CHAPTER 12: HOME
Arlene continued to walk down the lonely road all by herself. She was thinking nothing else than the road ahead and the home she will reach where she will soon reunite with her Mama Isabella and be with her forever, never to part. She hoped that her Mama would be sitting on her usual sofa, sipping her favourite hot chocolate, waiting for her to come home. She couldn’t wait to be with her. She had been away from her for too long to bear.
As she walked on, a police car passed by. His sirens were on at that time, but as the policeman in the car noticed her, he turned off the siren and slowed down his car beside her. Arlene saw him, but she just smiled innocently at him and continued on her way.
“Hey, little girl. Where are you going?” the policeman asked. “You look really filthy.”
“Mama said I shouldn’t talk to strangers,” Arlene replied, not looking at the policeman. Kitty nodded in agreement.
“I’m not a stranger. I’m a policeman. I help people, see?” the policeman tried to talk the same level as the 10-year-old Arlene, showing off his badge. Not that Arlene was interested to see. “Where are you going, little girl?”
“Home. I’m going home to my Mama.”
“That’s a very cute Super Toy you got there. What’s his name?”
“Kitty.”
“And you?”
“Arlene. Arlene Santonio.”
“Well, Arlene Santonio,” the policeman said as he opened the door and got off the car. He touched Arlene’s shoulder gently and asked, “Would you mind if I take you home? You tell me your address and I will send you back home to your Mama, OK?”
“Mama told me I shouldn’t hitch rides with strangers,” Arlene was still hesitant.
“I told you, little girl, there’s nothing you should be afraid about me,” the policeman flashed his badge at her again. “I’m a policeman, and policemen help people, right? I’m here to help you.”
Arlene stared with her pair of aquamarine eyes at the policeman for a while, took a glance at the police car. Finally, she nodded and took his hand, letting him lead her to the car. She sat at the back seat and told the police her address fully and clearly. She remembered the address from the data she had absorbed from the letters that her Mama got.
“So, uh, what are you doing out there all alone?” the police asked.
“Well…I got lost. I sort of got off the car when my Papa went for a leak and I got lost. I’m trying to walk back home.” Arlene told him the twisted truth.
“Well, judging by the address you gave me, I say you’re in for quite a long trip. You must have been walking through the forests now, have you? You look practically smothered.”
Arlene nodded. Lucky for her, the police thought that all the blood and brain juice and a whole lot of gory whatnot on her clothes were dirt and grime due to the mildly poor lighting of the streets.
“Weren’t you afraid that there might be dangerous animals or vicious robot junks lurking around?”
“Not really.”
“Well, seems like you have a lot of faith in you, I see. If you ever get caught by any of those vicious-looking robot junks I heard often dumped in these forests and if you’re ever get mistaken as a robot by those Flesh Fair guys, you’d wish you’re at home.”
“My sentiments exactly,” Arlene agreed, recalling the incident when she walked alone in the streets.
“Speaking of Flesh Fair, I just came back from a terrible fire scene. One of the Flesh Fair offices got toasted and we found loads of burnt-down bodies lying around the ground. We thought they died burning, but it turned out that they actually died by stab wounds. Their bodies were like, eew, ripped off their hearts and crashed off their brains and such…am I grossing you out, little girl?”
“No, I’m used to it,” Arlene replied innocently.
“A tad too much horror movies, eh? Well, we couldn’t find any fingerprints or the murder weapon ‘coz it’s all burnt down to smithereens. No one knows who the killer is and my bet is that he could be still out here, lurking in the dark, ready to strike again. You’re lucky to have found me, or you’ll be dead meat!”
“Thanks, Mister Policeman,” Arlene replied, trying to conceal the grin on her face. If only he knew who the real culprit of the fire was.
The duo went on their way down the road towards Arlene’s home, chit-chatting along the way. The police made a stop at the gas station to do his ‘business’ and came back with a cup of coffee in one hand and another cup of hot chocolate in the other hand. He went into the car and offered the cup of hot chocolate to Arlene.
“Here you go, Arlene. One cup of hot chocolate for the road.”
Arlene shook her head and said, “I can’t drink, sir. I cannot eat anything. I will break.”
“Break? What do you mean ‘break’?” the police asked, surprised.
“I mean what I said. I’ll break.” Arlene repeated herself.
“You mean…you mean as in break down? Like a mecha breaks down when they eat anything?” A good policeman often figures things out in a jiffy. Arlene nodded, smiling sweetly. The police started his car, giving her an uncomfortable sideways look, “Are you trying to say that you are actually a…a mecha?”
“You can say that. Everybody says that,” Arlene replied, taking the cup of hot chocolate. “Thank you for the drink. Mama loves hot chocolate.”
