Part 4
THE BECAUSE-YOU-ASKED-ME-TO'S
"How did you know I was here?", Edward asked Kim.
"I saw you on T.V. There was a show on a few days ago where the host ate at your restaurant and you were cooking for everyone. It was so cool!"
Edward smiled. He remembered when the television crew filmed him while he was at work, three or so months ago.
Kim continued: "I knew we couldn't be together, as long as you were in your mansion. But then I found out you had left and I had to see you."
Edward's smile grew larger. He was very impressed by her devotion to him. It was the same devotion that her mother, Peg, had shown him when she arrived at his mansion, the devotion that made him feel like he had a home. Maybe that's where Kim learned it from.
"Edward, why did you leave your mansion? You would have been safe there. L.A. just seems crazy."
Edward took a moment to answer.
"Someone came to me one day and wanted to know if I cooked. I told him yes. He said he owned a restaurant. He was looking for unusual chefs. I didn't want to do it at first. I didn't want to be around people anymore."
"So, what changed your mind?"
"I realized I was overreacting. Jim and Joyce did bad things...but there are alot of good people too. Like your family. Your family loved me."
"Yes...and we still do.", Kim replied warmly. "Kevin knows you saved him."
"I went with the owner because I wanted to be with people...people who don't do bad things."
"Edward, everyone does bad things. I've done bad things too. No one's perfect. But what matters is trying to do the right thing...and when you do the wrong thing, apologizing and not making the same mistake again. They call it 'repenting'."
Kim paused for a moment, finding the words to say, then continuing:
"I'm really proud of you for being brave enough to live here. And that you're using your talent to serve other people."
For a third time, Edward smiled. This one was contagious and Kim smiled back at him.
Edward's mannerisms had changed somewhat, she noticed as she watched him. He seemed more confident and more serene. He wasn't wholly alien, as he was when her mother had brought down from the mountain. He seemed to know where he belonged, that was her overall impression. Some things hadn't changed; he was still gentle and unassuming, still spoke quietly and possessed a demeanor suggesting his lifestyle was very solitary.
His appearance had also changed. When Edward met Kim, his hair was a wild, unmanageable tangle. It had since been trimmed and styled, its length slicked backwards. His facial scars had faded with time and he no longer possessed his freaky metallic suit of armor. He wore instead a black dress shirt, black leather pants and combat boots. She realized that this change of hair and clothing was the reason why she hadn't recognized him earlier, on the uphill road. She also realized how handsome this change made him look. Her heart beat a little quicker and she felt warm inside.
"How are you and your family?", Edward asked just then.
"They're good...same as always. I told them you're alive and they were happy about that...they weren't happy I lied, though. My dad says congratulations on finding work that pays...Kevin's in 8th grade now. And...I'm in college, studying psychology. The human brain.", Kim added, unsure if he had heard the word "psychology" before.
"That sounds great. I want to learn about the brain too."
"You should get a book about it. Do you ever visit bookstores, Edward?"
"Sometimes. I have to be careful when I turn the pages."
Understandingly, Kim nodded. "I was reading a book before I saw you on T.V."
"What's the book about?"
"Serial killers.", said Kim. "Some of the worst people. They go around hunting out victims and take their lives, one after another."
Edward shuddered in horror. "Why would you read about that?"
"I want to find out what made them become monsters. Maybe then, the evil things they do can be prevented."
When Kim mentioned this, Edward thought of Jim. Jim had tried to kill Edward. He wondered: was this the type of person Kim was talking about? Would Jim have become a serial killer had his life not ended so young?
Since Edward had just mentioned family, Kim asked him something she was curious about.
"Edward...what about your family? Can you tell me about them? Did they live in that mansion?"
"My father was an inventor. He passed away a while ago. And my mother...I never met her."
"I'm sorry about that. It must've been painful when your dad went."
"I didn't know what happened. I thought he didn't wake up."
Kim was confused. How could Edward not know what death was? Either he was just a toddler when his father passed away or he was more isolated up there than she thought.
Edward felt pangs of discomfort as he watched Kim, puzzled and pondering. He wasn't sure how Kim would react to what he was going to say next, but he felt she needed to know and the time was now.
"Kim, I'm a person. I have DNA like other humans. But...I wasn't born. My father assembled me. In that mansion."
Hearing this revelation, Kim's eyes raised in rapt attention. "That's unbelievable. Like a test-tube baby? Or some other technology?"
"It was a machine that makes new people using genes. Just like how most humans reproduce. My father passed away before he could finish me. That's why I have these." Edward raised his scissorhands for emphasis.
"...I see. Is anything else about you unfinished?"
"Yes. Sometimes I can't understand language well. I don't have to eat very often. And I don't age the way other humans do."
"How many years ago were you assembled?"
"I don't know."
Kim didn't really know what to say at this point. This revelation of his origins had made her a bit uncomfortable. Edward just stared silently forward, with the December wind against his pale face, into the ocean of fiery lights in the streets below. Then he spoke again:
"I hope one day someone can finish me. That's what I dream about."
"There's got to be someone who can. Maybe a doctor?"
"Maybe..."Edward said hopefully.
