Artificial Heart

Prisha shut down her computer, having finished work for the day. Finally. It was late, the sun already set, moonlight gleaming in through her window. She’d worked right past dinner.

Leaning back in her seat, she stretched and stared up at the ceiling. It had been another boring, run of the mill day. She supposed she should count herself lucky. No more collapses. Only a brief dizzy spell when she woke. No psychiatrists or police or unexpected visits from worried sisters.

Prisha chewed her lip.

It was getting closer and closer to Saturday and she was getting anxious. He said he would find her. But she didn’t really trust him and the urge to go down to the shop and buy another tent was all-pervasive. Her feet practically itched for it. Particularly when things were happening around her that should be happening to her.

There’d been two more—albeit extremely brief—sightings of UFOs over Russia and Malaysia.It was too coincidental. It had to have something to do with Alf.

I will find you.

Really? Because it seemed like he was having immense fun zooming around Earth without her.

Prisha jumped at the sound of her phone ringing. She didn’t need to look to know who it was. Just upon twilight, same time every day, since Prisha’s hospital visit.

‘Hello, Sis.’ Prisha gripped the phone tightly. ‘Yes … mmhmm … mmhmm … I told you, I’m fine. No, no, you don’t need to come over.’ Prisha sighed. ‘It’s just the usual boring old day … yes, I suppose it’s a good thing. Okay, love you too. Bye.’

She hung up, went to put it down, thought better of it and swiped for the news. Prisha stared. Another UFO sighting.

I’m only seen when I want to be seen.

What the hell was going on? What was he doing? Her belly squirmed with jealousy. Was he abducting other people? Had he lied when he said he would return? Was she not enough?

So many questions. So many questions she needed to ask him. Prisha tossed her phone onto her beanbag, then turned towards the window.

Down the street was dark and empty. Her heart leapt at a flash of light but it was only a car pulling into a driveway. Her skin prickled. She licked her lips. Just around the corner was a park. Just a little park with a small swing set and a field the kids liked to play cricket in. She pressed her fingers to the back of her neck at a weird tingle.

Prisha lurched right up to the window and laid her hands against it. She leaned in close, pressing her nose against the glass, squinting. Her heart started to race. She could really go to that park right now. It seemed the perfect place to be. The perfect place in a way she couldn’t understand. It was warm. It was dry. And she’d been inside all day. She could go swing on that swing set or lie down in the grassy field. It would be soft and quiet. Something different.

Yes. That sounded so great.

Wrinkling her nose, Prisha reached around to press her fingers to the back of her neck again. The tingle was turning to a burn. She turned with a wince and practically skipped towards the door. Hurriedly, she slid on her shoes and picked up her keys. The door slammed shut behind her. She hadn’t locked up properly and she wasn’t wearing any socks but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but the park.

She simply must be there.

Right now.

At first Prisha walked fast. It quickly turned into a run. Then she was sprinting down the street, her shoes thudding in the quiet. A dog was barking. There came the usual whoosh of traffic from the nearby highway. A streetlight gleamed against the road. She turned onto a footpath, skidding through loose gravel.

Minutes later, she arrived. Panting, Prisha raked her fingers through her hair as she gazed at the playground. A bright moon gleamed against the equipment. The grass crunched sharply beneath her shoes. It wasn’t soft at all. Now that she was here, it didn’t seem all that great. It was odd. Foolish. What the hell was wrong with her? Was she going insane? What was she doing here?

She turned to head back home when something caught her eye. There was something wrong with the air. Just a patch of it, about head height, not much larger than the size of two large hands. It was … it was shimmering. That was the best way to describe it, though it hardly described it well at all.

Prisha gazed at it for several moments, then raised a hand to touch it. With a shout, she leapt back as the shimmering suddenly solidified. As a huge structured took form. As twinkling lights gleamed. As all her hopes and dreams came into being.

The ship hadn’t made a sound.

Prisha glanced around quickly but she was very much alone. She turned back to the familiar ramp, swallowing hard, her throat suddenly dry. She raced up it.

He was there, Alf, sitting at the controls as though nothing extraordinary was happening. As though he did this every day. The ramp shut quietly behind her, snapping off the light of the moon. Lights twinkled like stars from the ship’s walls, bright in the gloom.

