|
He.
When was the first time they saw it?
It must have been over a month ago, because that was the last
time they had been to a shopping mall of any kind. The statue
had looked like one of those wooden maidens that they used to
nail in front of sail ships, back in those ancient mythological
times, back when people still thought that the world was a flat
square and the universe revolved around us, back when pirates
and traders would adventure the seas for the fame and glory that
had been advertised back then. The statue looked like that, a
stiff imitation of a woman, standing in front of the doors of
the huge mall, her feet buried in a small square patch of soil.
Except that it wasn't an imitation of a woman, even though it
was stiff and devoid of any kind of emotons, its eyes closed to
the world that surrounded it.
Eliza's mouth opened when she saw it, a silent gasp that was
caught and trapped somewhere in her throat.
Ryo couldn't say anything about it either.
The statue was dressed in a beautiful white cotton dress, one of
those Spring dresses that females wore when they went out to
picnics with their owners.
It would open her eyes quickly when someone approached it, and
open its lips to speak in the softest, gentlest voice ever.
"Hello, welcome to Tuttle Mall!" It sounded like a young woman,
the prettiest tone resonating in her voice, as all emotions
rushed quickly over her face and body. "Did you know that it was
half off day at Worthington's today? Everything in the store,
from the softest clothing to the coolest electronics, are half
price off today from their already low, low prices!"
Its body moved as if it was talking to an old childhood friend,
flowing without any artificial motions, reminding Ryo of a
little girl he had seen years ago, in a sunny Summer afternoon,
on the breezy grassy hills in a far off place. It even blinked
and smiled in the most cute and innocent way, and if it wasn't
for the fact that her feet was planted in the patch of soil, Ryo
was sure that it would probably start skipping around happily
under the rays of the sun.
Yet as quickly as her emotions came, it would rush out in the
same fashion. As soon as someone went out of its range, it would
quickly close her eyes and lose all of those emotions that it
displayed only a few seconds ago, and become as stiff and
marble-like as it was before.
Ryo got close to it. He wanted to know if it felt like a woman
too. And as soon as he got within the range, the marbled
creature came to life again, its eyes opening and glinting with
the sunlight, a smile leaping up to its lips. "Hi, welcome to
Tuttle Mall!" It would speak again with the softest, gentlest
voice again, moving as if it was speaking with its closest
friend in the world. "Do you like corndogs? If you do, then I'm
sure you have checked our P.J.Doggy's bar in the food court
already! The freshest, made-when-you-order corndogs..."
Despite the speeches that are surely recorded in its mind, her
skin was as soft as any real female Ryo has ever touched, silky
and soft, just a little oily, smelling beautifully as wild
flowers in Spring. Her hair left off a similar aroma too, of
fruits just recently collected, apples and pears ripening in the
fields, flowing in the wind, dancing with joy. It couldn't have
been an imitation, but a real female. It just couldn't have
been.
In fact, even after it shuts off, if looked closely, Ryo could
see the chest rising and falling slightly, as if it was just in
some kind of deep sleep.
"I don't know that much about it, I just started working today,
so they didn't tell me much about it." The clerk at the service
desk wasn't much help in clearing up the questions Ryo had about
it. "Let me go ask the manager, okay?"
The manager was of more help, although he did look at Eliza
weirdly, as if it was the first time he'd ever seen a female or
something. "Oh, you mean the Lifestatue?" His bushy mustache
moved everything he enunciated a word. "Yeah, we just got that
one in a few days ago. Isn't it beautiful? I heard that we paid
a lot of money just to be able to be the first ones in the world
to display a model of Lifestatue, but it was all worth it, if
you ask me."
"What..." Ryo had a hard time formulating the curiosity and
confusion rising inside of him. "What... Is it? Is it a woman?
Is it a robot?"
"Oh, it's a female alright. It's one of the females that were
dumped into recycle." The bushy mustaches seemed to have been
there just to distract customers of whatever serious issue its
owner's mouth would say. "You see, it seems that the proteins
that were denatured in the recycle process weren't really that
easy to recover, since they can just renature only about 25% of
usable, fully-functional proteins, so the rest of them was
pretty much dumped and thrown away. So I guess someone in the
lab came up with the idea of reusing the dumped females as a
kind of a talking post instead, which would be a much better
idea than decomposing them and reusing their organic matters
again, since this way, they would be able to use 100% of their
bodies."
"So... They just grab a female and plant it on a patch of soil?"
"Well, there's a bunch more mumbo jumbo there, but after
processing them with the right chemicals and injecting a few
microorganisms, yeah, they pretty much plant them in." He
chuckled before continuing. "I heard that they're gonna make
these lifestatues standard pretty soon, planting one in every
corner of the street. I mean, it's a great idea, if you ask me,
since they serve pretty much as guides and maps for those who
gets lost in the streets, plus they also serve as security
alarms, since all they see is pretty much recorded in their
minds, and I'm sure robbers wouldn't be stupid enough to be
committing crimes in front of all these witness lifeposts."
Another chuckle. "If you ask me, I can't wait for these to be
standardized already, it'd make me feel much safer walking at
night."
Eliza was speechless, she looked pale, as if sick. Ryo wasn't
that far off.
"So, do you have a leash for that female of yours?"
"Wha?"
"A leash." The manager tapped on the counter. "You do know that
it is common policy for a leash to be kept on all pets and
females while in the mall, right?"
"Oh, yeah..." Ryo slowly slipped the leather leash out of his
pocket. "S-Sorry. It must have slipped my mind or something."
He chuckled again. "No problem. I understand." He looked out
towards the lifestatue. "With a beauty like that, I can see why
it would slip your mind."
Eliza was quiet the rest of that day. |
