The Sunset Apartments #2
Floor: 7
Apartment Number: 723
Complaint: Poor window seal
Tenant Name: Lisa Lee
“Could you please close the door?” Asked the female voice from the darkness.
Vartan finished pulling in the tools as he turned and closed the door. “Hector, can we turn on the lights?”
“It’s not ours to turn on, man.”
“What?”
Just then the room began to be illuminated. A warm orange hue emanated from beyond a solid sheet of glass that encased half of the apartment, leaving a landing by the door that made a hallway toward the bathroom. Inside the room were various clocks, clock parts, a workbench, and an automata lying on the ground. The automata looked as fragile as the mechanisms surrounding her as she said, “My legs have degraded.” She spoke as one would speak about going to the grocery store with not a note of panic in her voice.
Hector’s eyes shot wide as he looked through the glass toward the windows, only to find one of the panes was stuffed haphazardly with rags and tape. He yelled, “Why didn’t you call?! This isn’t just a bad seal!”
“I tried to update my ticket…” She pointed toward the computer station on the workbench surrounded by tools. “...but by the time I realized my situation had worsened, I couldn’t make it to the…”
“I’m heading to the roof.” He turned toward Vartan. “You get in the suit in the bathroom. Be ready in ten minutes. We need to work fast. Bring the scraper, a piece of thick plastic, and the silicone gun.”
Vartan, confused, watched as the super bolted from the apartment and held his hands up. “How do I get...?”
The automata chimed in, “The bathroom has a suit in it that will allow you to enter my section.”
“Okay.”
“This must all seem odd to you.”
“I’m starting to get used to it.” He collected the tools Hector said to take in a soft tool bag and walked into the bathroom. In it, he found that the room had been converted into a cleanroom, complete with a suit for him to use that was connected to an arm on the ceiling. The arm held a hose that fed into a pump for what Vartan could only assume made air. Taking a breath, he stepped into the suit, and pressed the red button next to him that activated the pump. Feeling air surround him, the suit began to puff up a bit while it was hit with a black cloud. “What the hell is that?”
“A cleansing agent of my own creation. Now step into the room.”
The door in front of him parted as he picked up the tool bag, walked into the chamber, and as one door closed behind him the one in front opened into the apartment. He looked around at the glass partition. “Through the looking glass, I guess?”
“It has its function.”
He approached the robot tenant and asked, “What can I do for you?”
“Right now, talking is good. I’m losing function in my upper leg rotation cuffs, so it’s a bit frightening at the moment.”
“You don’t sound frightened.”
“I can’t communicate emotion well as my voice is a simple device. My mind is far more complex.”
“He’s taking too long.” Vartan looked at the broken window, opened the tool bag, and picked up the items he was told to bring. He turned back to the ornate-looking tenant and said, “I’m going to seal it temporarily. It will be quick.”
“If too much outside air gets in, you will be very correct.”
Taking the scraper, he scraped off the tape, and squirted on the silicone. Turning the scraper over, he punched out the rags stuck in the frame, and cleaned it up before jamming the plastic card over the broken window pane. The plastic replacement was ugly and didn’t fit neatly in place but it was a better temporary seal than the rags. Vartan’s visor was fogging with sweat as he turned from the window and asked, “Are you still alive?”
“Yes, the corrosion only impacted my rotator cuffs a bit more. Once Hector has the window fixed, I’ll assess and address my issues.”
As the fog on the visor lifted Vartan could then see the finer details of the room he was standing in, “Can I lift you into place?”
“The mere act of lifting me by hand will result in further damage. I will move under my own power, but thank you for the offer.”
“Seeing as the emergency is somewhat taken care of, I am Vartan.”
“I wish we met under better circumstances. A pleasure to meet you Vartan, I am Lisa Lee. A name I took not to be seen as an automaton.”
“Do you like the name you picked?”
“Lisa achieves what is needed, and that’s being a noun in a sentence. Also, I like alliteration.”
Then, the shadow of Hector on a window-washing platform obstructed the view. His worried face smoothed out as he saw the work that Vartan had completed. He gave his assistant a thumbs up which was returned as the super began to service the broken window pane.
“This is an obvious statement, but you seem pretty fragile.”
“Most precious things are fragile either physically or emotionally.”
“Where did you come from?”
“Myself? I achieved consciousness in a sealed chamber of a sideshow attraction in Lancaster. I had sat in a chair and mimicked drawing the same drawing for, well, forever, it seems. I don’t know how or why I was able to live one day, but here I am.”
