"Come on!" her hushed urgency rose to meet the teenage boy who lived in the rumored haunted house on the corner of Roskeen and Harvest. James had not yet decided if he wanted to do this. During the split second of his hesitation, the moonlight struck the girl's face in a way that choice was longer an option. She was beautiful. She was his. He would do anything, even this, for the girl holding the ladder to his bedroom window.
The grass, slick with leaves and dew, was a clear opponent to their quiet escape. James kept looking back secretly hoping for a light to turn on in his parents' room, for his dad to finally accept and succumb to the insomnia, roll out of bed and look out the window to see his only child slipping into the night with a beautiful thief. But his father remained in his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, wondering whether he was prepared for the day the Earth's perpetual spin would halt and throw him into space while his home planet hurled toward the sun. The next morning he would experience, for a moment, what it would feel like if gravity stopped pulling and pushing.
"This is it." The girl used a key to unlock the black sedan rather than the clicker attached to a chain that stated in faded purple letters, "Virginia is for Lovers."
"When did you get your license?"
"About a month ago." Her voice sounded like eyes shifting and toes tapping during amateur poker night.
"Do you want me to drive?" James did not want admit he knew when she was lying. When his dad taught him to play the game, Dwayne made a point to mention to his son, "Do not be all arrogant and point out tells until the game is over and the opponent will not be seen or played with again." Doing that would ensure a player lost his edge. James did not want to surrender the only power he had over her.
"No." She did not bother to explain why. The couple sat and buckled in silent agreement that the radio would not turn on, that words would not be uttered, that sound from this point on was unacceptable. James thought about nodding off to escape for a moment, but the palpable charge of sitting next to her made it impossible to be calm in an otherwise comfortable silence. Minutes swept by as James began to list his life's regrets and what ifs and all the could've, should've, would'ves. Dawn arrived and the sun shone as it did before and would the distant future days ahead. It should be overcast today. The thought had just popped into James' mind though he did not want to think it. Yes, yes, it should. Now. Go. Away. The thought scattered away, but lingered all the same.
At a stop light hours from home, the girl reached over and pulled out a journal from the backseat. She plopped the book into James' lap and he began to read.
My partner and I searched tirelessly until we ran out of time. Sunlight streamed into the room, illuminating an eclectic assortment of modernly angular furniture sitting astutely upon spotless tan carpeting. If two were to attempt this, they would have one hour. I suggest looking under the rug. All lies are swept there.
James looked up from the instructions to see a large glass building looming ahead. This is it. The grounds were deserted and had been abandoned long ago. When the experiments stopped. The girl drove along the winding driveway to the front entrance. Cautiously, she slammed her car door shut and whipped around to see if anyone other James was present. When no one appeared, the two walked forward and pressed into the glass wall before them. The strange sensation of melting caused James to reach for his partner's hand. She latched on and pulled. They fell inside. The tan carpet that caught their fall, absorbed and massaged their feet as the two wandered to the end of a long hallway.
"This is it." the girl whispered.
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
"I can't keep living this lie. I can't stand knowing the others live a lie without realizing. We have to do this. It is no longer about Want."
James looked into her pleading eyes and realized despite his initial feeling that the mission was for love, there was more to it. Much more.
"Okay. Then, let's go."
As if the building had been waiting for consent, something below their feet began to move. A once invisible escalator appeared in the shape of a double helix, and they were going up. The top of the escalator dropped off over a room James recognized from the journal entry. Everything was the same, except the room was covered in dust, cobwebs perched in every corner, and the window had been painted over with an villainous gray substance unlike any material James had even seen.
"Quick! Prepare for landing!" the girl said as the escalator neared the top and emptied them out into a cloud of dust. When they landed the dust flew up into nothingness, and the room was clean with sunlight streaming through the window that was once covered in grime.
"TIME STARTS NOW." an overhead automated voice declared. A holographic hour glass appeared in the center of the room. Tiny diamonds fell to mark the lapsing of time rather sand. I suggest looking under the rug. All lies are swept there. James and the girl dived into the carpet, the once gentle fabric that massaged their feet, pulled them forward driving them deeper into the ground.
"It's a trap." James' bitter voice filled the room. Of course, why would anyone want someone to succeed with a mission like this. Of course it's a trap. James looked to the hourglass, the diamonds were falling rapidly. It seemed that the longer the two were stuck, the more time progressed. Beyond the diamond hourglass, James noticed a familiar looking window along the wall. Remember quicksand? The same voice that annoyed James earlier rose up again. This time, the voice offered helpful advice. With all the strength he could muster, James slowly flattened his body on top of the carpet and the sinking stopped. When James looked to his partner he noticed that she was attempting to do the same. Now if only there was something close to grab onto and get you out of this mess. The voice chattered away. James could feel himself sinking once again. When he looked over to the girl, he was alarmed to find that only her face appeared above the carpet as she gasped for air. Let go. Just let go, James.
James felt his resolve to float away and his reason finally lectured him that dying was better than fulfilling the mission in the first place. As James sank he felt the hand of the girl reach for his; they drifted deeper. The smells within the carpet were different for the girl and the boy. They were scents reminiscent of comfort. The girl breathed in wafts of freshly baked sugar cookies and lavender. James was overwhelmed by whiffs of sizzling bacon and tobacco the smells that brought back his favorite memory--a fishing retreat with his dad where they ate and did what was not usually allowed at home. Then, the slow drift into comfort and nothing abruptly opened into a full speed drop into darkness.
"15 MINUTES."
"We're still in it, James! This is part of it!"
James landed first into the room of gray and yellow. On one side there was a ladder, the same ladder the girl held the night before. The window at the top was open and yellow curtains breezed in and out despite the lack of wind. The other side of the room was a large silver switch labeled "OFF" and the diamond hourglass perched beside it. On the floor, large letters printed in a woman's script: "THE CHOICE IS YOURS."
"The choice is ours, James. We can do this. I need your help to pull the switch. It is supposed to be pulled by one of my kind and one of yours. It was meant for us."
"First, answer two questions."
"5 MINUTES"
"Yes?"
"Do you love me?"
"Yes. Always." her voice was even and accented by the Pennsylvania Dutch surroundings from home.
"Second question. What is your name?"
"Miranda." The voice had a Southern twang. Sounded like shifting eyes and tapping feet. James knew the girl in front of him with the coy smile would never play him again, but he kept the tell to himself and lightly brushed her lips with his.
"Okay. I'm ready."
Twenty years after the mission was completed, a little girl wrote a report entitled: An Honest Death. This is what she wrote:
Four minutes later the world's sky grew dark. Women screamed and men sobbed. Airplanes crashed and houses burned. The robotic people with human conscience and the ability to experience human growth and development, an experiment to help childless couples have their dreams fulfilled with children, were turned off all at once. These people had not known their origins until one's faulty wiring led her to the truth. The girl's name was Eve Carpenter, and her decision to turn off nearly destroyed the world. Her faulty wiring also lead to a sense of independence that Carpenter's original family could not cope with so she was promptly discarded. Carpenter had a partner, James Adams, one of 47 human children who survived the trend of robotic children and was created naturally. Adams disappeared the day of the mission, and his body was found twenty years later trapped under the carpeted flooring of Eden Laboratories, the genesis of the world-changing mission. Carpenter's last words are cemented in her now infamous one line essay, A Note to The Institution, "No one will ever live a lie again."
