Chapter 3: Revealed Secret

At 1:30 a.m., Veronica woke up to go to the bathroom. When she got back to the bed, she saw something she hadn't noticed before: the little boy besides her, who was supposed to be sleeping, was looking to the ceiling with widely opened eyes, as if he were in some sort of trance.

"What's wrong, David?" she asked him, as she lied down in the bed, and she shook him gently "David? Are you okay? You can't sleep, honey?" she added, with a concerned look on her face. David looked at her.

"No. I never sleep" he said, slowly.

"W-w-wait a second…you just said you NEVER sleep?" she asked, confused "Why-" she was going to ask him why, but suddenly she remembered something…

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There was a huge building, with transparent windows… her mother, her sister and her aunt had taken her to some strange place, with advanced technology and strange, doll-looking people walking around…

"How great!" Veronica's mom said, looking at a new Mecha-Chef model "this thing never eats and never gets ill!"

"They look so real!" Anna (Veronica's sister) said.

"Yeah, but that look in his eyes…he never blinks…he can't even sleep" Veronica's mother said, looking at the Mecha's blank looking green eyes "It's so creepy…"

"Mommy, what are we doing in New Jersey?" 11-year-old Veronica asked innocently.

"Honey, do you know these things?" her mother said, Veronica shook her head negatively "These are a completely new kind of robot. As you can see, they look like real people, but they don't sleep, eat or get ill"

"But that's a sin! I mean, we as humans can't pretend to create something like this! We're not God!" her aunt Sarah said. Southern and fundamentalist Christian as she was, she couldn't accept this creation…abomination, as she called it. But Anna and Veronica were completely oblivious of their aunt's thoughts.

"And how are they called, Anna?" Veronica asked.

"Mechas" her sister answered "These are Super-advanced machines"

"An abomination" Aunt Sarah snorted.

"Auntie, don't say that" Anna said, but her aunt didn't listen to her.

"Can't you see? It's just a failed intent from a frustrated scientist to contaminate our human race!"

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That memory faded from her mind, and Veronica looked at David, not believing what she had discovered.

"A Mecha..." she finally said "Y-you're a Mecha...a machine" she stuttered, leaning in the wall.

"I'm a boy" David said stubbornly.

"B-but...you look so real..." Veronica sputtered. Then she remembered what David told her that very night, when they first met...

"Martin is Mommy's REAL son"

And she understood everything...David wasn't adopted as she first thought, he was a Mecha...a little Robo-boy whose mother dumped him...

"So...that's why your mom left you...she didn't want you anymore, did she?" she said, her eyes dark with compassion and pity. David opened his mouth…emitting a silent scream.

"No..." he said "My Mommy doesn't hate me...she can't hate me! She can't hate me!" he cried, standing up.

"David..." she said, putting a hand in his shoulder, but the boy pulled her away and ran to the window "David, wait!" she shouted, as he ran to the balcony.

David reached the window and sat on the windowsill. Light and little as he was, he didn't make too much pressure on the window frames.

"She can't hate me..." he whispered "But why did she leave me? What did I do?" he added, as he rubbed his eyes with a hand, like trying to wipe away his tears, although he had no tears...

"David...I'm sorry" Veronica said, slowly reaching him, and stood by his side, watching the sky full of stars "It's my fault. I shouldn't have said that about your mom...are you okay?" she added, with a concerned look on her face. David looked at her.

"Yes, Veronica" he said "I'm fine" he added, with a weak smile.

"Look, I don't know too much about your mom, but I bet you love her a lot" she said "Just going through all this just to find her...that means a lot, y'know"

David stood silent, looking at the sky.

"Uh...listen, I-I'll try to help you" she said, leaning a hand in his shoulder "You can count on me"

This time, David looked at her, with the sweet smile she so loved.

"Thank you, Veronica" he said.

"I'll find out how to help, but it'll be tomorrow" she smiled "We've got to sleep…c'mon, big guy" she added, as David stretched out his arms to her, waiting to be held. She took him into her arms and carried him to the bed.

"Don't worry, David" she said as she tucked him in, for the second time that night "Everything will be fine" she added, and she lied down besides him.

As he stayed there, in a trance, looking at the ceiling, Veronica looked at him.

"I can't believe he's a robot" she thought "He's so real...so perfect...whomever who made him, he or she created a masterpiece" she thought again, and remembered what had happened 2 months ago, at Houston's Flesh Fair, where she went with some college friends. Being in the South, with all those fanatical Christian fundamentalists and narrow-minded people, Lord Johnson-Johnson had made a great inversion with Flesh Fairs, which were usually crowded by Mecha-haters, mostly old people, trapped in the 20th Century. She always hated those fairs, all that gory, hectic atmosphere...the blank, humble attitude of Mechas when the acid was poured on them...and the sadistic pleasure people felt by killing those strange, but special beings...she remembered two phrases she often heard in the Fair…

"We want a future completely HUMAN!!!"

"We're only demolishing ARTIFICIALITY!!"

"But how can they call ARTIFICIAL something so real...so innocent…so helpless like this boy?" she wondered, as she caressed David's soft, blond hair. He looked at her with those tender, smoldering blue eyes, and she saw that sweet, helpless nature in him. Her heart stood up to the madness she had been exposed to in the last 2 months, making her love the little boy, not caring if he wasn't like the other kids she had met. And she wanted to...

Suddenly, she pulled David very close to her, and locked him in a soft, warm embrace. David surprised a lot and looked at her. When he saw her smile, he suddenly remembered Monica's smile and how she used to smile at him. At that moment, he realized how identical his mommy and Veronica were…

"Keep me safe..." he said, as he huddled himself closer to her.

"Oh, David..." she managed to say, and kissed his forehead.

"Please...keep me safe" David repeated, as he buried his face onto Veronica's chest.

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Author's Note: I tried very hard to describe Veronica's memories about the Flesh Fair. As you might know, Southern ppl is more conservative about polemic stuff (hey, no offense to the Southern ppl, okay? Just to get it straight), and I tried to reflect it here. Well, as we can see, Veronica's kind heart wants to help the little David, because he's real to her...doesn't she act like Monica at this point? Well...what will her heart lead her to help this little fella? Read next chapter!