Between the Lanterns (22 page)

“August, you ok?” Bobby asked, concern touching the edges of his tired voice. “What’s the matter?”

He seemed genuinely concerned, which wasn’t all that surprising. He may be a product of the modern world, but Bobby was a lot better than most people. It’s one of the reasons August had always stayed friends with him. No matter what, Bobby would always be there to help. He may be late,; he may be rude about it, but unlike most people alive today, he would never say no to a friend in need.

“It’s Sam,” August breathed quietly into the cellphone. “Bobby… she’s dead.”

“What? How? When?” Bobby asked all in a rush. “August, I’m so sorry. Where are you?”

August thought about telling him, so they could meet up somewhere. Seeing a friendly face might offer some comfort, and asking Bobby for this favor in person would be the polite thing to do. But honestly, August felt like he would never be happy again, and seeing Bobby at this point would only drag out the process, keeping Augusts in New Dothan longer than he wanted.

“Listen, Bobby… I need your help,” August said with difficulty. “I’m… I’m leavin’ town, and probably never comin’ back.”

Bobby was silent for a breath or two, before he said, “Ok, I get it, man. So, like now? Are you gone? Right now?”

“Yeah… as soon as I can,” August replied. “But… I can’t let go of our house, Bobbo. I need you to… take care of it for me. I don’t want you to live in it or nothin’… just go there a couple of times a month, you know? Maybe pay a cleanin’ service to keep it livable. Like I said, I’ll probably never come back, but nothin’ is ever guaranteed. I learned that today.”

Bobby blew out a long breath, probably along with a large cloud of cigarette smoke, and said, “Man, of course , I’ll help. But, I’m like, you know, barely making ends meet as it is right now. I can’t afford a cleaning service. Sorry, dude. I mean, I can clean it myself if you want me to, though.”

August shook his head, even though Bobby couldn’t see him. His hands were shaking, too, he realized. He sat down on the curb, realizing for the first time that he was probably in shock. With his injuries still very fresh, and the loss of his entire world, it was a reasonably certain condition.

“No man, I’ll take care of the Credit. I’ve sold somethin’ to Montek… somethin’ big. They paid me real well. If you keep up the house for me, I’ll drop enough Credit in your account to pay for the cleanin’ and for you to live on. Call it a goodbye present from an old friend. You won’t have to worry about makin’ ends meet anymore, man.”

Bobby was lost for words. He stumbled through a few unintelligible syllables several times before finally finding his voice as he replied, “August, I can’t take your Credit, man. I mean, unless you really want me to. I could use it.”

“It’s done,” August said, glad to have this taken care of. “I’ll set you up, brother. I love you, Bobbo. Thanks for helpin’ me out… it means the world to me. I’ll be in contact sometime to check in.”

“Hey, no worries,” Bobby Li replied. “And don’t thank me, I should be thanking you.” He paused on the line, and then in a heartbroken voice added, “I am sorry about Samantha. I’m sure you don’t wanna talk about it right now, but when you do… please call me, Auggie. Where are you going?”

August thought for a moment. He didn’t really care where he was going. The tickets were already booked to Shanghai for him, Woodrow, and Sam. Of course, there was no way August was taking Woodrow now. He would just have to travel alone.

“Yeah, you’re right:; I don’t want to talk about it now,” August replied. “Just know she didn’t suffer. It was the Countdown that got her… just like Granny. I’m uh… I guess I’m going to China.”

Bobby nodded his head, even though August couldn’t see him. It made sense for him to visit Sam’s motherland. Bobby had more that he wanted to say, but he didn’t really know how to express those thoughts and feelings. Being a writer of music, Bobby had beautiful prose he could tap into at a moment’s notice. But the loss of life had been such a normal and humdrum thing for so long, most people didn’t get too worked up over it anymore, including Bobby.

But this felt different somehow. The love he witnessed between August and Samantha had been unique. In his lifetime, Bobby had never seen two people blend so perfectly. Her death actually broke Bobby’s heart, to his surprise.

