Fiction: A Girl and Her Cyborg

This month's Words for Wednesday's prompts are provided by Sandi and is hosted at Elephant's Child's blog here. This week's prompts are: hope, joie de vivre, devotion, forgiveness, rescue and/or brioche, pie, pi, duty, honor and/or music from LoLa & Hauser titled Moonlight Sonata. And an extra challenge: Charlotte (MotherOwl) has assigned a colour to each month of the year. This month it is pine green and if you can include it in your Words for Wednesday contribution each week in January she and Elephant's Child would be very grateful. I used almost all the prompts aside from pi, duty and honor.

Fiction: A Girl and Her Cyborg

Penelope Green Fable had another disappointing birthday day. The morning started out dark and rainy. A little after lunch, Greenie ran out of the house and walked down the paved path from the backyard toward the family's park. With her, she took a roll of brioche, an apple pie and two bottles of orange juice from the kitchen. Between two sycamore trees where her tent was placed, she stopped and took a few steps to the right and sat on the ground facing the small pond.

She peered up at the gray sky. A light drizzle was falling. Down below, there was only a small amount of water in the pond. It reflected bits of the gray sky. She pressed her hands together, closed her eyes and wished for a life-size robot, a wish she had made every year since she was four. And every year, her parents told her she was too young and later there were new excuses which Greenie started to think was entirely made up so she wouldn't have her robot. She was mad at them every time and yet she forgave them. Forgiveness was one of her better qualities and yet, she held grudges like she held onto old pajamas that she insisted on wearing even though they were too small. 

Last year, when she turned nine, Greenie had the idea of building her own robot which was a cheaper option but still would be something around two to three thousand dollars. But her parents rejected the idea. Still, she hoped and prayed with a devotion she had never had for anything, not even when she wanted to open a rescue shelter for tiny turtles. She had what some would call joie de vivre but her family would call it stubbornness. 

As she sat there with her eyes closed, a whirling buzzing sounded. Greenie popped her eyes open and looked up. What was a helicopter doing here? The helicopter paused, opened its door and someone in dark clothes pushed something out. It fell onto the pond with a loud plop.

"Hey! You can't dump your trash here! This is private property! Can't you read?" Greenie shouted while waving her hands at them but whoever was in the helicopter probably didn't hear her or was ignoring her. The helicopter was soon a speck in the sky and then it was gone. Greenie sighed and looked at what they had dropped.

Half in and half out of the pond was a woman dressed in a worn pine green jumpsuit lying on her side. Though her eyes were wide opened, they were not moving. There was no danger of the woman drowning but Greenie grabbed the woman's arms and dragged her out. It was rude to let someone, even a tresspasser, soaked in water. 

After dropping the woman's arms and laying her on her back, Greenie was exhausted. She wiped her forehead with her sleeves. There was nothing unusual about the woman but the skin around her jaw was silver while the rest was a golden brown. And she weighted a ton. Greenie was a small child and to her, all adults weighted a lot but she was certain the woman weighted more than any of her moms.

It took a while before the woman moved. The sky darkened and as Greenie sat beside the woman and as she ate her snack, there was a beeping to the tune of moonlight sonata. She only knew this because it was her stepdad Keith's favorite song. The woman suddenly blinked but she didn't move.

Greenie shifted slightly to look the woman in the face. "Hello," she said.

The woman still did not move. "Where am I?" she said.

"You're on my family's property and I saved you from that." Greenie pointed at the pond which now looked like a puddle. She was almost embarrassed at her words. "Well, okay, I didn't save you but I dragged you out before you got too wet."

The woman turned her head to look at the pond and then she turned back. "Thank you. What do people call you?"

Greenie twisted her lips. "My name's Green Fable. Well, Penelope if you like but I don't like that. Everyone calls me Greenie."

"Greenie, it is nice to meet you. I am called 79,000," the woman replied.

"79,000? What kind of name is that? I'll call you Seven." Greenie grinned.

"That is preferable to 79,000. Thank you. Where is your family's property located?"

"Don't you know? Stupid question. We're in New Jersey if you can believe it. Why are you here? Who was the guy in the helicopter who dropped you off?"

Seven looked from side to side. "I am uncertain at the moment."

Greenie tilted her head at Seven. Maybe she's a robot. "Are you a robot?" The words were out before Greenie had time to stop herself.

Seven blinked rapidly and then resumed blinking at a more normal rate. "Yes, I am a robot. Does that frighten you?"

"That's bull- What I mean is, you're lying. I can always tell when someone's lying." Greenie shifted and crossed her arms over her chest. She was not always certain how she knew but she always knew when someone's lying. "Be honest. It will save you a lot of headaches later." Words her stepdad Mick would say whenever one of the children lied.

Seven laughed lightly. "Alright, fine, I am not a robot. I am an enhanced human, what some people would call a cyborg."

"Why would you let people enhanced you? I'm not judging." Greenie held up her hands. Her family would definitely judge the woman.

Seven smiled. "I do not recall. But I am certain I had a good reason. Do you know anything about robotics?"

"Yes, they are very expensive. But I guess you're not asking about that. So, no." Greenie wondered why she had not done any research aside from prices. A chime sounded. She looked down at her watch. It was a little before six, time for dinner. "I have to go home now. Why don't you stay here and sleep in the tent? I'll bring you food later." Greenie stood up.

"Wait. I cannot move. If you will be so kind, reach behind my head. There is a button there that you can feel with your fingers, press it down hard. Then I will be able to move."

"Is that like an on switch? That's cool. Well, a little bit." Greenie followed her instructions. 

Once Greenie stepped away, Seven was up on her feet. "Thank you. I do hope you keep that knowledge about the button to yourself. It is not something I normally tell people."

Greenie nodded and stared up at the woman as she only reached up to Seven's waist. Seven was over six feet tall just like her stepdad Kenneth. "If I have an on switch, I sure wouldn't want anyone to know either. Anyway...I got to go. Keep out of sight. Not that anyone would come here. This is my private spot. Well, not really but if you stay inside the tent, no one would bother you." 

Seven nodded. "Thank you, Greenie."

"Yep." Greenie started walking away. She stopped, turned around and waved and then started running. If she wasn't on time for dinner, they would send someone to look for her here and she definitely didn't want anyone to find Seven. Sure, she wasn't a robot but she better. She was her own secret cyborg.