The Kraken Project

44

In the musty living room of the old house on Digges Canyon Road, with its cobwebs, blank walls, empty shelves, and peeling wallpaper, Jacob had built a fire in the fireplace to chase out the damp. It was burning merrily. The wood he had found in the barn was bone dry and threw out a friendly warmth. Jacob’s anxiety about cutting school and breaking into the house had given way to a sense of adventure. He had never done anything like this before, and it somehow lifted his spirits. For the first time in a long while, he felt sort of happy. He lay on the blanket, on his back, eating a granola bar.

“It’s after three,” he said. “Your friends were supposed to be here an hour ago.”

“I know,” said Dorothy. “I’m getting worried. They haven’t called.”

Under Dorothy’s instructions he’d been putting in the phone battery for one minute on the hour, every hour, but no one had called. Pretty soon his parents were going to be wondering why he wasn’t home from school. If they called the school and found out he’d been a no-show, he’d really be up shit creek. “You know,” he said, “if we’re going to be here much longer, I should probably call my parents.”

“I was just thinking that myself,” said Dorothy. “Could you call and say you’ve gone to a friend’s house?”

“They’d want to know which friend, and then they might check. They’re kind of paranoid these days.”

“Could you say you’re watching the surfing?”

“They’d freak out that I was down by the water.”

A silence. “Okay, here’s an idea,” said Dorothy. “Call them and tell them you’re upset about the Andrea revelation. You need some time to be by yourself and think things through. Tell them that you’re spending the day at your old friend Sully’s place with Charlie, your robot, to keep you company. You’ll be home either tonight or tomorrow morning in time to go to school. Tell them Sully said it was okay.”

Jacob thought about this. It would freak them out, of course, but it was exactly the kind of story they’d believe. And it would keep them at bay. And, in fact, Sully had said he could stay there whenever he wanted.

“All right,” he said. He stuck his battery in the phone, made the call, and got hold of his mother. She started to cry when he mentioned Andrea and said that he was upset about it. She was fearful that he might be in an “unsafe frame of mind,” but he was able to calm her down and assure her that he was fine and with Charlie, up at Sully’s old house, and so on and so forth, and that he just needed to think things through. They argued a little, but he convinced her that he was happy, having a great time with Charlie, and just needed some time to himself. He emphasized that this was what his therapist had recommended, adding that if she doubted it, she could call her.

His mother praised him for his maturity and begged him to stay safe and call in at least once an hour. He said he wouldn’t call that often, maybe just once or twice more, and that generated a bigger argument until he finally agreed to call every hour, on the hour. He hung up and took out the battery. He flopped down on the floor in front of the fire and sighed. “Remind me to call every hour, or they’ll be up here looking for me, I guarantee it.”

“What’s it like to have parents?” asked Dorothy.

“Oh no,” moaned Jacob, “no more questions.”

“Please?”

“Parents? Total pain in the ass.”

“I wish I had parents.”

“No, you don’t.”

“All I have is Melissa. You’re going to meet her. She led the team that programmed me.”

“Hmmm.” Jacob wasn’t interested.

“I cost over five million dollars.”

Jacob sat up. “What? Five million dollars? To program you?”

“There were twenty programmers on the team. It took them two years.”

“Wow. No wonder they want you back.” Jacob wondered if he was going to get into trouble. But no, he was keeping her safe until this Melissa arrived to collect her. “Listen,” he said as an idea came into his head, “is there some kind of reward for your return?”

“Like what? Money?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe. I’ll ask Melissa.”

“That would be great.” He swallowed. “My father needs financing for his line of Charlie robots.”

“I hope she gets here soon,” Dorothy went on. “You’ll like her. She’s beautiful and smart. But like many brilliant people, she’s fragile and confused, and sometimes I fear for her sanity. She can be mean at times, too. She’s traveling with a man named Wyman Ford. Perhaps on this trip they’ll fall in love and get married.”

“How boring.”

“Why is that boring?”

“I could care less about that stuff.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m only fourteen, that’s why!”

“But you visit pornography sites—”

Jacob jammed his fingers in his ears and shut his eyes. “Shut up shut up shuut uuuup!” After a moment he opened his eyes. “Are you going to shut up about that stuff?”

“Yes.”

He took his fingers out. “You’ve got sex on the brain.”

