ROGER (Read Until 7/31)

F O U R

I broke him.

That's what I thought as I ran down the wet streets of New Chicago. The cold slapped against my skin, burning like dry ice. With no jacket and flip flops, I was soaked to the bone. My tears were almost invisible, but I kept going.

Because I broke him.

That's what I told Xerses when I ran up the stairs of his apartment complex and banged on his door. He was tired, still in his work clothes, but when he saw me, he grabbed me. Held me. He wanted to tend to my cuts. I wanted him to fix Roger.

"Please," I told him as he wiped the rain from my face with a small towel. Taking his hand in mine, I slid the damaged receptor into his palm. When he looked at it, I pressed my lips together and whispered again. "Please."

Xerses closed his fingers around it, keeping the towel gently against my cheek. "What happened, my girl?"

I choked on a cry as I remembered the glass that spread across my kitchen floor. All of that juice. Oh Province, I could hear Roger now. "Clara, you really like to put these little bots to work."

"I dropped him," I managed to say, looking down at my wet feet. "I h-had juice on the counter and the receptor got wet. He isn't turning on." I looked at Xerses with wide eyes. "X, he isn't saying anything."

Under his breath, I heard him whisper, "He isn't saying anything," but it wasn't meant for me. It was for Verba. I knew that the second all of his computer screens turned on and I saw her concerned face. She moved her hair from her eyes as Xerses whisked me into his room, but before she could comment on the cuts along my body, he spoke. "Verba, babe—" He was sure to check me over again, sliding his thumbs under my eyes, then through my hair. "—can you find Roger anywhere?"

"Roger?" Verba bit her lip as she looked around the digital white space around her. Flicking her wrist, she summoned a tablet in her hands. "Is he not powering on within that device? How long has it been?"

"I don't know," I said as Xerses sat me down on his bed and wrapped me with his comforter. "I'd tried to clean it, but Roger... he... he won't talk to me."

Xerses touched the side of my face once more before gliding over to his computers and dropping down on one of his chairs. He and Verba locked eyes as he rolled one way, then the other. Placing my mother's receptor on a small square beside his computer, he mumbled to himself.

"Xerses?" I leaned forward.

"Clara—" Verba's smile caught my attention when Xerses didn't look back at me. "—as VF's, we're nothing but data, truthfully. It sounds like he's unable to sync back into the device, that's all. He isn't lost. We'll bring him back, I promise."

Her smile was supposed to make me feel better, but it didn't. Looking at her reminded me of him. My Roger. I know he wasn't real, or a person at all, but I'd become far too attached to him to lose him.

"Verba?" At his computer, Xerses held the receptor between his fingers. "If I can fix this, can we reinstall him?"

"No," Verba said as her face appeared on all his computer screens. "It's too damaged. If he was unable to reconnect after the initial drop, he wouldn't now. We'd lose his current state if we tried."

"Shit." I'd heard Xerses say it, but I said it louder. I jumped up from his bed and dropped his comforter at my feet. With trembling hands, I went over and lifted the receptor in my hands before pointing at my ear. "What about my implant? Can't you put him in there?"

Xerses' jaw nearly hit the floor. He could tell by the look on my face that I was serious. Over a month ago, I was against having someone living in my head. Now, I was willing to let that data roam through my brain if it meant he'd come back.