Unnaturals Read Online Free Page A

You're awake, and everything is fine. You may go home."
    He smiled at her, then of course looked away. He wasn't humming into his microphone, but Mel had watched people for a long time without people caring to watch her. She knew he was interacting with his computer in some way.
    "What is this, Doc, a new interface? I know doctors get them before the rest of us."
    "Ah, so you noticed. Of course you would..." He looked at her briefly, then smiled in the direction of one of the walls. "Thoughtmotion interface, young lady. Thoughts and emotions. Better than our music. Better than our humming, I should say. People don't play music. Machines do."
    "How about Death?"
    "What!?"
    "Children playing music, in Death. Death is a city, I suppose. Or was. What happened to the cities that the articles of decades ago mention, Doc? They mention more than four cities, but the teachers are vehement about what the truth is today. What is truth, Doc? I know it changes all the time. If I go and write, right now, that Death City still exists, will it exist, Doc?"
    The doctor had become pale.
    "Oh, doc, it is all right, I am sorry! Wait a moment, I'll get you your pills, just a moment. Medstat!"
    The machine wheeled towards her.
    Pallor, she was going to say but didn't need to. The medstat had already dispensed the familiar pills. Mom took them often. Mom became pale often, especially after she heard Meliora say something unnatural. The doctor stared at his computer, then away, then at the computer again. She noticed he didn't have the many physical screens any more. Perhaps just one suited him better. Just one suited her better, but of course she'd used more when it was fashionable. Otherwise, someone might notice.
    "Will the thoughts interface work better than the hummie, Doctor?" she said. "The hummie messes things up. I would think of something in my mind, but when I hum the message for my mom, she receives different text in her computer. The words she sees are more like something she would have said. Years ago, with the typing interfaces, or even with the speech ones, we used to send our words to our friends. Now the computers translate too much. I am wondering how they do this at all."
    "Words are imperfect, young lady. Feelings are what is true—and what will be true. Words, on the other hand... Have you thought of what you want to do now that you're an adult, Mel?"
    " Whatever adults do, " she'd have replied a day ago. "See a new city, find a mate, have a child created, have a job whenever the fashions deem it necessary, buy food for the child, take the child to school for the first time when the time comes." Now, she said nothing.
    "What do you think of becoming a doctor?"
    "Me? A doctor? Doc, in case you have forgotten, doctors are supposed to make people better, while I shoved a person into a wall today! Did it make her better, you think? Isn't there supposed to be...to be...punishment for me now?"
    "Punishment?" He was genuinely puzzled. "What for?"
    "I did something bad. There must be punishment for bad deeds. I feel guilty, Doc."
    "You should not, Meliora. It helps no one, least of all you. As for punishment—you read too many old articles. Punishment is old. Doesn't work. Never did. Other things do."
    "What things?"
    He didn't answer. He must have become tired of talking for so long about something that wasn't a new computer or new pants. He was squeezing his computer now, eyes closed.
    I could shove you even stronger than I shoved that woman .
    She didn't even know where this thought had come from, or why. It wasn't natural—and for the first time in her life, her own abnormality frightened her.
    "Did you do this to me!?" Meliora screamed. " What did you do to me? Did you manage to finally give me your pills? Did you mess with my mind enough to make me hate myself!?"
    "Hate? Yourself? Meliora, hate is not good. Hating anything, whatever it is, goes beyond unnatural. No one in Lucasta would ever do this to you. Lucasta wants you to