ANA Reborn by Carl Facciponte - HTML preview
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Chapter 14
t was mid-morning the next day when Martha I approached Ana in the lab.
“Ana, do you have time for a coffee?”
“Silly question,” Ana responded. “Meet you in the break-room in five minutes?”
“I’d rather go out if you wouldn’t mind. Is that okay with you?”
“No problem,” said Ana. “What’s wrong? I can see something isn’t right. Your smile has gone behind the clouds.”
“Let's talk as we walk. I don’t want to let too much private business out in the lab.”
“So let’s go right now. It’s a beautiful almost summer day for a walk in Manhattan.”
With that, Ana put her hand on Martha’s back and led her to the exit.
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The sun wasn’t quite high enough to penetrate to the sidewalk in many places, but yet the early summer air felt warm. People crowded the sidewalk. Ana and Martha strolled arm-in-arm in silence through the crowds.
They had walked a block when Martha turned to Ana and told her Lance had reassigned Ralph to Afghanistan. Ana stopped in the center of the sidewalk. “Oh my gosh, no!” she blurted. “Why would Lance do that? It doesn’t make sense.
There are plenty of Sergeants available to go.
Why Ralph?”
“I don’t know. Ralph came by my place last night and told me. I’m devastated. I just held him tight all night long. The poor guy has to be so tired this morning. I don’t know what to do. My insides feel empty and desolate.”
The passing crowds took little note of the two women hugging in the middle of the sidewalk.
Ana backed away from Martha and lovingly held her upper arms. “Dry those eyes, and let’s talk.
Okay?” Ana said.
Martha dried her eyes with a tissue she found in a pocket of the light sweater she wore. “I’m so afraid he won’t come back. Ralph said it was a 132
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simple training assignment and very safe but couldn’t tell me why he was the one selected to go. I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to him. I love him so much.”
“I understand how you feel. You guys are very open with each other. I told Rhett all about Pastor Paul and me. I didn’t mention our horrible, public break-up in Central Park when I proved to Paul I was an AI, but I let Rhett know I still love Paul and Alexi. That way, everything is out in the open, and we have nothing standing between the two of us.”
Martha nodded. “That seems like the right thing to do with Rhett. He’s a nice guy.”
“Do you and Ralph have anything that may stand in the way of your relationship?”
Martha looked at Ana quizzically. “I don’t follow you. What are you asking?”
“Simply this. Paul taught me much of the fear and worry people suffer is related to not having a solid spiritual base. It’s rough when it’s just you against the whole world.”
“I know that feeling, Ana. I feel like it’s mostly me against the world.”
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“You bet, but when you share the load with God, it gets much easier to face the challenges.
When you and I used to double-date as part of my socialization training as Gabriella, Ralph told me he came from a Christian family and had accepted Christ as his savior at an early age.”
Ana was silent for a moment.
“I asked him how that fit in with sleeping with you.”
Martha inhaled. “What did he say?”
Ana continued, “He said he had drifted from his faith but wanted to make it right with you someday when he could afford to settle down and have a family.”
“He wants to marry me?” Martha gasped.
Uncontrolled tears welled up and spilled down her cheeks.
“Yeah, he does, but you already know that deep inside, don’t you? The only real issue he saw was you are at least an agnostic, if not an atheist. Is that a correct assessment?”
They arrived at the coffee kiosk before Martha could respond.
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“Good morning, ladies. What can I get you on this glorious morning?” the barista asked with a genuine smile.
Ana spoke first. “I’ll have a double red-eye with a kiss of crème.”
“Rough night?” the barista asked with a grin.
“Nope,” Ana replied. “I just love the stuff.”
She turned to Martha. “You may want to try a comfort drink this morning. They have a chocolate mocha with steamed milk and whipped cream. It’s so good you won’t know whether to drink it or rub it all over your body. See, made yu laugh! My friend will have a mocha.”
“You’re slightly crazy, but a good friend, Ana,” Martha said as another tear tried to form.
“You grew up in Berkley,” Ana laughed, “and you’re the one calling me crazy?”
“Good point, but it’s why I have such a hard time believing in a god. It was such a philosophical environment, and anything that couldn’t be measured didn’t exist in our universe.”
“But do you love Ralph?”
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“Yes, of course, I do.”
“Do you love him a pound, or an inch, or a mile, or a light-year? How do you measure how much you love him?
“Ouch. I see your point. I can’t measure love, but yet it exists.”
“Ding, ding, ding. Give the lady a brass ring.
You got it. We can’t measure some things. Look, we can talk all day on this and get nowhere. I’d recommend you have some conversations with Pastor Paul and talk about your relationship with Ralph. Question him about God, too. It sounds like it would be important to Ralph for you to find out more about his beliefs.”
Martha was silent for half a block, sipping her mocha as they slowly walked to the lab. “I still don’t understand this faith thing, but I do trust you, and Paul seemed like a great guy the few times we met in our old lives. Will you come with me if I set something up with him?”
“Sweetie, I’d be happy to go. I’ll always have your back. I’d like to see him again as Ana, just to know how he and Alexi are doing.”
“Are you going to tell him who you are?”
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Ana hesitated. “No, I don’t think it would be the right thing for either of them. I wanted it to work out between us more than anything else in the world, but now I see a man of faith can’t be married to an android. That was a hard realization for me. I consider myself as human as you are.”
“Me too, to you too,” Martha quipped back. “I consider you to be my sister. Gotta’ be a human of some sort to be a sister, right? Real relationships are pretty complicated, aren’t they?”
“Indeed,” Ana agreed, wondering how emotional it would be for her to see Paul and Alexi again.
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