I walked quietly to the television room and stopped before entering the doorway and peered in. Adam was lying like a tomcat on the couch that was in front of the giant screen. He seemed to be watching re-runs of kids programming. Dr. Matthew must have used these recorded shows as learning tools for Adam. I can only imagine his naivety in the early stages of his development. It was probably like raising a child, though I had never had the privilege of being a mother.
“Adam, what is it that you are watching?”
“Oh, Noomi! It is a program called Fitzwilder’s Playtime. Dr. Matthew used to play it for me; it supplements basic etiquette to children. I can assume I started my life as a child essentially.”
“That’s fascinating Adam. Someday, I’d like to hear the stories you have about your time with Dr. Matthew.”
I walked over to the chair next to the couch and settled in. The chair was just as comfortable as I remember my living room chairs being.
“So what movie are we going to watch?”
“I have picked out classic movie. I believe it was from the year 1934. The title is ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’. Have you heard of it?”
“Yes of course! It was the main focus in an English Historical Studies class I took while in college. Dr. Matthew also loved that movie, I assume?”
“Yes, it was his favorite.”
We sat for a while, engrossed in the movie. It had been so long since I had seen this film, it was a wonder I remembered the dialogue. It was strange to just be doing something normal for a change, normal had never really been a word I allowed in my vocabulary. Amy used to cry at night sometimes about how she just wanted a normal life, but what she didn’t understand is that normal does nothing to change the world. Normal just lets the world go on like it is, and normal never steps in and says, “You know you really ought to do something with yourself.” Abnormal, on the other hand just comes right up to the world and picks it up off its feet and tell it, “Hey, you know you could be doing something big.” I’ve always been an advocate for abnormal, of course, and with Amy’s constant sobbing about wanting to be normal, I simply abolished the word entirely.
As we neared the end of the movie, Adam sat up abruptly.
“Noomi, do you believe in love?”
“Yes of course I do, Adam. It’s one of the most fundamental concepts in human life.”
“Do you think it is possible to learn how to love?”
“You mean for yourself, Adam?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I can’t imagine why not, although you were not intended to love anyone besides your creator. But that love was meant as family love… Not the love you see in these movies.”
“Oh. I see.”
He returned to his lounging position and continued to watch the rest of the movie. I can’t help but feel like Adam only wishes to be human sometimes, and I imagine him as a son of Dr. Matthew, though I had never met his family.
I often wonder if I’ll somehow find love in this desolate place. The only time I had ever felt the pang of love that everyone swoons over was when I met this lovely scientist named Abram. He was tall and very handsome. He had been commissioned by my lab to come and be a consultant on a new medicine we had been developing. Our lead scientist had taken samples of space organisms and was planning to make a vaccine for a unique cancer that had evolved over the age of space travel. Many astronauts were being diagnosed with cancer from the extended periods of time spent on other planets. It wasn’t surprising that we never found the cure.
Abram had been so kind to ask me to lunch, but I declined. I really had a large amount of work to do. He wasn’t discouraged, but instead decided to skip lunch and keep me company while I worked. We talked until the end of my shift that day, and I knew I had felt something between us. We went on a few dates, but it wasn’t but three months after we met that the plague began. He was flown back to his home country as a way to isolate the plague. He had promised once this all blew over that he would come back for me. Shortly after that I had been recruited for the space mission, I called him and told him I would marry him if I made it back to Earth. What an empty promise that was…
After the movie had ended, I went to the lab. Adam had done a wonderful job of cleaning up the floor and the rubble and he had not been far behind me.
“Adam, do you think we can fix the time machine?”
“Well, I only knew the things that Dr. Matthew needed me to know. Like how to operate it and small repairs that his unsteady hands couldn’t do. I supposed I could try to figure it out, but like most things here, Dr. Matthew had help in perfecting this.”
“From the aliens?”
“I believe they call themselves Magura, and the more violent species of Magura are from a nation called Eyela. I had heard the Magura talk about the Eyelans… But yes, they helped him with the final parts of the time machine.”
“Well, if I remember correctly, Dr. Matthew’s hologram told me that they are due for a visit this year, but I had seen smoke outside and it could have been them. Were they here?”
“If they were, they would have woken me up…”
“So then it was the Eyelans?”
“Must have been, unfortunately.”
“What should we do, Adam?”
“Make sure you survive for as long as possible.”
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