Analog SFF, September 2009

by Dell Magazine Authors

  "Oh, Kazuo's different. He's so active, always moving forward, never back. Not that he's forgotten who he is: far from it. I told you he's in real estate, right?"

  "Yes."

  Perfect, Andrew thought. He couldn't have had a better way of bringing this up. “Have you heard of Evergreen?"

  "Can't say that I have."

  "It's a new development he's building in town. One for us, the frozen, built for our needs. Everything sized down to the right proportions, security measures to discourage the usual predators.” He let the last item sink in. “You've really never heard of it? He's been advertising, narrow-spotting to local frozen people."

  "Well, something may have been sent to me, and gotten strained out. I've got strong filters for all my computers. Very strong.” She sipped her water. “This project is all your friend's doing?"

  "It's his concept, but not all his money."

  "Really. Kazuo sounds like someone worth knowing, worth emulating."

  What luck. Andrew had thought it would be hard teasing her out of her parents’ clutches and among her own. Instead, she sounded almost eager. He dug out one of Kazuo's plug-in cards for her. “I'll be taking one of the units myself. Who knows, we might be neighbors some day."

  "Could be,” Alice said, slipping the card into her bag without a look.

  The rest of dinner passed quite pleasantly for Andrew. He got to unburden himself a little about the cluelessness of his employers, and listened to some of her work experiences with attention that grew beyond the polite. Alice really was smart, capable, successful. It made him want that much more to break her out of the narrow, juvenile compass of her personal life.

  He saw her into his two-seater velomobile to drive her home. The vehicle was cheap compared to cars, efficient on power, and most important, could be adjusted fairly easily for someone his size to drive. It also made him self-conscious around big folk, especially certain co-workers. Alice didn't show a smirk, didn't raise an eyebrow.

  Maybe he was connecting with her. But maybe he wasn't the only one.

  Her interest in Kazuo was nagging at him. Andrew wanted to be the one raising her consciousness, but Kaz was muscling in, without even being there. Didn't the guy have enough success with women, even if a different kind? Setting Alice straight was Andrew's project. He wanted no accomplice, no competition.

  He was probably going to have to kiss Alice.

  It might be risky, but he needed some kind of bond with her, something he could build on. Kissing a woman who liked to pretend she was eight wasn't his usual style, but it was the best idea he could think of on the quick drive back to her condo.

  He pulled up in the driveway and walked her to the door, making pleasant talk while planning how to make his move. He had never exactly honed this skill.

  They stopped at the door. “This wasn't as much a working dinner as we'd planned,” he said. “If you want to meet again—” He stopped, cursing himself. You didn't get a woman thinking about work before kissing her. How to retrieve this?

  "Oh, we'll definitely get together again.” And with the barest hesitation, Alice came forward, threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him full on the lips. Andrew gasped for air as they parted. Alice grinned like a mischievous girl. “Soon. Good night, Andrew."

  "Good night,” he echoed, the sound lost somewhere in his throat. Alice went inside, literally skipping across the lobby to the elevators. After a moment, Andrew got back into his velo and drove for home.

  Two blocks along, he had to pull over and wait for the spinning of his head to run down.

  * * * *

  Kazuo Ishii spread his arms wide. “So how do you like it, Andrew?"

  Andrew looked it over, nodding. The building itself took up three sides of the block, surrounding a courtyard. He counted five stories of windows, though the structure didn't seem that tall. Where the main courtyard path met the sidewalk stood a freshly mounted brick and wood sign. “Evergreen,” it read in recessed gold lettering on russet brown, with a modest “MMLVII” incised near the bottom.

  "Your landscaping needs work,” Andrew gibed. Most of the courtyard was churned-up dirt, shimmering with the heat.

  "That's all the heavy machinery. We've got months to fix that up. So, ready for the grand tour?"

  "Why else would I be here?"

  They walked inside, Kazuo greeting a security guard by name in the lobby. He led Andrew to one of the elevators. “Notice anything yet?” he said.

  "You mean this?” He pushed the elevator call button that sat just above waist height: his waist, not the average adult's. “Nice. And if we took the stairs, they'd be shorter, right?"

