OCTOBER 1967

Marianne woke up upset. It was much too quiet, despite the hum of the facility, and she sat up to look around.

She yelled, "Dada?"

No answer. She climbed up the makeshift PVC-pipe railing of her cot and fell to the tile with a thump! She gave a short cry, but no one came. Determined, she rolled over and toddled toward the door – she'd seen him go through there a lot, so maybe he was behind it.

She had just managed to pull herself up on the wall to her tiptoes, reaching with one hand for the door handle, when there was a ding! outside. And footsteps. Fast footsteps. The key was in the lock, the lock was turned, the door flew open, and Marianne screeched as she was launched backward.

Doug jumped at the sound, kicking a table in the process, and the Grady core escaped from his arms, bounced off the table edge, and hit the floor with a painful clang! Doug reached down to grab it, then realized that wasn't the right reaction and turned to pick up Marianne.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, mija," he said, smoothing her dark hair. "How'd you get out of bed? Did you climb? Poor baby, poor baby, I'm sorry."

Marianne sobbed and yelled unintelligibly at him, gripping his white coat.

"Yes, I know," Doug replied and kissed her sore forehead. "I know, I'll be more careful next time. And look, now you know not to stand behind doors when someone's coming! Try to remember that, okay? Okay?"

Marianne sniffled and sat up in his arms to look at him, red-faced. He ran a thumb over her cheeks.

"You're alright, see? You're alright. Not a scratch on you, see? Don't tell your mother."

"Mama?" asked Marianne.

"Yes, Mama. Don't tell her. She'd eat my heart in the marketplace."

"Why's that?" came a voice.

Doug spun around to see Caroline standing in the doorway. Marianne pointed: "Mama."

"Hey," Doug said awkwardly. "What're you doing down here?"

Caroline blinked at him: "It's almost closing time."

He checked his watch: "Yes… yes, it is! Sorry. Lost track of time."

Caroline came in and set her bag down, holding out her arms for Marianne: "Poor baby. What's wrong? What did Daddy do, huh?"

Doug handed the baby over and bent down to retrieve Grady from the floor: "It was just a little accident. She was sitting behind the door when I opened it."

"Didn't you put her in bed before you left?"

"Yes, I did! She must've climbed out."

Caroline turned to Marianne and rubbed the red spot on her forehead: "Little escape artist!"

"Ow!" Marianne said pitifully, patting her head.

"Ow? Did it hurt? Guess you won't stand behind doors anymore, huh?"

"That's what I said," Doug chuckled, going over Grady's outer shell. The turquoise enamel had held strong with only a few very minor cracks. He set him down on the desk and hooked him up to the power source.

Beep! Beep beep!

The optic flared as the program booted.

"Hello, Grady," Doug said.

"Hey, boss," Grady replied sleepily, then glanced past him. "Oh, hello, ma'am."

"Grady, can you run diagnostics? You just had a bit of a tumble."

"Yeah, sure thing. I guess that's why I feel funny."

"You do?"

"Yeah. Probably knocked something loose. Hold on a sec, and I'll let you know."

Caroline sat Marianne on the center table and sighed, blowing air in Marianne's face so that she giggled.

"You won't believe what I found out today," she said flatly.

"What?" Doug asked, swiping dirt off of Grady.

"Our main backer for A.I got a divorce, and his wife took everything. We'll have to put a few things on hold for a while."

He stopped and turned to stare at her: "You're kidding."

"Nope."

"No," Doug groaned, "no, no, they can't do that! We have our expo before Christmas, can't we go until then?"

Caroline squished Marianne's cheeks between two fingers: "Maybe if we cut your pay, but I doubt any of you really want that."

"How long do we have?"

"Mid-November, if the math holds out."

Doug bit at his lip and scratched at his chin, looking concernedly down at Grady: "What… what'll happen to him?"

Caroline twisted her lips as she thought: "He's fully-functional now, right? We've been looking for someone to keep tabs on Product Quality Testing. Think he'd be up for it?"

"I'm up for anything at this point," Grady piped up from the desk, lids narrowed in a good-humored grin. "It gets pretty boring sitting in one place while everyone pokes you."

"How do you feel?" Doug asked, a hand on his shell.

"Eh, could be worse. Could be better. Feels like the x-axis rotation motor got knocked out of place. Look—"

Grady tried to move his inner sphere side-to-side, and an unhealthy buzz echoed in his shell, along with the clink! of something metal falling.

"Hm, that can't be good."

"Ow?" Marianne asked worriedly, pointing.

"Yeah, I guess this would count as an 'ow,' but I doubt the magic of kisses would work on me."

Doug raised an eyebrow and stepped out to grab Marianne, bringing her over and asking, "What do we do when it hurts?"

Marianne pointed questioningly: "Tiss?"

Doug held her closer to Grady, and she clapped both little hands on his shell, planting a loud kiss on the enamel with a satisfied "Mptaaah!"

"It's not like it 'hurts' per se," Grady said, amused. "Definitely uncomfortable though. So thanks? I guess?"

"You can power-down if you want," Doug told him and shifted Marianne on his hip. "I'll poke around tonight and see what I can do."

"Ah, poking. My favorite. In any case—yes, ma'am, I wouldn't mind a job. Dunno what it is, though."

Caroline shrugged, arms crossed: "You would be the first core down there. You'll get the same training as everyone else, so long as you can move around on your own."

"Limbs and Mobility might have something we can use," Doug said, eyes lighting up. "What do you think? Wheels? Legs? Definitely hands, I can get the designs for some hands."

"Are you serious?" Grady asked and blinked, surprised. "I'm gonna get hands?"

"If you want them."

"Yeah! Yeah, I'd love hands! I could carry myself around like a basketball, and—wait, do I bounce? Did I bounce earlier when you dropped me?"

