The Pieces of My Self

6 - Amara

LILLIAN

Lillian's Home, 2 June 2174, Thursday

I almost blew it. The Sammy dropped me off in front of my house just seconds before Amara's bus arrived. Fluffy, our AS, was already there, waiting. It was an old robot, damaged and grungy, not exactly the best stand-in for a caring parent. I knew my daughter was expecting to see me. It's important for mommies to keep promises.

"How are you, sweetie? Did you have fun in preschool?" I gave her a big hug as she stepped off the bus but could tell from the pout, she wasn't happy.

"They made fun of me."

I gave her another hug, then held her face in my hands. My mommy-brain kicked in, all defensive. "Tell me what happened."

"Jeffery could say all of his letters, even up to Z. And Tammy and Linda could, too. They laughed at me."

"What did your teacher do?"

"She told them to stop. She said everybody is different. Not everyone is like Jeffrey."

"Well, you're very special to me and Grady and lots of other people. We'll just have to work on your letters. I know you'll get it."

"When did you know all the letters?"

Amara's question caught me totally off guard. I could recite all the letters when I was two, and still remember the name and address of my first foster parents. Ayita and her husband Reginald lived at 221 Bay Street. She would play number games with me and showed me how to read music for the piano. I can still visualize all the scores.

"I must have been about your age," I lied. "Let's go inside."

We walked up the steps, hand-in-hand, followed by the AS. Amara stumbled, and I helped her up. When we got inside, I gave her a peck on the forehead. "I want you to go play with Fluffy in the living room and learn the ABC song. Tonight, you can sing it to me."

After giving instructions to the robot, I sat in the kitchen, opened my NetEdge, and created a stealth tunnel to bypass Loumissala security. I had performed this trick before, and LESA never caught me. Most North American countries had offensive cyber guarding their nets. If you messed with them, they could destroy your NetEdge. There was one country that was leakier than most. Connecting was always a risk, but this was important.

I tunneled into MedFren, the top medical advice service in North America. A friendly looking synthetic face popped up on a holographic screen above my device.

"Is this an emergency?" it asked.

"No." For me, it was an emergency, with the most important thing in the world at risk.

"Are you enquiring about yourself?"

"No, my daughter." My precious offspring. A love of my life, along with Grady.

"I see your network connection is outside the country."

"True." I was breaking the law in Loumissala but hoped those laws didn't apply in Minnesota.

"We only take outside cases if they are unique or medically interesting to us. Sorry we can't help."

"Wait! My daughter was diagnosed with a genetic disease—a TSD variant. I want a second opinion and advice. They've prescribed AmphoraX, and it's really expensive. It's ruining me. Is there something else I can do?"

"One moment." There was a short lag before the synth doctor said, "Okay. We have a few questions. Does your heritage include any of the following groups? European Jewish communities? French Canadian communities? Amish communities? Cajuns, Creoles, or Houma Indians on the Gulf Coast?"