Chapter Nine DecorationShe had some explaining to do, but that could wait. She held him for a long time, then quickly put him the rest of the way back together.
He looked as good as new. Now if there was only a way to fix her broken heart.
Wall•E was not mad. If anything, he was more concerned for her. But they had time to talk, and to heal, and to work out a way of communicating that would reduce the chances of a mistaken identity. Each resolved never to let anything so silly come between them again.
This lasted something like ten minutes. Then Eve looked up, stiffening. One of the probes was approaching—Probe #6. It only took a moment for Eve to realize what was happening, and she clamped down on her feelings as she gently disentangled from Wall•E and went to the door control. Wall•E rolled to the door next to her, and took her hand. She held on, maybe a little too tightly, but she needed reinforcement to face her sister. And her own guilt.
The ramp door lowered to the ground, and Eve did a double take. What had looked like dirt on Probe #6 was actually a marking. Eve looked closely; it was a number—“6”—engraved right into the material of her torso.
“See?” the probe said. She pointed to the number with what sounded like pride. “Probe #6 marked. No identification failure.”
Wall•E released her hand suddenly, and Eve was alarmed—but then Wall•E tapped his hands together excitedly. “Evah, look!”
Eve’s head tilted as she looked at the fresh engraving. “All probes?”
Probe #6 nodded. “All probes.”
Eve pointed. “How?”
Probe #6 was smiling. Eve had never seen that before. “Mary say. Burn•E do!”
At last, Eve could smile in return. She reached out to hug her sister, something she had never done before. In shiptalk, then again in English for Wall•E’s benefit, she said simply, “Thanks.”
#
Months came and went, with the humans struggling through another winter. They spent most of their time indoors, as they had too little clothing for most to venture outside. The robots, most of them, could continue to work. Wall•E did what he could, including keeping the working pathways clear of snow. He was good at this, and worked tirelessly. It was a long, bitter time, but finally the snow retreated for another year, and work could begin again on the crops they needed to survive.
One Spring evening brought an invitation to Wall•E and Eve’s home, to visit Mary. She had a surprise waiting for them.
Wall•E moved quickly along the trail, practically dragging Eve along by the hand. She, smiling, seemed happy to allow herself to be dragged.
As they neared Mary’s shack, one of the earliest built with Wall•E’s re-stacked cubes, Eve spoke—her voice filled with wonder. “All probes here.”
Wall•E looked ahead, but could not see them. He knew that Eve could tell where they were and which one was which. Not for the first time, Wall•E wished that he had that particular trick; it would have saved the Couple a lot of grief. But that was all over with now.
Just in front of the home, now, they could see Mary with several other colonists, including Mari Tess the artist. Wall•E had seen her work, and hoped to learn more about art someday; he had dabbled a little bit with welding things together, but her work was pretty. She liked to draw an animal called a “gryphon.” Wall•E had seen very few animals, and except for the few recovered from the Axiom, they were all just in pictures from the ship’s library. But that was okay. Thanks to Mari’s work, Wall•E knew what a gryphon looked like.
She drew lots of other things besides. Maybe she had done some artwork over the winter for Mary and John. Wall•E and Eve rolled forward in happy anticipation.
They skidded to a stop as they rounded the corner. Tucked around the side, waiting for them, were all of the probes just as Eve had said. But they were different. Wall•E clapped his hands together in delight. “Look, Evah!”
Each of the probes now sported a decorative pattern on the once-white shells. The numbers were still there, but each pattern was unique.
One by one, each of the newly-painted probes came forward and introduced herself, first to Eve and then to Wall•E. Each had a name, now.
“Probe #3 Embra,” said the first. “Embra,” she repeated, pointing at herself. Her happy blue eyes set in the black face panel now hovered over a swirling pattern of black swooping shapes running across her torso.
“Erin,” Probe #4 said. Green plants adorned this shell, with rounded leaves that were different from the plants in their crops and from the first plant Wall•E found. He always had a happy thought for plants, and he hoped that Erin’s new pattern would bring her luck as plants had for him.
“Ellie” came next, wearing a bright, swirling yellow pattern that seemed to long for the sky, and for adventure. “Echa” and “Ekra” and “Efra” and “Ebra” followed, each one different in her colorful dots or swirling curves or angled patterns.
They gathered around Mary’s home, talking and laughing into the evening. Everyone, including the sisters, complimented Mari on her work.
Dave Grayson made something of a fuss over each one, explaining why that one was his favorite. Then he would move on to the next and repeat the process—until he finally confessed that they were all his favorite.
It was a long happy time later before Wall•E and Eve made it back to their home.
“Wall•E?” she said, as she held on tightly to his hand in the twinkling lights of their home.
Wall•E gazed at her, noting how her own shell reflected the colorful lights he’d found so long ago. “Evah,” he said.
“Wall•E … want Eve paint?”
He reached out and took her other hand.
“For Wall•E,” he said very seriously, “Evah is perfect.”
# # # # #
The Painted Sisters (designed by our very own GryphonWorks):
GryphonWorks' ArtStuffMy thanks, once again, to GryphonWorks and her artwork contributions, including the Painted Sisters above and
the marvelous cover art for the novel Colony Crisis.
What did you think of this little story?
===|==============/ Level Head
