Between the Lanterns (16 page)

August reached his boiling point. He threw open the door to the back room and rushed in. There were no employees in the shop or the workroom. He began examining their poor attempt at re-creating his wooden automaton. They had everything wrong, and the materials were poor. This thing would never work.
 

That was a relief, at least.

The sound of a toilet flushing and a door opening caught the couple’s attention. Turning to find the source, they were met with a look of astonishment, followed by recognition, and then finally outrage.

“What the hell are you doing in my workshop?” tThe man hissed as he pushed August in the chest, forcing him back out onto the main sales floor.

“YOU!” August shouted. “You stole my designs. You stole my inventions. How could you do this? And why?”

“Go screw yourself, Mr. Lurie,” the tech thief replied. “None of your designs are copyrighted. You foolishly started a company without filing patents for your inventions. All I had to do was buy them and re-create them. I didn’t even have to modify the original design because you’re a moron.”

The customer who had most recently tried to buy the new Woodrow, the man who had bought two phones and two sets of lanterns had a smug look on his face that drove August to clench his fists.

“Joshua Stevens,” he said, trying not to punch the man in his face. “You bought my tech just to steal my ideas and sell them as your own. Of course, it’s all shitty workmanship, and that wooden hunk of junk in the back will never work. You’re a thief and a bastard. But the real question is how did you get the details of the original Woodrow? Montek’s legal division confiscated it.”

Joshua smiled and pointed to a little sign on the checkout counter, which read:

Bayuss Tech is proudly sponsored by Montek

August couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Are you tellin’ me that this ain’t really a local small business? It’s just an arm of Montek?”

Joshua Stevens folded his arms over his chest, looked down his nose at August, and said, “Maybe that talk at the home office about how smart you are isn’t all made up. Yes, we have thousands of small businesses around the world. With everyone’s new fascination with trendy, retro tech, Montek couldn’t pass up an opportunity to control that market, too.”

Samantha reached her boiling point, and said, “Y’all have got to be fucking kidding me. You control the whole damn planet, own every damn thing there is to own… even the government of the United States of Earth. Couldn’t you let my husband have this one thing? What the hell is wrong with y’all?”

“Mrs. Lurie, I’m sure you’re too simple to understand this,” Joshua said, “but we believe your husband invented and created all of this tech while he was an employee with Montek.Automaton. Since I’m now the best they have, they gave me the job of figuring out how all of it works and making versions for Montek... and their many small businesses all over the globe to sell. What you see here is just the beginning.”

August was well past angry. Hope was pouring out of his body, and being quickly replaced with the desire just to give up. He couldn’t compete with Montek, and would never be able to. They were too big and too powerful.

“Why here, Mr. Stevens?” August asked. “Jamaica City is not exactly known for having a big tech scene.”

Joshua walked around and straightened an end cap display, much like he had seen Woodrow do at Sweets, Inc., and replied, “It’s close enough yet far enough away. I can drop into your shop and be back here in no time. But management also figured you would never come here. They were apparently wrong about that. We were hoping you’d never see this shop or any like it. We don’t want you to be unhappy. Montek would never have opened a store in your little town. Think about it:; why should we pay you for what we can just take?”

Samantha started to lead her husband towards the front door. She decided it was time to go, to; get the hell out of this shop and Jamaica City.

“Sweets, it’s been terrible to meet you. Drop dead, you hear?” she said, opening the front door to Bayuss Tech.

Joshua Stevens, Lead Developer of New Tech for Montek, wasn’t quite done with them just yet.

“I do apologize for all of this, Mr. Lurie,” he said coldly. “It is just business. But before you go, I have a proposition for you. You see, the thing my bosses want more than,” he gestured around at August’s ideas that he had stolen, “all of this inane tech here, is your automaton. Montek wants it. We need it, and we’ll pay anything for it.”

August stopped moving towards the exit and turned slowly to face this thieving bastard.

“I told you before, Mr. Stevens,” he said to Joshua in a dark tone. “Woodrow is like a part of our family. Sam and I made him together. It was… a difficult time in our lives. Buildin’ that automaton helped us heal. It made us whole again. So there is no way in hell that I would ever sell him,” August said, then raised his voice and yelled, “Much less to fuckin’ Montek with their dirty, disgustin’ hearts!”

