Page 6 of Codi
Codi’s gaze rests upon me as I stare at Oliver incredulously, putting a hand on my hip. “Me? What do you mean?”
“You found him and rescued him from the trash,” Oliver answers with a shrug. “I don’t see why he can’t be yours, now. Finders, keepers, and all that.”
“I don’t know about this.” I’m not sure why I’m hesitant, but times have changed massively since that day my friends and I dragged Becca into a BioNex store. I’ve always flirted with the idea of getting an android, but it was such a big expense. Now my friend is married to one, which makes it stranger, somehow. Oliver is metal and software and a hot piece of ass, sure. But he’s got personality, feeling—everything human-like. I worried having an android would be like owning a human, so I just avoided the entire moral crisis entirely. “What if someone comes looking for him?”
“He was discarded.” Oliver chuckles. “And I’ve checked through lost-and-found databases for any sign of a lost or stolen android. There’s nothing there. I highly doubt anyone’s coming to retrieve him.”
Becca simply listens as she rocks Aaron in her arms as the boy falls asleep against her chest. A part of me wants to tell them no, not a chance.
“Mommy?”
My son wanders into the living room, rubbing his eyes, dressed in dinosaur-printed pajamas. His platinum blond hair is askew, standing every which way, and his lips are turned down. He’s so very tired.
“Are you home?” he asks me sweetly, as though I’m not standing right there in front of him to answer his question.
“Nope! I’m a figment of your imagination. Silly boy, of course I’m home.” I chuckle and scoop him up into my arms after kicking off my Mary Janes. As I hold him, Codi’s gaze focuses intensely on us both, like he means to memorize our features, the hard lines of his mouth slowly softening.
“You work hard,” Oliver says. “There’s nothing wrong with accepting help.”
“I don’t know, Oli.” I brush my son’s hair out of his eyes, and he lays his head on my shoulder. “If he’s malfunctioning around Lucas...”
“His inhibitor chip is intact and undamaged. I checked during the memory diagnostic,” Oliver answers. “He’s incapable of harming you.”
That makes me feel better, at least. With how strongly Codi reacted after being woken, I have a feeling he’s been taking the brunt of more hits than that dent on the back of his head.
“If nothing else,” Becca suggests, “you could take him to the Tin Man’s Heart on Monday when they open, have Kyrone fix him up. Seems like the poor guy’s been through the ringer.”
Lucas wiggles out of my arms as Becca and I quietly discuss options, but my words fall away when he fearlessly walks right up to Codi. Immediately, I tense and nearly intercept him.
“Hi.” Inquisitive and now wide awake, my son peers up at Codi. “I’m Lucas.”
Codi stares down at Lucas in surprise. Intrigued, he nods. “Hello, Lucas. My name is Codi.”
“Are you an android?” Lucas asks.
“I am.”
Lucas blinks. “Where are your clothes?”
Poor Codi is still in nothing but his briefs. “Do you have any clothes he could borrow?” I ask Oliver, who unzips his sweater without complaint and offers it to him. Codi takes it tentatively with a nod.
Ever since he met Oliver at the zoo, there’s only one thing in the world my son loves more than dinosaurs, and that is robots. Excited, Lucas bounces to me and clings to my leg. “Is he our android? Can we keep him, Mommy?”
Reluctance still plagues me. I’ve done everything myself my whole life. My parents were never around. I’ve had to scratch and claw my way where I am now without a single handout.
Now, suddenly I find a throwaway bionic. It seems too good to be true. Like winning a jackpot, then finding out there are terms and conditions. I’m also hyper-aware that Codi can hear us talking about him, and when I glance his way, he’s looking straight at me.
I can’t imagine how disorienting all this must be. Having no memory, no idea of being discarded, waking in a strange house filled with strange people. But there’s a softness, a warmth in Codi’s face that gives me pause.
Oliver’s just like us; perhaps Codi is the same. I took responsibility for him the moment I walked into that alley. I need to do the right thing here.
“Do you want to stay with us, Codi?” I ask him.
Astonishment registers in his eyes, mouth opening and shutting, like he doesn’t know what to say or do. “If it pleases you,” he says after a moment. “I—don’t wish to be a nuisance.”
“A nuisance?” I’m shocked he even knows what that is, or how to be one. Is his memory completely gone? Was he a nuisance to whomever he served before? “How? You don’t eat, drink, or sleep. I’m the one getting the better end of the deal here.”
This only excites Lucas further. “Please?” He bounces, staring at me with the sweetest look he can muster, the kind he saves for the other nurses when we visit the hospital, in hopes it will win him a lollipop.
