Between the Lanterns (15 page)

The customer looked disappointed, but not upset. August could tell the man wasn’t ready to give up just yet. Already, quite a few residents of New Dothan had begged to buy Woodrow, or even have August make a duplicate. With the popular fashion right now being retro, people went crazy over the wooden but sophisticated automaton.

“Oh, it’s alright, Mr. Lurie. I totally understand. He does seem to appropriately be one of a kind,” the customer replied. “Thank you for the phones and lanterns. I’m sure I’ll be back soon. This is a fabulous shop with some truly unique tech. Goodbye, now.”

“Thank you for your business, sir. We hope to see you soon. Tell your friends about us!” August said, waving goodbye.

The man walked out of the shop with his purchases, and Woodrow came back onto the floor to refill the phone and lantern displays. August replayed the interaction with the man over in his head for a minute. There was something a little bit funny about him, but August couldn’t put his finger on it.

Looking at the receipt, August noticed the customer’s name, Joshua Stevens. August had never heard the name before. But there was something odd about him. For one, the man was rather pleasant. That was relatively unusual; most people were brusque and ill-mannered. This Joshua fellow was complimentary and even said goodbye. Most folks just bought something and left, only saying how cool everyone would think they were now that they had this weird tech.

August didn’t want to judge the man negatively for having manners, but it was unusual. For the most part, the only people he had ever known with a lick of manners was his wife, his granny, John from the diner, and even Tara and Bobby, to a degree.
 

But that wasn’t even all of it. There was something else strange about the encounter. What was ringing alarm bells in August’s head?

Suddenly, it hit him.

“He called me Mr. Lurie, Woodrow, but I never told him my name. Strange.”

Chapter 15

PATIENT LURIE

The clinic on West Main Street was pretty much the same as the day John had died there years ago, and only a few months ago when August and Samantha had been there for the miscarriage.
 

It looked the same. It smelled the same. The same nurses worked there with their same cold stares. Dr. Granger still ran things with a feeling of checking things off of a list rather than making patients feel at ease.

But somehow, it felt much scarier today.
 

Dr. Granger straightened some paperwork on his desk and began asking questions without actually seeming to care what the answers were.

“So, Patient Lurie,” he said, “it says here that you have been experiencing what you thought were panic attacks. Then a week ago they turned into headaches. Is that correct?”

Patient Lurie only nodded, feeling too afraid to do anything else.

“And your bowel movements have become infrequent, but painful and loose when you do have them. Is this also correct?” the doctor asked.

Again, only a nod in reply to the cold doctor, fear leaving the patient unable to speak.

“Ok. Well, what I’d like to do is order some blood work and a few scans,” Dr. Granger said. “It sounds bad, but you never know until you check. So, for now, I’d like you to follow the nurse, and he’ll do the necessary procedures.”

Patient Lurie nodded again and stared at the floor. Things had been going so well lately. The shop was doing amazing. The whole city lusted after the inventions found at Sweets, Inc. They could barely keep up with demand.
 

The Lurie family was doing incredibly well financially, in fact, because of the shop’s instant success. They had even heard rumors that the local Montek.Mart’s tech department was trending down from last year’s sales because of Sweets, Inc. That was huge.
 

Montek, the biggest company on Earth, was suffering sales losses in one tiny city due to one little start-up tech company. Insignificant news to Montek for sure, but it was humongous news to the young start-up company.

That was all Patient Lurie could think about right now. With all the hardships and obstacles they had overcome together through the years, August and Samantha had finally come out on top. They were finally saving enough Credit to go on a tour of the world. They would finally be able to travel and see everything. And then the panic attacks, headaches, and other symptoms had shown up. Patient Lurie had a bad feeling about them, and that is what brought about the visit to Dr. Granger’s clinic on West Main Street.

A secret visit to be sure, though. What if it was nothing? What if it was just the stress of having a family-run small business? What if it was just the flu? No, it was better to come in secret and have some tests done just in case it turned out to be nothing at all.

“Patient Lurie?” a familiar-looking man said. “Follow me. Quit staring into space and get up.”

