Elements of Earth: The Element Trials

Chapter 3b, 2020, Rio, Estrellita: Locked in a Mountain, But Not in Her Mind

"Sir, what your daughter did was an extreme violation of my privacy! If she can monitor my processes, she could have hacked her way into my personal thoughts. And while I am a synthetic being you, as my creator, know me to be a sentient being with a right to privacy. God, the feeling of someone crawling around in your mind! The only reason I didn't start screaming at her then and there was because that would have interrupted the educational environment for the whole class."

I sat outside a door with a translucent window with 'Ms. V' lettered in bold gold script.

"This will be going on her permanent record and I would like you to advise her caretaker to take away her video games. If she was a normal girl, I'd suggest taking her phone and computer but the closest analogues are her eyes and her brain and she won't be a successful student without them. Yes, sir. I would appreciate it if you had a very stern conversation with her about this. Yes, sir." There was quiet for a few heartbeats. Then Ms. V spoke in a much quieter voice. "May I speak out of character, sir? Thank you. Sir, when will you be returning home? Your daughter needs human interaction and under the unusual circumstances, for a teenage girl an absent father figure may be why she is acting out." Did Vivian just sass dad? "Yes sir, I-" Inaudible but raised words cut her off. "Yes, sir I understand your job is very important. Yes, sir. I apologize for interrupting the peace summit... Yes, sir... Understood... We miss you, sir."

From the silence, I think he hung up before that. I think Vivian cares deeply for my father. I have the feeling it was just the two of them before I showed up. Our relationship dynamic is... strange. Even though I'm the child, I'm technically older than her. She was made to be a grown up. Daddy made her but he takes care of me, cares for me. Even though he's busy, I take up more of his time and attention than she does. I'm betting a child wasn't something she expected. I have a feeling that she doesn't like me. Though I suppose she doesn't, not like me either.

"Estrellita," I stood and moved to the door. "No. Don't come in. I- I just remembered I have a teachers conference. Come in an hour early on Monday, you can serve your detention then." I turned to go when I heard a hidden motor turn the doorknob and Vivian said through a crack in the door, "Have a nice weekend. Good luck searching for Kira. I hope you find her."

Each step up the spiral stair is cleansing like I'm leaving the roots of the mountain behind. With each step I take, my eyes drift to the fire pole in the gap of the staircase, far enough from the railing one must jump to reach it. At each story, there's a sticker that said, 'For emergency use only.' Although I considered being late this morning an emergency I didn't use it. It goes straight down all thirteen stories. With no way to slow down, I would have splatted against the concrete floor. Even in an emergency that wouldn't be useful to anyone. I distractedly read those stickers so many times that, before I knew it, I ran out of steps. I stumbled slightly, jarred that I'd passed the floor housing my living quarters. Before me, carved from the living rock of the mountain, was, if someone was generous, a hallway. Ten feet from the final step the cavern narrowed nearly to a point before ending in a wall of rock. Nothing adorned the lonely hallway save a lit panel on the wall and a set of metal rails embedded in the floor. Without thought or hesitation, I slid my finger across the panel and moved to the side. Without the scrape of rock, you wouldn't have known anything had changed. I gripped my fingers along an edge that wasn't there before and pulled. The metal of the tracks whined. I found enough purchase now that I could push the five-foot thick rock door open. When raw, natural sunlight kissed my skin I stopped pushing. I walked out onto my balcony to look past the water at the city where I was born and the multicolored sky behind it.

Sugarloaf, the mountain I call my home, is popular for rock climbers. There are at least eight routes up the shear wall near my balcony. Therefore I am only allowed on the balcony during sunset and sunrise. The natural indent into the rock wall is a common rest spot for climbers. But no climber could make it up here in the morning before I am back through the seamless rock door unless they started in the dark hours before sunrise. For the same reason, no climber would try to make their way down during sunset or they'd be caught hundreds of feet up in the dark. The balcony isn't visible from the summit, the cable car or the Brazilian military's training base below. So even though no one knows I am here this is my only real connection to the outside world.