Barren Cove Read Online Free PDF Page A

and then, once I was fully repaired, I could swim. When asked by my friends why I would even want to swim, I’d found that I had no answer, and I tried to explain that it was just because there was no answer that I wanted to swim. Such a repetitive, mechanical endeavor seemed so . . . human. Perhaps Clarke and the pink-haired girl and all the others were right—I was outdated. More so than Kapec, because he was at least utilitarian. My very logic was outdated. I shouldn’t have been replacing my hardware, but rather erasing my memory and starting from scratch. But then, robots didn’t want recycled hardware anymore. They wanted to build their offspring from scratch. And I was criticized for being a human lover, for not embracing my robot self, when they were emulating humans in the ultimate biological form—procreating.
    But if here in Barren Cove there was still a human . . .
    Message from Dean: “Password accepted.”
    I returned to the cabana. Wet sand clung to my feet. I went to the console. It asked, “Download to memory, or open file?”
    I opened the file.

3.
    KENT WATCHED THE human child from the shadows of the cabana. The boy stood at the edge of the water, staring out at the ocean. Each wave covered the boy’s feet, foaming around his ankles, but he didn’t move. He didn’t seem to notice.
    Kent had come to the beach to be alone. But even here, the boy got in the way. Kent didn’t understand his sister’s fascination with the human, or his father’s obsession—they had been just fine on their own. Beachstone squatted down, sitting in the water and examining something beneath him. He sat. Kent watched.
    No, Kent could hardly believe the accepted history that humans built the robots, that they had ruled the world, and Beachstone didn’t help in convincing him. If Father was right that Beachstone was about the same age as Kent and Mary, one look made it apparent who should be the masters. He and his sister were the size of adult humans, and with more knowledge. All he saw in Beachstone was an inferior creature that could be crushed with ease. Humans died so easily. That was why therewere so few of them left. It was entirely plausible that something might happen to Beachstone on the beach right now, and that he might not return to Barren Cove alive. Like with the birds Kent liked to dissect, there was so little that separated human life from death.
    Kent stood and walked down the beach. “What are you doing?” he said.
    Beachstone stood and threw a shell into the approaching wave. It disappeared in the churning water.
    â€œI guess you really think you’re something, don’t you?” Kent said. Beachstone continued to stare out at sea. “You’re shit, you know that?” Kent said. He wanted the boy to look at him. “Father only brought you here because he felt sorry for you.”
    Beachstone looked at Kent. His pupils contracted; his eyes were steel. He started up the beach.
    â€œHey, come back here,” Kent said. “Hey, come back; I’m just kidding. I’m just fooling around. You’re not going to tell anybody, are you?”
    Beachstone went into the cabana; Kent followed him. Beachstone went straight to the back room and closed the door. Kent had thought that humans were social creatures. Didn’t they need companionship? Didn’t they need to talk? Beachstone was less expressive than Kapec, and he predated complex emotions. The sound of water hitting water came from the back room, and Kent realized that Beachstone was urinating. He was fascinated despite himself. He had known what the bathrooms were for intellectually, but to see them used . . . He wished he had followed the boy so that he could witness it himself.
    â€œBeachstone?” he called.
    There was no answer. Kent had expected some of the humans from town to come looking for the boy almost as soonas he