Teaser Tuesday

~~~
Home again.

The secretarial job didn’t prove to be any more satisfying the second week, either. More phone calls cancelling appointments, and no new clients, either. If this continued, she’d be out of the job soon.

However, the android was almost complete. She could feel a bubble of excitement growing in her stomach when she flipped on the light to her workshop and saw it sitting in a chair, cold steel and lifeless looking. But that would change today.
She could feel its blank eyes staring at her as she moved across the room to a storage closet. From inside she retrieved a bag containing silicone “skin” and a wig. Peering inside, she fought back a shudder. The contents gave her the creeps.
She set the bag on the floor in front of the android and propped her fists on her hips. She tilted her head to the side and considered. This was going to be so weird.

Awesome.

She had to bite back a squeal of revulsion as she handled the silicone skin and fitted it to the exoskeleton. Taking a needle and fine thread, she stitched the wig cap to the android’s head, using miniscule stitches.

There, now it didn’t look quite so creepy to her. It was simply… naked.

Going back to her storage closet, she rummaged in a box near the back, and pulled out a somewhat misshapen shirt, and with further digging, unearthed a pair of pants that had probably belonged to her father at some point, and dressed the android in them.

She was straddling its lap some time later inserting teeth when a voice behind her asked, “I hope you are fully aware of how awkward this looks.”

Karina gasped and her hands jerked, nearly sending the container of glue she was holding flying through the air. She turned. Her friend Erin was leaning against the door to her workshop, one of her eyebrows raised.

“Erin!” Karina said, righting herself. “What are you—“

“You haven’t called me in a week! I thought maybe you died or something!” She scowled at Karina, who blushed.

“Sorry,” She said, shifting her gaze away from her friend. “I, uh, got sort of caught up in this project, and, um.”

Erin raised her eyebrow. “Which gives you a perfectly good excuse to disappear for a week and a half?”

Karina couldn’t meet her friend’s eyes. “Sorry,” she said again. She fiddled with the nozzle on the glue bottle.

“Well. It’s okay, I guess,” she said, uncrossing her arms and coming into the room. “What’s that?”

“That,” said Karina, “is the project that is going to save my job.”

Erin’s eyebrow shot up again. “This is going to save your job.”

Karina rapped the android gently on the head. “Yup. As soon as Christenson sees this fella, he’ll be begging me to go back to my old position.”

“I don’t know.” Erin scrutinized the android. “Does it work?”

“I haven’t tried it yet,” Karina admitted. She didn’t really feel like testing it with Erin around. Fortunately, her friend didn’t seem interested in pressing the subject.

“Why don’t you come out with us tonight?” Erin asked as Karina made a pot of coffee in the kitchen. “A bunch of us are gonna go down to Carl’s and get drunk.”

Karina snorted. “Yeah, no thanks,” She said, handing Erin a cup of coffee. “Too much to do here.” Erin shot a glance at Karina’s workshop. “It’s not that,” Karina said hastily, crossing her fingers out of notice. “I have to clean, and do other things like that.”

Erin looked like she wanted to say something, but didn’t. She left soon after, and Karina stood by the window and watched her go. She did feel bad, of course, about not calling, but this was important! She couldn’t let it wait for too long.

She went back into the workshop and finished inserting the teeth. It looked human now, sitting there in her father’s old clothes, and a mouthful of teeth. Karina went over to the blueprints on her desk, and rummaged through them until she found a small envelope. Sliding it open with the edge of her finger, she tipped it over and let the chip fall into the palm of her hand.

Karina unscrewed a small panel in the back of the android’s neck and, taking a deep breath, slid the chip into the slot.

Nothing happened.

Teaser Tuesday

A snippet from LEGIT, my work in progress.

~~~

Karina hated her job.

“Are you firing me?”

Her boss moved his mouth around as though he were chewing on something. “Not… exactly.”

“What do you mean by “not exactly”?”

Actually, she loved her job. What she hated was her boss.

“What I mean is that you aren’t right for this branch of the work.”

Karina snorted. In her opinion, she was more competent than anyone else.

“So we’re relocating you to the office.”

“…The office.”

“Receptionist, specifically.”

Karina thought her head would implode at the thought. Receptionist? She was being downgraded to receptionist? Her boss had stepped back a step or two, as though he were trying to put distance between himself and the inevitable explosion.

She took several deep breaths in an effort to calm herself. She wiped her hands on the rag hanging out of her pocket. She knew why this was happening.

“I’m going home,” she said. She unhooked her tool belt from around her waist and laid it on a nearby table.

Her boss, still wary of an outburst, nodded. “That’s fine, you can start at the front desk tomorrow.”

Karina clenched her teeth but didn’t say anything. She grabbed her bag and went into the bathroom to change. When she came out again she threw her boss a filthy look. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He nodded, and she left before giving him the chance to say anything.

The walk home seemed to pass by in a blur of rage, and before she knew it she was stomping up her front path, tripping over a previously unseen object, and scraping her chin on the cement.

She groaned.

Slowly, she picked herself up off of the ground. Before her, a briefcase lay on the ground.

Karina gingerly touched her chin as she considered the briefcase. It wasn’t hers. Tentatively, she reached out a hand and grabbed it, then stood up.

She fumbled with her key for a moment, then unlocked the door. Sliding her hand along the wall, she flipped on the light switch.

Her cat, who had been sleeping on the armchair, raised her head to look at Karina. She slammed the door shut and flung the briefcase onto a table. At the moment, it was the least of her concerns.

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