  "Uh, no.” The door dinged open, and they got in. “Fire codes, for one thing. For another, we ran a couple ergonomic tests, and people our size kept stumbling on short stairs. We're just too used to the standard size in some things."

  On the third floor, Kazuo led Andrew down a corridor. Andrew looked up and smiled. The ceiling didn't tower above him nearly as much as usual. “How high is that, Kaz? Two and a quarter meters?"

  "Two even. A meter eighty in the doorways.” Kazuo flashed him a grin. “Gene-tweaked basketball players need not apply."

  "Course not. Those poor bastards would need someplace with round-the-clock nursing service."

  Kazuo's grin melted. Genetic alteration's failures were a grisly subject, even for his friend. “Well, here we go, three-sixteen.” He slid one card into a slot, waved a second past a scanner, and opened the door. Andrew breasted the wave of muggy heat rushing out at him and followed his friend inside. Kazuo tapped a control panel on the wall, set at the perfect height, and lights came on.

  Andrew took it all in. The place still smelled faintly of paint and drywall dust, with an undertone of machine oil. “Is this going to be mine?"

  "One like it. This is the very first unit completed. Most of the others will have the same dimensions, just with different room orientations. Take a look around."

  One thing Andrew noticed early was how the living and dining rooms had chairs in two sizes. Full-grown guests were anticipated. Seats for smaller people well outnumbered them, though, and the tables were all at three-quarter height. Time for them to adjust, Andrew though, liking how that turnaround felt.

  The kitchen was even a better fit. Counters were lower, cabinets and the microwave were placed within unaided reach, and the oven was a shorter model that let him reach the back of the stovetop without straining. It wasn't his company's oven, but that just served them right for not catering to his market.

  "No more stools in the kitchen,” Andrew said.

  "Not for you, maybe,” said Kazuo. “Tenants who got frozen younger, around five or six, might still need them. We've got a few different building scales at Evergreen, but you can only reduce things so far."

  "Still, it'd be a big improvement for them.” A new thought struck Andrew. He scooted past Kazuo, and found the bathroom. A few seconds later he emerged, pumping his fist.

  "Yes! Perfect height, Kaz! For that alone, you should sell this place out."

  Kazuo matched his friend's smile. “We're working on it. Want to see more?"

  "Sure, let's check out the bedroom. Seriously, this is great. You have to take pictures, post them on your site."

  "The photographer was in yesterday. We'll have the walk-through posted by Monday. I have some business smarts, remember."

  Andrew was ahead of him, in the main bedroom. The bed was lower to the floor, but otherwise the same as any adult's bed. Andrew hopped on, laying himself out on the comforter. Andrew despised futons, and disliked adult-height stuff on principle. You could get beds this low, but usually at extortionate custom prices, a problem Kazuo's bulk ordering for Evergreen alleviated, and not only for beds.

  When he sat up, he looked more thoughtful. “Kaz, could you send me copies of those walk-through photos? I want to show them to a potential customer, one who might not be checking Evergreen's page."

  Kazuo leaned in
to the doorframe. “Would this potential customer happen to be a certain computer prodigy who sometimes goes swinging, though not in the interesting sense?"

  "Umm, yes, it's Alice McGirt,” Andrew said, aiming for nonchalance. “I've told her about Evergreen a couple times, in, er, the few times we've met since she started working with us."

  "Met a few times. Uh-huh. Doing what?"

  "Consulting. On her work."

  "Oh. Consulting.” Kazuo strolled over. “I'm a connoisseur of double entendres, but that one's new to me."

  Andrew's hands clenched. “Kazuo! You're acting like McCarthy did before he got transferred to home officing."

  "And you're acting like I'm not your friend, and like I've got no sense. That Thursday dinner you cancelled a month ago didn't sound like it was for strictly business.” He sat beside Andrew on the bed. “So how about letting me in on the real story?"

  Andrew looked away, sulking, as long as he could bear to. It wasn't long. “I had it all planned,” he said, and started spilling his guts about his intent to reform Alice. “And before I could figure out how to lay that kiss on her, she beat me to it.” A wolfish grin came over Kazuo, but he hid it when Andrew looked his way. “And I felt like ... I don't know. I've been seeing her since then, and I've still got my plan, but ... I also know I really feel something for her."

