Kzine Issue 3 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Crime, kindle, Horror, short, story, sf, Fantasy
Goodreads: 21235592
Publisher: Kimota Publishing
Published: 2012-05-21T23:00:00+00:00

IN HIS EYES

by Milo James Fowler

The night he came I remember well.

The sky black and cold, the air heavy and thick with the presence of an approaching storm. Papa had finished tending the stock and was locking the farm for the night. He stood inside the front doorway, his hand hovering over the wall-mounted scanner. He looked over his shoulder at me with half a smile, refusing to succumb to the exhaustion already slumping his knotted shoulders.

‘Dinner ready, Aurora Baby?’

‘Yes, Papa.’ I turned back to the kitchen. The security system bleeped as it read his handprint.

‘Securing the perimeter,’ droned the electronic voice of the AI.

Papa watched the grid on the screen as pinpoints of red blinked on in a rectangular pattern. He seemed to be looking for something. The system let him know when every fence and gate was locked tight and electrified. He waited until the computer had finished its task before he came into the kitchen, dragging his boots a little. With a sigh, he collapsed into his chair at the small dinner table.

‘Tired, Papa?’ It was something I asked him every night without realizing it.

‘Yes.’ His answer was always the same. He covered his face with his hands—big, strong hands; old, weary hands—and collected himself. When his face eventually emerged, he was smiling again. ‘Mmm…’ He took a deep breath as I set his plate before him with care. ‘Your cooking, Aurora. It’s worth living for.’

‘Thank you, Papa.’ We were having beanloaf—a poor substitute for meat—and fresh potatoes. He always complimented my culinary skills. I wonder if he knew how good it made me feel inside.

I carried my plate from the stove and sat down across from him. Papa said grace. I remember he prayed that the coming storm would not damage any of the crops or flood the irrigation channels he’d worked so hard to dig earlier in the season. I prayed the roof would not spring another leak. We both prayed the central computer and all of its components would remain protected from the expected downpour. There was always a lot to pray for when a storm came our way looking for trouble.

‘NetCentre says we’ll get the worst of it,’ Papa said around a mouthful of mashed potatoes. He was always matter-of-fact about such things. ‘But we’ll do all right. We always do, more or less.’

I remember he asked me about school. I had just gotten my grades back from BioNet, and I’d passed all of the science tests with superior scores.

‘You’ll be moving up to the next level, then?’

I nodded. I think he could tell I was uneasy.

‘You’ll do fine. I know you will. In no time at all, you’ll be a scientist at NetCentre. ‘Doctor Aurora Springfield’—How does that sound?’

I remember blushing.

Papa chuckled. ‘You’ll be telling me everything I’m doing with this place is wrong—that I should be planting hybrids, or using that synthetic water substitute they’ve got now.’

I shook my head. ‘You’re not doing anything wrong here, Papa.’

‘Well, thank you.’ He chuckled again.

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