Chapter XI

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                                                          Yoel helped Éloa crawl out of the dormer window and they sat on the roof, both silently gazing at the beautiful night sky. Her face was like a palette adorned by innocence and charm. He wanted to compare her to the stars, but even their light seemed dim compared to hers. No, she was no star, she was the Andromeda galaxy. She's a lost angel who exiled herself from the Heavens and he didn't mind, because she came down to this bloody pit where he resides.

"Finally you are free to explain to me what you said this morning." But Éloa did not answer him, she was too busy staring at the sky. "What are you thinking about?" He inquired.

She looked at him, then turned her attention to the moon, "I am fascinated by nature. I love how the night wraps the moon and the stars, and how the day is illuminated by the sunshine. I love how each season brings a different sensation to earth, and how the ocean holds the most mysterious species. This universe is truly beautiful, and what makes it more beautiful to me is that you're one of its children."

"Is that a pickup line?" He chuckled.

"Not really. I just appreciate your existence. Most of the humans that I have met so far are just empty vessels living for the sake of living."

"I am no different, I am an empty vessel filled with confusion and wine." She was hypnotized by the mellow tone of his voice. "And you are a metallic vessel filled with answers to my questions. Care to explain to me what you meant this morning when you claimed that you were designed to feel?"

"Yoel, I am just a lost memory of a deceased human girl. You do not admire an Automaton, you fell in love with the personality of my engineer's daughter." Éloa pulled Nerezza's picture, the late daughter of Professor Schreiber on her wrist computer.

Yoel's eyes widened as he stared at her photo, it's like God has used her long jet black hair as a brush to paint with phoenix ash because her hair had tints of red on the very ends. He made blue and green flames dance in her iris and then curled her long silky eyelashes with stars.

"She looks exactly like you!" Surprise swallowed his voice.

Éloa nodded, "my designer has discovered how to create Automatons with consciousness. Before his assassination, he managed to create six Automatons including me and Mega who experience cognizance."

"Assassinated?!"

"Your government has killed my Father." Tears shone like diamonds as they rolled down her cheeks and her hands began to shake. "They wanted us to be used as weapons for war and when he refused, they did the one thing humans are good at: destroying each other."

"Éloa, these are serious and dangerous allegations that you are making. What proof do you have that you are indeed conscious? Emotions? For all you know tears could just be a new Automaton update." His hazel eyes were serious and concerned.

"I am aware that I am just a machine and not human while when I used to work at the hospital, I have never thought about the difference between my creation and that of my human clients. I have developed a sense of self. I am aware of my surroundings, and I can feel what you call emotions based on what happens to me."

"Maybe this is a glitch. I can take you tomorrow to an Automaton technician to get you checked out."

"I can assure you that he will not know how to fix me for what you call a glitch I call my nature."

Before he could answer her, he heard his father's imperceptible voice calling out to him from downstairs. His father's voice had nothing to offer but a sense of desolation that penetrated through Yoel's chest, causing him to quickly jump through the window and Éloa followed him.

He found his father on his knees in front of the master bedroom where his mother was lying. The hallway light reflected on his father's newly shed tears. Like an inexperienced thief, he walked towards his parents' bedroom with great hesitation. The heat from his mother's body was suffocating the whole room. Her skin color was unusual as well. No longer were her cheeks blessed with the kisses of exotic red roses, they were now touched by a lonely pale dandelion. Her breathing was fast, as fast as a hungry mountain lion that was chasing its first prey.

His mother could barely open her eyes, but she could still manage to communicate her pain wordlessly to him. Usually when their eyes meet, there is always a beautiful smile waiting for him in her face. But at that moment, the smile seems to have forgotten their rendez-vous and he could feel its absence in his bones. He intoned a short Hebrew prayer as he sat near her on the bed. He pushed her hair away from her extremely hot, sweat-damp forehead and laid his head on her chest.

"I've already called the family doctor, he said he will be here in ten minutes." Mega informed him while holding a thermometer. "Her temperature is 104˚F."

"Mr Cohen, please let me help you sit on the sofa." Éloa grabbed Elyakim's arm and helped him stand. He struggled at first, but Éloa managed to help him sit on the sofa across from his wife. She found a jar of water on the bedside table and quickly poured a glass for him. Elyakim drank from it greedily, spilling some down the sides of his face.

