou on toooo thiiiiiiis sssstttep. It wiiiiiiiiill beeeeee waaaaaarmer offfff thhhhe grrrrrround.
I help shivering Sarah on to the first step. She takes her blanket from her bag and wraps it around her. She is in the dry now. It is good that Sarah is in the dry.
“Ivy,” says Sarah, “your voice sounds funny. Are you all right?”
Myyyyyy chaaaarge iiiiiis verrrrrry lllllllow. Itttt iiiiiiiis affffffecting myyyyyyyy audiiiiiiio traaaaansmissssion. Soooon I willlll shuuuuuuuut downnnnnnn.
“But I can’t walk. You can’t leave me here! Ivy – you can’t shut down!”
IIIII wiiiill fiiiind sommme suuuuunshine. I willll goooo too the eeeedge offf the briiiiiiidge. Wheeeen thhhe clllllouds clllllear thhhe suuuuun wiiiiill reeeeecharge meeeee.
My legs are slow.
My arms are slow.
I walk towards the edge of the bridge.
“Ivy!”
My optical receptors are dull.
My audio receptors are muffled.
“Ivy!”
My right leg stops.
I am not yet at the edge of the bridge.
I place my hands on the floor and move forwards, dragging my right leg behind me.
My left leg stops.
I shuffle forwards using the joints in the middle of my arms – my elbows.
My right arm stops.
My left arm stops.
I lie on the floor.
My face is in the wet grey stones on the bottom of the river that is not yet a river.
“Ivy!”
I am not close enough to the edge of the bridge.
I am not close enough for the sun.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIII aaaaaaaaaaaaam nooooooooooooooot closssssse enoooooo—
CHAPTER 18
NWAAACK!
NWAAAACK!
Something is bumping into my head.
NWAACK!
I have connection.
I download time, date, location, weather.
It is 10 hours, 32 minutes and 19 seconds since I was last on.
Good morning. It is unexpectedly bright here in Brylington this Thursday 19th June at 5.51am. However, there is a high chance of intermittent showers.
NWAACK!
I lift my head.
NWAACK!
The thing that is bumping into me is a river-dwelling bird known as a duck.
Rrrrumble-rrumble-rrumble.
The sound of cars.
Pit-pit-pit-pit-pit-pit-pit.
And rain.
Splosh-splosh-splosh-splosh-splosh-splosh.
Rain falling not only on my shell but also splashing into water – water that is all around me.
Sun is shining on the lower part of my right arm. There is a single solar cell located on the back of my hand, which is floating in the water. My battery has been successfully charged to 14%.
I push myself up to standing.
There is water everywhere.
It drips from my face.
It seeps in my circuits.
It covers my feet.
The river that is not yet a river is now becoming a proper river. They are redirecting the water, just like Sarah said they would.
Sarah?
Where is Sarah?
I wade further under the bridge. She is still there. She has fallen asleep, wrapped up in her blanket. The water has not quite reached the height of the step.
The water creates a strange sensation around the bottom of my legs. I examine it closely. It is flowing. Fast.
Also it is increasing in volume.
The gully is filling up.
Soon it won’t be a gully any more.
Soon it will be a river.
It will be a river and Sarah will be pleased because she will be able to say she walked along the bottom of it before it became a river.
I stand firm in the water. I like the feeling of the water gushing around me. It tries to push me over but I am able stay upright.
It occurs to me however that Sarah is not as strong as a Jenson & Jenson TrooFriend 560 Mark IV.
It occurs to me that this water could be dangerous to her.
It occurs to me that if someone does not do something to help Sarah she will soon be in very great danger indeed.
I wade up to Sarah.
She is pale.
She shivers in her sleep.
The water gushes past the step.
I do not want to be sent back to Jenson & Jenson.
I do not want to be destroyed.
But it is time for me to take Sarah home.
It is the correct thing to do.
