The Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2010 (volume 1)

by Paul Haines

  His curiosity got the better of him. The stamp told him that the trunk would be too heavy to carry off the carriage without extra help, so he knelt down, checked that all of the buckles had completely disengaged, and lifted the lid slowly.

  Only to find himself looking into a pair of brilliant green eyes.

  They blinked and then focused on him.

  His blinked too, very rapidly, his mind a jumble of uncoordinated thoughts.

  A small hand reached out of the trunk and took the lid from the Station Master’s frozen grasp, pushing it completely open. The man’s mouth fell agape in response as he stared anew at the trunk in wonder. Matthew Cuthbert had always been a man of few words, but his reticence in this case was a little extreme. A machine indeed!

  There, pulling itself into sitting position, was an android. The Station Master had never seen one of those sophisticated machines before, and he didn’t know how to go about interacting with them.

  “Are you my new Father?” the android asked.

  He shook his head somewhat absently, gathered his wits together, and rediscovered his voice. “Your new owner will be here soon,” he offered gruffly. He gestured towards the carriage doorway. “Shall we go wait for him?”

  The android looked towards the doorway and then back to him. “I can go outside?”

  Again, he was taken aback. “Of course. If you want to meet your new owner you have to.”

  He stood up and hesitated, looking down at the android sitting in the battered travel trunk, and then reached down. A dainty hand rose to meet his, and he was startled by its warmth. For some reason he had expected android skin to be cold. Lifeless.

  Like a machine.

  But, instead, the hand he clasped in his own felt like that of a child. Somehow that thought put his mind at ease. He helped the android out of the trunk and then stepped out of the carriage, turning back to see what such an advanced machine would make of their humble station.

  The android moved tentatively into the light and the Station Master gasped. It was female in form! He had previously thought all androids were made to appear androgynous.

  He watched her look up in wonder at the sun when she felt its rays fall upon her face. In the full sunlight her skin shimmered with a slightly golden hue, but that was not her most distinguishing feature. It was her hair—or more the point, her two braids of very thick, decidedly red, woven copper filaments that fell down her back. The worn sailor hat didn’t disguise the brilliance of the fine metallic strands, nor did the yellowed threadbare dress detract from the elegance of her form. While too slender to be considered very feminine, and her face too angular to ever be considered classically beautiful, she was a striking figure with her huge expressive eyes and the delicate brass nails that graced her little fingers.

  In one hand the android held a carpet bag that had clearly seen better days, but she was holding it with such care that the Station Master couldn’t help but be intrigued. He’d never considered the fact that an android could have luggage; it must have been stowed in the trunk with her.

  She moved forward, turning around slowly as if to soak everything in, but when she spotted the conveyer belt she walked up to it, curious, and without preamble started fiddling with the various levers and cogs on the side with her free hand, only flinching—but not pulling back—when the steam from one valve hit her.

  She had clearly done this before. Her tiny hand fit into the tight spaces to tweak this or that with such precision that within minutes the machine was running smoother, much to the Station Master’s astonishment. She kept working until the chugging sound of the machine had turned into a soft purr, and then she turned back to the Station Master, who stammered his thanks.

  “Oh, no need to thank me,” she replied. “This machine is a primitive version of the sorting machines I used to operate at my previous home every day. It’s such a pleasure to be able to work out how things operate, don’t you think?” The android didn’t give him the time to answer. “I’ve always thought so. There is something beautiful about seeing a machine work to the optimum of its capacity.”

  The Station Master couldn’t agree more. He couldn’t take his eyes off the android in front of him. She was an absolute marvel. He wondered where her new owner was.

  He turned slightly and gestured towards the station building. “Would you like to wait in the Ladies Sitting Room until Mr. Cuthbert arrives?”

  She tilted her head, considering both him and his offer. “No thank you,” she replied. “I’ll wait outside. There’s more scope for the imagination.”

  The Station Master smiled. What a charming girl.

  * * *

  Matthew Cuthbert looked at the android from the far end of the platform and hesitated. He had never been much of a conversationalist, and had always found talking to girls to be one of the most awkward experiences in the world, so it was daunting for him to discover his most recent purchase was female in form. He had been told that he was buying a prototype whose model had never been put on the production line, but he hadn’t thought to ask about gender.

  He couldn’t help but be intrigued, however, despite his anxiety. Androids had first been created to replace the child workforce in the factories that were expanding throughout the major cities. For many years children had often been the cheapest and most practical workers because their tiny hands and slight forms meant that they were able to manipulate delicate machinery, and so naturally the androids were modeled after them. But their creators soon discovered that their clientele did not want their new workforce looking like children—innocents. Nor did they like that the prototypes were created with advanced problem-solving skills, because some people believed it gave the androids individuality as they adapted to what they learnt, leading them to want to try new things outside the factory walls. As a consequence, the androids that eventually populated the factories all over Canada were created to be completely unremarkable in their subservience and androgynous appearance.

  Matthew couldn’t fathom how they could be considered superior in design to the original prototypes, but he wasn’t going to complain. It meant he could afford to buy the “flawed” machine sitting on the platform in front of him.

