Parcel for You - Part 48

 

The door flung open and a cold blast of air hit Vanessa’s face. The wind sucked at the partially closed blind and it creased up against the window frame. The room was empty; in the bright lighting, everything looked hostile and cold, the blue and white anti-dandruff shampoo bottle stood bleakly on the corner shelf of the bath, helpless to advise. 

 

‘Oh my god, he’s jumped,’ said Pat, holding her hands together in a prayer position and lifting them up to the tip of her hooked nose. ‘He’ll just be a pile of wires and gubbins on the patio. Stop looking, Vanessa, fetch me a bin-bag and a dustpan and brush and I’ll go out and clean it up.’

 

Vanessa wasn’t listening. She pulled the blind up, placed her head out of the window and looked down, the wind blowing strands of hair into her eyes. ‘It’s not that far actually. I can’t see him at all. The roof of the lean-to would have caught him on the way down..although I didn’t hear him land, did you?’

 

‘No, I was nodding off though. If he’s still in one piece then maybe he had some bionic way of climbing down without getting hurt, you know, super strength stretchy arms or something. He won’t have gone far will he? All he knows is you and this house. Probably just making a point.’

 

Vanessa was already at the bottom of the stairs. She rushed out into the garden with Charlie following but there was no sign of Spencer. It was dark and eerie as she called out his name, the sound of her own voice lingered in the empty void and it occurred to her how powerless she had been to stop him leaving of his own free will. He could have simply walked out of the front door instead.

 

‘Don’t worry,’ said Pat, ‘the people at Cybermates will be able to track him won’t they?’

 

‘Mmmm,’ Vanessa nodded, ‘probably but then I’ll be in trouble, they’ll want to collect him themselves and take him away from me for good.’

 

‘Isn’t that what you wanted?’

 

‘No! I want him home, he’s mine.’

 

Vanessa went through the house, out of the front door and into the street but again, nothing, she paused and looked as far as she could in each direction. It was as if he’d just vanished into thin air or flown away like a bird. Pat had taken herself back to bed now and Vanessa decided it was best to just leave her there and try to contact this Gregory character and tap him for advice without giving away the whole story. She called Cybermates Worldwide and asked for him specifically, telling them that her husband had simply been acting unusually.

 

‘We received a tamper alert just over an hour ago, madam.’

 

‘But what does that mean exactly?’

 

‘It can mean that an unauthorised person has attempted to interfere with your cyborg, above and beyond normal human interactions. If that wasn’t you, is there anybody else in your home who may have done that?’

 

‘No, I don’t think so, except for the cat. He did have an injury to his arm just recently and an engineer came out. Could that have caused the alert?’

 

‘Only if the engineer didn’t put everything back in its optimal position, madam, but that would be very unusual, our engineers are highly trained. So what is your husband doing now?’

 

‘Oh…well he’s settled again now, he’s just having a lie down actually.’

 

‘If he’s shut down and charging, that’s all good, just check him for damage when he comes round again, particularly the back of his head. Keep a close eye on him too because a tamper alert can trigger a flight response, it’s possible that your cyborg could try to escape to get away from the source of the threat.’

 

‘Oh, I will go and check on him in a moment but just in case that did ever happen, is there any way you could track him?’

 

‘It’s quite rare to be honest. I think it did happen to somebody at an aquarium a few months ago but it’s very unusual for our cybermates to go missing, apart from if they get separated from you and lost but that’s usually temporary. After a few hours, if they don’t return, the results aren’t always happy, unfortunately. The charge tends to run out and then, left outside in the elements, rain gets in, things can seize up.’

 

‘Oh gosh, I never considered that.’

 

‘Yes and they are also vulnerable to malicious attacks from humans without the protection of their spouses or guardians. This is because they’re not programmed to defend themselves due to health and safety laws.’

 

Vanessa had heard enough. ‘Thanks for your help, Gregory.’

 

She went and had a long drink of water and considered whether she was sober enough to have a drive around. Time was of the essence now, she certainly felt stone cold sober, a banging headache was beginning to take hold. Her heart ached for Spencer now, out there alone in the elements. 

 

She got in her car and began driving slowly through her immediate neighbourhood, expecting to see his familiar walk but it occurred to her that it would be hard to spot him in his navy blue pyjamas. A sense of hopelessness began to take over as she pictured him face down in someone’s garden, his nuts and bolts beginning to rust on the damp ground. It was the early hours of the morning now and without sleep, it was difficult for Vanessa to think clearly.

 

He’d been gone for at least an hour. Vanessa knew it was important for her not to go too far from home, in case he came back. After driving back to her road, she pulled in and desperate for somebody to confide in, she phoned her daughter, Annie, remaining in the car so she had a better view of the street.

 

‘What do you mean, he’s missing?’

 

Vanessa briefly explained about the engineer and the incident in Wales with his arm and then the strange third party voice and how they tried to fix it themselves.

 

‘Why on earth did you let Pat rummage inside the workings of his head?’

 

‘It wasn’t like that. She was just supporting me with it, that’s all.’

 

‘But she’s not invested in him like us! He’s my step dad, sort of and you’re speaking about him as if he’s an unwanted pet…no! Actually you’d be arrested for treating a pet like that, Mum.’

 

Vanessa was beginning to feel even worse now. ‘I suppose I just lost perspective. I'm with him all the time, he’s my responsibility.’

 

‘He’s your husband!’

 

‘I know but these things come with a lot of responsibility and the Cybermates thing is a bit like big brother, they interfere and settings can be changed without your consent. I feel as if I’m part of an experiment. I love Spencer but it’s actually quite suffocating and lonely, being in this partnership. Nobody takes us seriously and yet I am responsible for his well being. Honestly, I feel sick knowing he’s out there on his own.’

 

‘You don’t take him seriously, involving Pat like that, you abused his trust, You have to tell them then, at the head office thingy! He must have some sort of tracking device on him.’

 

‘No because then I’ll lose him altogether. At least if I find him, we can just draw a veil over this and I promise I’ll never try to interfere with him or involve Pat in something like that again.’

 

‘Okay,’ Annie sighed, ‘I’ll do some research, Mum. You go and lie on the sofa, listen out for him and I’ll try and find out the best way forward. Email work, tell them you’ve got a sickness bug and I’ll call you back later in the morning.’

 

The silence inside the house was deafening. It was bizarre because Spencer was normally silent, in his night time shutdown mode, there was no chance of him making any sound but this silence was different. Despite being a cyborg, he had a strong presence about him and his absence thrust Vanessa back to where she was before she married him, lonely. It reminded her of all the reasons she decided to order him in the first place.

 

She went upstairs. The bathroom window was still open, she had another look down into the garden, shining the torch on her phone, there was no sign of Spencer. Gently she closed the window, walked past the door of Annie’s bedroom and heard the faint sound of Pat snoring.

 

In the bedroom she shared with Spencer she was astonished to discover that he’d taken his charging cable.