He, She and It (22 page)

“To be so unique has a painful side. I begin to understand a little.”

“Ah, Shira, you understand a lot. See, I am beginning to use exclamations. Ah! Oh! Ow! Ai!” He was teasing now, imitating various voices he had heard. “Bless you. Salud. Bye-bye. For shame! Fuck you! Hey, baby! Hooey. Whazat! Wet shit!”

“Soon you can be as foul-mouthed as all the other three-year-old boys.”

“I don’t understand the concept of dirty words. Why is saying to have sex or to have intercourse acceptable and the word ‘fuck,’ which means the same thing more economically, a dirty or swear word? Why should a word that means giving and receiving pleasure be used to mean doing someone in, or used as a general insulting adjective? You fucking idiot, to quote Avram.”

“It’s not rational, but we seem to need words we think are bad. Yod, until you’ve mastered interactions with humans, I think you should lay off those words.”

“Even with you?”

“With me it doesn’t matter. Look, now the moon is ivory.”

“The moon has no effect upon me except that I find it pleasant to be out here under it. But it affects you, doesn’t it? The moon has a powerful influence upon biologically based life forms.”

She laughed. “Do you expect me to howl at it like a hound dog?”

“Avram said that the moon had a strong effect on females.”

“If you want to know about women, ask me, not Avram.”

“I can also ask Malkah about women, if it doesn’t concern you personally?”

“Sure.” She suppressed a yawn, settling herself more comfortably.

“Are you sleepy?”

“No! Did I sound tired?” She was slightly insulted.

“I don’t know how humans sound when they want to sleep, only that they do so at night. I’ve never seen anyone sleep. It seems mysterious. To be unconscious would be fatal to me. My functions would cease. I saw a dog sleeping once when we were together—you said he was sleeping—but when I bent over him, he lifted his head. I would like to see you sleep.”

“Tough luck, Yod. I’m not sleepy. But probably we should go back before Avram becomes frantic.…” She began to gather herself to rise. “By the way, isn’t he still locking you in the lab? How did you get out?”

Yod anticipated her move and was up and helping her before her first gesture was completed. “ ‘I picked the lock’ is the phrase, I believe, although picking is not apropos, since the lock requires a code to open. I wanted to go out into the night and find you. And I did.” He reached over his head and plucked something out of the air. “What’s this?” He was holding a brown bat, which hissed and beat its wings in his grip.

“A bat.” She gave him a moment to access his base. “Don’t hurt it. We’re overrun with insects since most birds died. Bats are protected worldwide.”

He opened his hand and let the bat go. “It has external parasites.”

“It eats insects, and insects eat it. Thank you for not hurting it.”

“I didn’t think it dangerous. And I’m happy tonight. It’s strange. Mostly I like when I’m totally involved and don’t feel. Feeling that isn’t pain is new.”

In the street near the gate, they were stopped by a young woman planting herself before them. “Shira, Shira, don’t you recognize me? You’re not still mad at me after all these years?” She burst into nervous laughter.

It was the laugh that Shira recognized. “Hannah! I didn’t know you were living here.”

“I was off in Tokyo studying medicine, but don’t we all come back if we can? Even Gadi, I hear, has come home.… Aren’t you going to introduce me?”

Shira prayed nothing would go wrong. She took Yod’s hand in hers: slightly warmer, slightly drier than a human hand but close enough to fool someone who wasn’t alerted to the difference, she supposed. She took his hand so that she could signal
him if he began to respond oddly. His hand remained inert in hers for a moment and then clasped hers back. She was afraid he would inadvertently crush her hand, but he seemed able to control the pressure he was exerting. “Yod Oblensky, Hannah Leibling. I went to school here with Hannah, Yod. Yod is Avram’s cousin. He’s come to work with Avram, as I have. Yod is Avram’s new lab assistant.”

“Oh, you’re related to Gadi too. But you don’t look like him at all!” She giggled, making her eyes huge in her face.