Samantha, in a very unladylike moment, gave Joshua Stevens the finger.

“I understand,” Mr. Stevens said, “but we’ll be in contact after you’ve had time to think about it. We’re willing to offer you enough Credit so that you never have to work again. You two could travel the entire world for the rest of your lives, staying at the most luxurious resorts. You would live the life of the truly wealthy. All you have to do is sell us Woodrow.”

August and Samantha left Bayuss Tech without a word. They packed their suitcases and left Jamaica City a few days early.

Chapter 17

NOT A CHANCE

“Patient Lurie, Dr. Granger will see you now.”

The same two awful nurses were on duty at the front desk. As soon as they said to go in, the two idiots began laughing and placing bets on something inaudible.

The clinic still looked the same; it had only been a month since the last visit, but it felt less ominous and dark this time. Patient Lurie was happy. Today was a follow-up exam to determine if the prescriptions Dr. Granger had prescribed were completely successful.

While sitting in the exam room waiting for the doctor, there wasn’t much to do. Some magazines lay on a side table, so Patient Lurie picked one up and thumbed through it. In the middle of the periodical, there was an advertisement for Montek.Home’s newest product – Love.Lanterns.
 

FILL YOUR HOME WITH THE LIGHT OF LOVE. MONTEK.HOME INTRODUCES THE LOVE.LANTERNS; THE PERFECT ADDITION TO ANY HOME. LET OUR LIGHTS GUIDE YOUR LOVE.

Patient Lurie threw the magazine into the trash bin while muttering profanities, just as Dr. Granger strode confidently into the room and sat down on a little stool.

“I see here that you’re no longer experiencing headaches, trouble with your bowels, or panic attacks,” he said in his typical monotone. “That’s promising. Today, we’d like to do some more blood work and scans, just to verify that everything is fine. Would you like to add anything before we start? Any new symptoms or changes to tell me about?”

Patient Lurie smiled and replied that there was nothing new or different. It was a good feeling to be free of illness, no matter what Montek was trying to do them. August and Samantha would come out on top like always.

“Ok, good,” the doctor said, not sounding like he cared one way or the other. “Follow the nurse and he’ll tell you what to do. I’ll check in a bit later.”

Once all of the blood tests and scans were done, Patient Lurie once again sat in the exam room waiting for the doctor. Once he finally arrived, Dr. Granger didn’t even sit down.
 

He just poked his head in and said, “We’re pretty backed up right now, and your tests aren’t urgent. You can go home, and we’ll call you with the results in a few days if that’s ok with you. You’ll have to sign a consent form giving us permission to tell you the diagnosis over the Montek.Communication lines. Or, if you’d rather, you can come in for the news. I don’t think that will be necessary, though.”

Feeling good, Patient Lurie signed the consent form and told the doctor to call, but only on one certain number, as there was no need to worry the spouse.

Despite all that was happening with Montek, the Lurie family was feeling good. Yes, they were stealing August’s designs. Yes, they were trying to buy Woodrow. And yes, they were probably going to continue to do both of those things. But August and Samantha were determined not to let it affect them.

Funnily enough, business was still great. In fact, with Montek offering similar tech on the Net, many customers rushed to buy it from Sweets, Inc. to have it faster, and to brag that their model was cooler because it was from a smaller production line. There were fewer Sweets, Inc. versions in the world than the Montek models, which made them rare and better in the eyes of the hip and fashion-conscious citizens of the United States of Earth.

-

August was tinkering with a new invention in the workshop at home when a thought suddenly sprung to his mind.

“Sam, come in here, babe,” he called out from his little room full of spare parts and odds and ends he’d packed away. “I’ve got an idea, and I wanna run it by you.”

Sam was hand -washing the dishes from supper, as she liked to do. She said it calmed her down like meditation, even though August had built her an old- style dishwasher. They both hated the SaniDish that Montek sold, which cleaned your kitchenware with ultraviolet light and high-temperature heat. It was waterless, which was technically good for the planet, but both Samantha and August felt that nothing ever got spotless without some water involved.

