Clockwork [final]

Five

Two months later, it turned out that Derek was a fast learner. He had already learned the basics of robotics and paid close attention to everything that Adette taught him. Whenever she tried to acknowledge how well he was doing he would brush her off and put it down to her teaching, but both of them knew that his progress was remarkable. While he still wasn’t certain that robots were exactly his thing, he was pleased with how quickly he was picking it up. After all, maybe it’d come in handy at some point.

Granted, he had his “off days” where he couldn’t focus on anything and would get very frustrated when he couldn’t understand a single word of what she was trying to teach him, but she was patient with him and quietly tolerated his sullen moods, knowing they were a part of him getting better. For the most part, he was doing very well. In fact, he was doing especially well considering that he only had one sole motivation; her.

And, each day, as he got more involved with Adette and her teachings of robots, his addiction faded away more and more into his past. He struggled with intense cravings for cocaine and nightmares, along with the occasional irritable mood, but he found that each day it got easier. He never expected that he could turn things around so fast. It made him smile a little to think that if he went back and told himself a few months ago this would be where he would be today he would’ve laughed in his own face.

Of course, none of this had been easy on him. There were dark shadows under his eyes from the restless nights he spent that were plagued by nightmares, and sometimes he was overwhelmed by guilt because of his tendency to lash out at Adette when he was in a bad mood. But, at the very least, he’d been gaining the weight he’d lost to his addiction back, and he’d been exercising a lot too. It felt good to get back the strength he hadn’t had in many years; it made him feel a little bit more in control. His pattern of speech started to change, too; his street talk wore off and he started to sound more and more like Adette. She noticed it, and would often tease him about it, but they both knew it was good.

As his mind cleared, he started noticing things, too. For the first time he saw how beautiful her eyes were, or how pretty her hair was, and truly felt an admiration for it rather than his usual vague awareness. She was pretty in an unexpected kind of way; the kind of attractiveness that grew on you the more you got to know her, like the entire of her appearance was based on her personality. He often mused to himself she had so much of it that it leaked out onto the surface and the more he liked her personality, the more he liked her as a whole.

He also found that he was discovering himself all over again, too. He started to remember all the minor little things about himself that he’d forgotten; that he could sing, that he liked to run, his likes, his dislikes, his strengths and his weaknesses. Unexpectedly, they had come to matter, and it was odd to him because they’d been of such little importance to him before. He was starting to formulate some vague goals and priorities and for the first time in his life, he almost felt like he could achieve them.

Adette found that he was starting to grow on her, too. Somewhere deep inside of her, a fondness for him ignited, and it was unlike any kind of fondness she’d felt before. She wanted to take care of him and help him, and she liked to have him around. She would gladly give up her time just to talk with him about nothing in particular; there was something about the way he spoke that drew her in. She observed that as he got further and further away from his crack addiction, it seemed that he gained more emotions, thoughts, and opinions too. However, he seemed to desperately try to hide them, looking as shocked as she felt when they leaked out into his voice or onto his face. His eyes were the only way she could ever tell what he was truly thinking; it was the first time she’d really understood the saying, “The eyes are the windows to the soul”.

He was sitting at the breakfast table when Adette marched in and slapped a newspaper down on the table in front of him, wearing the excited grin of a child from ear to ear. When he looked confused and even a little scared, she eagerly explained, “The carnival is in town!”