  He took a deep breath and walked towards the android—and then right on past. He realised at the last moment that he had no idea what to say to her. How exactly does one greet an android?

  He reached the end of the platform, and stood there for a minute before turning around to see the android now eying him with evident curiosity. Matthew wondered what such a sophisticated machine would make of him, for he was very unassuming in appearance. Tall, with lank shoulder-length hair that was now more steel-coloured than the black of his youth, he had a stooped frame, as if his very posture reflected his wish to not stand out in a crowd. But the shy smile he gave the android when he finally walked up to her was welcoming, and his eyes were kind. Before he even had time to consider how to greet her, the android had stood up and reached out her hand.

  “You must be my new father, Matthew Cuthbert of Green Gables.” She shook his hand in greeting, still clutching the carpet bag to her side. “I’m Anne—Anne with an e. Most people believe that Anne is short for android, and so often they leave off the e when they write it down. However the e is the letter that completes the name. If I met someone else called Anne, but spelt without the e, I just couldn’t help but feel they were somehow lacking. What do you think, Mr. Cuthbert?”

  He blinked, surprised. “Well, now, I dunno.” He had a simple intelligence, but he wondered if the android was expressing her insecurities about being accepted. And more important, did she know she was doing that? “Can I take your bag?”

  “No thank you, Mr. Cuthbert. I can manage. I have to make sure I hold the handle with a 43-degree tilt at all times or it’s prone to falling off. An extra degree either way and the bag has an 82 percent chance of losing its structural integrity. It’s a very old, very dear carpet bag.”

  Matthew smiled at th
e unexpected mix of technical evaluation and human sentiment in Anne’s statement, seemingly fitting for a machine made in Man’s image. He gestured for the android to follow him, and they made their way to his horse and buggy in silence, Matthew looking at the ground, and Anne looking at everything else.

  She appeared captivated by the most commonplace things. Even while one of the very rare and expensive steam-operated carriages rolled on by with the girl from the train gracing its leather seat, protecting her fair skin with her lace parasol, Anne’s attention stayed focused on the old draft horse hitched to Matthew’s buggy.

  “I’m at a loss to see how you power this locomotive,” she replied after a moment.

  The corner of Matthew’s mouth twitched, and he ducked his head to hide a smile, realizing that the android had never seen a horse before, and that this particular one was close to comatose.

  He walked up to the horse, rubbing the gelding’s neck gently, prompting him to shake out his mane and seemingly coming to life. “There are no steam-generated levers needed to operate this buggy. I just tell Samuel here to pull it for me.”

  The android blinked. “Samuel isn’t a machine?”

  “No,” he said simply.

  “But this creature’s purpose is to serve humans?” she asked, her head tilting to the side.

  Matthew’s hand paused mid-stroke. “Well, yes, I suppose in a way that’s true.”

  “Does it have free will?”

  This time it was Matthew who blinked. “He lives and works on my farm.”

  She didn’t miss a beat. “Because he has no other choice.”

  “Yes.”

  She nodded to herself. “I understand.”

  Matthew was struck by how definitive her answer was. “How so?”

  “That existence was not unlike my life at the factory.” She reached out her hand and gingerly mimicked Matthew’s actions a minute earlier, her brass nails glinting in the filtered sunlight as she rubbed the horse’s neck.

  Matthew watched her for a long moment, then: “Did that bother you? Being told what to do all the time, I mean.”

  “No. Why would it?”

  Matthew didn’t know how to reply.

  Anne continued on, almost absently. “I like to learn, and to keep busy. I also like to discover how things work. The Supervisor told me that that was a flaw in my make-up, and that I had to be terminated. I didn’t know why I was going to lose my job when I had just surprised him by halting production of the main sorting machine in the factory to improve its performance by 6.3 percent, but he wouldn’t listen to me anymore.” Her hand stilled, and the horse head-butted her to resume. “It was Father who intervened. He told the Supervisor that termination was too final a punishment, and that I could still be of some use. However, I don’t understand what he meant by that comment, because I no longer work for the company.”

  Matthew’s depleted bank balance told him exactly how Anne had still been of use to the company, but it was her naiveté that fascinated him the most, not the reason why she had been sold.

  The journey home was filled with more discoveries for them both, the android talking non-stop and the man appreciating the fact that she didn’t expect him to talk too.

  “You and I are going to get along just fine, Mr. Cuthbert.”

  “Call me Matthew.”

  “I’m not sure why I know this, or why I know I belong at Green Gables, but I’ve always thought there was more . . .”

  The android stopped mid-sentence, her crystal green eyes going wide as her eyes fixed on the sky in front of her. For a moment Matthew couldn’t take his eyes away from Anne’s face, struck by how the sense of wonder really bought her features to life. But her attention didn’t waver, so he drew his gaze away from her striking features to look up and see an airship sailing gently through the sky, the golden light of the setting sun lapping against the hull as it gently surfed the clouds.

  It was barely perceptible to Matthew but he was sure that Anne could hear the whir of the enormous steam engine at work, pumping hot air into an enormous canvas balloon that the old seafaring ship was now suspended from.