Her laughter was making Yod uneasy. Too bad. Shira loved the idea of Hannah batting her eyes and sidling up to the cyborg.

“Yes, I’m living here now,” Yod said. He was about half a beat off the conversation. But Hannah was only interested in flirting with him.

Shira must explain to him how to flirt back. That would be quite a task. She could see them practicing flirtation routines in the lab, and she almost laughed out loud, silly as Hannah. She tugged on Yod’s hand. “We have to be getting back now. Avram’s expecting us.”

“Well, I just think it’s going to be ever so much livelier and more fun around here, with Gadi back and now his cute cousin! Bye-bye!” She broke into a conniption of giggles. How could a woman of twenty-eight still giggle as she had when she was ten?

“Damned silly little twat!” Shira muttered, kicking at a loose stone.

“Twat? That word is not in my dictionary.”

“Never mind, Yod. That’s one of those dirty words. I don’t like Hannah. Forget I said it.”

“I can’t forget anything. You spoke in a friendly manner, although I could tell you were upset. Your body became rigid. But I liked your taking my hand. That was pleasant. What did she find amusing? Was I behaving in an inappropriate way?”

“She giggles at everything, Yod. It’s nothing personal. She was flirting with you, so we must assume she thought you were human.”

“Flirting?” There was a pause. He was puzzling over the information, looking up definitions, preparing a query. “Did she wish to initiate a sexual encounter?”

“Flirting usually has little to do with sex: I don’t care what your data base says. It’s just social grease to make things move and please people. But Hannah would probably have sex with Gimel if given the chance, so don’t be flattered.”

There was another silence. “But Gimel is not capable of any kind of sexual act.”

That makes two of us, she thought as she left Yod to handle Avram by himself. Gimel and me, the entities sex has left behind. “Oh, Yod,” she called after him. “My disliking Hannah doesn’t mean I need to be defended against her. Don’t hurt her. She’s no danger.”

“I comprehend the difference between dislike and danger, Shira,” Yod called back, sounding insulted. “I will not defend you against anchovies.”

“You made a joke!” She strolled toward her house. Then she thought, I should have asked him what he would do if Hannah tries to get him into bed. Hannah is fully capable of pressing her luck. I’d better prepare him for dealing with her in a polite but offputting way. Too bad I couldn’t have done the same for Gadi, all those years ago, taught him to say no gently but firmly. Cyborgs have certain advantages over people: they can be programmed.

FIFTEEN

The Same as Me

If Gadi was in disgrace, Shira thought, he did not seem to know it. As soon as he was conscious, he began holding court. Fame gilded misadventure. Few women condemn a man for pursuing another woman illegally or inconveniently, and Gadi’s flogging seemed to have made him a martyr for sex among the young people of Tikva. The older people might judge him harshly, but he was one of Tikva’s famous exports. Everybody was chattering about Gadi, Gadi, Gadi. Shira found herself constantly reminded of his presence, his charm, his aura, even before he summoned her.

If she did not go, everyone would gossip more. If she did not go, she would be revealing fear of him. She had married, borne a child, taken other lovers; did nothing successfully interpose? Was she still a child subject to his whims, vulnerable to smiles and frowns as if they were victories and defeats central to her existence? She dashed about her room, tossing dresses and
undergarments to the floor. Half her earrings were strewn over the dark blue coverlet like fallen petals from some exotic tree stripped by the wind. She could not bear the thought of his finding her unattractive. She would appear before him and she would feel the same old pull, she would want him again, while he would be merely friendly. He lived in a world of high glamour, surrounded by reconstructed females, bodies constantly resculpted by scalpels, implants, gels, to the latest image of radiant beauty. She was a techie whose only operation had been retinal implants to correct hereditary myopia. She had borne a child. She would seem almost middle-aged to him. She was commonplace, banally human, as natural as seaweed and mud. She felt ashamed, as if her unaltered, unenhanced body were something gross.