Dozens of pinpricks, a few scans, and a mouth scrape later, Patient Lurie sat alone in a waiting room. What to do now? Go home? Go to the shop? The whole ordeal had only taken an hour at best. The rest of the day was wide open, but how to enjoy any of it?

While Patient Lurie was pondering this, Dr. Granger strode into the room and sat down in the chair directly opposite the worried patient.

“It’s cancer,” he said as if ordering toast. “You have cancer. A very aggressive form.”

Patient Lurie began to cry silently, tears running down cheeks already red with worry.

“Oh stop crying,” Dr. Granger said, rolling his eyes. “We have a cure for cancer. It’s no problem. You’ll take this pill, and then you’re cured. Then you’ll have to take these other pills for two weeks to fix the damage already done to your organs. But you’ll be fine.”

Patient Lurie cried even harder now. But these were tears of relief. When the doctor had said cancer, the only thought that registered was… The Countdown. It couldn’t be normal cancer, of course, because the Luries weren’t so lucky as that. But thank God, it was just regular old curable cancer, and nothing to worry about.

“Here take this prescription to the front and one of the nurses will tell you everything you need to do and get your Credit,” the doctor said, dismissing the patient. “Oh, and, uh, congratulations on being able to keep living,” he added. Obviously, Dr. Granger was trying to improve his bedside manner.

Patient Lurie wanted to hit the good doctor but refrained from doing so. It wouldn’t solve anything. Plus, it was time to celebrate… not go to jail for assault.

At the front desk, the two nurses were using an app called Montek.Bets, a simple way to exchange Credit from person to person quickly. It was nothing more than the privatization of gambling. There were limits set on the app so that people could only place small bets. It wouldn’t allow the exchange of large sums of Credit.

“I told you, man. No way was it The Countdown,” one of the cretins said. “We’ve already had a bunch of people this month start their Countdown. I knew this patient wouldn’t be one of them.”

“Screw you, man,. Patient Lurie seemed like a perfect candidate for The Countdown. You just got lucky,” the other nurse replied.

“Unbelievable,” Patient Lurie mumbled.
 

They were betting on whether it was a terminal disease or a curable one, and they didn’t even have the decency to talk about it in private. Just blabbing their emotionless, uncaring, fat mouths right there at the front desk. It was disgusting, but nothing to worry about.
 

Regular curable cancer was great news, so Patient Lurie used the Montek.Credit machine and paid the fee before rushing out onto West Main Street and letting loose the biggest celebratory yell that New Dothan had heard in years.

People riding the automated sidewalks on either side of the street stared with looks of confusion or disgust. Patient Lurie didn’t give a damn.

Chapter 16

WHAT THE HELL

The shop had only been open for six months before August and Samantha closed for a week-long vacation. The amount of business coming through their doors was amazing. Repeat customers, referred customers, walk-ins, and customers with coupons from the New Dothan Eagle digital newspaper.

They had banked so much profit in those first six months that closing up shop for a week, and flying down to the island of Jamaica City was no problem at all. August had left Woodrow in the workshop to fill orders and act as security while they were gone. He was such a great help, but August was worried about using the wooden automaton too much. Woodrow was starting to show some serious wear and tear already. Pretty soon Samantha and August would have to craft a few replacement parts; nothing vital, yet, but still necessary to keep him going.
 

Lounging in beach chairs under the shade of a large tree while listening to the nearby roll and crash of the waves, the two lovers sipped their fruity drinks and sighed in unison.

“We should just move here, sSweets,” Samantha said lazily. “I don’t ever want to go back to New Dothan.”

August let loose a sudden guffaw, causing his wife to spill some boozy red cocktail down the front of her bikini.

“Oh, sorry, honey,” he apologized, wiping at the spilled drink with his bare hands, and licking it off his fingers. “I don’t think we can afford to live here full -time just yet, though, Sam. Maybe in a few years.”

Samantha wiped more of the drink from between her breasts and flung it at her husband, and said, “Well maybe we could just move the whole shop here, sweets. People in Jamaica City would love your inventions, too. We don’t need to be wealthy; we just need to be happy.”

