Gray Skies Read Online Free PDF

response, and went back to chanting, “Andie! Andie! Andie!” Sammi joined in, not caring that the older boys and girls around her remained removed in their conversations.
    “Are you sure?” Declan taunted. Sammi could see that he was having a lot of fun. The children roared louder, and stomped their feet faster. Sammi leaned forward until her middle was pressed hard against the lip of her desk. Declan swung the door of Andie’s nook open wide, and pushed the large graying button on its front panel. The child-sized android sputtered, shook, and whistled a loud mechanical yawn as it came to life. The children clamored another cheer, loving every bit of it.
    Immediately, Sammi could see how long it had been since Andie had visited the class. As the old android powered up and struggled to move forward, he turned, bumping into the side of the nook until Declan repositioned him. Sammi recognized the failed motor sensors, and the glitch in the programming. But despite its struggle, the children ate up the dreamy technology, and clapped as Andie sputtered again, and inched forward from his nook.
    The sounds of aged pitted metal and plastic belts joined the children’s enthusiastic hollers. Andie circled, and stopped, and then circled once more before rolling forward to the front of the class. The gray metal of Andie’s chassis was mottled with heavy rust; more than Sammi had ever remembered seeing.
    Too much salt in the air. Always too much salt , she thought, shaking her head. Although it was just an android, Sammi couldn’t help but feel sorry for Andie. She pitied the android, as though he were a sickly classmate. It wouldn’t be long before a resin coat or plastic replacement would be needed. Anything but metal , Sammi thought.
    “Hi, everybod-dy!” Andie sang in a playful tune. The children responded with another cheer, pounding their feet, and clapping their hands. They all waved to Andie; their fervent eyes stayed large, and fixed on the android. Sammi saw a few of her peers around her abandon their conversations and wave, too. Maybe it was rehearsed from years of seeing the same, or maybe it was in good fun. Perhaps it was just nostalgic, and sentimental. Whatever it was, she liked it.
    “Almost a full room! I love, love, LOVE a full ROOM!” Andie sang, and trilled his words. As he elevated his perfectly round head a half meter above his body, Sammi heard the soft purr of his motor. Andie turned left, and then right; his two silvery eyes reflected warped oval-shaped images of the class as he studied each student.
    “We are missing someone. Re-calculating. Re-calculating. We are missing a few?” Andie asked, lowering his bulbous head, and turning his face up to Declan. Sammi quickly looked around, and found that what Andie had said was true. Three classmates were missing: Harold Belker, and his two sidekicks, Peter and Richie. Sammi studied the empty seat next to her. She wondered what foulness Harold might have left behind on his seat. Thinking of the years of sitting near him, she shuddered, particularly as she thought of the last year, and the torture of having him next to her. How many times had she looked into his piggy face as he snorted and huffed callousness and cruelty, bullying anyone close enough to hear him?
    He has the face of a hog , she thought, as images of his sunken, beady eyes and his upturned nose with wide, flaring nostrils, reminded her of the hogs on the farming floors of their Commune. There was an ugliness, and even a meanness, that seeped from his pores, violating everything that he touched. As she considered the years of teasing and hair pulling, and the types of bullying that nobody should be subjected to, resentment began to turn in her, like a revolting sickness: vile and putrid.
    How many times had he put his hands on her? How many times had his cronies held her down in the corner of the classroom, hidden away from everyone? How many times had she felt his eager, piggy fingers on