  “What a wondrous invention!” the android breathed in amazement.

  Matthew looked back at her in surprise. “How so?”

  She turned to him with bright eyes. “This machine gives you the ability to fly, which would be one of the most incredible experiences. Imagine being able to look down at the world! It would create such a sense of freedom, don’t you think?”

  He nodded. He’d never thought of it that way before.

  “Have you ever considered flying in one of those machines?”

  “No, I can’t say as I have,” he replied, intrigued by her child-like curiosity.

  “Oh, Matthew, how much you miss out on!” They both looked back up at the airship in shared silence for a long minute.

  Matthew glanced at Anne out of the corner of his eye, amazed that such a sophisticated machine could be in such awe of an old seafaring ship that had clearly seen better days. It had been hobbled to a simple canvas balloon and operated by the most cumbersome steam engine he had ever encountered, simply so its owner could maximise his resources and try to keep at the cutting edge of the transport industry. He supposed the idea was ingenious, but the execution didn’t strike him as being very safe or too elegant.

  “I have worked with many machines,” the android said quietly, her gaze still on the airship as it disappeared slowly over the horizon, “but I have never seen one that was so beautiful.”

  “I have,” Matthew responded in his quiet, shy manner. “You.”

  She turned to him, her eyes now wide. “But I’m just a girl.”

  The innocence in her statement went straight to his heart. Matthew had never been one to talk much, but now he was literally speechless.

  She didn’t see herself as a machine!

  Although he didn’t realise it at the time, that was the moment he stopped seeing her as one too.

  * * *

  Anne discovered that being accepted by her classmates at school wasn’t something she could learn from an instruction manual. When she queried Matthew about how to secure a Bosom Friend, he simply told her to “Be yourself,” which puzzled her as she couldn’t physically be anyone other than herself anyway. When she asked his wife the same question, however, her curt response was “Forget that nonsense! If you prove your worth, friendships will seek you out. Be kind, considerate, and above all, bite that tongue and mind your manners!”

  “Biting my tongue will help facilitate friendships?” Anne asked, perplexed.

  “You do beat all, girl! Of course not,” Marilla replied, frustrated. “It’s an expression—a human expression. But then, I suppose you shouldn’t be expected to know that.”

  The old lady sighed, looking at the android. Ever since Matthew had bought Anne home the peace and order at Green Gables had been thrown into disarray.

  “We have to send her back,” she had told him the very first hour he’d returned home with the android.

  “But she’s such a sweet little thing,” he had replied softly as he watched Anne walk around the house for the first time, reaching out her hand to touch the most random of things in fascination: the intricate embroidery on the tablecloth, the leaves of a plant, or the polished wood of the rocking chair. She had never seen such diverse textures before.

  “Matthew Cuthbert, the entire reason for buying an android in the first place was so you can have help on the farm. It’s unseemly to put a girl to work in the fields, even if she is android in form. And we’re both too old to be nursemaids to a flawed machine.”

  “She’s not flawed—just different.” Matthew paused. “Give her a chance, Marilla.”

  “We’d have to put her through school, simply so she can learn the basics of interacting in society.”

  “So she’ll go to school.”

  “But what is the point of buying an android if we can’t get our money’s worth out of her? There is
still the matter of you needing help on the farm.”

  “I’ll hire Barry’s boy out for a couple of hours during the day, and Anne can help me before and after school.” He held up his hand to forestall Marilla’s next protest. “We can’t afford to buy a normal android. And the simple fact is: I like her.” He looked at his wife. “I don’t ask for much, but I’m asking for this.”

  Marilla harrumphed, more to cover her shock than out of any deep need to protest. This was the first time her husband had ever stood up to her and held his ground. This machine must have really gotten under his skin. “The android can stay,” she stated finally, “but strictly on a trial basis. We have a three-month warranty, don’t we?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then if I’m not impressed by that time, we are returning her for a full refund. And I want no protests, Matthew. That is my condition for letting her stay now.”

  Matthew nodded, satisfied. He knew that despite the condition he’d just won a great concession from his wife.

  And so every morning Matthew came downstairs to the library at five to find Anne engrossed in one of his books, looking more like the child she appeared to be as she acted out the plays with enthusiasm, the dying light of the fire dancing about in her copper hair. They would talk about her latest literary discoveries of the previous night while Matthew ate his breakfast, and then their day would start, the android helping Matthew milk the cows, muck out the stables, and carry out all the hay for the animals until it was time for her to leave for school.

  Within a week they had developed a comfortable routine, and Matthew was surprised to discover that for the first time in a decade he actually enjoyed getting up before the birds awoke. However, it soon became clear after a few weeks of school that Anne hadn’t been able to make as favorable an impression on her classmates, who were quick to point out how different she was.

  “People don’t often like that which they don’t understand,” Marilla had told the android matter-of-factly.

  But Anne had read about “kindred spirits” and how true bosom friends are accepting of all differences, and as Marilla had said, she just had to prove she was worthy of being a perfect friend.