The alien didn’t turn, he didn’t speak, no acknowledgement. His back was towards her, remarkable helmeted head looking small upon his broad shoulders. Prisha forgot to breathe as she watched the spaceship lift off, the park disappearing beneath them, the trees falling away, the twinkling deep dark blue of the sky filling the view.

Then that was gone too.

Blackness. Innumerable stars. The turning sphere of Earth pulling away.

It was good to be back. More than good. It was … right.

Alf turned in his seat. His big gloved hands were braced on his knees.

‘I wasn’t sure you’d come back,’ Prisha breathed.

‘I said I must.’

‘Are you capable of lying?’ A strange question. Could machines lie?

‘No.’

Prisha laughed. The excitement, the sheer thrill after so many days of boredom and hope and despair … it all crashed down upon her. He was here. He was here. She didn’t just dream about it. And somewhere in that mysterious helmet of his, he remembered her, he thought about her.

He cocked his head. ‘You are laughing.’

’Well … shouldn’t I? An absurd question, isn’t it? Are you lying? I wouldn’t know either way.’

‘If I answer in the affirmative, it is true.’

Prisha had to think for a moment. ‘That’s true. That’s very true. I didn’t think of that. You’re smart, Alf.’

He gazed at her for so long Prisha looked away, feeling awkward. She suddenly felt stupid for laughing about such an idiotic thing. And of course he was smart. Way too smart for this kind of conversation. Her cheeks flushed with heat.

‘I’m very glad you came back,’ she said.

‘I said I must,’ he repeated.

Inexplicably, tears filled her eyes. ‘I like it here. I like it here very much.’ She looked around the ship, at the glowing lights, at the smooth sleek surfaces, at the indescribable technology as she deliberately avoided his attention. And you—I like you very much, Alf.

‘I like you being here, too.’

He turned back to the viewing window like what he said didn’t make Prisha’s skin prickle or her heart skip a beat or make her want to leap for joy. He reached over and pulled out the same seat as before. Prisha sat down beside him, feeling hot.

‘I missed you,’ she said.

Prisha turned her head away, the heat of her embarrassment burning her cheeks. Where the hell had that come from?

‘You appear improved,’ he said.

‘I have been eating through your little bags. Sometimes two a day,’ she said quickly.

‘I will supply more.’

‘Thank you.’ She gestured towards the window. ‘You’ve been busy. Is it you flying around the planet? Causing a ruckus?’ She tried very hard to sound nonchalant, staring hard through the window into space. ‘Is my data not enough for you?’

‘I have enough data.’

‘I thought you didn’t want to be seen.’

‘I did not say that. It is my designation.’

‘Your designation?’ Prisha frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

‘It is my designation to make contact.’

Prisha jerked her face towards him. ’W-what? Contact? You mean … you mean real contact? Other—other than me, I mean?’

‘With your assistance,’ he said.

Prisha’s mouth dropped open. She snapped it shut. ‘My-my assistance?’ She gave a nervous chuckle. ‘What do you mean “my assistance?”’

‘For communication.’

Prisha frowned. ’Communication … but you can communicate with them. You talk to me perfectly fine.’

The blinking lights of the ship gleamed against his visor. ‘I suppose you would not know.’

‘Wouldn’t know what?’

He reached over to touch the back of her neck. His fingers rested there for several moments as they stared at each other. Then it suddenly hit her.

‘I’m not speaking English, am I?’ She touched her mouth with a start. She hadn’t noticed it before. How had she not noticed it before?! How was that possible!

‘You did something to me. On the bench. During those four days. You put something in my brain. To communicate with you! To find you here at the park!’ It suddenly all made sense! ‘For you to locate me! To know where I live.’ She pulled away, stumbling from her seat. She grabbed at the back of her neck but she could feel nothing. ‘Is there a chip in me? What else do you know about me?’ Could he see her thoughts? ’What else have you done with me? Jesus. JESUS.’

‘You are frightened.’

‘Nah, shit, Sherlock!’

He cocked his silly, amazing head. ‘I do not understand.’

‘This can’t just be about data collection.’

‘Correct.’

‘What else then?’ The hospital had scanned her head and found nothing. But of course they wouldn’t. Alf’s technology far outstripped theirs.

‘Communication. I must interact with your species.’

‘Through me,’ Prisha said quietly. ’Why me?’

‘You are here.’