“I did it for mah grandmother”
“What?”
“To answer your question, why I did it, I did it for my grandmother. Well the rings and cars were for fun, trying to get people to laugh, to cheer up the ultra rich with something money can’t buy, a good hardly laugh. But the house? I did it for my grandmother.” Miu blinked as a little grin curled across her face. Now she was getting somewhere. She had a motive, now all she needed was the means since no one person should get an entire house for a few moments of talking.
“Why didn't you tell me the inf- the story you told to get the house then Yoki and we can call it a day?”
The woman only folded her arms tighter. “If the world is so thirsty for my information, using it as money and whatever, why should I tell you? I could buy a nice cup of coffee with it instead” Yoki’s tone dripped with disdain as her mouth twitched into a sneer.
Unperturbed Miu straightened her uniform “It will act as part of your bail Yoki, that is if you tell the truth.”
“And how yah gonna gage that?” Yoki leaned back in her chair again cocking an eyebrow. Miu merely nodded at the mirror. Seconds later a small freckled face opened the door and stood next to the Commander “With someone who’s entire programming does not allow it to lie.” Beeb smiled at Yoki “Hello Yoki, I’m Unit 23607 or Beeb as I like to be called. I will be placing a hand on your arm to monitor heart rate and other biological markers of lying. At the same time I will be cross checking all available data files to ensure the information lines up with past archives.” With that they stepped forward, placing a cold silicone clad hand on Yoki’s own warm skin. The woman shivered slightly and stared at Miu as if to ask really. Realizing there was no way around it Yoki sighed and cleared her throat to begin.
“Yah probably know I live on the road or whatever. Yah probably got tracking devices in our phones and chips and whatever so you know I bounce around. Well I didn’t always, which I also guess is predictable. But there was a time I came home to a house full of people. I lived with my Ma, my Grandma and my brother. My dad he…” She faltered glancing at Beeb, deciding she didn’t know if she knew the truth about her father. “Well he didn’t live with us. But it was the three of us for many years. My mother and grandmother ran a little pottery shop, making dirt into works of art. I remember coming home and getting hit the the smell of baked clay. Most people say they love the way fresh baked cookies smell, well I loved the smell of a fresh cooked vase.” She snorted and smiled in spite of herself. “My grandmother she… she was so patient with me. I was a loud rowdy kid. I know, hard to believe right? But I broke more vases than I can count on all my fingers and toes. It pissed off my mother. She would yell at me telling me how many hours it took to make the thing. But my grandmother… she’s a fixer, in every respect of the word. She would always bend down, dust pan in hand and gently collect every fragment of my mistake ushering me intah the workshop and have me help her melt metals like gold and silver. Together we would put the pots back together or well...making something new outta them. She would tell me that mistake are just opportunities to shift gears, try something new.
“God I love her. It felt like she was the one who could pour gold into the cracks in my heart, making it feel whole again. When you feel… when you feel left, abandoned. When that feeling is shared with your own mother, your primary support system, it leaves yah to feel just, well like a broken pots. Unusable, unwanted and fundamentally shattered. I’m sure i would sunk to a low, low, low place without my Grandma. We all would have…”
Yoki trailed off looking over Miu’s shoulder as if talking to someone else entirely now. Something about this confession bothered her. Why couldn’t Yoki just get to the point? Hearing the admiration in Yoki’s voice made Miu feel as though she was reading a verbal diary, full of exposed naked emotion. The Commander sat stoned face glancing at the robots face in order to gage whether or not the woman was lying. But Beeb remained neutral only offering a small smile at Miu’s prolonged eye contact. Miu offered no such warmth back.
“Yoki I hardly see how this is necessary... Just tell me what you told the poor home owner,” the Commander’s fingers drummed a steady, irritated beat on the table. The criminal seated across from her straightened the wistful look in her eyes evaporating. “Believe it or not Miu, I am finally co-operating and telling you what I told ‘em.”
