Robot Planet, The Complete Series (The Robot Planet Series) by Chute Robert Chazz

Author:Chute, Robert Chazz [Chute, Robert Chazz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ex Parte Press
Published: 2016-01-20T18:30:00+00:00

7

My father’s name was Sebastian Avery. He didn’t think I could be a soldier.

“You were a soldier, Daddy,” I said. “Just because I quit the baseball team — ”

“It’s not about that, Deb. But, you know, the military is a team sport and you don’t play so well with others.”

“I could if I really wanted to. The ump — ”

“Let’s not rehash the great strikeout debacle. You didn’t take your swing and that’s — ”

“It was a ball!”

“Deb. I’m trying to help you. I’m trying to tell you that you can get mad or you can get sad or you can get bad. When your team loses, you — ”

“I wasn’t out!”

“Okay, okay! It was a ball. Anyway, all’s I’m saying is it’s okay to not follow in my footsteps. The military is not a life that’s meant for everybody.”

“Is that why you quit? Because it wasn’t for you?”

“Medical discharge,” he said, “but it was for the best. It’s not that the life wasn’t for me. It’s that I wanted to be with you guys more. In the end, a bad knee turned into a happy excuse to bow out.”

“You don’t even like being a farmer.”

“Oh, it’s not that I mind that much. Complaining is a big part of being a farmer.”

“So you don’t miss being an officer?”

When my father grinned, his craggy sunburnt face split wide. “I miss being around people who do what they’re told sometimes.”

“Dad!”

“Okay, okay. The serious answer is that my getting out of the Army allowed me to watch you grow up. Nobody should watch their baby grow up on a vid screen.”

“I don’t plan to have any babies until I’m out of the Army.”

“That would work better,” Dad said. “It’s just…I saw a lot of good people die. I don’t want you to be one of them, okay?”

“I can’t die, Dad. I’ve got too much to do.”

A few years later, my father’s complaints about farming grew earnest. The hay began to die. Everything began to die. The Blight came and we abandoned the farm.

I lost the barn cats and the dogs and the hayloft. We moved into an old rickety house on the edge of Baltimore with my grandfather. It was too far for my first boyfriend to follow and I was miserable. At least, I thought I was miserable. Then things got worse.

My grandparents lost their jobs, too. My mother, Laurie, retreated to her room. No matter how hot it got in her bedroom, she refused to come out. Sad and hollow-eyed, she became too weary to eat. Her skin turned yellow and the doctor said her liver was getting too big for the place it was supposed to be tucked into.

There were no jobs in Baltimore. Schools were closing and I was just about done with that, anyway. It was time for me to move from being taken care of to becoming a caretaker. One morning, I got up early and kissed my mother goodbye. My father stopped me at the bottom of the stairs.

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