Almost Human

Epilogue

Veda donned her only black dress.  Her only dress, in fact.

She climbed delicately into her car, waiting for Sam to enter the other side, and patiently started the engine.  She drove out of the driveway and down the street.

They ended their drive at Ed’s house in the unpopulated countryside.  The trees were as green as ever.  Veda parked the car on the side of the gravel road a few hundred feet from the house.  Both she and Sam exited the car and walked out to the middle of the field where a small gathering had already formed.

A fresh plot had been dug into the otherwise undisturbed grass.  A holy man of some kind was waiting around, looking nervous and unsure of himself.  It was rare to see a burial anymore.

Jack was already there.  He was stoic as usual, but his eyes were hooded by his brow ridge as he bent his head towards the ground.  Veda respected his separateness and didn’t approach.  Andrew was already present as well, standing respectfully next to Ed’s simple black casket with his hands clasped behind his back.  He looked younger, too young to be at a funeral.

Sam walked slowly through the grass, brushing his bare feet over the cool blades, slightly wet in the midmorning.  He was both enchanted by the sheer largeness of nature around him and sobered by the loss of someone so dear.  He had never been outside of his home before.

Veda stood next to Andrew, feeling older than usual.  She felt as old as the dirt that had been turned over to make room for the casket.  The emptiness of the field felt familiar.

Later, Veda and Andrew leaned against her car, watching Sam run around in the field as fast as he could.  He looked content and made no noise as he ran.  Veda and Andrew shared the silence too.  This felt like a closing in so many ways.  But Veda knew that it was not.  It was always meant to be an open door for her.  She knew that Ed had intended it that way.  The chains of the old times were gone.  She could take Sam outside.  He could run in the grass and stare up into the trees.  Veda would never have to hide again.  There was already talk of stricter anti-monopoly laws and corporate safeguards to prevent what had come to light about the Big Three.  Veda had even received and indirect contact from someone in government about becoming the head of a new department for technology, becoming a cabinet member.  She had respectfully, somewhat, declined.

Another beginning was in Andrew’s decision to leave the police.  It was a beginning for Andrew, foremost, but Veda knew it was a beginning for her as well.  She had lived her life shunning all human beings unless they were directly connected to technology.  There had never been any other type of person, never a friend made just for the enjoyment of human interaction.  Andrew was different than that, though.  He wasn’t an engineer like she was, he wasn’t a hacker like Robin was.  He was just a stranger Veda had met by chance in an investigation about a man who didn’t actually go missing.  And he was her friend just because he was her friend.  Just because she enjoyed his company.

Veda was sad for the loss of her oldest friend.  Ed had been the closest thing Veda had ever come to for a parent.  Ed was the person who took her away from the wanderings of her childhood and gave her a home and a chance to have a purpose in life. 

But Veda was happy.  Sam was now free to the world in his own way.  Veda could breathe easy and watch him play in the sunlight.  Veda had made a new friend who cared for her and Sam enough to leave his life and walk a new path.  Veda was able to clean the slate, erase the record of what haunted her past.  There was nothing left to define her in negative terms.

Jack let Andrew take the reins.  After a few months of training and teaching, Jack had passed on all the basics. 

Jack watched Andrew set up a comprehensive security system with traps for hackers, fake loopholes, and protective fail-safes.  The more he taught the kid, the more he believed his original inkling that Andrew was trying to get good enough at making security systems to beat Veda at her hacking game.  As a man of the ex-law persuasion himself, Jack understood why Andrew wanted to transition into the world Veda lived in with lawful technological development.  He was trying to make a decent, respectable name for himself early.  He was working on a project for the long run, after all.

Meeting Sam had changed Andrew, just like Sam changed everyone else who met him.  Sam was like a child in that way too.  People never stay the same after a child is brought into their lives.  For Andrew, the change was in how he wanted not only himself, but the entire world, to view Sam.  Andrew had grown to love the boy with all of his heart.  Sam had become Andrew’s son just as Veda had become Sam’s mother.  So Andrew’s life changing decision was that he wanted to go into political activism one day, maybe even run for an office, to change how the world saw Sam. 

Jack spent more time with Veda, Sam, and especially Andrew after their collaboration on Ed’s plan.  Jack had done everything he set out to accomplish in his life.  He had seen a lot of things in his day and done a lot, both things he regretted and things he was proud of.  His crowning achievement was going to be the destruction of the Big Three.  But in the following days, going to Ed’s funeral, meeting Sam face-to-face, being asked by Andrew to teach him, thinking about what to do with the rest of his life, Jack had figured out that maybe there were even more things that he could tackle before he died.  Maybe there were more important things than getting rid of the Big Three.

As a result, Jack turned into the grandfather, favorite uncle kind of role for Sam.  Sam was always chomping at the bit to engage Jack in chess games that would be a deadlock for hours until the most patient thinker would win.  Jack found with the trio, sitting in a circle in the living room of Veda’s white house, the self-sustained happiness of a family, the relationships between living people that Jack had forcefully ignored up until then.  He watched Sam with ever increasing fascination.  The growth of that boy, so much like the stumblings of a small human child, astounded Jack daily. 

With all the time shared, Jack was also able to start noticing the possibility, still hidden from the two themselves, of Andrew and Veda becoming more like mother and father to Sam than what they could have guessed at months ago.  Jack liked to think that it would happen in the future, distant or not.  He felt like if that happened, every piece would fall into place.

Andrew cracked his knuckles and dodged a pillow thrown by Sam. 

“You know I hate that noise!” he said with a crinkled nose.  Andrew laughed as the boy ran for more ammunition in case Andrew decided to try it again. 

The makeshift family was going through their nightly unwinding.  Andrew was stretched across his bed.  Veda was sitting cross-legged on it, pretending to still be focused on whatever she was working on or reading.  Andrew could see the smile on her face at Sam and Andrew’s interaction.  She may have never told him outright, but Andrew knew that Veda was happy that Andrew hadn’t abandoned them after their plot against the Big Three ran its course and he was free to do as he wished.  There had been a happy feeling about the house now that everyone knew that they were gathered because of genuine want to.

“I’m working towards approaching the humanoid android law,” Andrew said.  Veda put down her computer and looked at him.  She was listening intently without an expression other than mild interest, but Andrew could read the excitement beneath her courteous curiosity.  “There’s a lot to do before I can bring it up directly and even more to do before I can change it, but I will change that law.  I promise you.”

Veda smiled.