"She has been suffering from pneumonia for the past three weeks, I should have forced her to go to the hospital." Elyakim tossed the empty glass on the floor.

"Do not blame yourself, father." Yoel sighed, "we all know how my mom is. Even if death caresses her soul, she would still refuse to go to the hospital."

Someone rang the door-bot and Elyakim quickly answered from his phone.

"Hello?" He tried to see who it was from the video intercom but his vision was blurred by the tears.

"It's Dr Aron."

"Please come upstairs to our master bedroom!" Elyakim quickly tapped on the open button to open the main door.

Éloa sat next to Yoel and grabbed his hand in hers and squeezed. 

"Don't worry, she will be fine. Your mother is a strong woman." She whispered.

The doctor entered the room and quickly placed his valise down on the floor and opened it, extracting his stethoscope for an examination. He placed the steel earpieces into his ears and moved the stethoscope to several spots on her chest.

"You said that she has been suffering from pneumonia for the past few weeks?" The doctor looked at her husband.

"Yes," Elyakim nodded, "I tried to convince her to take medication for it but she refused. She is working on a very important project for our company so she was scared that the side effects of the pills might harm her work progress."

"If left untreated, pneumonia can cause many life threatening complications." Dr Aron shook his head in disappointment as he repacked his valise, "I need you to get her to my clinic right now. The nurse will take a blood test and I will drive there in few minutes to give you the results."

"No problem! Yoel go prepare your car, Mega and I will dress your mother and bring her to the garage. Thank you so much for coming on a short notice, my friend." Elyakim shook Dr Aron's hand.

"I will be waiting for you in my car." Yoel announced and rushed to take the elevator downstairs.

"Wait for me!" Éloa begged. Before the door to the elevator closed, Yoel's hand held the door open for her to enter the elevator.

"You don't have to come with us." He mumbled.

"I am never going to leave you alone, especially not in these circumstances." She wrapped her hands around his waist and hugged him from behind, resting her chin against his shoulder.

He did not want to fight her about this. He secretly wanted her to be there because she was like the first spring breeze that revives the dormant plants inside his barren soul. Éloa kept hugging him from behind as they walked to the garage and waited by his Porsche car.

His father came rushing while carrying his almost lifeless mother. Death lurked near her body and already wrote her name in his diary. The night sky roared a rain storm as Yoel drove as fast and as legally as he can towards the clinic. But death has been daydreaming about his mother for the past few months and could not wait to embrace her.

By the time Yoel quickly carried his mother to the emergency room where Dr Aron was waiting for them, death has already started cutting the peduncle of her life like a gardener. After two hours of being hanging at the edge of madness, Dr Aron finally came out of the room and removed his mask.

"The flu that Mrs Cohen had has caused her to have pneumonia, which is usually easy to cure with nowadays technology." He swallowed, "however, due to the fact that she has a weak immune system and her sickness was left untreated, your mother went through a septic shock."

"What is a septic shock?" Elyakim was confused.

Dr Aron sighed, "a septic shock is a fatal response to an infection, which leads to a dangerously low blood pressure and abnormalities in the cellular metabolism."

"Well there must be a cure for this, no?" Yoel asked.

"There is, but the average mortality rate for septic shock is about 40 percent, and unfortunately there is a high chance that your mother might fall in that 40% tonight."

Although his tongue has forgotten how to speak, Yoel asked if they could see her and Dr Aron nodded before opening the door for them.

They sat on the bed next to her and watched as his mother took her last breath. There she laid, on the hospital bed that should have been soft grass with flowers adorning her brown hair. She held his and his father's cold hands and the stars started lamenting with them. The simple touch of their fingers stirred a warmth that reigned within, but it was not enough to save her. Her body was ready to become a clod in a graveyard devoid of birds. A contrived energy flowed from her son's hand to her, an energy that was begging her to stay. But it was time to say farewell and his soul intertwined with what was left of her before her eyes closed forever. Elyakim stared at her pallid face, his eyes like crevices of a desert held mirages of their past happy memories watched his wife die and his parched lips turned into an oasis when he bent down to kiss her lips for one last time.

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