"This is where all the movie stars are. Alot of them will get plastic surgery to change their bodies. Maybe one of them can make hands?", Kim suggested.
Again, all Edward could say was "Maybe..."
After a moment, Edward realized what was implied.
"If I had hands, I could do alot of things I can't do now. But I couldn't cut hair or shrubs or performance cooking."
"Are you okay with that?", Kim asked.
"Yes." Edward was aware that sacrifice was inevitable, and he had accepted it. "I like my work alot."
So did Kim. She recalled sublimely the memory of dancing under the falling "snow" as he carved his ice angel on the Boggs' front lawn.
Then, she recalled that a little while earlier, during her reunion hug with Edward, she had cried, which had ruined her mascara, staining her cheeks like little drops of black blood. Reaching into her purse, she found a cosmetic mirror and a tissue. She wiped off the ruins and repaired her eyes. As she did so, Edward stared at her, enamored with her feminine beauty: her ponytail, her lips, her cute wintry outfit...it was all so endearing.
By this point, the sun had gone down completely, taking all remaining vestiges of daylight with it. The lights of downtown and beyond shone brighter than before. And as Edward and Kim spoke and deepened their bond, their hearts shone brighter also.
"I had to prove that I could make it alone, but that's not me.
I wanted to show how independent I'd grown, but that's not me.
I once had a dream, so I packed up and split for the city.
I soon found out that my lonely life wasn't so pretty."
-Brian Wilson
Kim next asked a question that shook Edward in its profundity.
"Do you like your life here, Edward?"
It took Edward a very long time to answer. It was the same delay she had seen when he was on that local talk show and a woman in the audience asked him whether he had a girlfriend. Several times he would move his lips as if he had come up with the answer, only to stop and try something different.
After doing this maybe five times, Edward answered: "Life is complicated."
"It is.", Kim affirmed. "Have you made any friends here?"
"Yes."
"Good! What things do you do with them? Do you go swimming at the beach? Or to see movies? Have you ever been dancing? Do you take them up here to see the view?"
With great hesitation, Edward said: "...no."
"Why not?"
"I didn't ask them to. I don't think we're very close."
"Hmm...so they're more like acquaintances?", Kim asked.
"That's when people are nice to you but they're not very close?"
"Yes."
"I have alot of those. Most people are nice to me and are okay with my scissors. But some people are scared of them."
"I see..."
"I don't have any close friends yet. I'm scared to get close to people. It started with Joyce..."
"What did Joyce do?"
"She seduced me. And then when I fled she was angry, so she lied and said I did bad things to her."
"Oh wow. I'm so sorry. I knew Joyce and that doesn't surprise me at all. Actually she moved away a while ago."
Edward felt glad about that.
"Edward."
Edward turned his gaze to Kim's eyes as she looked directly at him. He found her large, chocolate-colored doe eyes utterly gorgeous. They radiated empathy and compassion. And it was for him. It was making him melt.
"I really want you to make some friends. It'll be so good for you. Don't be scared, okay? You have an innocent heart, one that wants to do good. I know you do. And other people see that too. That's what they'll admire about you. And also that you're talented and creative! You can get close to people and be their friend. I believe in you."
Kim's words had inspired and encouraged Edward greatly. They made him recall the good times he'd had, before his encounter with Joyce had sent his life plummeting.
"You said you left your mansion again in order to find the good people and be with them, right? Well, they're out there. Be brave."
When Kim said that, Edward suddenly was no longer worried about making friends. His focus now was on Kim: her prettiness, her gentle kindness, her wisdom, her faith in him...he realized at this moment just how much he loved her. She was exactly who he had perceived her to be one year ago. Demonstrating his bravery, he leaned his face closer and closer to hers, not breaking eye contact. Kim happily received his lips and they kissed.
Edward tightly shut his eyes and pressed his lips closer. Kim did the same. Wonderful feelings began to course through them both. As they caressed one another with their lips, they savored those feelings, hoping they would last forever. No one had understood Edward the way Kim did, and aside from his own father, no one had ever loved him this much. Love, like an ember inside him, passionate and life-giving. He wanted to give back to her, to share all he had.
Kim was filled with breathtaking, icy chills. Over the course of the last year, the pain of being separated permanently from Edward had made Kim more and more depressed. Mired in unhappiness and often ruminating on "what might have been". But now, what might have been...simply was. As they kissed, she could feel all the longing and sadness inside her wash away, like dirt in the late summer rain, making her feel pure again. Pure and whole.
There was alot of sin in the valley of the City Of Angels, but the kiss Edward and Kim shared on the observatory mountaintop that night was holy and sacred. When the denouement arrived, their lips parted and Edward returned the words Kim had given him the last time they saw each other:
"I love you, Kim."
"I love you too. That kiss was incredible."
There was calm and slight wind, and the distant roar of car engines below. Neither of them said anything because words were no longer necessary. Things stayed like this for a while, and then Edward stirred with slight discomfort.
"I'm tired. I need to sleep."
"Oh yeah. Where do you live, anyways?"
Edward stood up, yawned, stretched a little and turned to Kim.
"I'll show you."
Then Edward moved on and behind him Kim followed.