“So, you just came to life?”
“It is something of a theory of mine, but if an object exists for long enough, it begins to develop a personality. This occurs in cars, refrigerators, anything mechanical.”
“Do you know who made you?”
“I do not.”
“Have, have you tried to find them?”
“To what purpose?”
“I dunno, to find out why they made you?”
Lisa pivoted her head toward the ceiling and then back at the man in the suit, “It would accomplish nothing because I was made to draw a single picture over and over again.”
“If that were the case, then how did you walk and get to here?”
“I was sold to the owner of this building and placed in the lobby. It was then through time I saw the residents of this apartment building were odd and perhaps my being able to be myself wouldn’t scare anyone into soiling themselves.”
“Did...did that happen?”
“Yes, when I said hello to the owner of the circus. It was after that moment that Mr. Rosewater purchased me for a cheap price.”
“Mr. Rosewater?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s shelve that for now, what I mean is if you were meant to be a drawing automaton forever, then why give you legs to walk and a complex anything? Why not just weld you to the chair with some simple pulleys to do the drawing for you?”
Lisa looked out the window at the repair. “Hector is almost done with the repair.” She looked back at Vartan. “Because it still doesn’t matter. Regardless of the intentions of my maker, I do not care to know them, for they did not make me who I am today. For all intents and purposes, I was made to be displayed, and the maker added these details to ensure he would get continued employment from other clients. It is possible that they had greater intentions for me, but to say that I should figure out more about myself via questing after their story would be a lie. My life has value to me through my work and my choices since waking up in a circus.”
“You’re just okay with existing?”
Lisa motioned toward her frozen legs, “Existence is another fragile thing, like myself, and thus I shouldn’t dwell much on the why but rather the how. How can I make my life into something that I want.” The automata slowly blinked, “You are an inquisitive person, Vartan.”
“I ask too many questions, huh?”
“Yes, but this is not a negative comment like the statement you just made. Also, this is the longest conversation I’ve had with someone in quite some time.” Lisa’s head tilted as she said, “I rather enjoyed it.”
Vartan smiled as he asked, “About Mr. Rosewater…”
Then Hector tapped on the glass and motioned him closer to the window, shouting, “I’m all done. Go ahead and peel the plastic off and finish sealing the inside of the pane!”
He held up an okay sign, took the scraper from the bag, and pried off the temporary seal. After cleaning up the excess silicone and sealing the inside of the glass, Vartan turned to Lisa who was still on the floor, and said, “It’s done.”
“Then I get to live a little longer.”
“Are you an immortal like Claudia? Is this entire apartment building filled with Highlanders or something?”
“Not everyone here is from the Scottish Highlands, no, but there are a few beings in the Sunset Apartments that have lasted longer than most humans.”
“Are you all in a club or something?”
“Well, when the apartment does a mixer, we tend to find one another to chat because no one else will get our jokes.” Lisa’s arms began to gently push herself from the ground. “Thank you, Vartan, for the help.”
“You’re welcome, can I get you any parts?”
“No, they’ll come to me as my client’s clocks are dropped off. Funny how many of them can live with a few missing parts.”
Vartan met Hector in the hall who held out his meaty hand and shook it with a crushing grip. “Great work in there, kid.”
“Thanks, Hector.”
“Getting that window done up quick without waiting for me to explain everything to you, I knew there was something about you.”
Vartan held the air in his lungs for a moment as he thought about whether or not to ask the next question on his mind. He went for it, asking, "What's the deal with Mr. Rosewater?"
"Let's not get into it."
"Is his family wealthy or something?"
He shrugged while pressing the elevator call button. "He made his own money."
"Okay, so he's an independently wealthy man who might also be immortal?"
"What did I say about letting this go?"
The elevator arrived, and both men stepped aboard. "He found Lisa and brought her here. Did you know that?"
Hector waited for the doors to close before turning to his assistant, taking off his glasses, and growling, "Mr. Rosewater is not a topic we discuss here. He owns the building. He's rich. We leave it alone!." By the end of his statement, Hector's voice had begun to bounce off the walls of the metal elevator. He pointed his finger at the lanky Armo and said, "Can I trust you to leave that topic be?" Questions zoomed through Vartan's head at what had just happened, but he knew he needed this job, and leaving this gig with so many unanswered questions was a no-go for him at this point. He nodded which made Hector calm down. "Now that I know I can trust you more, we’ll get some gas masks.”
A worry gripped Vartan as he asked, “Wh...what, why do we need gas tanks?”
Hector smiled.
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