“Call me Commande-”
“You must of have someone in your life who cares about you. Someone who loves you to the end of the earth and back. Who would bounce you on their knee and know what kind of bandaid to put on the scrape on knee so you would snicker through the sniffles. Someone who knew your favorite song before you did. Someone who would do anything for you…”
For the first time in the entire investigation, Miu struggled to find what she wanted to say. Her mind was full of memories she had forgotten she had, ones she had already sold for work clothes, a new car, her adult life. As she sat there, Yoki’s words still bouncing off the tiny room, Miu saw her mother. A tall woman with long black hair, and the softest smile. For a moment, Miu’s head tingled as she remembered the slow morning seated in front of the mirror as her mother brushed her hair, singing an old japanese hymn as she did so. She realized now with a heavy heart she could no longer hear the words to that song …
“So yah do have someone out there? Glad to know you weren’t the feral child raised by a back of androids” Yoki snorted, amused by how the commander's face had dipped down to stare at the table. Caught in this display, Miu assumed her stalk straight position and tapped her fingers loudly.
“Believe it or not, I was so bored by your off track methods of answering my questions, I merely drifted off to think of what I must do when my shift ends,” Miu let her eyelids fall into an unamused expression. Of course this got her the reaction she was after as Yoki threw up her hands only to have Beeb and the chain yank them back down.
“WHY YOU-” she began but was interrupted by a high robotic voice. “Yoki your vital signs show you are agitated” “No shi-” “You need to settle down and give the commander the factual knowledge you possess in order to proceed with this investigation. Commander Miu does not respond well to anger.” Yoki paused glancing at the commander who seemed a little off put by this accurate diagnosis of her behavior. Grinning at the discomfort, Yoki complied and began again.
“As I was saying, I did it for my grandmother. She grew up in a little shack by the sea. And when I say shack i mean actual shack. The boards holding up that excuse for a roof howled when the winds picked up. She used tah tell me how she would cut out pictures of magazines, pastin em on a piece of cardstock and make her dream houses. It was something to distract from the dreery inside of her so called home. In her future she would have something big and grand with a staircase that makes you dizzy just looking at it. The castle to the princess my grandma knew she was,” Yoki grinned drawing the outline of a crown on the table.
“Well she didn’t get no castle. But she managed to upgrade from the shack which ain’t that hard tah do when a front door with a working lock is a massive step up. Her house with my ma and I was small but cozy. Bedrooms for each of us, the out back kiln making everything feel warm. She had a proper couch where she would spend days knitting and doing crossword puzzles and even cutting those magazines. Her vision board was more like a vision wall at that point. But now it wasn't just a house for her, it was a house for us. A huge kitchen for her, with a pantry you could walk into. A queen bed and a tub with those lil feet for my ma. A play room for my baby brother, and a tree big enough for a house in the backyard for me. And of course that huge staircase. Depending on the day, sometimes she would say it would be Victorian style others it would be a Craftsmen style house. But it always had the same layout…” with that Yoki reached into her pant’s pocket. Beebs grip on her arm tightened as they whirred in concern. Miu shook her head at the andriod “She is unarmed, let her show us what she has.”
The crumbled paper smelled of old newsprint as it crinkled in Yoki’s hand. The woman tried desperately to flatten it until the wrinkled lines now illustrated a plan. It was a crude drawing definitely done by someone young with the help of someone with far steadier hands. Upon closer inspection it was a blueprint for some house. Different colored ink pointed to the fact it was done over what Miu assumed was years. Some had worn away while the blue look far fresher. Rooms were added, descriptions updated, furniture better rendered.
“It was always this layout. We decided it would be this layout.” Yoki grinned more to herself than to the two officers of the law. “So… well I went looking for a house that exists off of a sheet of paper that matched this. We both did. We would take these long walks into neighborhoods peeking over fences and swapping tales of what we thought the people inside were like. If we were really bold, the two of us would go to open houses, adorning fake accents to make it look like we had the money to casually purchase a multi-million dollar house. Well, at least back when people wanted money.”
Miu touched the paper, her mind again flickering to how her own shaky hand was once guided by slender fingers. How with the help of a keen eye, she would draw out her dreams on paper. Wasn’t that the nature of childhood, scribblings in the attempt to make thoughts real? To show them and get the satisfaction of someone finally understanding what was going on in that head of yours. When did she stop scribbling? When did her dreams stop leaking out of her? Pushing the paper away Miu goaded Yoki into continuing. “So you sought the house we apprehended you for so your grandmother could live in her dream home.”
Yoki looked startled at Miu but nodded. “Yes, I wanted the house so she could live there.”
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