The Body Electric - Special Edition Read Online Free PDF Page B

memories that words can’t describe, the memories that are as much a piece of her as her arms and legs. Those are the ones she’s filled with now.
    Mom’s face looks up to Dad’s, and I know now she truly is in the reverie, and this feeling of peace and joy will stay with her long after she wakes up.
    It worked.
    I turn to leave. It’s safe for me to go now; Mom’s reverie is definitely connected.
    But I glance back. I can’t help it.
    I miss Dad, too. I miss the way he looks. My own dreams are nowhere near as vivid as Mom’s. And even though he’s younger here than I remember him, and he has a scruffy bit of facial hair that makes him look reckless, and he’s missing his glasses, and there’s more hair on top of his head, it’s still Dad.
    And then he looks at me.
     
    “Ella,” he says, his voice cutting through the soft sounds of memory in sharp, precise tones. “Ella. You have to wake up.”
     

ten
     
    I jerk so hard that I crack my skull against the sonic hood. I throw it back, ripping the electrodes off my skin, nearly breaking the chain of my necklace in the process. My skin vibrates. I stare at it, awed and scared, as my flesh ripples like an earthquake. The vibrations seep past my skin, into my bones, and I feel as if I’m hearing something , the buzzing of my soul within the confines of my flesh.
    And then I blink, and everything is silent and still.
    I cover my eyes with a shaking hand, trying to regroup. A hallucination. My body is reacting to the extra nanobots I injected myself with. That last image was… disturbing. And it shouldn’t have been possible. Reveries aren’t real. I wasn’t really there in Mom’s head. Memories are nothing more than electrical impulses shooting across the brain’s synapses. There is no way Dad—it wasn’t Dad, it was just a dream of him—there’s no way that could have seen me. Could have spoken to me.
    I gasp, and check Mom’s stats, worried that the last image of Dad being so weird and creepy affected her. But she’s blissfully asleep, still in her dreamworld, her health stats calm and far better than they were before we started.
    The door slides open and Ms. White bursts in, her eyes wide and panicked. “Ella!” she screeches. “What did you do?” She rushes to my side, noting the cold sweat prickling my skin.
    “I did it,” I say, fully realizing what just happened.
    “Are you okay?” Ms. White ignores me, checking the health stats on my cuff. “Where’s your mother?”
    I jerk my wrist free and grab her hand, forcing Ms. White to look at me. “I did it,” I repeat, a smile breaking out on my face. “I did it!”
    “Did… what?” Her voice is hesitant and wary.
    A quiet beeping starts from the control panel, followed by a flash of red. “Mom’s almost out,” I say, jumping from the chair and pushing past Ms. White. Her head turns between me and the secondary reverie chair, and I almost wish I’d been looking at her face when she noticed the empty nanobot vial.
    “Ella!” She gasps, chasing after me.
    I race into Mom’s reverie chamber just as her eyelids flutter open. “Good reverie?” I ask, beaming at her. My smile falters. What if she remembers when it almost broke? What if she remembers Dad being so strange?
    But then I see her expression, and my heart melts in relief. “The best,” she says.
    I help her get up out of the reverie chair. “What did you remember?” I ask, even though I know the answer.
    Mom squeezes my hand. “My last good day.”
    She moves forward to talk to Ms. White, but I’m paralyzed. Her last good day. Every day since then has paled in comparison to that one day, years and years ago.
    Mom’s new nursing android, Rosie, stands at attention by the door and Mom leans against her as she heads to the lift.
    “Coming?” Mom asks, the happy glow of her reverie around her so palpable that I can almost see it.
    “No—I need to talk to Ella about her internship,” Ms. White says before I can