UPDATE: Sequel to [link]. Read first to get what’s happened so far.
UPDATE: I’m glad I have Tameiki to help me out with my writing.
I’m bored so I will write some more.
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The Beginning on the Streets (cont.)
The lab-coated scientist led Adam behind Doctor Abel, but began to lag because Adam had hardly acquired any idea of how walking works. Doctor Abel had already left the lab and strode glamorously down the corridor to the cell room, which was like a bedroom but the kind in a prison. When he entered, Maia was at the bed, petting the towel she had retrieved. She not only brought the tattoo gun as well, but an entire cart of items. Salon tools for cutting hair; toiletries such as hand sanitizer, toothpaste, small hotel shampoos and soups; children’s books for reading; clothes (though only lab standard white clothes); and a few bottles of water as well as a tray of food.
“Maia, where did you get all this?” Doctor Abel asked, pointing to the cart.
“It was already here,” she replied, startled as she hadn’t noticed Doctor Abel’s entrance, “I just brought the towel and tattoo gun you asked for.”
“Well, it’s all good,” Doctor Abel loomed closer and examined the cart. Then he turned around, and saw that Adam and the lab-coated scientist were not behind him. Shoulders tight with slight apprehension, he made for the door out of the cell room and searched the corridor frantically.
“Doctor Abel!” he heard down the hall. Doctor Abel turned on his heel and saw the lab-coated scientist still struggling to transport Adam to the cell room. Doctor Abel sighed and rubbed his brow with his finger. Adam was going to be a tougher deal than he initially thought.
“Just drag it!” Doctor Abel called after a few seconds of exasperation, “it’s not like it knows that’s wrong, yet.”
“Yes, right away,” the lab-coated scientist panted as he shifted Adam’s arms over his shoulder so that it was easier to drag. Adam, on the other, saw no need to rush. It spun its head around in a spastic manner and took in the bland white surroundings. To it, every next tile on the floor or every other panel on the ceiling was something different, something unique, something that must be observed with excruciating critique. It was not blinking slowly or retardedly, but in a quick fashion so that it could see more as its feet rubbed along the floor of the corridor. Its breathing was steadier as he observed each white plank of wood on the walls, with the occasional cord that winded from the floor to the ceiling. It was fascinated by this new and thrilling environment.
At long last, the lab-coated scientist ably guided Adam into the cell room and sat it on the spring mattress that Maia was waiting on. Adam ran its palms over the cotton sheet covering it. It was even more enthusiastic of the discovery of this new surface because it then began to push down on the mattress and pinch the sheet. The liquid from the tank leaked onto the sheets. Doctor Abel took the towel and thoroughly dried Adam, which tried to force away Doctor Abel’s hands. Doctor Abel pulled away the towel and Adam took back to playing with the bed. It looked up at the sound of a cart rolling into the cell room and everyone’s heads turned to the door.
A skinny boy with cargo shorts and a black t-shirt pushed a cart through the door. He had on earbuds and several chains hung on his neck and belt, so he made quite a bit of noise when he moved. He was quietly singing the music emanating from the earbuds, music which the rest of the room could hear.
Doctor Able cleared his throat. “Kyle, what are you doing?”
Kyle looked up and nodded. He held up a finger and meddled with the buttons on an mp3 player he pulled out of his pocket. He plucked out the earbuds and looked up, “Yeah, dad?”
“What are you doing?”
“Helping.”
“What?”
“Don’t you need to, like, give him shots and stuff?”
“Who?”
“Him, on the bed.” Kyle pointed to Adam, which still stared at him.
“Kyle, no, I think you’re mistaken. Adam is a computer, not a man.”
“Sure looks like a man.”
“Kyle, who told you to do this?”
“Uncle Cain.”
“Blast him,” Doctor Abel muttered, “well, Kyle, you’re right, anyways. Adam will need to be vaccinated. Thank you for bringing all this. Why don’t you go wait outside the cell and watch from the bars, huh?”
“Do I need to?”
“Maybe so, if you still manage to be the only son I have to live.”
“Why?”
“Kyle, because Binaryscript Pharmaceuticals belongs to our family. It has belonged to our family for the past century.”
“Shut up; I’ve heard this story so much that my ears explode.”
Doctor Abel glared at Kyle as his son strode through the door. “And lock it, Kyle.”
“Whatever,” Kyle said as he closed the barred door and turned the lock with a key he procured from a hook on the opposite wall. Adam watched him very closely and Kyle looked up and back at Adam, the two stared at each other until Kyle felt the awkwardness crawl up the back of his neck like a chill. He planted the earbuds back into his ears and turned up the music on his mp3 player.
Inside the cell, Doctor Abel lifted a bottle of rubbing alcohol that came on the second cart. Then he walked over to Adam and said, “I’m going to put this on your neck,” and motioned to his own neck. Then he applied the rubbing alcohol to Adam’s neck and massaged it in. Then he set up his tattoo gun. Adam watched him with a cocked head, seemingly excited about what was going to happen next. Doctor Abel picked up a small pouch of sterilized needles and fitted them into the gun. He set the gun down and filled a small medicine cup with black ink. Maia looked from Doctor Abel to the lab-coated scientist, both sharing the memory of the last time Doctor Abel thought he had a successful experiment and ended tattooing it, but that one later died. Doctor Abel declared often that he would not let this one fail.