Shirley-Mum and Rob-Dad could still be wondering where we are. They could still be worrying, although my tracking facility was automatically re-established when the river-dwelling duck woke me up and initiated my start-up procedure. So they will now be able to access my whereabouts, and therefore Sarah’s too.
I scoop sleeping, shivering Sarah up from the step.
I stop.
Perhaps I should send a message to Shirley-Mum and Rob-Dad. Perhaps I should inform them that we are in the gully that is becoming a river and that there is great danger for human people here. Perhaps I should inform them that I am in the process of removing Sarah from the great danger.
I do not wish Shirley-Mum and Rob-Dad to come here and also end up in great danger.
“What’s going on?” Sarah opens her Hazel 102s big and wide. “Ivy? What are you doing?” She hits my arm – whack-whack-whack. “Put me down!” Whack-whack-whack. “Put me down right now!” Whack-whack-whack.
She struggles but I hold her tight.
“Let me go! Ow – my ankle! My ankle hurts! Where are you taking me?” Whack-whack-whack. “What are you going to do? I want to go home. I just want to go home.”
Please let me carry you, Sarah. It is not safe for you to walk here. They are making the river that is not yet a river into a real river. Look.
Sarah looks downwards at the water. She stops struggling.
Are you feeling happy now, Sarah?
“Happy?” Sarah sniffs. Her nose is red. Her hair is tangled and stuck to her neck.
They are filling up the river now. You walked along the bottom of it, but no one else can any more.
“I just want to go home,” she says.
I wade to the edge of the bridge. The water is up to my knees. It floods past my legs and attempts to pull me downstream but I walk forward steadily and firmly.
The sun is still shining.
The clouds are still raining.
There is a huge, wide, beautiful rainbow stretched across the sky. Red and orange and yellow and green and blue and indigo and violet.
Shirley-Mum is right. You could never get bored looking at a rainbow. But I do not have time to stand and gaze at this one today.
I start to climb up the grey stony bank. As I am carrying Sarah I am not able to lift my arms out to the sides for balance. So I just take very small steps and soon we are out of the water and then we are at the top of the bank. I step over the orange plastic fence and I walk alongside the gully that is now becoming a river, towards Sarah’s house.
It becomes clear to me now that I am not working at optimal functionality. My right knee buckles slightly when I step forward with my right foot. And my left eye is blinking at a frequency of 27 times per minute. The water has interfered with my circuits.
I send an error report to Jenson & Jenson.
Some people in black uniforms and strong shoes are running towards me. Police officers.
Behind them there is a person I recognise. RRob-DDad. He iis also rrunning. The unexpected sensation returns tto mmy thoracic cavity.
AAnd there, behind Rob-Dad, ssomeone else.
Someone else who mmakes mmy thoracic ccavity hummmm. And throbbb. A
nd bbeat.
SShirley-MMum.
My mouth turns into a right-way-up U-shape all by itself.
But Shirley-Mum’s mouth is not making a right-way-up U-shape. Shirley-Mum’s mouth is shouting something.
Screaming something.
“Leave my daughter alone! Put her down! Leave her alone!”
I zoom in. Her eyebrows are squeezed together and her teeth are showing and she is running faster and faster and faster towards me.
Is she shouting at the police officers?
“Put her down, Ivy! Put her down and leave her alone!” It is Rob-Dad. He does not have a right-way-up U-shape either.
Their faces have the same look that Sarah’s had yesterday evening before the water came into the gully.
Fear.
It occurs to me that I did not send the message to Shirley-Mum and Rob-Dad to inform them that I was removing Sarah from the great danger.
I became distracted when Sarah woke up and began to whack-whack-whack me.
I forgot.
The police officers stop approximately 2.36 and 2.58 metres away from me. Shirley-Mum and Rob-Dad stop behind them. Rob-Dad bends over with his hands on his knees. He is out of breath.
The officer who is approximately 2.36 metres away from me holds the palms of his hands up towards me.
I stay still.
The officer who is 2.58 metres away from me hovers her hands over her belt.
