In the middle of my lounge room, a woman is sitting on my white leather couch, if it weren’t for the clothes, I had previously given her she would have blended in with the white colour. She is foreign to the place everything matches perfectly the lamps, the television, the countertops, the chairs but not her. She sticks out like a sore thumb. All the furniture in my house is monochromatic therefore everything blends, and nothing is more prominent than something else but the permanent blush her cheeks have to keep drawing my eyes over to her. “Are you feeling better now?”
She replies with a smile, “Very much so.”
She is very polite for someone who has been out on the streets for so long in the middle of winter, I honestly don’t know how she has survived. But one thing still lingers, “I’m 26 years old and I know that the Zoie Project was launched 150 years ago so when I was created it would have been 124 years ago so why are you the first woman I’ve seen. Were their very few of you?”
She laughed, I’m starting to think anything amuses this woman, “Half the human population was Male and the other half Female.” What!? Half? There was an equal number of creatures like her in this world to us, then why? “We were wiped out by genocide.” She answered as if reading my mind.
“Genocide!?” I stuttered.
“Yes,” She continued “Once males found an inexpensive way to create children with the female species, they started a revolution of sorts and women were wiped out by genocide.” My mouth was hanging from my jaw in utter shock and surprise.
My thoughts are a mess, I was born from the Zoie Project just like everyone else, yet this is the first time I’ve heard such horrible things. How did the government allow this, how is nobody aware? “Delphina.”
“Yes?”
“How old are you,” I asked.
She chuckled, “Now didn’t anybody tell you not to ask a lady about her age.”
I furrowed my brows, “What is a lady?”
Once again, she chuckled, “Not of importance. I am 23 years old.”
“You’re older than I thought,” I said.
She burst out in laughter, “Did you think I was a teenager? Oh my! what were you thinking,” Laughter continues to erupt from her voice
I was shocked, “No! nothing like that it’s just you’re so small.”
Her laughter died down, “Okay.” She smiled and then proceed to talk. “I was wondering something,” Delphina spoke up, this time a question for me I forgot I ended up asking all the questions. “What’s your name? Before you said you technically have a name,” Her eyes twinkled with wonder and curiosity “Please?” She’s right I did say that.
I look down at my feet and look at my light leather brown shoes, I click my heels together a few times. I look up into her eyes. “My name is Atlas.”
“That’s a name, right? Why is it technically you have a name?” She pushed with her twinkling eyes.
“Well,” I pause for a second, “We are given labels based on our personality. Never have we called it a name, just a label.” Labels are given to Zoie children to differentiate them as some look similar to each other due to the creation process. In the beginning we are all created alike and in a certain image we are programmed in a way to act a specific way alive a certain life depending on this it determines your lifestyle such as where you live, where you work, what activities you participate in it’s all thought about before we are even made. How I got stuck with Atlas is beyond me. I hate it. At work everyone expects me to do their work and when I say ‘no’ they get offended, it’s idiotic.
“So, no one calls you Atlas, but everyone knows that’s what you have been given?” She asked, still inquisitive.
“Yes,” I reply
“Atlas?”
“Yes?”
She giggled, “Nothing.” I look at her again her eyes are no longer glassy they a shiny and bright. It makes me smile. “Oh?” She blurts out, “I didn’t know you could do that.” I laugh at that line, it reminds me of the first time I saw her smile I thought the same thing, I guess we’re not so different. As well as her smile is cute.
I stood up in a flash, flushed. “Um, I-um, you need clothes, I’ll go get some pants and socks.” Now she was looking at me with a face of concern and confusion. I quickly stride out of the main room into my bedroom and close the door behind me only to exhale and rest my back against it. Why is my face hot? I go quickly over to my mirror and look at my face. It’s flushed with red, I touch my cheeks, it’s also warm. What’s wrong with me? I look down away from the mirror to my feet and just stare, I slowly raise my head back up to see that the red has faded, and it is now a light pink tint on my cheeks. The only other time my face has looked like this is when I go to the gym but that’s because I’m putting stress on my body. This has happened for no reason. I just breathe in and breath out as if I was at the gym, I look at my face once more to see the pink tint is slowly disappearing. I might be coming down with cold, but I can’t worry about that now. I go through my drawers and try and find a pair of pants that could fit Delphina but to no avail. I pick up a pair of grey trackies and a salmon coloured hoody this way she didn’t have to wear the heavy coat I gave her before. Does she want underwear? Do her kind wear underwear? I’ll just give her it anyway, I also pick up a pair white sock. So, in total that’s track pants, a hoody, underwear, and a pair of socks, well done me.
I walk out of the bedroom to see Delphina sitting in the same spot before just staring out the window, “Hey, I’ve got some clothes that you can change into.”
She looks up at me and smiles as usual “Thank you,” she stands up and takes the pile out of my hands, then proceeds to look through it. “Oh?”
“Oh?” I repeat
She looks at me with an innocently blank face “You gave me boxers.”
“Yes.”
She looked away and smiled, “Thanks.” I wonder what that meant. “Can you please take me to your bathroom?”
I nod and take her to my bathroom, going back through my room and into the master bedroom’s en suite. “Here you go.” She proceeds to enter and then just seems to freeze, “what’s wrong Delphina?”
She turns around and looks at me with intensity, “Atlas. why don’t you have a door in your bathroom?”
“Never needed one.”
“I see, well is it possible for you to look the other way then.”
I finally registered what was happening. “I am so sorry I’ll leave right now.” I quickly pick up my thoughts and start to leave the room. “I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t say leave,” she softly says from the bathroom.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ499YrAFIfF
