Free Man Made Boy by Jon Skovron

explore the world is a credit to you. And as much as the risks worry us, it would be cruel to deny you that experience, particularly after your first trip outside, where you proved that you can indeed fit in with humans.”
    “Dad…” I almost couldn’t believe what he was saying. “You’re going to let me live outside? With humans?”
    He held up his hand. “Under certain conditions.”
    “Like?”
    “You already received your high school diploma from homeschooling.”
    “Last spring.”
    “Another condition is that you must wait until you turn eighteen.”
    “That’s only in, like, six months.”
    “Yes. Until then, Ruthven will continue to take you outside, more and more often, for longer and longer periods, so that you can get comfortable with humans, learn how to fit in not just physically, but socially.”
    “Okay…” That didn’t sound too bad, either. Maybe we could even go somewhere for a weekend. Like a road trip. I always wanted to go on a road trip.
    “Then,” continued Dad, “in the fall you will go to college.”
    “A
human
college?” I’d thought about college, sure. But I just never imagined I’d be able to go.
    “Yes.”
    “I bet MIT would give me some money. Maybe even a full ride!” I’d chatted with a few people on hacker boards from MIT, even a couple of professors. It sounded like geek utopia. “Dad, this so awesome! With the resources they have there, I could—”
    “Your school has already been decided.”
    “O…kay…” Maybe I’d gotten ahead of myself. Cambridge, Massachusetts, was a bit far away, after all. But Princeton was just in Jersey. Or even Cornell or Columbia right here in the city. Those schools all had great computer science programs….
    “You will attend the University of Geneva.”
    “Wait, what? Where’s that?”
    “Switzerland.”
    “Why am I going to
Switzerland
for college?”
    “Because I am very good…friends with a family in Geneva. They have already pledged to assist in any way they can. Tuition, room and board, whatever you require. They will be like a secondfamily to you. Indeed, I have sent them pictures of you throughout your childhood and written to them about you extensively, so they feel as though they already know you. They, too, are great lovers of science. They are very eager to help you make the most of your life.”
    “Who is this family?” I asked. “Why haven’t you ever talked about them before?”
    “Their name,” he said, his mismatched, watery eyes locked on mine, “is Frankenstein.”

7

Disconnecting
    I’M NOT SURE how they expected me to react to the news that in six months, I would be shipped off to Switzerland to live with the humans whose ancestor was responsible for making my family the hideous, screwed-up monsters we were. They probably didn’t expect me to scream,
“NO FUCKING WAY IN HELL!”
and run out of the room. Or maybe they did, because nobody stopped me.
    I ran for a long time, just charging down hallways, through corridors, across catwalks. Maybe I broke stuff, maybe I knocked people over. Honestly, I wasn’t really paying attention. Eventually, I ended up down in the trowe caverns, which was inevitable since nearly all passages ended there if you went deep enough. Still, I kept going down until I hit a dead end. It was a dark little cavern with a long stone table and benches. I guess this was a trowe version of a picnic spot.
    I plopped down on one of the benches and slumped onto the table. I closed my eyes and saw Dad’s calm expression as he told me that he was sending me to live with the Frankensteins. I imagined them, these crazy, mad scientists with their lighting-bolt labs, setting fire to any creation that started mouthing off to them. That creation had been my dad, once upon a time. Therebel who stood up to his asshole creator. That asshole creator tried to destroy him for it, and nearly succeeded.
    Now he was shipping off his only son to live with a whole family of them? How