Among Young Maple Trees

The day dawned crisp and clear. It was a cloudless sky, and the sun rose high above the compound. Even with the slight breeze that came with the unspoiled day, soon, the heatwaves would sweep the area, and they would need to retreat inside. Mornings like this were rare around this time of the year, and so, Janine and Vita decided to head out to the place they discovered together when they first relocated here. It was a small patch in the woods, filled with a cluster of young maple trees, that had begun growing out again. It was the one stretch of greenery that felt astir with life; the rest appeared almost barren and desolate as one would usually see in an average winter. For Janine, it was an untouched part of the disordered world they had now come to gain.

They headed out in time to seek refuge from the growing heat of the thick morning climate. Despite the challenges you would find everywhere these days, living out in the northern territories proved to be the most hospitable place for Vita's upbringing. Having moved around for so long, Janine knew that predictions in the weather became altogether unreliable. From her own experiences over the decades, this was the most bearable and closest to what earth used to be. After searching for research materials and expanding the mission's genetic facilities, Janine finally began to feel settled in one station. An emotional response she assumed real humans went through when assembling about new meaning into their lives, life itself. Vita created a purpose that was so distinct and unfamiliar to Janine that every day brought about a refreshing understanding of sentience. Janine was not a genuine human, even though her programming was so life-like that she had been fooled at times. She could only imitate the mortal forms that came before her. On occasion, Janine would steer away from her programming's purpose; and feel confused about why she started to consider an alternative. She was just intellectual property in a life-like skin suit, nothing more. In any case, both Vita and Janine began to feel their clothes plastering against their skins as they walked through the woods. It had an equally considerable effect on both of their constitutions.

Although Vita was also synthetically created in a laboratory, she was the first successful actual human being developed and was unlike everyone around her. She was as natural as it came, and she was Janine's creation. She arrived as incidentally as the young maple trees had begun resurfacing around the land. Every time Janine saw Vita, she was reminded of the swift passing of time. Clusters of settlements were beginning to spread out across the region. After long decades of research, Janine found the solution to the problem her kind was purposed with. And now that more people like Vita would soon inhabit and build anew on this healthy soil, Janine's time and others like her were coming to a sudden conclusion. She recognized that as life was about to commence for others, her consciousness was nearing its expiration. She only had a few precious milestones left to experience. She decided that her termination would be the most natural conclusion for someone like her in this larger story. All she could do now was spend her remaining presence with the young girl, who had grown very fond of her.

They sat below the tallest tree that offered the finest shade, and as conversation flowed, Vita decided to ask something she had never attempted to before. Not out of fear that it would upset the person who had taken care of her all these years, but because Vita's instincts told her that the reality they had created and became accustomed to would end with that discussion. She assumed that Janine would broach the subject herself first eventually. But, the day was a beautiful one, and Vita had developed an impatient habit about these sorts of things.

"Why do you have that around your neck?" Vita asked her.

Janine never anticipated someone asking her that question, for she was unsure how to answer it. At times she felt guilty for taking it along with her. Sometimes she thought she shouldn't have picked it up, let alone wear it. But leaving it buried in the dirt felt equally misplaced. There was little difference between right and wrong back in those times when she took it for herself. Things went haywire instanter. Time went as quick as a thought, and Janine being a medical soldier back then, felt weak at the battle. She would occasionally feel guilt, but it was worth keeping this heart-shaped locket around her neck for all the times it would bring her comfort. Even if it was a tattered photograph inside the pendant, it held importance to her. On the rare occasions she would open it, she was unsure whether she was eavesdropping on the dead or if her makers had become the judges to her faithfulness. It acted as a kind of aide-memoire to her, especially since she couldn't travel with unrealistic possessions along on her missions and her eventual charge of the growing girl. She never had any possessions to her name. Despite her stake in the rehabilitation project, it was something that her creators designed. It was not the result of her ambitions, and she could never claim otherwise. This was the only gift she could give herself that made her feel unique among all the monotomous meaning she endured.

"I've had it with me since before you were born. I collected it from a place you do not know. In a way, I grew up there, and that was originally going to be where we were going to rebuild, but that plan was abandoned long ago. I think you would have liked it there," answered Janine.

"Why did you take it?" The innocent girl asked again, full of questioning.

"It reminds me of my place. Not just in my sense of purpose, towards the new compound, my research, or you. But where I'm from and where I'll go. It belonged to one of my guardians, and when I leave this place, I would like to join them once again. Their names were Morgan and James; this belonged to her," said Janine as she revealed to her the photograph.

"She looks pretty. From what I can tell, at least," She replied.

"You look just like them both. That was what I hoped for. in a way, you remind me of my home better than this photograph can do for me now! " Janine said with a laugh.

"Well, by the time you go join them, I think the photo inside will be unrecognizable. we should replace it. And perhaps I can keep it since you're my guardian."

"Perhaps you should." Janine said with a smile.

And with that, the pair enjoyed their simple morning in a seemingly ordinary world, enjoying their mother and daughter-like companionship for the time they had left together.

(1173 Words)

By Chloe Verhoef