Free Complete Atopia Chronicles by Matthew Mather Page B

shower.
    “Go on, get going!” I laughed and clapped him on the back.
    Vince nodded, smiling, and with a wave goodbye he faded away from this reality.
    I took a long pull of my drink and looked around.
    Bob was sulking on a couch in a corner, flicking little fireballs at what looked like tiny rabbits. I guessed that he didn’t understand baby showers either, and laughed as I poured myself another stiff drink to celebrate.
    This proxxid was one of the best ideas I’d ever had. My heart was bursting with pride.
     

4
     
    MAYBE THESE PROXXIDS had been a bad idea. While everything had started off great a few weeks ago, Cindy had continued to insist on the full treatment. This was my idea, she liked to remind me as she gently prodded me to get up and coddle our screaming baby at all hours of the night. I hadn’t slept properly in weeks.
    It’d been a long and difficult day as I’d tried to get on top of the blended threats that were testing our defenses. Cyber attacks were constantly probing our perimeter, searching for vulnerabilities and weaknesses. They’d also just upgraded the large depression moving up the coast of Central America in the Eastern Pacific into tropical storm Newton, and another depression was fast following behind.
    I had a pile more work to try and get done, but at the same time I wanted to spend quality time with Cindy and the boys. In the end, I’d come home as early as I could, but I regretted it as I stepped across the threshold into our space.
    My home was a pigsty of toys, but then again my ‘home’ hadn’t resembled our old apartment in weeks. Today Cindy had turned it into a kind of suburban estate somewhere in Connecticut, complete with an enormous backyard with a trampoline and swimming pool. I guessed that it reminded her of where she grew up.
    About half a dozen sim–kids were over to play with Little Ricky, and they were all screaming and running past me as I came in the door.
    “Hey Dad!” squealed out Little Ricky as he flew past, chasing the others into the living room.
    It was amazing how fast they grew up. I mean, really amazing. Proxxids were designed to give you the full spectrum of how your kids would look and act, and we had them aging at an exponential pace, so while Ricky had aged one year during the first month we had him, during the next three weeks he had aged five more years.
    It was hard to keep in mind they were just simulations, and they didn’t seem to notice because of the built-in cognitive blind spots. Most people just stepped them through a few target ages to get the general idea, but Cindy seemed to be enjoying the whole, painful process.
    “Hey Ricky,” I called back.
    Despite my grumpiness I couldn’t help smiling at the glee on his face. At that point a big black Labrador appeared, scuttling around the same corner the kids had appeared from, the last in the chase pack. It shot by behind my legs and into the living room to set off a new round of excited screams. I raised my eyebrows.
    “Biffy is the newest addition to the family,” declared Cindy proudly.
    She was sitting at the dining room table and feeding little Derek, our second proxxid. She’d seen me eyeing the dog.
    “Biffy huh? I thought Derek was the newest addition to the family.”
    “That was so last week, honey.”
    She hardly looked up at me. I thought she was joking, but she didn’t crack a smile.
    Derek dribbled carrot baby food down his chin as Cindy tried to spoon it in. He looked up at me, let go a big squeak, and pounded his rattle on the tray holding the food, sending thick orange splatters up around the room and onto Cindy. She patiently smiled in a motherly way and kept trying to spoon it in.
    “Well, it’s nice to see how their personalities would react with animals, no?” she asked, wiping carrot puree from her hair with the back of one hand. “Isn’t this what we’re trying to do, to try out different things?”
    “Yeah, you’re right.” I shrugged.
    I had to