August reached out, grasped her hand, and said, “I am happy, Sam;: very, very happy,.” hHe paused, bringing her hand to his lips, and kissed her knuckles gently, then added, “I love you more than you know.”

Samantha lowered her sunglasses, looking over them at the love of her life, and replied, “If you’re happy in New Dothan, just imagine how happy you’d be here. And don’t think for one second that you love me any more than I love you, mister. I love you more than there are stars in the sky.”

“Oh yeah, babe? Well, I love you more than there are grains of sand on every beach on every planet in this and all other universes. Beat that,” he said, still clutching her hand.

“Oh shut up, you old softy,” Samantha said, leaning forward to kiss her husband. After that, they held hands and fell asleep to the sound of the ocean sending waves back and forth.

The next day, August stood in the lobby of their resort flipping through pamphlets and checking out the different excursions they could take. They could explore the island, or they could do some extreme water sports, or maybe get a massage on the beach.
 

Nearby, Samantha was reading a local magazine and saw a feature her husband would want to see.

“August, there is a local tech shop not far from here. You wanna check it out today, sweets?” she asked.

“Actually, yeah, that’d be kinda cool,” he said, excited. “If you don’t mind, that is. I could scope out the future competition,” he added with a wink.
 

Mouth agape, she replied, “Are you saying that you’re considering moving here, sweets? Really?”

August shrugged and said, “Well, yeah, Sam. You love it here, and I know that it’s the most relaxed I’ve ever felt. Why not go for it? We could buy a house right on the beach and live the rest of our lives happy, warm, and sandy.”

Samantha threw the magazine on the floor of the lobby and ran to August, leaping into his arms and wrapping her legs around his waist while kissing every square inch of his face.

“OH, SWEETS!” she cried, “I can’t believe it! Do you really mean it?”

“I do. I mean, heck,” August said, “I fit in here more than in New Dothan. You, on the other hand , still stick out like a sore thumb.”

She slapped his arm and then hugged him tight again, replying, “Ok sweets, let’s go see this tech shop. Find out if they’ll pose any threat to your hostile takeover of Jamaica City’s tech scene.”

They rolled up to the shop on a rented scooter, Samantha driving and August on the back with his arms wrapped around her. They could’ve rented two scooters, but August liked holding onto his wife and enjoyed the smell of her dark hair as it blew in the wind surrounding his face. It was an experience he wanted to have as often as possible.

The shop looked no different than most of the other buildings on the island. Bayuss Tech was painted in pastel colors with white accents, preserving the old, relaxed island feel, even though the building was obviously brand new and very modern.

As they entered the store, their happiness turned sour in an instant. Looking around, they had a very odd sense of déjà vu. The very first display they saw was a stand of retro cellphones made to accept a SmartChip.

“What the hell? They stole my idea,” August said, walking over to examine them.

Samantha scanned the rest of the shop while August stared in disbelief at the Bayuss Phone. It was an exact rip-off of his models. They weren’t even trying to make it look different. The ports that accept the SmartChip were exactly his design, down to the fingernail groove he put in to make it easier to open.

“Sweets, it gets worse,” Samantha said in a worried tone. “You might want to see this.”

August rushed over to a table where two lanterns hovered a foot above the surface, changing lights and slowly rotating. A sign on the table told of all the functions that Love.Lanterns possessed. They were, once again, an exact copy of his Life Lanterns. The functions were all exactly the same. Even the lanterns were identical. Instead of using the ones found floating around Jamaica City, these creeps had used the style found in New Dothan.

“What the hell?” August repeated, growing angry. “How… how is this possible?”

Samantha put a calming hand on his shoulder that almost worked in calming her husband down until August glanced through the window behind the register and saw the workshop in back.
 

There on the table were pieces of a wooden automaton in a halted state of assembly. It looked a lot like Woodrow, but not the new one. It resembled a full-size version of the original Woodrow, blocky and inorganic like the Montek.Automatons made of metal.