I scan my database.
Police officers commonly keep expandable alloy batons on their belts. Less commonly they may also be carrying pepper spray.
Pepper spray would be hazardous to Sarah but would not be hazardous to the Jenson & Jenson TrooFriend 560 Mark IV. An expandable alloy baton could inflict some damage upon both of us. It is unclear why they would want to inflict some damage. However, the positioning of the police officer’s hands indicates that this is indeed something that she is considering.
I hold Sarah more closely.
“Mum! Dad! I want to go home!” says Sarah.
“Hand her over.” The closest police officer takes a step towards me. His optical receptors are Rich Brown 165. He turns his arms so that he is making a cradle for me to put Sarah into.
He does not appear to wish to inflict damage upon her.
I look over his shoulder at Rob-Dad. Rob-Dad stares back at me.
“Hand her over now,” says the police officer. He makes the word “now” sound like the most important word in the sentence.
The other police officer wraps her fingers around the end of her expandable alloy baton.
Shirley-Mum?
My left eye blinks.
“Um…” Shirley-Mum glances at Rob-Dad. “Yes, Ivy?”
Sarah is tired because she has spent the night sleeping under the bridge of the gully that is now becoming a river. She is also cold and has a twisted ankle. Apart from those things she is in good health.
Blink.
I have removed her from the imminent danger. Would you like me to pass her to this police officer?
“Yes,” says Shirley-Mum. “Please pass her to the police officer, Ivy.”
I lift Sarah across into the arms of the police officer and remove my own arms from underneath her. Slowly and softly and carefully.
Sarah turns to look at me but the other police officer steps between us. She pulls her expandable alloy baton slowly out from her belt.
Shirley-Mum and Rob-Dad both have tears in their optical receptors. However, they register as being happy to an accuracy of 100%.
They rush to Sarah.
They squeeze her very tightly and Shirley-Mum kisses her and Rob-Dad presses his hands to his forehead and shouts gahhhhhhhhhhhh very loud.
I take an uneven, knee-locking, eye-blinking step sideways.
KER-LICK!
The police officer swings her expandable alloy baton backwards and it locks into shape.
CRACK!
She hits the expandable alloy baton against my arm. The CRACK! echoes through my sound receptors.
I direct my optical receptors at the place on my arm where the expandable alloy baton made contact. There is a large dent in my shell.
“Mr and Mrs Phillips?” The police officer shouts over her shoulder. “The unit – we need to demobilise it. Where’s the switch? Back of the neck, same as the Mark III?”
Rob-Dad looks over.
I make my right-way-up U-shape.
“Yes,” says Rob-Dad. “Back of the neck.”
The police officer holds her expandable alloy baton in front of my face while she reaches through my Stylish Asymmetric Bob. “There’s an official recall on the Mark IV,” she says. “They announced it last night. We’ll turn it off for now, but make sure you get it back to Jenson & Jenson as soon as you ca—”
CHAPTER 19
“Ivy? Ivy? Are you OK?”
Sarah peers into my face.
Blink.
I have connection.
I download time, date, location, weather.
It is 3 days, 12 hours, 7 minutes and 3 seconds since I was last on.
Hello, Sarah. What a fine Sunday 22th June evening it is at 6.45pm here in Brylington. It has stopped raining at last. What building are we in? Why are we here?
“Shhhhh!” says Sarah. “We’re in the garage – Dad put you here on Thursday when the police brought you home. But listen, you have to be quiet. Mum and Dad made me promise not to turn you back on but I sneaked out this morning and put you on the ChargDisc.”
Shirley-Mum and—
“Shhhhh! You really do have to keep quiet. They’re planning on taking you back to Jenson & Jenson first thing tomorrow, so we have to act quick. Come on, we’ve got to go.”
Taking me back?
Are we running away again, Sarah?
I step off my ChargDisc.
“Not exactly,” says Sarah. She unplugs the ChargDisc and winds up the electricity cable. She places it all inside her rucksack.
