Read Are You There and Other Stories for Free Online Page B

wires and servos and treated leather, and the aggregate smell.
    A rapping sounded next to my left ear. Thick glass, blue eyes, bone structure beneath stretched skin. I comprehended everything, but understood nothing. The eyes went away. Then: “You better take this.” Syllables, modulated air. A bitter taste.
    Retrieval.
    I blinked at the world, temporarily restored to coherence.
    “Are you all right? Kim was sitting beside me in the Mitsubishi.
    “Yes, I’m all right.”
    “You looked catatonic.”
    “What time is it?”
    “What time do you think it is?”
    “I asked first.”
    “Almost seven o’clock.”
    “Shit.”
    “I was driving to town. I couldn’t believe you were still sitting here.”
    I rubbed my eyes. “God, I’m tired.”
    “Where are you staying?”
    “I have a charming little apartment at the Project.”
    “Do you feel well enough to drive there?”
    “Yeah, but I don’t want to.”
    “Why not?”
    “They might not let me out again.”
    “Are you serious?”
    “Not really.”
    “It’s hard to tell with you.”
    “Did they take care of Buddy okay?”
    “Yes.”
    I looked at her, and saw an attractive woman of thirty-five or so with light blue eyes.
    “You better follow me back to my house. Besides, you forgot your shirt.”
    “That’s right,” I said.
    I parked my car in the detached garage and stowed the keys under the visor. The Project had given me the car, but it was strictly for publicity purposes and day trips. We Eyes were supposed to have the right stuff.
    There was a guest room with a twin bed and a window that admitted a refreshing breeze. I removed my shoes and lay on the bed and listened to hear if she picked up the phone, listened for the sound of her voice calling the Project. She would know people there, have numbers. Former associates of her husband. I closed my eyes, assuming the next face I saw would be that of a Project security type.
    It wasn’t.
    When I opened my eyes the room was suffused with soft lamplight. Kim stood in the doorway.
    “I have your pills,” she said, showing me the little silver case.
    “It’s okay. I won’t need another one until tomorrow.”
    She studied me.
    “Really,” I said. “Just one a day.”
    “What would have happened if I hadn’t found you?”
    “I would have sat there until somebody else saw me, and if no one else happened by, I would have gone on sitting there until doomsday. Mine, at any rate.”
    “Did you mean it when you said the Project people wouldn’t let you leave again?”
    I thought about my answer. “It’s not an overt threat. They’d like to get another session out of me. I think they’re a little desperate for results.”
    “Results equal funding, my husband used to say.”
    “Right.”
    “My husband was depressed about the lack of life.”
    I sat up on the bed, rubbing my arms, which felt goosebumpy in spite of the warmth.
    “How did he die?” I asked.
    “A tumor in his brain. It was awful. Toward the end he was in constant pain. They medicated him heavily. He didn’t even know me anymore.” She looked away. “I’m afraid I got a little desperate myself after he died. But I’m stronger now.”
    “Why do you live out here all by yourself?”
    “It’s my home. If I want a change there’s a cottage up in Oregon, Cannon Beach. But I’m used to being left on my own.”
    “Used to it?”
    “It seems to be a theme in my life.”
    It was also a statement that begged questions, and I asked them over coffee in the front room. Her parents were killed in a car accident when Kim was fourteen. Her aunt raised her, but it was an awkward relationship.
    “I felt more like an imposition than a niece.”
    And then, of course, there was Mr. Pham and the brain tumor. When she finished, something inside me whimpered to get out but I wouldn’t let it.
    “Sometimes, I think I’d prefer to be an Eye,” Kim said.
    “Trust me, you wouldn’t.”
    “Why not?” She was turned to the side, facing me