From Wires And Sprockets

To Rob, she was everything she ought to be. Her blond hair waved on currents of air and her youthful, energetic spirit never seemed to run out of electricity to excite him deep within his soul. “It amuses men like a halloo down the well”, he thought to himself as he watched the simple things she did. Yes, sometimes it was the simplest things that men liked most about women; he knew that every moment he watched his beautiful wife. In times like these, he would sit back and reflect on all the moments they had shared together; the happiest of his life. But it was also times like this that he worried. Was what he had done the right thing to do? Would Susan have rejected the idea, wanting to go on alone? He wasn’t sure he’d ever know.

“Time to eat honey,” Susan said to Rob as she jogged past him, “lunch should be done by now.” She entered the kitchen through the patio doors.

The wonderful scents of her cooking made him feel as if he were melting, in a sort of strange ecstasy, from his head down to his toes. Somehow though, the food tasted bland. Not so bland that it didn’t taste good; it was as good as ever, but something was still missing from it. He thought maybe her soul was missing. Maybe it was her soul that gave the food she prepared that extra little something.

After lunch they went for a Sunday ride; Rob drove because his wife did not know how. They enjoyed taking these fall journeys looking at the endless variety of color in the leaves. Rob looked at Susan and she seemed fascinated by the leaves, as if she had never seen them before. Rob thought that maybe she hadn’t. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

They arrived back to their country home in the early evening. It had been a quiet ride, but that wasn’t so unusual, neither one of them were the type to talk much in the car. Now he was looking forward to a peaceful evening together. They went to their downstairs entertainment center and put a movie into the DVD and dimmed the lights.

“I want to dance,” Susan said out of the blue halfway through the movie.

Rob looked deep into her dark brown eyes and felt as though he were being pressed against her. He wanted to be so close to her. “I would love to have a dance with you,” he said.

She shut the movie off and they embraced in the center of the room. They hugged each other tight and shuffled in a slow circle.

“How about some music,” she said, as she turns on her internal radio, mouthing the words to the songs that fill her mind.

They danced toward the stereo and with the remote Rob turned it on. A CD already in the player started to play. He hoped the soft melodies coming quietly out of the speakers would drown out the voices jumping from Susan’s lips. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

After the romantic evening they retired to bed. Susan went directly into bed and Rob went to the bathroom to wash up. It was a long day and he filled the sink with clean, refreshing water. He splashed it on his face and glanced up at the mirror. “Where had the years gone”, he wondered half expecting the wrinkly, gray haired old man in the mirror to answer him.

He went to bed and laid next to his young wife and gave her a kiss. Susan was excited when he kissed her, as she always was, but to him it lacked heart. He wondered if she felt at all. Then they embraced in a long hug. When Susan brought her arm from back around Rob, she snagged it on a decorative button attached to his pajamas.

“Ouch,” she said and showed Rob her arm.

There was an elongated patch of skin hanging under her arm. He took her by the wrist and flipped her arm over. He noticed all the small circuit boards and wires, the tiny hydraulic pistons and joints. He took the flap of skin and stretched it over the open wound and held it in place for a few seconds.

“That should hold until tomorrow morning,” he said and released his grip of her wrist.

“Thank you, honey,” she replied.

Rob watched as she shut down her systems for the night leaving only the critical ones operational. In a matter of seconds she was asleep in her own special way. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way”, he thought to himself having long lost hope of ever loving again. But to despair was to wish for something already lost. He reached over and tapped a pattern onto the skin covering her upper back.

A voice sounded from Susan’s still lips, “shutdown sequence entered, please confirm,” said the voice of Susan.

Rob tapped a few more times on her skin.

“Terminal malfunction initiated,” said the voice, which now sounded robotic.

After about a minute a large spark illuminated the inside of Susan and her body jerked; smoke rose from her nose, ears, mouth, and from the torn skin under her arm.

“Sleep peacefully Susan,” Rob said, “free from the wires and gadgets I have trapped you in for so long.” He rolled away from her and cried himself to sleep.