  Kazuo turned sober, banishing the merry lecher. “How serious is this?"

  "Well, we've gotten to making out a couple times—kid stuff, really."

  "That's not quite what I meant."

  "Yeah.” Andrew's head drooped. “I'm not using the ‘L’ word here, and God knows I still get annoyed at these ways she doesn't act quite adult ... but I just want to be around her. Ugh!” he cried, putting his face in his hands. “It was never like this in college."

  Kazuo needed no clarification. Andrew had had a couple of full-grown girlfriends in college. The young women had treated Andrew as an exotic ornament, a symbol of their broad-minded bona fides, and one with no undertone of sexual danger. They did gladly accept, even encourage, the improvised efforts Andrew could make for them erotically, until they grew jaded. Andrew had confessed these warped and demeaning relationships to Kazuo years ago, and it had been the last Andrew had dabbled in romantic matters. Until now.

  "I don't know how to go about this,” Andrew said. “I'm searching for something in a pitch-black room. Every move I make, I'm afraid I'll crash into something."

  "All right. First, let's figure out what it is you're looking for. Are you trying to rescue Alice, or to have a real relationship with her?"

  Andrew took a long time answering. “I want both. I'm trying to do both. But if I have to choose ... it's more important to make her a better person."

  Kazuo smiled sadly. “Gotcha. One cynical game plan coming up. First off, women like it when you listen to them."

  "I manage that fine. Can't say I'm always interested in what she's saying."

  "That's okay, for your purposes. Another way to get closer to her is shared interests, and I mean beyond better customer service."

  "M-hm. I can do a couple things in that department. But how does that pull her out of the ranks of the infantile, Kaz?"

  "Reciprocity. You can start bringing her into a couple of your interests. Pick those right, and you're getting somewhere.” Andrew digested that one. “The next one will be tougher in your position."

  "What is it?"

  "Honesty,” Kazuo said. “Openness. Women, at least in my experience, always know when you're holding something back. It may be only a subconscious sense, but it'll color the whole relationship, leave them dissatisfied. And it'll always boomerang on you eventually."

  "I can deal with that, when the time comes.” Andrew caught Kazuo's dubious look. “Besides, I'm being open with Alice now, on certain things. Emotional things.” His mouth twisted. “Maybe too honest about some stuff. I'll have to watch that."

  "Fine. Now that you've gotten the lesson, here comes the lecture. Just how is what you're doing with Alice different from what those couple of girls did with you in college?"

  Andrew glared at Kazuo, his cheeks coloring. “It is different. I have Alice's interests at heart, the interests of all of us. She shouldn't live such a degraded life. We shouldn't be stigmatized as worthy of being treated like children, the way she treats herself—at least sometimes."

  "Is Alice going to see it that way?"

  "Alice isn't going to know about it. Unless you ... Kazuo—"

  Kazuo lifted his hands. “I won't go and tell her anything, Andrew. But if she comes and asks me, unsolicited, that might be a different matter. So, are you sure you want her coming to ask me about Evergreen now?"

  Andrew gave Kazuo a friendly shake on the shoulder. “Would you stop worrying? It's under control. If you can handle building this whole complex, I think I can handle one semi-mature woman."

  "Right.” Kazuo stood up from the bed. “Lemme show you my office downstairs now."

  "What's there?"

  Kazuo ticked off fingers. “Air-conditioning; beer in the mini-fridge. Yeah, thought you'd like that.” Andrew sprang off the bed, and they headed for the door. “God knows I could use one too."

  * * * *

  "So did you enjoy it?"

  Andrew kept hold of Alice's hand as they moved slowly up the theater aisle, and considered her question. He had a serious problem with the casting, but ... “Yeah. Yeah, I did. Funny, I usually think public theaters do better with spectacles, oughta leave romantic movies like that for home release."

  "They had to run this in theaters. It's a remake of a classic."