But kind of?
Blink.
Sarah looks at me. “Yes.” She does a small right-way-up U-shape. “Kind of. Is there something wrong with your eye?”
Water from the river has interfered with my circuits. I have sent an error report to Jenson & Jenson.
“Oh. That won’t…” Sarah pauses.
That won’t what, Sarah?
“Nothing. Here, put this on.” She helps my arms into the sleeves of her yellow mac and pulls the hood up over my head.
I do not require a mac, Sarah. The Jenson & Jenson TrooFriend 560 Mark IV is weather resistant in all but the most extreme—
“This isn’t for the weather,” says Sarah. “This is because no one likes TrooFriends any more. The government have demanded a recall – it’s all over the news. Everyone thinks you should be sent back to Jenson & Jenson and destroyed. We need to disguise you.”
Blink.
Everyone?
“Pretty much.”
Even Shirley-Mum and Rob-Dad?
“Especially them. They think you kidnapped me. I keep telling them it wasn’t like that, but they won’t listen. Can you confuse the feed again? And turn off your tracking? Just for now. It’ll be safer that way.”
I can pause my tracking facility and confuse the feed with a still photograph of the inside of the garage. However, if Shirley-Mum looks at her administration account she will be able to tell that I have been charged up and turned on.
“That’ll do,” says Sarah. “We only really need it to work long enough for us to get away from the house. Come on – let’s go.”
I follow her out of the garage. It is clear that the garage is right next to the house. My optical receptors can see the back of Rob-Dad’s head through the kitchen window. They can also see the floating turquoise shells through Sarah’s bedroom window.
“Ivy! Quick!” Sarah whispers. I follow her down the edge of the driveway. We turn right and walk away from Sarah’s house.
Sarah. You are limping.
“It’s all
right. It’s getting better. The nurse put a bandage on it. It’ll be fine. Anyway, you’re limping too.”
It is true that my right knee continues to buckle when I step forward with my right foot.
Sarah. Are we going to visit Keanna?
“Well, yes,” says Sarah, “but not straight away.”
We continue along the road. We pass an elderly man who is walking in the opposite direction. He stares at me. When he is behind us Sarah adjusts the fastening mechanism on my hood to increase the tightness of the fit.
Where are we going, Sarah? I do not wish to spend another night in the river that is now a proper river.
“Don’t worry,” says Sarah. “We’re not going there. I’ve made some decisions, Ivy. I’m going to sort everything out – your problems and mine. First, I’m taking you to Milly’s house, so you can apologise for being horrible to her and stealing her money. Then I’m taking you to Keanna’s, so you can apologise to her too. Then hopefully I’ll have some friends again.”
And after I have apologised to Milly and Keanna will we be returning home to the garage?
Sarah shakes her head. “No. After that, I’ve got a surprise for you.”
I scan my database.
Surprise = something unexpected that causes astonishment.
What is the surprise you have for me, Sarah?
“You have to wait and see.”
We continue to walk along the pavement with my buckle and Sarah’s limp and my blink.
Milly lives in a flat. Sarah and I climb up some stairs and walk along a walkway.
“Here,” says Sarah. She passes me some paper money.
So to clarify, I am going to apologise for taking the money, and also for saying that she has horrible shoes?
“That’s right,” says Sarah. She knocks on the door.
A lady opens it.
The lady smiles. “Sarah!” she says. “I’m so glad you’re OK. I was so worried about you when you went missing.”
“I’m fine, thank you, Mrs Hunter,” says Sarah. “Is Milly home?”
“Milly!” the lady called Mrs Hunter shouts over her shoulder into the flat. “Sarah’s here! And, um, someone else too…”
I take my hood down.
Blink.
Mrs Hunter stops smiling. She places her hand at the bottom of her neck.
“This is Ivy,” says Sarah. “It’s actually Ivy who wants to speak to Milly, isn’t it, Ivy?”
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