Parcel for you - Part 57

 

‘Gosh Cedric,’ Vanessa said, holding her hand up to her mouth to disguise the fact that she was speaking with food in it, ‘this is incredible. You should open your own restaurant.’

 

Cedric responded with a very slight upturn of the lips, not quite a smile but slightly more expressive than his usual face. It was almost as if there was a knowingness to what he was doing, a smug satisfaction that whatever his plan was, it was working. Vanessa was warming to him.

 

‘That wouldn’t be possible,’ said Spencer.

 

‘Why ever not? If you can produce food like this, anything’s possible.’

 

‘Cybermate’s cannot start businesses of any sort,’ Spencer waved his index finger around dismissively, ‘they don’t have a credit rating so cannot apply for business loans or rent property, HMRC wouldn’t register the business for tax purposes and also the customers might not trust him.’

 

‘Okay,’ Vanessa shrugged, ‘he could work behind the scenes though, for somebody else, you know, put him in the kitchen.’

 

‘That would be unethical, Vanessa. We’re supposed to be mates, spouses, companions, not slaves. Annie’s very clued up about this stuff, if you don’t agree with me, maybe you should speak to her about it.’

 

There was a hint of brusqueness in his voice which she’d never heard before and it took her by surprise a bit. She stared at him for a few seconds, not really knowing how to respond. ‘Are you alright Spencer?’

 

‘Yes, yes. I’m fine. It’s been a long day, that’s all, sitting at home waiting for you to come home and not really having much to fill my time with. I might pop out tomorrow and go for a wander..’

 

‘Please don’t, you’re supposed to stay at home unless we’re going out together! I thought we discussed this. It was actually part of the contract I had when I married you. Cybermates are not designed to go out alone and you’ve got company now so it’s not as if you’re alone anymore while I’m out at work.’

 

‘Well I’ve tried it now, the outside world, and it’s not really that hard, going out alone and being independent. It doesn’t phase me. I won’t go far. Anyway, Cedric could come with me.’

 

Cedric looked up, staring silently for several seconds before shaking his head before uttering, ‘No…scared.’ He made a play of causing his hands to shake as he pushed some pasta around his bowl with a fork.

 

‘Oh look, he’s absolutely terrified of going out after everything that must have happened to him when he was in the gang…and the squid lorry. Poor man…and all along he had this talent for cooking.’

 

Now Spencer felt something new, confusion, a sense of being really alone in his own home. His new friend had won his wife over with his gastronomic creation and now he was pulling the wool over her eyes by putting on a victim act and pretending to be terrified of stepping outside. It was a blatant lie, he’d already sneaked out just that day, bold as anything.

 

He watched Vanessa eating her lasagne then turned to Cedric who glanced at him and appeared to smirk. Spencer experienced a sort of squirming sensation deep inside, he wasn’t sure what it was but he didn’t like it. Torn now between staying silent or speaking up and telling Vanessa the truth but there was something about Cedric which was beginning to frighten him.

 

‘Perhaps it’s a one off,’ he said, desperate now to push Cedric off this pedestal, ‘this meal. It could be that he can only make lasagne and you’ll soon get sick of it. I can cook tomorrow.’

 

‘We’ll see,’ said Vanessa, ‘he might have other recipes up his sleeve..although I haven’t got much food in. Maybe Cedric could come shopping with me next time and he can direct me to the sort of ingredients he wants to use in the kitchen.’

 

Spencer didn’t fancy the remainder of his pasta. It wasn’t about appetite, he didn’t experience that hunger which affects the human race but he enjoyed the sensation of chewing and being part of Vanessa’s mealtimes but now he was so deflated, he couldn’t even chew. ‘Okay,’ he said, ‘perhaps I’ll work in the garden tomorrow.’

 

‘It’s a bit cold, Spencer! There’s nothing to do out there, you can’t mow in this weather, it’s far

too damp.’

 

The cogs of Spencer’s internal processing unit were spinning at full bore now as he desperately tried to put himself above Cedric and show his wife how valuable he was. 

 

‘Thank you, Cedric. That was delicious. Please can you put some in a plastic container so I can take it to work tomorrow for my lunch.’

 

Cedric shot up from the table and began clearing the plates. He already had the washing up bowl filled up with hot soapy water which he rapidly plunged the plates into and set about preparing Vanessa’s lunch for tomorrow.  Then he took out a dustpan and brush and crawled around on the kitchen floor picking up crumbs. There was a moment where he hesitated and looked up at Vanessa, his eyes skimming her legs and upper body. She got that feeling again, a shiver ran through her and she walked out of the room.

 

Spencer joined her on the sofa where she was seated, her arms tightly folded, staring into space.

 

‘Are you alright, Vanessa?’

 

‘Yes, just feeling a bit funny.’

 

‘Oh, is it the food, was there something wrong with it?’

 

‘No, I don’t think so. I just feel funny in my mind,’ she laughed, ‘Cedric’s very efficient isn’t he and just so good at everything. I’m not used to it, that's all.’

 

‘Oh.’ Now Spencer felt a deep thud somewhere inside his hardware. It was as if he’d been punched. It took him a while to unpick what Vanessa had just said and what it meant for him. ‘So he’s better than me then?’

 

‘No, no,’ Vanessa slapped her hand down onto Spencer’s knee and squeezed it, ‘I didn’t mean that. I suppose he’s more robotic than you…and that’s a good thing because you’re more like a human, especially since you came back from your walkabout.’

 

‘Walkabout?’

 

‘Yes, when you absconded. I know it was all my fault, and Pat’s but it seems to have developed your character in ways I never expected.’

 

‘Has she checked on me, Pat I mean, has she been in touch to see if i’m alright?’

 

Vanessa sighed and shook her head. ‘No actually.’

 

‘I can’t believe you allowed her to mess about with me like that when she doesn’t care about either of us.’

 

‘Mmmm, well I’m sorry about that but look at the good that’s come of it. You have become more human and now we have a live-in cook and housekeeper.’

 

Cedric walked past the lounge, glancing in at Vanessa, his cross eyes scanning her for a few seconds and then ascending the stairs in silence. He was about to shut down for the night. It was bizarre that he couldn’t wish them both goodnight when he was clearly capable of speaking when he felt like it.

 

Spencer reached over for his laptop and quickly searched for the term, ‘walkabout’. It sounded so familiar, he’d watched a video about it, the aboriginal Australian population going off into the wilderness and he was pleased that Vanessa had used it to describe his experience.

 

Meanwhile Vanessa was still having peculiar feelings about Cedric. Even in bed while Spencer was shut down, she found herself thinking about him. The eerie energy around him, his apparent domestic superpowers and his slightly perverted way of looking at her. It was alarming to her that she was even dwelling on it. 

 

It’s not as if I’m attracted to him, she thought and she reminded herself what an absolutely freaky looking cyborg he was but why was he inside her head so much? He was like one of those humans who is so physically ugly that they compensate for it by developing unnervingly powerful capabilities which they can use either for good or evil.