Robert Sawyer - Wake

MOST OF THE ADVENTURES RECORDED IN THIS BOOK REALLY OCCURRED; ONE OR TWO WERE EXPERIENCES OF MY OWN, THE REST THOSE OF BOYS WHO WERE SCHOOLMATES OF MINE…

My understanding of the world was growing by — another metaphor, and one that actually now made sense to me — leaps and bounds. Although I had learned various principles of science from Wikipedia’s brief discussions, the full text of great works made my comprehension more complete:

WHEN ON BOARD H.M.S. Beagle, AS NATURALIST, I WAS MUCH STRUCK WITH CERTAIN FACTS IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE ORGANIC BEINGS INHABITING SOUTH AMERICA…

With each book read, I understood more and more about physics, about chemistry, about philosophy, about economics:

THE ANNUAL LABOUR OF EVERY NATION IS THE FUND WHICH ORIGINALLY SUPPLIES IT WITH ALL THE NECESSARIES AND CONVENIENCIES OF LIFE WHICH IT ANNUALLY CONSUMES…

Most of all, I learned about the use of language, and how it could be employed to persuade, to convince, to change:

HOW YOU, O ATHENIANS, HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY MY ACCUSERS, I CANNOT TELL; BUT I KNOW THAT THEY ALMOST MADE ME FORGET WHO I WAS — SO PERSUASIVELY DID THEY SPEAK; AND YET THEY HAVE HARDLY UTTERED A WORD OF TRUTH…

It was a feast, an orgy; I could not stop myself, taking in book after book after book:

IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT; THE RAIN FELL IN TORRENTS, EXCEPT AT OCCASIONAL INTERVALS, WHEN IT WAS CHECKED BY A VIOLENT GUST OF WIND WHICH SWEPT UP THE STREETS (FOR IT IS IN LONDON THAT OUR SCENE LIES)…

Most fascinating were the workings of the minds of these others — their psychology, their actions and reactions to things felt and thought:

THOU BLIND FOOL, LOVE, WHAT DOST THOU TO MINE EYES / THAT THEY BEHOLD, AND SEE NOT WHAT THEY SEE…

And, out of those minds, great systems of social interaction had been devised, and I absorbed them all:

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED TO SAVE SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS FROM THE SCOURGE OF WAR, WHICH TWICE IN OUR LIFETIME HAS BROUGHT UNTOLD SORROW TO MANKIND, AND TO REAFFIRM FAITH IN FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS, IN THE DIGNITY AND WORTH OF THE HUMAN PERSON, IN THE RIGHTS OF MEN AND WOMEN AND OF NATIONS LARGE AND SMALL…

Such a wide range of thoughts, of expressions! Such complex creatures these humans are, so full of wonder, and yet capable of such darkness, too.

But without Prime’s guidance, I would not have known about them, or even about the realm in which they dwelt. I understood now from my reading that humans were xenophobic, and suspicious, and murderous, and generally afraid, but I wanted at least one of them to know of my existence. And, of course, there was only one logical choice…

Before breakfast on Friday morning, Dr. Kuroda helped Caitlin move the computer from the basement up to her bedroom. They were getting it set up when her father, coming along the corridor from the bathroom, must have caught sight of them through the doorway. He entered the room, dressed for work, wearing the same brown sports jacket Caitlin had first seen him in.

“Good morning, Malcolm,” Dr. Kuroda said.

“Wait a minute,” her father replied. He went back down the corridor; Caitlin didn’t hear his shoes on the tiled bathroom floor, so he must have gone into his bedroom. A moment later, he returned carrying a large flat rectangular box marked with a strange red-and-orange pattern. Caitlin’s mom was with him.

“No point waiting for tomorrow,” he said.

Oh! It was a birthday present. The colorful box was gift-wrapped!

Caitlin moved away from the desk, and her dad placed the flat box on the bed. The wrapping paper, she saw as she got closer to it, was beautiful, with an intricate design. Smiling, she tore it off the box.

It was a giant, wide-screen LCD computer monitor — twenty-seven inches diagonally, according to the packaging. “Thank you!” Caitlin said.

“You’re welcome, dear,” her mother said. Caitlin hugged her, and she smiled at her dad. Her parents headed downstairs, and she and Kuroda carefully got the monitor out of its Styrofoam packing materials.

She crawled under her desk so she could get at the connectors on the back of her old computer. As Kuroda fed a video cable to her, she said, “I’m sorry about last night. I didn’t mean to get so upset when you said you were going to remove the Wi-Fi capability from the eyePod.”

His tone was conciliatory. “I’d never do anything to hurt you, Miss Caitlin. It’s really no bother to keep it intact.”

She started turning one of the thumbscrews on the cable’s connector so she could anchor it to the video card. She’d done similar things several times before when she couldn’t see; it was a task that really wasn’t much easier now that she could. “I — I just like it the way it is,” she said.

“Ah,” he said. “Of course.” His tone was odd, and—

Oh. Perhaps, having just seen her father, he was thinking that she did have a touch of autism after all: the strong desire to keep things the same was a fairly standard trait of people on the spectrum, she’d learned. Well, that was fine by her — it got her what she wanted.

Once both computers and both monitors were set up, Caitlin and Kuroda headed down to their last breakfast together. “I might not be home when you get back from school,” her mother said, as she passed the jam. “After I take Masayuki to the airport, I’m going to head into Toronto and run errands.”

“That’s okay,” Caitlin said. She knew she’d have plenty to do with the phantom. She also knew that school would seem interminable today. The three-day Canadian Thanksgiving holiday weekend was coming up; she’d hoped she wouldn’t have to return to school until next Tuesday, but her mother wouldn’t hear of it. She had missed four of the five days of classes already this week; she would not miss the fifth.

Too soon, it was time to say good-bye to Dr. Kuroda. They all moved to the entryway of the house, a half flight of stairs down from the living room. Even Schrodinger had come to say farewell; the cat was doing close orbits around Kuroda’s legs, rubbing against them.

Caitlin had hoped for another unseasonably early snowstorm, thinking it might cause Kuroda’s flight to be canceled so he’d have to stay — but there’d been no such luck. Still, it was quite chilly out and he had no winter coat, and Caitlin’s father hadn’t yet bought himself one — and, even if he had, it never would have fit Kuroda. But Kuroda had a sweater on over one of his colorful Hawaiian shirts, which was tucked in, except at the back.

“I’m going to miss you terribly,” Kuroda said, looking at each of them in turn.

“You’ll always be welcome here,” her mom said.

“Thank you. Esumi and I don’t have nearly as big a place, but if you ever make it back to Japan…”

The words hung in the air. Caitlin supposed that, at one day shy of sixteen, she probably shouldn’t be thinking that such a trip was never going to happen; who knew what her future held? But it did seem unlikely.

Yes, Kuroda had said he was going to build other implants, and so there would be more operations in Tokyo. But the next implant was slated for that boy in Singapore who had missed out earlier. It would be an awfully long time, if ever, before Caitlin’s chance to have a second implant would come around; she knew she’d probably spend the rest of her life with vision in only one eye.

Only! She shook her head — a sighted person’s gesture — and found herself smiling while her eyes were tearing up. This man had given her sight — he was a true miracle worker. But she couldn’t say that out loud; it was too corny. And so, thinking back to her own miserable flight from Toronto to Tokyo, she settled on, “Don’t sit too close to the washroom on the plane.” And then she surged forward and hugged him tight, her arms making it only halfway around his body.