They continued down the road in silence. The police found it hard to believe that the dirty little girl sitting beside him with a Super Toy in her arms was actually a mecha. And a mecha child nonetheless! All the while, he thought she was a real ragamuffin girl who got lost in the forest, wanting to get home. Wait till he gets back to the station to tell the news. He was quite impressed at what wonders Cybertronics could do. ‘But if she’s a mecha,’ the young police thought, ‘would she be able to…?’
His eyes glanced at Arlene’s body naughtily.
“That’s my house! We’re here, sir! That’s my house!” Arlene shouted in excitement as she pointed towards the direction of her long awaited home. After such a long trip, she was finally home. The police glanced at it from his windscreen for a minute or two before swerving towards a dark inconspicuous corner. Arlene was surprised.
“Sir? What are we doing here? Why aren’t you stopping at my house?”
“It seems that Cybertronics have done a great job making you very life-like,” the police said naughtily as he inched his way to the backseat towards Arlene. His hands fondled with her clothes, ready to take them off.
“Sir, what are you doing, sir? Let me go! I wanna go home to my Mama!” Arlene put up a struggle but the police was a tad stronger.
“I’ve been with grown-up love mechas before but I’ve never seen a mecha child. Are you the new version of the love mecha?” the police asked, removing the top of her dress.
“Let go of me! Let go! I wanna go home to Mama! You promised to take me home!”
“Not until I’m done with you,” the police whispered as he slowly kissed Arlene’s fair neck and began to fondle with her body. Kitty knew exactly what the police was trying to do. He jumped up and tried to pull his hand away from Arlene’s body but the police flung him away, shutting him off in the process. He slowly started to take off her underwear and began to touch her at ‘the place’. Arlene gasped, shocked. She didn’t understand what the police was exactly trying to do to her, but she knew that he was stopping her from meeting her Mama.
Arlene struggled, trying to push the police away from her but he was older and stronger. She wanted to go home, but this police wouldn’t let her. She wanted to get out of the car and run home, but the police was on her, trying to do something that her programmed 10-year-old mind couldn’t comprehend. She wanted to go home! She wanted to go home and be with her Mama forever, no one to stop her and no one to come between her and her Mama, but this policeman…
Her hand felt something hard and cold. She grasped it and took it out. With her specially-programmed eyes, she saw in the dark that it was a gun. She had seen them before in the movies. She had her finger at the trigger. Struggling, she pulled out the safety pin and when she felt the police’s ‘something’ on her ‘place’, she fired.
The police yelled in pain as he backed away, letting Arlene go. He was shocked that Arlene had his gun in her hand and was even shocked to see his right shoulder bleeding. Arlene was glaring at the police with her gleaming aquamarine eyes.
“Now, Arlene. That thing is dangerous…put it down…” the police was struggling to both holding onto the pain and stop Arlene from doing anything stupid.
“Why are you doing this? Why didn’t you let me go home? I just want to go back to be with my Mama! Is that so much to ask?!”
“Arlene, calm down. You’re not thinking right here, I—”
Arlene fired another shot, this time on the police’s left shoulder. She continued to glare in hatred at the police, hissing and gradually raising her voice, “First, it was Angela, then it was Roberto, later it was Paulo and those people at the Flesh Fair! And now it’s you!! Why are you always keeping me away from Mama? I just want to be with Mama! That’s all I ask for! Why are you always in my way?!”
“Flesh Fair…? The burning…? It…It was you…?! But…” the police stopped abruptly when Arlene had the mouthpiece of the gun at the hollow of his throat. It was still warm from the shot she had made.
“Why don’t you join the rest of them? You’ll have so much to talk about.”
Arlene’s sweet smile was the last thing the police saw before the burning blast claimed his throat and his life.
Isabella heard the gun shots. She tried to look out of the window to see what was going on but couldn’t see anything. She was still staring worriedly out the window when she heard the sliding sound of the front door. She put away the hot chocolate she was drinking and rushed towards the door.
There she was, her little girl Arlene she had been waiting for so long. When she heard the news about her husband’s death and the disappearance of her little girl, never once she was able to sleep peacefully. The police kept telling her that they were doing everything they can to find her but it wasn’t enough. Every night she sat at the living room, hoping that her Arlene would survive the crash and come home safe and sound. Now she had got her wish. She ran and hugged her little girl, crying happy tears.
“Mama! Mama! I missed you, Mama!” Arlene couldn’t help crying herself.
“Oh, my little girl! You’ve finally come back! I was so worried!”
“I’m sorry, Mama, I wanted to come home sooner, but…” Arlene’s words were stopped with Isabella’s hand.
“Hush, Arlene. You’re home now. That’s all that matters.”
“I love you, Mama.”
“I love you too, sweetie.”
Finally, Arlene was in the arms of her Mama again.
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