"No buts! I need you to do this for me, and I need you to do it now."
"But I don't…"
"Even Cecil is helping! You can at least do the same. Most of it's yours, anyway."
"But I…"
"Enzo Matrix, I will not tell you again!" said Dot, brandishing a bright pink feather duster at her younger brother. "Get to work!"
"Come on, Sparky," said AndrAIa in a soothing voice, laying a gentle hand on his biceps. She had a seafoam-green kerchief tied over her hair. "The sooner we get started, the sooner we'll be done."
"Oh, all right," muttered Matrix, following her to the storage room. "I can't believe I'm doing this."
"This from a sprite who codes his own clothes?"
"Shh!" Matrix glanced nervously over his shoulder, but Dot had left, probably to press-gang Bob.
"You shouldn't be embarrassed about it. I don't know how you get the stitching that even. I couldn't."
"That's because you don't have a built-in targeting system." They had reached the storeroom. Matrix looked around at the boxes. "Where do we start?"
"Pick a box and decide if we really need to keep what's in it." She opened one. "For instance, I think we can dispose of these," she said, displaying a heap of broken yo-yos.
"Right," agreed Matrix. He cleared a space for the discarded items. They set to work.
"Wow. Look at all this stuff. I haven't seen some of these things in ages," he said, rummaging through a box. "Ha! Look! My old training zipboard." He held up a pair of small disks connected by sturdy rods. Two even tinier disks were attached to the sides of each main one for stability.
AndrAIa examined it. "Well, it's still in good condition. We'll hang onto it. It might be useful someday," she added slyly. Matrix raised an eyebrow but forbore to comment.
* * *
"Let's see… old chew toys. Nah, he's got plenty,
we can toss all but this one, it was his favourite." He put them
on the steadily growing discard pile. "Propeller beanie… dear User,
did I really used to wear this thing?" Nevertheless, it went back
in its box. "Spare aircart parts. I don't need 'em, but Bob
might have some use for them, I'd better ask…"
"Oh, Enzo! Remember this?"
Matrix turned to see what she had found. His
jaw set. "Yes," he said shortly.
AndrAIa was too enthralled with her find to notice.
"You showed me this when I first came to Mainframe," she said, rather mistily.
"Do you remember?"
Matrix's face softened a touch. "Yeah," he
said. "I remember."
"You were so proud of it," she said. "You said you'd
spent hours learning to play it. Bob taught you, right?" she asked,
looking up.
Matrix nodded, smiling faintly. "Every second
after school. Dot was amazed I could concentrate on anything for
so long. She actually got scared; thought it was doing something
to me. She had Phong perform a scan on it, but it was clean."
"You even learned to play that song Dot wrote for
you. You played it for me, and Dot sang. You were really good,
you know. I mean, I'd have thought so no matter what, but… you were
good. But then, you've always been a fast learner." She smiled
fondly at him.
Matrix chuckled. "Yeah, and then you made
Dot teach you the song. Of course, I'd have thought you were good
no matter what, but… you really couldn't sing back then. You've gotten
much
better," he added.
"Thanks. I think. Of course, I've practised.
You haven't really been able to. Still, maybe it's like riding a
zipboard." She grinned and held it out to him. "How about it,
lover? Want to see if you can still play?"
"NO!" He jerked backwards as if she had slapped
him.
"Why not? What's the matter?" she asked, startled
and worried.
"What's the matter? That's Megabyte's,
AndrAIa!"
"It's yours, Matrix. He gave
it to you. That's why you loved it so much. Can't you remember
how special it made you feel?" He was looking furious, but she pressed
on regardless. "You told me, once. You said that even when
every binome in Mainframe showed up for your birthday, you knew it was
because Dot had arranged it. But even Megabyte gave you a present.
Of his own free will. He could have attacked, but he gave you a present."
"He probably wanted to put us off guard."
"That's not the point, Enzo!"
"Don't call me that!"
"I'll call you what I want to call you, Enzo!"
She was shouting now. "This is exactly what I'm talking about!
You're so mad at Megabyte for stealing your past, but you keep distancing
yourself from it anyway!"
"Just drop it, all right?"
"What is it you really want?"
"I said drop it!"
"Enzo, this is important!"
"Just shut the frag up!"
They both froze.
Matrix closed his eyes and massaged his forehead.
His voice shook very slightly as he said "AndrAIa, I..."
"I need a drink," she interrupted. He did
not attempt to stop her as she left the room, and if her eyes were a shade
pinker than normal when she returned, neither mentioned it, nor did they
discuss the fact that AndrAIa's find seemed to have vanished.
They got back to work. Occasionally one would
consult the other about whether to keep or discard a particular item.
Beyond that, neither spoke, and the few words they did exchange were painfully
civil, as though recited from an internal script.
When they were done, Matrix rose and stretched.
"It's getting late, and I'm hungry. We can take this stuff to the
dump in the morning." AndrAIa nodded and followed him out.
They ate dinner and went to bed early. Matrix looked for a moment
as though he was going to suggest something, but AndrAIa rolled onto her
side, facing away from him, and he said nothing.
She woke in the middle of the night to find his
side of the bed empty. This was not entirely unusual, and she was
about to go back to sleep when she heard a sound from the next room.
It was very soft, just loud enough to be audible through the wall but not
so loud as to wake anyone else. Still, she recognised the tune.
AndrAIa smiled. Judging her volume carefully,
she began to sing.