The Artificial Girl

chapter 12

I waited for my mum to pick me up. As the gates of the LifeTech complex opened, and my mother's Mercedes prowled in, a flash of cameras blinded me.

A crowd of journalists and camera-men surrounded me, their voices rising over the others as they fought to get their question answered.

"How do you feel being the world's first female E-Lite?"

"Don't you think LifeTech is trying to play God?"

"Do you enjoy being an E-Lite?"

"How is your life going to change...."

I panicked, running to the passenger door and fumbling with the handle to open it.

The questions continued and I shouted out: "No comment!!!" before slamming the door on them.

My mother reversed quickly out of the drive and onto the main road.

"Nina," she said. "I'm sorry."

She looked at me through the rear-view mirror. My breath caught in my throat.

"What I did....it was awful, insensitive, uncaring...especially when you were going through all that, and we visited you, once, the day after," she said. A tear trickled down her cheek.

I stared at her.

"I know its no excuse, but it was like you were...dead," she whispered, eyes crinkling. "Like you weren't there, but you were, somewhere in....."

"In what?" I snapped. "In this lump of metal...in this strange, foreign body??"

Anger rose within me, but also shame. My own parents could hardly look at me. I could hardly look at myself in the mirror. I bowed my head towards the ground.

"I'm so sorry, Nina. I really didn't...." A whimper escaped her lips.

"What are you sorry for? Sorry for me, or sorry for yourself??" I asked, and when I looked into her eyes, I knew it was the latter.

I spent the rest of the journey staring out of the window. I hadn't seen these streets in three months, and when we finally pulled into our hill-top house, I let out a sigh.

I got out of the car first, stormed through the open front door and up the stairs into my room.

It was exactly as I'd left it. The bed was half made, one of the pillows lying on the carpet floor. Clothes were strewn on my dresser, a t-shirt, shorts and a pair of trainers that wouldn't fit me anymore. I gathered them up and threw them into the wastebin beside my door. I sat down on the bed and closed my eyes.

"Nina," It was my father. He stood before me, face red and puffy. Tears filled his eyes, making them glassy. Something I would never be able to do again. Cry.

"I-I'm so sorry. I missed you," he whispered.

"If you missed you, why didn't you come visit? Have you any idea how I felt when the people told me there was no visitors for me? Do you?"

He shook his head honestly. "I'm sorry."

"That doesn't mean anything," I remarked.

I fell back onto my bed, burying my face in my sheets.

Finally I heard his footsteps leaving my room.

I shut my eyes.

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Any ideas for how to continue?