Last Robot

Chapter 5. THE DREAM; THE MYTH

RILEY GULPED NERVOUSLY. A surge of dizziness threatened to overcome him and send him swooning to the flagstoned floor. Fortunately, he managed to gasp in some air and regain his Perfectly acceptable sitting posture. He couldn't believe the girl had actually spoken the word 'robot'. If she had said it to anyone else she wouldn't be going back to a school, she'd be going to a Remote Correction Asylum.

"Yeah, that's right," continued the Red Dot girl. "I reckon you'll be walking the interesting streetways of that city any time soon. Imminently, if you catch my drift. Good word that weren't it, mister man, 'imminently'. Yeah, I did well there. Think about it... It's the 22nd of July tomorrow. And not just the 22nd, but Tuesday the 22nd! That's always the day dramatic events happen with robots. The Robot War started and ended on Tuesday the 22nd. And the birthday of Emily Pankhurst, also known as The Last Robot, nudge, nudge"—the girl poked Riley twice firmly in his rib cage—"was born on Tuesday the 22nd. So it stands to reason, doesn't it? She's in that city all right, mister man. And just like me, you know the exact place where she hides. And if we could get to that place, we will be just one button press away from meeting her. Pretty cool, huh?"

Riley was struggling to maintain a Perfect demeanour at the girl's suggestion that he would be visiting the place in his dream as early as tomorrow. All of this assumed that the dream represented a reality. And her manner of speaking seemed almost alien to him. She was an intriguing bundle of unPerfectness. However, what really bothered him was that she reminded him of himself. He was her age when he got to the end of his dream. The only change in his recurring dream was that as the main protagonist in the dream, he grew older in accordance with his natural age.

"Girls halt!" ordered the stern voice of the HEP teacher. The distant rhythmic swishing of the schoolgirl marching came to an immediate noisily stamping stop.

"Miss Burnham!" shouted the teacher. Her noisy voice reverberated through the square of the forecourt. Even the aircar above must have heard her every carefully enunciated word. This HEP teacher must have been extremely confident and sure of herself to make such a racket. But teachers could always get away with acting in such an unPerfect way as it was understood it was in aid of a Perfect education.

The girl rolled her eyes at Riley. "Mrs Calliope is always shouting at me. I can't think why." The girl let out a giggle, something his wife did sometimes, usually at his expense. "She doesn't understand us dreamers, see. And it's not just the buildings in the extraordinary city, is it? I mean the incredible plants and insects. The thick short cropped green grass. What a city! Absolutely fantastic compared to the Perfect crap we have to put up with."

Riley found himself saying, "So in your dream you didn't actually get to press the button did you?"

"Huh?"

"Every time I press the button, that's when I wake up."

"I see what you mean. Yeah, that's what happens to me too. The button to the side of the huge peculiar gold-framed painting. But if we press that button in real life..." The Red Dot girl's tightly knotted silver thin-haired eyebrows pushed down on her violet-blue eyes, which looked at Riley suspiciously. Then as Riley attempted to give a deadpan look, she added, "Look, I'm not guessing, mister man. The Frankenstein statue got me into the Robot Park. I saw HEP people and their noisy overhead aircars. I hid under the unPerfect trees to avoid detection. Yeah, I like that phrase, 'avoid detection.' Yeah, that's quite a good use of English, I reckon. And then the names of the pre-Perfect Age people, and all that. Say no more. Getting across the river. The trouble in the tunnel. Good job I can be violent. The glass windowed peculiar shaped buildings. The dark, filthy London Underground tunnels."

"That all sounds very familiar," admitted Riley.

"Of course." The girl then looked enviously at Riley. "But I don't think I'll be able to get to the Robot City of London tomorrow. Unlike you, I'm just a little girl. I'd have to steal an aircar, or something. I might be as violent as you, but I'm just not as strong. I think you could steal an aircar."