Redemption

Redemption Part 19

My heart thudded hard against my chest. How could it be–? Had Fancy gone to the Restricted Zones and rescued him?

Then realization slammed into me, as the boy walked toward us.

He hadn't aged.

He was the same size as he'd been when I'd played with him at five. A strange feeling spread over me, of nostalgia mixed with the twistedness of what Fancy had done.

A holo. That's all it was.

"This house is amazing!" said Fancy. "We can finally have him with us. Before, he was just in the sims, and he wasn't so—so real." She knelt in front of him. Slid her fingers into his hair. "My beautiful baby boy."

"Mom," said Ree, "you realize that...he's not real."

"How could you say that?"

"He's a holo! You can't even really touch him."

"I can!" She kissed his cheek.

"No—this isn't right. It isn't even right to keep him in the holosims like you've been doing, but this—" She closed her eyes, a pained crease in her brow. "Please. Mom. Put that—that thing back where it was."

Fancy stood, her eyes brewing a storm. She placed her hands on her hips. "Now, your brother is back with you. You will treat him with respect."

"Mom—this is really wrong. It's one thing to—bring him here. But—to act like he's real—it's going to send you over the edge."

"What edge? We've already fallen into the Abyss." She laughed, a rather raucous, unhinged laugh.

"The children shouldn't see this."

"Of course they should! Girls, come meet your brother."

"Is it really him?" said Sharlee, her eyes wide.

"Of course not, silly," said Donita. "But he sure looks like the pictures...." She jumped down from her chair and sauntered over to the holo, Sharlee creeping carefully behind.

"You girls can have such fun playing with him!" said Fancy. "Shar, you weren't even born when he left. But now he's back!" Her fingers twirled in his hair, which looked remarkably real.

"Mom," said Cade, "it's just a holo. It doesn't even act like him. Ree's right, it's creepy. He wouldn't still be four, anyway. I don't want to see this."

"It'll be good for us! To have him back with us again. Our family will be whole."

I was going to see if I could get Echo back, but apparently Fancy couldn't wait. I hoped she was just pretending and wasn't going mad before my eyes. I hoped I hadn't been a part of it... brought hope that was too impossible....

"No one asked for this—this playacting." Cade stood. "We want the real Echo. Jet promised him. This—" He flung his arm into the air— "I don't even know what this is."

"I had to have him, now," said Fancy. "And so I made him. Just the way I remembered him. So sweet and perfect...."

"Mama," said Ree. "He was sweet. But no one's perfect. You're—you're doing the real Echo a disservice. He wouldn't have wanted such a...a travesty."

Fancy looked at her sharply. "You will not talk about my son like that. As if he's...." She knelt beside the holo Echo, buried her fingers in his curls. "Don't listen to them, sweetheart. You're perfect just the way you are."

The Echo smiled. Just the way I remembered him. The way he lit up a room....

It was so real. I could almost believe...he had come from the past.