“Uh … yeah. Actually. I have. And I was wearing them today. I mean yesterday. The last time I was awake.”
The light switched off. A purple blur replaced its glow in Hwa’s vision. The claws left her face. She felt a little dizzy without them to hold her in place. Dr. Mantis drew up to its full height.
“It might be a ghost,” Dr. Mantis said.
One if its lights turned on, and a projection appeared on the opposite wall. It was an old-fashioned pencil sketch of a human eye, with a lightbulb and arrows and a pair of very old, chunky specs. As the robot spoke, the images animated across the wall.
“It’s called palinopsia. It’s like seeing something on a delay. You see it there, long after it’s gone. It can be a side effect of seizures. Accessory visual stimuli can buffer in your perception, especially if you’re not used to it. That compounds the problem, especially for patients like you. It’s something to think about, if you want to keep wearing your device. You might be processing visual field information long after your eyes actually perceive it.”
“So it really was a ghost,” Hwa said.
“From a certain point of view.” Dr. Mantis’s claws clicked together. “Get it? That’s an optometry joke.”
“Oh. Yeah.” Hwa chuckled. She gave the robot a thumbs-up. “Good delivery. Very deadpan.”
All three sets of claws clasped each other. “Really? I’ve been prototyping my bedside manner.”
Hwa suddenly felt very bad for not having called the thing a real doctor. It was just trying to run its program, like everyone else in this town. They were all perched on top of machines, after all. Even the towers were built mostly by drones. She should have shown it more respect right from the start.
“Yeah, you’re doing a great job.” She mustered a smile. “Thanks. How’s my eye?”
“It is perfectly normal,” Dr. Mantis said. “There is nothing wrong with your vision.”
*
<<You look like shit,>> her mother said.
“I got shot,” Hwa replied.
Hwa watched Sunny’s gaze light on the valve on her right arm. <<Now your other side’s all fucked up, too, huh?>> “Aye.”
Acknowledging her ugliness was always the right password for entry into her mother’s home. It was the coin of the realm. Sunny backed away from the door and waved her into the side room. It reeked of something sweet. At first Hwa thought Sunny was trying out a new perfume, but the smell came from the floor. There was a huge pink stain in the carpet near the fridge.
“What happened?”
<<I spilled a whole tray of jelly shots. They hadn’t even set up.>> Sunny sat down at the low table in front of the display. She’d gotten a bigger one, since Hwa was last there. It hung across most of the wall.
“You moved the trophies,” Hwa said, and realized that was why she’d come back. Her new place wouldn’t be complete without them. Sunny acted as though she hadn’t heard. She kept her gaze pinned to the display. “The trophies,” Hwa said, a little louder this time. “Where did they go?”
<<I’m watching this.>>
Hwa looked at the door to Tae-kyung’s old room. Their old room. She could go in. Right now. She could do it.
She couldn’t do it.
She moved to the refrigerator. Sunny hissed as Hwa crossed her line of sight. Hwa ducked down and squatted in front of the fridge. Not much: a jug of the iced tea Sunny swore was good for the skin, with odd bits of dried roots floating in it; a six-pack of green shakes in subscription bottles; three bottles of pink champagne; and way at the back, a jar of kimchi.
Aside from their language, it was the one piece of their heritage that Sunny had hung on to. She had grown up eating it. She credited it with her good figure and excellent constitution. It was all she ate, after every surgery and each childbirth.
<<If you’re eating my food, you’d better replace it.>> Hwa didn’t answer. She wedged the fridge door open with her body and used her good arm to pull the jar out. Then, sitting against the fridge, she braced the jar between her legs and opened it with her good hand.
There was a coat of white fur across the top.
“Son of a bitch…”
Hwa stood up. With a pair of ice tongs left out on the counter, she removed the mouldy layer of kimchi. The stuff beneath was wet and red. Shrugging, she used the ice tongs to start eating. She’d consumed three big bites of the stuff when she noticed Sunny staring at her.
“What?”
<<Nothing.>> Sunny went back to watching her drama.