  "That movie's over sixty years old. It—” He was doing it again, indulging his argumentative side. He had to keep catching himself, but he did stop. “I won't quibble. Good movie, Alice. Thanks."

  "You're welcome.” She met him halfway for a kiss. A snort and grumble from behind interrupted them. Some tall man pushed by them, shooting back a censorious look as he passed. Andrew felt like starting up a tongue-lashing, but forbearance won out one more time, and he just pulled Alice a little closer.

  "Heh. Little freaks."

  That voice was farther behind, and younger. Nasty laughs followed it. A clutch of teenagers had been talking throughout the movie, never quite disruptive enough to get ejected. They had new targets.

  "Go on, Bill. Do it."

  Andrew started to turn back, ready to ask exactly what they thought they were going to do to him. Alice's sharp tug on his hand stopped him. “Let's go,” she whispered. “Out of here."

  He relented, hanging on to her through the lobby and into daylight on the sidewalk. He began to relax, until he heard that laugh again, not as close, but still threatening. “Wish we'd taken my velomobile instead of walking,” he said.

  "Never mind. Keep moving."

  They kept up a hurried pace for two blocks, until Andrew took a look back and saw the kids were nowhere near them. “It's okay,” he told Alice. “They gave up on us."

  He felt Alice's hand tremble in his. “Why do people have to be that way to others? I've never understood."

  Andrew felt a lecture welling up inside him. He diverted it into a pointed joke. “They're just ticked that child admission prices got eliminated when people like us started confusing cashiers."

  Alice gave him a jaundiced look. “They're too old to have gotten child admissions."

  "Yeah, but they were still that age when the admissions got changed. Some people hang onto grudges forever."

  Alice rolled her eyes. “Andrew, sometimes I don't know when you're kidding or being serious."

  "Who says it's one at a time?” He started to cross the street, but stopped when Alice didn't follow. “We're heading to my place, right?"

  "Mine,” Alice said. “Those last adjustments with Dinah, remember?” Andrew walked back to the corner. “And yes, I know why you wanted me at your place."

  "If I had a real car, we could go park in that,” he said. “Maybe it's time
I traded in my velo."

  Alice gave him a playful swat. “Stop being silly. Besides, I can always borrow my parents’ car."

  "Wait, you don't drive."

  "Occasional business trips. It's awkward, but I manage.” Alice took his hand again. “Anyway, let's talk about something else."

  They discussed the movie for a few blocks. Alice gushed over a couple of the actors, notably the one playing the widower's young son: Hector Price was frozen, twenty-three years old in real life. Andrew itched to tee off, but merely said Price had done a good job, and there was no telling he wasn't really seven. He even walked like a kid, but Andrew didn't bring that up.

  They walked past the local playground, across the street and rather empty for a Saturday afternoon. Alice gave Andrew's hand a tug. “Wanna go over?"

  Andrew froze up, barely able to get out a “Huh?"

  "To the playground. Get a little exercise, have a little fun. C'mon."

  "No!” He pulled his hand out of hers, hard. “I'd ... really rather not."

  Alice obviously was disappointed, but didn't push. “All right,” she said, and they resumed their walk. “Personally, I can't see how people can tolerate walking on treadmills or lifting weights for their exercise. It's awfully dull."

  Andrew could contain his aversion no more. “So you enjoy monkeying around on a kids’ playground?"

  Alice regarded him for a moment. “Yes,” she finally said.

  Andrew turned away, shaking his head. “I couldn't do that. It'd be like—like Hector Price."

  "What? How?"

  "He's an adult, but he keeps playing the child. It gets him some fame and fortune, but it costs him his development as an actor. He's being stereotyped into forever playing the juvenile. He could try to play frozen adults instead, but of course there aren't the roles. Maybe the screenwriters think if they ignore us, we'll go away."

  "That's not so,” Alice said. “Frozen people get portrayed."

  "In low-budget, low-profile, direct-to-home stuff. The big money for Price is in playing kids, so he takes the easy way. And someday, when he wants adult roles, it'll be too late. Everyone will expect him to be the kid—and worse, by then he'll be so used to being a boy, he won't have the skills to be a man."