Blue was her favorite color. It set off her skin, her dark hair, her dark eyes. She would feel safest in blue. But what blue? She should not appear too dressed up. She should not appear sloppy or ill-clad. Her clothes had finally arrived and she had a full closet, but many of her things were the style of Y-S, backless and long. She needed a woman friend. Malkah had dozens. “Malkah!” she bellowed. She was ashamed to be overwrought about visiting Gadi in the hospital, but she needed advice.

Malkah came up the steps. “So the prince has sent for you, and every piece of clothing you own is wrong.”

“I have to wear something, Malkah. I can’t go there naked.”

“You’d look stunning. All right, you want a decision. Wear the bright blue sleeveless dress with the U neck and the flowered shawl. Put them on.”

Shira obeyed, out of emotional fatigue. Then she clasped on her favorite lapis lazuli necklace, which her mother had given her when she graduated. “I want to look happy. I want to look successful. I want to look like anything but what I am, a twenty-eight-year-old miserable failure.”

“Nobody at twenty-eight is a success or a failure. It’s too early to figure out which way the tide’s moving.… Take Yod with you.”

“Why?”

“A strange man is the best accessory.”

“But Yod isn’t.”

“Gadi won’t guess that. Yet.”

“I’d be worrying the whole time that Yod would decide to smash a doctor into the wall for giving an injection, or Gadi will
say, Can you raise my bed a little, and Yod will pick up the whole apparatus.”

“Good. That’s exactly what you need for facing Gadi. Take a problem with you, and Gadi won’t be your focus.”

“Malkah, you’re a genius. But I’ll have to persuade Avram. He’s beginning to prepare Yod for defense of our Base.” She had gradually been introducing Yod into groups of people. Several times, Avram, Yod and she had dined in the Commons. Most evenings she walked Yod all over Tikva. Yesterday afternoon she had taken him to observe a teenage soccer game. He did not find soccer any more entertaining than she did, but he thought people fascinating. She tried, however, to avoid extended one-on-one conversation. She had outfitted Yod in the usual summer uniform of young men in Tikva: shorts or pullover—tee or tank—with a contrasting scarf.

She found Yod playing go with the computer while Avram critiqued his game and on another terminal kept up with his technical journals. Avram’s first reaction was utter refusal, but Yod argued hard too. “Your biological son can’t be kept from meeting me. When he comes home, you can’t go back to locking me in the laboratory.”

“Should have built you with an Off button,” Avram mumbled. “Don’t bet I can’t design a security apparatus that will keep you in!”

“I doubt that, Father, but I must assume my duties soon anyhow. Locking me in will have to stop.”

Yod spoke quite differently to Avram than he did to her or Malkah. He spoke more precisely, more coldly. Which was real? What did it mean to think of a real affect for a machine? Could Yod simply alter his style to please each of them in turn? Well, didn’t people do the same? “This might be an ideal way to introduce them. It is likely Gadi will pay more attention to me than to Yod.”

“Perhaps it has a use,” Avram muttered. “I certainly don’t want to introduce them. Beat the computer at go, Yod, and I’ll let you. Otherwise Shira visits alone.” He settled back in his chair with a little smile. She was reminded of the civil war between Gadi and Avram when Avram had tried to make him play chess or go. Gadi hated competitive games. All of Avram’s attempts to teach Gadi chess ended in mutual temper tantrums, father and son glaring in silence like stuffed owls over the lopsided board.

So why wasn’t Avram playing games with Yod? Because Yod could too easily beat him?

A look of manic concentration came over Yod’s face. His eyes glittered. He bared his teeth slightly. He began playing twice as fast. Within fifteen minutes the computer conceded and he was free.

When they got outside, Yod assumed his usual position, on the street side as they walked. He liked to interpose himself between her and as much of the world as possible. At times he ducked around her to and fro like a large dog. “You’re dressed differently tonight. For instance, when we go out, you do not wear such a dress that shines.” He pinched the cloth between his fingers.

“Silk.”

“What is the purpose of that object around your neck?”

“It’s a necklace my mother gave me. Just to look good.”