“Be right there, Ssweets. Just let me dry my hands,” she called back.

As she walked into the workshop, Samantha noticed August was acting a little strange. He was sitting between the lanterns, which were shining a dim and somewhat melancholy light in the small room. August seemed nervous and was tapping his foot while chewing on his fingernails. When he looked up and saw Samantha, he smiled and held out his arms for a hug.

“I think I forgot to tell you, but dinner was amazin’, honey. Just amazin’,” he said as he squeezed her tight.

Samantha loved it when August complimented her cooking. She didn’t cook as much as before when she had the restaurant, but she tried to cook at least once a day. It was still her passion, but cooking also brought up a lot of bad memories.

“You did forget to say so, but I forgive you, you handsome devil,” she replied, thumping the end of his nose.

August kissed Sam on the neck, and she squirmed a little. It tickled, but it also felt extraordinarily pleasant.

“So, I wanted to talk to you about Montek’s offer,” he said, getting serious.

Samantha pushed away from him with a shocked look and said, “Sweets, you aren’t honestly considering selling Woodrow to Montek, are you?”

August scrunched up his face in disgust and said, “Hell no! Not a chance, babe. Not a chance. No, I was thinkin’ of sellin’ them the SameSoul. You said you didn’t like it, and I know they’d pay us an incredible amount of Credit for it. We could travel. We could go and do it… live like nomads. Never stayin’ in one place for too long. Get out there and experience the world, you know? It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do, and I think this could be our ticket. What do you say?”

Samantha wasn’t sure what to think. On the one hand, she honestly didn’t like the thought of her soul… or consciousness… or whatever… being captured inside some machine, even if it was lovely old Woodrow. On the other hand, she would love to leave all of this behind and be happy with her husband; no worries about what Montek might or might not steal next. Just travel the world and be happy. Learn recipes from around the globe. It sounded like pure Heaven to her the more Sam thought about it.

“Oh, sweets,” she said, sounding unsure. “It sounds wonderful… except that you’d be helping that disgusting bunch of maggots at Montek. And to be honest, I was kind of coming around to the idea of the SameSoul.”

She wasn’t coming around, not completely anyways. But it wouldn’t hurt to let August think she was. After all, he was very proud of his invention, as he should be. Samantha kept thinking back to how they would have done it to Tara if she had activated that damned BrainSave. If it was good enough for her, it was good enough for Sam. But she also thought of being trapped forever in a tin can…or, in this case, a woodblock, and it terrified Samantha.
 

“Well, babe,” August said with a surprised grin on his face, “I could always keep the original for us and sell Montek a copy… or heck, just sell them the plans to make the SameSoul. We could even take Woodrow with us. I don’t know, I just feel like we’re stuck in a bad situation with these jerks, so we might as well try to make the best of it.”

Woodrow had been folding laundry in the other room when he had heard his name, and suddenly pushed the workshop door open and wedged inside with the two of them.

“WOOD ROW,” it said.

Both Samantha and August snickered at the big, wooden robot. He always came whenever he heard his name, just like a dog.

“No, Woody, we don’t need you right now, sweets,” Samantha told it. “Go on back to folding the laundry, please and thank you.”

Woodrow did as he was instructed, leaving the two humans alone again.

“So, what do you think, sweetheart?” August asked. “Sell this little device, make a ton of Credit, and travel the world? Live like royalty in a different country every month?”

Taking a brief moment to consider, Samantha’s teeth broke free in an explosive moment of happiness as she screamed, “Yes, baby, yes! Please and thank you, too! Let’s do it. Let’s do it now!”

August was thrilled. He thought it was the absolute best move for them. After all of the awful things they had endured together, he felt they deserved to celebrate their life by doing this. It just felt right.

Samantha was in shock. She never for one minute thought that her life would have turned out like this. It felt like she deserved to have a wonderful life after all of the difficulties that had come their way in the past. Together, they had been through quite a lot, and it felt like the right time to celebrate that life by making this crazy move.