THE MOTHER
- Mom?
- Baby?
- Don't call me that!
- Then my Fravat?
That's even worse. A reminder that there are less than a hundred days left until his eighteenth birthday, when, according to the Corporation's Decree for Citizens, he must transition into a compatible form. His consciousness will be digitized and transferred into a synthetic organism, while his old body will be recycled into humus for hydroponic farms. He will no longer be a Fravat but will become a Compatibol - a full-fledged citizen of Spheropolis, fully integrated into the society's neural networks controlled by the Corporation.
- I'm scared.
The woman smiled. Her doll-like bright green eyes looked into emptiness on her flawless face. Two hands fluttered swiftly across the table, preparing breakfast for the young boy. A third hand extended from a small orifice in the middle of her chest, stirring the contents of a deep cup. The whisk mechanically beat in rhythm against the metallic surface. Ding, ding, ding...
- Are you watching a TV show? - the boy struggled to contain his irritation.
- Sorry, silly Mom got distracted. What did you say? - The mother turned to face her son.
- You forget to blink, - he said sharply.
- Sorry, silly Mom. So, what?
The woman froze in anticipation, blinking her thick eyelashes too frequently, while the whisk in her third hand continued to beat rhythmically: ding, ding, ding...
- Stop it! - the boy shouted and snatched the cup from his mother's hand.
- Sorry, silly Mom.
- Why do you keep repeating the same thing! - the boy jumped up from his chair, which toppled to the floor with a crash.
The woman remained in her previous pose. Then suddenly she bent over, hid her face in her hands, and shook in convulsions. The boy immediately regretted his actions. He picked up the chair, approached his mother, and embraced her, feeling the electronically generated warmth of her body.
- I'm afraid that...
- What? - large tears rolled down the mother's snow-white cheeks. Yet her face remained doll-like and serene.
- ...I will stop being myself...
For a moment, the mother's face took on a bewildered, anguished expression. Then it corrected itself. A wide smile spread across her beautiful face.
- Baby, you will only become better...!