“Listen… don’t… don’t worry about the house,” Bobby said, now the one fighting back tears. “I’ll make sure it’s ready for you, should you ever come back. And if you don’t, I’ll preserve all the memories you two shared in there. You just… you just go, man. Get out of here and start a new life. I know it hurts… hell, it hurts me, so I can’t imagine how bad it hurt for you… But your new life is ready to begin. Even if you don’t want it… it’s out there. Just let go.”

August was crying harder than ever at hearing these words from Bobby, who had never expressed such emotion in all the years August had known him. He couldn’t even say goodbye to his old friend. August just pressed the end button on his cellphone.

-

Using his new wealth and resources, August ended up in Birmingham later that day and checked into a hospital. He wanted to heal up properly before heading to China, and his wounds were still fresh from the accident with the AutoCar. The hospital in Birmingham was new and had the best healing tech in all of Alabama. It was top of the line, and August could afford that now.

August spent two days subjecting himself to the most expensive treatments available to mend his bones, and heal his cuts and scrapes. There was no pain, as the hospital staff was incredible in their profession. And best of all, in August’s opinion, they weren’t the personnel of the Granger Clinic on West Main Street.

After those two days, he spent a week wandering around, exploring Birmingham. After all, August had never left New Dothan, so he was curious about the biggest city in Alabama. He found that it was just like his home town, only a little larger with a few more tall buildings, a few more parks, and a few more restaurants. The automated sidewalks moved at the same speed, and he avoided them just the same as he always had back home. They even used the same lanterns as in New Dothan.

Seeing them, and with memories flooding into his mind, August fell to his knees in the middle of the street in downtown Birmingham. He wailed at the memory of his first meeting with Samantha between the lanterns on West Main Street. August couldn’t handle the pain. He couldn’t take the constant reminders of his wife. He had to get out of Alabama. He had to leave North America. The United States of Earth covered the whole planet, and he could go anywhere. It was time to leave. He had to let go.

Chapter 26

NEW LIFE

One month later, August was walking through the rice fields in a rural Chinese village near Guilin. He had set up a base for himself in the city of Chengdu and ventured out from there for days at a time.

August left all his tech at the apartment in Chengdu. He had chosen that city based on recommendations from locals in Shanghai, who said Chengdu had great food that was very spicy. Having no idea what was in store for him anywhere in this enormous and foreign land, August blindly trusted them and was glad he had done so.

It was shocking to see almost no other skin color than that of his recently dead wife. At first, it felt like the worst idea in the world to have come here to escape constant reminders of Sam. But everything else was so different, that the only distraction was the locals’ skin and hair. None of them were as beautiful as she was in his eyes, so he didn’t care.

Now, August was quite a local celebrity wherever he went. Despite the world having only one government, and with the advent of free Internet and wifi in every little village in the world, China still held onto its ancient culture with iron grips. So it was no surprise that he was the first black man that many of the local villagers had ever seen.

They all, especially the elderly and the children, wanted to feel his skin and touch his hair. August didn’t mind, though. It was like being loved by someone again. Having them caress his arms and face, or press at his hair – even pulling at it sometimes – he could close his eyes and imagine it was Samantha.

Since coming to China, he had decided that letting go of her was impossible. Instead, what August desperately needed to do was accept his loss. Embrace the love they had shared, because it would sustain him. Sadness visited August almost every day, but he chose to find new ways each time to take his mind somewhere different, to a fearless and positive place.

Sometimes he helped the local farmers with their manual labor. Other times, he sat down and wrote about how he was feeling at that very moment. Mostly, though, when the feeling of sadness came over him so strongly August felt he would suffocate... that was when he cooked.

August would stop into the nearest restaurant or café, or sometimes even someone’s home, and offer him or her a large amount of Credit if they would teach him to cook something new. Every time he smelled the warm aroma of food cooking, and it was his hands doing some of the work, August filled with radiant energy; an almost… magical feeling.
 

His logical mind told him it was happiness. He was happy because he was doing something of which the woman he gave his heart to forever would approve. At the back of his mind, though, he always thought it was Sam. That she was there guiding his hands and helping him make these unusual and unbelievably delectable local dishes you would never find on a menu back home in a million years. A Nutricator couldn’t even begin to manufacture dishes this intricate.