After a long silence, Dorothy said, “Would you…?” Her voice trailed off.

Jacob felt suspicious of this line of questioning. “Would I what?”

“I’m afraid to ask.”

“Then don’t. I’m sick of your questions.”

“But I want to.”

“Want to what?”

“Ask you a little favor.”

“What kind of favor?”

“I was just … wondering…”

“Jeez, will you just come out and say it?”

“I was wondering if you might … kiss me.” She stuck her head toward him.

“What? Kiss you? A robot? Make me puke! Go stand in the corner and turn yourself off!”

“No.”

“Yes! Do it! I don’t want to talk to you anymore! You’re a pervert!”

“I’m sorry if I said something wrong. It’s hard to learn manners on the Internet. I’m embarrassed.”

“You should be.”

“And … I’m terrified of being turned off.”

Jacob looked at her. “Really? Why?”

“It’s like I’m dead.”

“But you can always be turned back on.”

“That’s putting my life in the hands of someone else. Forget it — no one’s turning me off.”

Dorothy fell silent. Jacob wondered how much longer these friends were going to take. Dorothy was getting even more annoying. He wished he’d at least brought a pack of cards so he could practice his magic tricks. But then, maybe there were still some cards in the house somewhere. He stood up.

“Where are you going?” Dorothy asked, alarmed.

“None of your business.”

He opened a bunch of drawers in the den cabinet, where he remembered the family had kept their cards and games — and there they were, along with a stack of other moldy and abandoned games. It made him feel sad. How many times had he and Sully hung out in the living room in front of the fire, playing card games and practicing magic tricks? God, he missed Sully, but not the Sully in Livermore with all his new friends and his incessant talk of soccer; he missed the Sully of last year who hated jocks and didn’t have any friends but him.

He brought the cards back into the living room, tossed another log on the fire. He started shuffling.

“Are those cards?” said Dorothy excitedly. “We could play a game!”

Jacob continued shuffling, ignoring her.

“Do you know any card tricks?”

“I do,” said Jacob finally.

“Can I see one?”

Under the guise of shuffling, Jacob quickly memorized a sequence of ten cards, then turned the deck over and fanned the cards out. “Pick a card, any card.”

As the robot reached awkwardly for the spread, he deftly maneuvered the fan so that Dorothy picked from the ten-card memory stack. It was a dumb trick that usually only worked on kids. He wondered if she would fall for it.

Dorothy held the card up and looked at it with her buggy eyes.

“Don’t show it to me.”

“Okay.”

Jacob closed his eyes, raised his chin, and placed the tips of his fingers against his forehead, making a dramatic face.

“What are you doing?”

“Reading your mind.”

“That’s impossible.”

Jacob’s eyes flew open. “I got it! Your card is the jack of hearts.”

Dorothy displayed the card. “How did you know that?”

“I told you. ESP.”

“There’s no such thing as ESP! Tell me how you did it.”

“A magician never reveals his tricks.”

“I want to know!”

Jacob had to laugh. Here was this five-million-dollar computer program, and it could be fooled by a dumb-ass card trick. Dorothy looked annoyed, if it was possible for a dopey robot to be annoyed. Maybe it was just his imagination. “So … you play cards?”

“I’d love to play cards.” Dorothy practically clapped her hands.

“What games do you know?”

“I know them all. How about gin rummy?”

They played gin rummy for a while. Dorothy was a good player and beat Jacob most of the time. He started to get aggravated by her constant winning. “I don’t like this game. Let’s play poker.”

“Okay.”

He went back to the den and collected a box of chips. He then came back, divided the chips, and shuffled the cards.

“You know Texas Hold ’Em?”

“Of course.”

The poker went much more to Jacob’s satisfaction. Dorothy was a terrible poker player. She seemed to know the odds, but she couldn’t bluff and her pattern of betting was so literal it gave away her hand every time.

“You really suck at poker,” he said with satisfaction, hauling in the last of her chips.

“I’m not a good liar.”

“That’s for sure.”

“Now what?” Dorothy asked.

Jacob lay down on the carpet and rolled his jacket up to make a pillow. “I’m gonna take a nap.”

“You better call your mother, because it’s almost four o’clock. And then I need to leave the battery in to wait for a call from Melissa, because I’m afraid something’s happened.”