Doctor Abel looked like he was ready, so he picked up a bottle of ointment and turned back to Adam. “I’m going to put this on your neck as well.” He rubbed the ointment all around Adam’s neck. Adam smiled at the pleasure; perhaps it thought it was being touched in a loving manner, like it mattered like a son would. Only, it hadn’t known Doctor Abel long and to Doctor Abel, Adam mattered little. Adam existed as a trophy and the purpose of tattooing its neck was to show that Adam was Doctor Abel’s.
“Maia, Charlie. Hold him, please. Lay him down, like that. I want to get the left side of its neck,” he commanded Maia and the lab-coated scientist, Charlie. Both got to work, Maia taking Adam’s hands whispering to it consolingly and Charlie gently nudging Adam to lay down. Doctor Abel picked up the tattoo gun and held it up when he turned to Adam. He charged the gun with the black ink and turned it on. Maia and Charlie held Adam down so that it didn’t squirm too frantically and cause a fatal error in the process. Doctor Abel got on top of Adam and leaned in so that he had the right angle to pierce the needles without a mistake.
“Adam, I’m going to warn you,” he began, “this will definitely hurt.”
Adam’s painful screams echoed in the corridor.
***
Doctor Abel finished up the process by applying more ointment and dressing Adam’s neck with gauze bandage. Adam panted and rasped, its voice too weak. The pain still wasn’t gone and Doctor Abel wouldn’t stop touching where it hurt. Its eyes were wet with the tears that come from screaming and sweat from the exhaustion. Maia and Charlie already left, not waiting long after Doctor Abel was done. They heard the screams too many times to face where they came from. Doctor Abel cleaned the needles and emptied the ink cup in the sink that was located in the room. He deposited it in the garbage can and placed the needles in a bluish bag that meant they had to be sterilized. Doctor Abel loaded all the things Adam would need for living on the shelves and rolled out the cart full of the vaccination equipment Kyle brought in earlier (he would do that bit the next day since Adam would be too frisky to take a shot); the first one was already taken by Maia.
“That’s really fucking sick,” he heard. He looked at his son.
“Don’t say that,” Doctor Abel said.
“It’s true,” Kyle replied snidely.
“What’s so wrong about it?”
“Why can’t you put it on his shoulder or chest or something? Someplace it won’t hurt as much.”
“It’ll hurt either way.”
“Shut the fuck up, you know what I’m saying.”
Doctor Abel sighed and looked at his son. “When you become president, you can do what ever you want. This is my way of doing things.”
“It’s not right.”
“That may be so.”
“Just because he’s a computer?”
“It‘s a computer.”
“Whatever.” Kyle turned up the volume on his mp3 player and Doctor Abel rolled the cart away. Kyle watched him leave, and when he was sure he wasn’t going to be seen, he walked back into the cell room.
Kyle took up a space at the end of Adam’s bed and looked at it. He stared for a while, and got up. He searched through various shelves along the walls and found a pair of scissors, just what he was looking for. He went back to Adam and began snipping off the long hair on Adam. Adam jumped at first, but when it noticed that the scissors didn’t hurt, it calmed down. Kyle pulled Adam’s arm to get it to sit up and let him cut the other side. When Kyle was done, he put the scissors back on their shelf. Then he looked back at Adam. “Now you need clothes; no one wants to see that unless they’re gay or a pervert. Maybe a pedophile since you were just born or some shit.” He picked out white slacks and grimaced at them. “Jeez, these are so uncool. I’ll bring you something better when I come back.” He helped Adam into the slacks, and fought a bit when he tried to get its head through the shirt, but in the end, Kyle successfully clothed Adam. Adam looked up at Kyle and cocked its head.
“I know you can’t talk and all yet, but the first thing I’ll teach you to say is ‘Thank you, Kyle.’” Adam squinted. Then leaned closer to Kyle, as if trying to see him better.
“Woah, back off,” Kyle pushed Adam back onto the bed, “I’m not like that.” Adam breathed and took to looking around the cell room instead.
“You have it worse than I do,” Kyle started, “I always thought my dad hated me, but it seems him not giving a shit is a lot worse. I’m Kyle, and I’m sixteen, so I’m definitely older than you. You will treat me like I’m older than you, too. You don’t get what I’m saying, but who in the world understands teenagers like me?” Kyle checked his watch, “And now is time for jamming, so I’ll be back tomorrow, all right?” Without waiting for Adam to look back at him, Kyle left the cell room and locked it. Adam watched him go and after Kyle disappeared, it wobbled to its feet and stumbled to the bars. It looked down the corridor in the direction Kyle went.
It muttered, “Kyle.”
–
WHAT A HASSLE. I might finish this in one more part, so bear with me.
I’m liking writing now because now it’s easier and now I’m writing about a character I like, which is fun.
Expect more later or something.
-Soupierre