Nutricators… Every time he saw one, August thought of how much Samantha had hated those. And he saw them everywhere in China, of course. They were mandatory in all homes. But many of the homes out in these local villages opted to use it to feed livestock. They would make pig feed with one of Montek’s Nutricators, and then once the pigs were fat and ready, they would slaughter the pigs and make real food. Samantha would have loved it.

It was one such day that a great idea, a real spark of inspiration, came to August. An idea that would set him forth on a new course, his new life. Because what he was doing now, it wasn’t long- term. It was intermediate. It was all just a space filler. August was merely learning how to adjust to his life without Samantha, but that wouldn’t be enough, and he knew it. August would need to do something important again.

He had been walking down the street in this village, when a Montek.Automaton advertisement caught his eye. It was the first one he had seen since selling the SameSoul to the global mega-conglomerate. This ad was announcing Montek’s newest and greatest innovation.

ARE YOU AFRAID OF DEATH? DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER? WELL, THANKS TO THE GREAT MINDS AT MONTEK… NOW YOU CAN! ANNOUNCING THE NEWEST AND MOST SIGNIFICANT INNOVATION IN HUMAN HISTORY: NewLife. AS A REPLACEMENT FOR THE BrainSave, THIS MARVEL OF TECHNOLOGY WILL IMPLANT YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS INTO A MONTEK.AUTOMATON SO THAT YOU CAN GO ON LIVING AFTER YOU DIE. VISIT US ON THE WEB OR STOP BY YOUR LOCAL MONTEK.AUTOMATON DEALER FOR MORE DETAILS.

Reading this, August only rolled his eyes and continued walking to his destination.

Later, August stood in a little old woman’s home as she showed him how to make a recipe she had inherited from her mother, who had inherited it from hers, and on and on further back down their family tree.

She spoke excellent English, but many of the ingredients she chose to call by their Chinese names because that was how the recipe was written. So August ended up not knowing specifically every component that went into the dish, but the electric feeling was there, and so he was happy.

“I wish more people would want to learn how to cook the old way, as you do, Nephew,” the old woman said to him.

All the old Chinese people called him nephew for some reason, well either that or laowai – which meant foreigner. He never asked why, August just accepted it.

“Auntie, why don’t they want to learn? I understand that in the big cities, people are so obsessed with technology to the point of eating synthetic food for every meal, just like in my home town. But out here there’s not a ton of tech, but instead so much nature. It seems like people would need to learn how to cook like this.”

As the old woman continued cutting garlic and ginger, August took up a knife and joined her, making sure to match the size of his slices to hers.

“Unfortunately, Nephew,” she replied, “every generation get’s less and less interested in this. They all want to eat the disgusting fake food from those devils at Montek.”

August grinned widely at that. It reminded him so much of his late wife, in a good way. That tingling feeling inside even intensified briefly.

“Well, I think it’s important to grow real food, cook real food, and eat real food. I just can’t stand eatin’ Nutricator garbage anymore. It turns my stomach.”

The old woman put her knife down and wiped her hands on the apron she wore around her waist. Her smile crinkled that old face up even more than the sun and time itself had done already.

“I agree. So, instead of you paying me to teach you this recipe, Nephew, I think you should spend that Credit on teaching others how to cook it,” she proposed. “Set up in town and the young people will flock to the dark stranger. I think you might be able to convince some of them to change their way of thinking.”

August dropped the knife, and his face went slack.
 

Why hadn’t he thought of this before? What better way to pay homage to the greatest person August had ever known – the love of his life. He was incredibly wealthy. He could make a difference in the world again.

Excitedly, August wiped his hands on his pants to remove the remnants of food, and bent down to kiss the old lady on both cheeks. “Thank you, Auntie,” he said, barely able to contain his glee. “That is an excellent idea, but a little bit small for my likin’. I’m gonna have to take it to the next level. I’m gonna give the whole world a new life!”

He took off running out of her house without another word, ignoring her calls to get back and finish what he had started.