Angel's Decision

Angel’s Decision

Grace Jasmine

Science Fiction

1296 words

Gracejasminewritestheatre@gmail.com

It was a bitterly cold morning. Dirk woke with a start knowing it was a special day. He crept down the hatch to the stairs to the cabin below and started water for tea. He rubbed his hand against the tiny round porthole and couldn’t see much. It was the same view all the time. Stars. Planets. Occasionally something like space dust or old space station debris wafting slowly through the darkness, illuminated for a moment, and then gone in an instant. He sighed, remembering he once thought this view would be fantastical, beyond imagination, something only gods could dream of, but now, quite frankly, it was a little boring.

He listened for a moment and heard silence in the loft. Angel was still sleeping. He touched the edge of his glasses and initiated his computer screen as a hologram in front of him. He checked the time. He verified their appointment. Angel could sleep 10 more minutes. He stirred his tea thankful for the soothing simplicity of it. It was something that they hadn’t been able to make smaller or dryer or more compact. Tea was tea and the normalness of it was a tiny whisper of sanity in what felt to him like an increasingly insane world.

He thought about the appointment. They had been so excited at first—both convinced it was the best and most cutting-edge thing to do. It would be a big change, certainly, but it promised so much technology—literally at one’s fingertips. He loved the capability of it. And to be up to date these days he knew they had to do whatever everyone else was doing. Competition was fierce. Their roles could easily be transferred to another, more equipped, couple. They were expendable. And if that happened, then what? Then what, indeed.

Dirk sipped his tea and listened. Angel was stirring and getting ready for the day. Without seeing her he could imagine her walking tiredly to the commode, pushing her hair into a bun with haste, and going about her morning routine. He thought about her beauty for a moment and smiled—and then immediately he was worried. How would this appointment change her? Would it make her happy in the long run? She was so focused on immediate gain, perhaps she didn’t see long term liabilities. Maybe it was a function of age.

Angel walked slowly down the steps, holding the metal bars carefully. It wasn’t that she was uncoordinated or hurt, she simply didn’t do mornings. She knew she had to take the obvious under consideration until she was fully awake.

“Hello, darling,” Dirk kissed her smooth brow.

“Tea? Ah, thank you, love. Are you excited? I am.”

“Well.”

“Well?”

“I just want to make sure we are doing the right thing. It’s a big step,” Dirk looked at Angel questioningly.

“Dirk! Of course, it’s smart. I mean everyone has already done it. We are the latecomers. Reviews are in a month or two, we don’t want to be left behind.”

Dirk opened protein shakes for both of them and they sipped them through straws. They mused silently for a few minutes, both feeling but not speaking about the sense of misgiving that Dirk had introduced into the morning. Then, as if they had been in conversation the whole time, Angel spoke with some anger:

“Hell of a time to mention it. Why wait until the last minute?”

“I know. I’m sorry. I suppose the saving and planning and counting every piece of bitcoin made that the focus, not the reality of it.”

“It’s perfectly safe. Everyone has already done it. If they haven’t, they have been reassigned. Do you want that to be our fate?”

“I would have said no until this moment. But right in this very instant I think being reassigned would be a relief.”

“Well, I am going forward. If you want to remain here with me, I suggest you do the same. Now, come on. We have to get the shuttle in 15 minutes.”

Dirk looked at Angel and noticed her serious expression. He decided to push down his misgivings and stick to the original plan. After all, he believed in planning. He thought it was the smart thing to do in any situation.

           They boarded the shuttle in silence. Dirk felt it was a stony silence but maybe it was just that Angel had a firm resolve. He thought about the positives. The technical capabilities, the improved job function, the ease of downloading new applications, the knowledge base. All of those were good things, he knew, but they didn’t stop his feeling of dread.

Angel smiled at him and took his hand. He felt like he was an errant child on the way to an unwanted vaccination, or a trip to the dentist.

They arrived at their destination and entered the office. The forms had all been submitted electronically. There was really nothing to do but wait. The large screen above them droned a sing-song presentation about the wonders of the technology and the lifechanging and performance-enhancing value of it. He felt sick. The room started to spin. He stumbled into a chair and in that brief but powerful moment of physical discomfort his decision was made. He was going to decline the procedure.

Angel looked at him and frowned. She knew his decision before he had spoken it aloud. Dirk walked to the desk and canceled his appointment. That was easy enough. He started to move back to his seat and wait with Angel.

“Sir, if you have canceled you can’t wait here. You will have to go out of the building and wait for your partner there.”

Dirk was alarmed. He wanted to stay with Angel. He looked into her eyes. She nodded.

“I’ll be waiting for you right next door.”

Angel nodded and Dirk left. As he was walking out he heard the orderly call her name. A shiver went down his spine. He walked out without looking back.

Dirk sat in the small internet café and sipped an espresso. Another small luxury of life that hadn’t been destroyed by technology. He couldn’t get his mind off Angel. What would this do to them? He would surely be sent home and she would be transferred. He realized his decision might have ruined the best relationship of his life. He held his espresso carefully and surreptitiously wiped a tiny tear that had fled from his eyes to the tabletop.

An hour later Angel walked slowly through the door. Her jacket covered her upper body. Dirk couldn’t see the bandages. He assumed with the technology they were small. Her hands looked the same. She really didn’t seem much different to him at all—at least from a distance.  

Angel sat beside him. He looked at her. Suddenly he wondered what they did with all the discarded limbs. Surely the company had some money-making enterprise to dispose of them. He thought about how he would never hold her actual hands again, or feel her arms wrapped around him in an embrace. He was infinitely sad.

“May I see?” he looked at her.

Angel smiled.

“Sure!”

 She dropped her jacket and laughed. He didn’t understand. She looked completely the same. There were no bandages, no sign of an operation.

“Where is it? Can I see how it works?”

“Don’t look so sad.” She smiled.

“I can’t help it. I am sad.”

“Don’t be. I didn’t do it.”

Dirk held her hands in his own and kissed her fingertips over and over again. Dirk looked deep into Angel’s eyes and noticed an almost imperceptible sparkle. They were whole, they were together—and they were going home.