Brass Heart Floating by L.C. Mortimer

Author:L.C. Mortimer [Mortimer, L.C.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2017-09-26T04:00:00+00:00

 Six

I didn’t like to think about my father’s death.

It wasn’t the type of thing I wanted to dwell on. He was alive, and then he wasn’t. He was with me, and then he wasn’t. I had a dad, and then I didn’t. It was over too quickly, and I had lost him too young.

“It’s why you don’t like cyborgs,” Jack said slowly, and I nodded.

“My father worked at a factory. It slowly allowed new workers. The metal men didn’t replace current workers at first. They were just supposed to observe, and then they began to acquire new duties.”

“What did they do?”

“They started to do the same jobs that normal humans did: line work, packaging. Some of them were maintenance workers, but others had more important jobs. My father didn’t like it.”

“I can imagine it must have been a difficult position for him,” Jack said quietly. I looked at him, and for a minute, I thought Jack looked sad. It was interesting, having someone care for me. It had been so long since anyone noticed me. My mother had loved me, long ago, but those days had ended abruptly when she remarried.

My stepfather had disliked me, which meant my mother disliked me.

This made my decision to move that much easier.

“He struggled,” I admitted to Jack, which was something I never said aloud. My father was a hero, at least in my eyes. The idea that he may have had a hard time with his job once the robots and cyborgs arrived killed me.

“Seems natural.”

I shook my head. “Not for my dad. He wasn’t weak.”

“I don’t think anyone thought that,” Jack said thoughtfully. He stirred the bowl and added a few more ingredients. I was quiet for a minute, and then I asked him a question of my own.

“Do your parents live here?”

“My parents are dead,” Jack said quietly. This time, he I knew for certain he was very sad.

“I’m sorry,” I told him. “What happened?”

“I never had a mother,” Jack said. “And my father’s death was…recent. I’m having a difficult time with it.”

And that’s when it hit me.

His father’s death.

That was the reason Jack didn’t eat, the reason he was always so tired looking. He was paler than a normal person should be.

“I’m sorry,” I told him. I didn’t bother promising him things would get better. Chances were, they wouldn’t. They hadn’t for me, at any rate. My father had been gone for a very long time, but I still missed him every day. There had never come a point when I didn’t miss him. There had never come a point when the pain dimmed. Not for me.

Sometimes, when I told people what happened, they would try to offer their condolences, but it never made a difference.

“I’m sorry for your loss” never brought anyone back.

Jack shrugged and looked around awkwardly. Even he didn’t seem to know what to do in this situation.

“Were you close?”

“We were very close,” Jack said. “My father taught me everything I know.”

“Sounds like he was an incredible man,” I told him, and he nodded.

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