By David C. Daoust
The lights came on.
Margo found herself all alone, within, what she had to assume, was the exact same hold she had awoken in earlier. Of course that time, when she woke up, she was still within the stolen form of the Mining-bot. Now, she was in… she didn’t know. Examining her hand, she found the massive mechanical structure, she’d never seen before.
She raised her arm up high to find the shoulder joint above her head… she couldn’t really grasp the idea. She had no neck! She pictured herself as this grotesque hunchbacked figure, but the picture was incomplete. She had no legs! Yet at the thought of movement, she suddenly popped up off the ground to levitate. ‘Oh, well that might work,’ she thought to herself.
Something was wrong though, she could not go straight. If she tried, she found that she would only make tiny circles. She tried to look down, but couldn’t! She had no neck! Round and round she spun, at the same time, she tried to tip herself forward to get a look at what was going on beneath her.
Something was not working right!
Margo suddenly froze as she heard a muffled, “Weeeee!” She could not figure out where it came from. She felt as though she was not where she was supposed to be, suddenly fearful of being caught. She was a runaway bot, after all! Using her oversized arms she dragged her still levitating form behind a set of crates. She tried her best to conceal herself, though she had no idea who or what made that noise. After a bit of sitting perfectly still, she started to think maybe she was hearing things.
Until she heard something else, just as muffled, break the silence, “I love you.”
Margo straightened up, surprised at the words. She did not know where it came from, nor the silent giggle that followed. The giggle abruptly switched to a ‘shhhhh!’
Margo spun around some more, trying to find the source. She thought maybe a vent somewhere, leading to another room. She searched and searched, dragged her levitating form around the hold with those massive arms, yet found no telltale grate.
“Could you stop jouncing around so much?!” a little girl’s voice suddenly spoke, “I mean really, I’m trying to get my homework done.”
Margo froze again, her arms flew out wide and she spun about. No one was anywhere. She stopped, puzzled.
“Are you… talking to me?”Margo said aloud.
“Who else would I be talking to?” the small muffled voice shot back. “If I don’t get this work done, I’ll be in big BIG trouble!”
Margo’s puzzle was not getting solved.
“I’ll tell them whose fault it is, too! Don’t think I won’t!” the voice went silent after that.
Margo sat perfectly still for a good solid minute. Suddenly she spun about as fast as she could, round and round and round. Again she heard the “Weeeeeee!”
The voice was coming from within! Inside of her!
“What are you doing inside of me?” Margo asked, hard nosed.
“I think it’s pretty obvious…” returned.
“How is it obvious?” Margo softened.
“I’m doing my homework!” the voice announced, as though the whole question was ridiculous, “I only said it- not two minutes ago!”
“No,” Margo was exasperated, “Why are you doing it, like…um… INSIDE ME?”
“I love you.”
“What?” Margo shot up straight again.
“Shhhh,” The girl could be heard shushing.
“This is really confusing.” Margo said, confused. “Why do you love me?”
“I don’t love you silly,” the little girl’s voice said with a giggle, “My bunny said that!”
“I love you!” the phrase came again. Margo thought the voice did sound a lot different from the girls.
“See.” The little girls voice followed, “I think that’s pretty much all it says. I don’t know. I just found it…”
“No, I don’t see,” Margo explained, “I can’t see anything in there!”
“Hang on.” the voice requested.
Suddenly, there was a lot of shifting around inside of her. One of her eyes started spinning around, and then with a pop, suddenly came loose! It was weird, her vision was split! Margo could see the hold with one eye, while the other showed the little hand as the camera was threaded back through the metal socket. The eye suddenly spun about and was positioned to peer within, without it being held in place.
Margo could see the tiny little girl sit back down on a pile of blankets inside the ‘bucket’ that was Margo’s lower half. A coloring book was splayed open, with crayons scattered about. The little girl had a little stuffed bunny nestled in the crook of her arm.
“Hi.” The small girl greeted with a tiny wave at the camera that was Margo’s eye. “I’m Dicey! What’s your name?”
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