"I said I was sorry."

"Or you could make me bounceable! How neat would that be!"

Doug chuckled awkwardly: "Let's just focus on making sure your motors don't dislodge after a little fall, then we'll see about bouncing."

"I'll hold you to that, boss, don't forget."

"I won't, I won't."

Caroline picked up her purse from where she'd put it beside the table: "Glad that's settled then. I'll need a timeline before I send the memo downstairs."

She leaned in to kiss Marianne's head, and Doug stuttered, "S-sure, I'll… I'll let you know by tomorrow afternoon."

They watched as she left, shutting the door behind her. Grady narrowed his eyelids, and his gears ground as he tried to look back to Doug.

"How is it you're the one who taught me how to read faces, but you miss the plot completely?"

"What?" Doug asked. "What're you talking about?"

"She's mad! Like, really mad. You didn't notice?"

"Oh, no, that was because I—nevermind, nevermind, I noticed."

They were quiet for a minute before Grady asked, "What'd you do this time?"

"Can we not talk about it? It's stupid. Stupid, stupid."

He put Marianne down on her feet and walked away, and she climbed the side of the table up to Grady as she repeated him: "Toopit."

"Did he drop you, too?" Grady asked. Marianne babbled in reply, gesturing with her hands and smacking her forehead with a fake cry. "I'll take that as a yes."

The hand was large and bulky with its mechanics open to the environment, and Doug did not like it. Mason from Engineering, on the other hand, adored it and was very proud of himself.

"Y'know, I think this might be my best work yet," he said, elbowing Doug in the arm. "Daisy thought it would look weird, but let's be honest, hands look weird even at the best of times. It's why I can't draw 'em for the life of me, even after how many years? I went to a whole art school, did you know that?"

Doug plugged the three-prong connector into Grady's open port: "No, can't say I did."

"I did two years at Casa Nova in Port Freeland before my parents convinced me to do engineering instead. I don't regret it though, not one bit. Say, what's the little guy's name again?"

Grady turned his optic on him with a friendly blink: "I'm not that little, am I?"

"Well, I'll be damned," Mason said, scratching his head. "You do talk."

"I hope so! That's about all I've been able to do for the past six months."

Doug pushed a button on the back of the arm as it lay limp on the workbench, and there was a sudden jolt of electricity that made the three massive fingers twitch.

"Geez! What was that?"

"That's your new hand," Doug said, grinning. "Can you move it?"

Grady blinked at the hand lying in front of him and narrowed his lids at it. The thumb slowly bent inward.

"Ohhhh ho ho, yes! Yes! This is great! It actually works!"

Mason stood with his own gloved hands on his hips and nodded: "Hell yeah, it does! What's it feel like?"

"I don't know!" Grady laughed and wiggled the other fingers. "I have absolutely no idea!"

The hand lifted off the workbench surface, secured at the elbow. The small motor rumbled as the wrist flexed, and the exposed piston hissed as the forearm pulled itself up. Grady focused, pointed a single finger, and poked his own shell.

"Ha! Look at that! I can—I can—oh, this is great! Hey! Hey, boss, shake my hand!"

He carefully shifted the fingers flat and turned the hand out toward Doug, whose own hand could only wrap around one finger. Grady carefully closed the fingers around his hand, rubber finger pads gripping at his sleeve.

"Nice to meet you!" he said happily.

"Nice to meet you," Doug grinned, and Mason bounced on his toes excitedly.

"Oh, this is going to be so neat," he chittered, practically vibrating with excitement. "I've already installed a few management rails down there for the floating announcement systems, so if we get him attached to a rail-cruiser, it'll be way easier to move around than with big ol' feet, plus it might actually save on power, so if the grid goes down like during the blizzard, we'll have some spare power to keep things going!"

He reached under the workbench and pulled out tattered blueprints, unrolling them and showing them excitedly to both Doug and Grady. If there was a way for a robot's eye to shine with interest, it certainly happened right then.

Marianne climbed the table where Grady's cradle used to be and looked confusedly around.

"Adee?"

Even Daddy's tools were put away, locked up in the silver box with the latch she couldn't open. Usually, this was fine. Usually, it meant Daddy would be right back, bringing Grady back with him through the Door To Elsewhere. But Daddy was already back, putting out some food for the two of them, and he hadn't brought Grady.

"Dada!" she called, and Doug turned to see her point to the dusty outline where the cradle had sat. "Eth Adee?"

"Grady, uh… Grady grew up! He has a job now and lives somewhere else."

Marianne frowned, not understanding. She pointed to the Door: "He go?"

"Yes, he's gone."

"Umbat?"

"No… no, mija, he's not coming back."

Marianne stared at him, then at the Door. She climbed back down from the table and toddled to the Door, reaching for the silver handle.

"What're you doing?"

"Thee Adee!"

"We can't see Grady right now."

"Aye?"

"Because he's somewhere else. We can't go there right now."

"Aye?"

"Because it's… it's very far away, and it's hard to get to. You have to wait until you grow up, too. And you have to eat your food to grow up, so let's have dinner, okay?"

Marianne did not understand. She could not understand. No one ever left through the Door who didn't come back. Even Mommy came back, smelling of perfume and something secret and metallic. So why would Grady not come back? Maybe it's because he has no legs. That had to be it. Daddy had taken him somewhere, and he couldn't get back because he didn't have legs. And Daddy wouldn't take him somewhere that wasn't good, right? So Grady was somewhere good outside the Door, and if Marianne was good and ate her food and grew up, she'd go there, too.

Daddy gave her a little wave to come to the table, and she slowly toddled over. Eating chicken fingers was a small price to pay to see Grady again.