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A Postindustrial Love Story.
Dedicated to the girl who asked The couple were sitting together on a flat roof of an old stone tower, watching the sun go down. On the horizon were enormously large skyscrapers - one of the industrial cities of the Northern Region. But the couple were looking only at the sunset. "My Juliet..." "What, my Romeo?" "Did I tell you I love you? I want to tell it again and again." "You have told me it a thousand times," - she turned to him and looked at his face, - "And I love you, my beautiful Romeo. I love hearing you say those magic words. Say them one more time." He kissed her. "I love you, my dear. And I will love you to my death. And after the death. Always." She kissed him. "I know, my love... But it seems that something is bothering you today." He kept silent for a while. "You don't know all about me." "My, dear, you don't know all about me either. Don't talk. Don't talk if you don't want to. I love you as you are. And nothing you can tell me may change it." "I... I want... I want you to see it. Not now... A little later... It's only the evening now... Remember I went to the city a month ago?" "Oh, sure I saw that your helicopter is on its place, and so you didn't go anywhere." He shook. "Did you know it?" "Of course, I did. But it's your business, and I love you as you are, you know this." She kissed him again. "Don't tell me anything, darling. I trust you. I will always trust you. Do you need to go somewhere again?" "Juliet... I will go now. You come after an hour... no, after two hours. Go down to the basement... Don't be scared of what you will see there... But you have to see it..." "Oh, my Romeo, you are so mysterious sometimes." "Please, no jokes now... Please... I can't stand it... Today is the day again." "What day?" "A full moon night." A giant black wolf with burning red eyes was tossing in a low ceiling basement beyond a metal gate. His muscles waved as thick ropes under his skin. When he noticed Juliet enter the room, he stopped and clanked his very white four-inch teeth. Juliet skeptically looked around. "Aha, I see. That's what you wanted to show me. On a full moon night you turn to this animal and think that it may change my feelings to you. So you locked yourself in this big rusty lock and the key... aha, here it is... and throw the key out. And what is it? A rifle? The wolf opened his terrible jaws and said hoarsely, with big efforts to speak each word: "If you don't love me anymore, shoot me, because there is no reason for me to live. It's loaded with silver bullets. Death for sure," - He spoke very hard, the last word was like a simple howl. "Oh, my silly naive Romeo. If you don't like the moon, we will go and sit at the fireplace." She came and stretched her hand through the gate. The wolf put out a wide red tongue and thankfully licked her fingers. "You know, Romeo, I didn't tell you everything either," - Juliet took two sticks of the gate and in one forceful jerk, pulled the door out with the lock and a part of the wall. The wolf sneezed from the concrete dust in the air. - "Lets go, Romeo." - "...so I'm the seventh generation of human-like robots. I have to watch humans and collect the information. Our civilization is much higher than Earth's, and we are researching the possibility of the contact... But our robots are more than just machines. And the seventh generation is like a new race. I don't know what is happening with me, but I don't want to exist without you. Be careful. If something bad is happening with you, I will destroy my inner reactor... I will turn into the light. And will then stay with you forever." Juliet was sitting at the fireplace. The wolf laid beside her. His big shaggy head laid on her knees. His eyes were looking at the dancing fire. Juliet's hand caressed the coal-black fur. "I may try to understand the bio-physics of your transformations, this can't be too difficult. But you must know that I love you as you are. Do you hear me? Always." - Juliet raised the scary head and looked into its' eyes. Black points of wolf's pupils slowly got wider, and the wolf licked her nose. Juliet laughed. - "That's right. And now sleep." Next night Juliet showed to Romeo the star she arrived from on a black cloudless sky, and Romeo told her how he has been running miles and miles in a dark wood at a full moon and that night smells in the spring make wolves feel drunk. They were looking at the stars for a long time after. |