Free The Infinite Evolution - Conversion by Erik Johnson Page A

towards the
urn, and never broke eye contact with it. In this one moment,
everyone in Jade's presence became utterly fixated on what she was
about to do. As Jade’s vision grew closer on her father’s ashes,
she fought with all her being to prevent a flood of tears from
exploding within this one moment in time. She knew what needed to
be completed and prepared to do it in the most respectful way she
knew how. Jade slowly reached for the urn, picked it up, and
carried it over to the pond as delicately as possible. Once there
she felt as if she was in her own world and she completely forgot
about the small group of friends and family behind her. Jade slowly
lifted the lid and dumped her father’s ashes into the water,
letting go of everything she held dearly, including her own
emotions. Soon a flood of tears followed and in return, this became
contagious, as there was not one person who was able to hold back
their emotions.
    Thirteen weeks had passed since
the funeral and Jade continued to go about her daily life, but with
the emotional level of a stump. She had moved in with Reece, who
had took full guardianship of her, and chose to finish out her high
school years, mostly because that was what she thought her father
would have wanted. Jade’s social life had taken a hit, she rarely
would go out unless it was for some new piece of technology. If
anything had improved, even though it was not needed, it was her
studies. It seemed Jade had become obsessive with cybernetics. Of
course Reece allowed this interest to blossom since he shared the
same one, but nothing to the extent that Jade had shown, and he had
made it a career choice.
    “ Come on Jade I need to take you somewhere,”
said Reece.
    “ For real? I don’t feel like going anywhere,
it’s Sunday.”
    “ Yeah, for real - I think you’ll enjoy this.
It took me a lot of convincing to allow this to happen. They don’t
allow just anyone into my lab you know.”
    “ Your lab! Are you serious? I get to go to
your lab at Central Circuit?”
    “ I wouldn’t joke about that, yes.”
    Jade showed levels of excitement
that Reece had not seen in a long time and asked, “Do I get to see
Adam?”
    “ Yes! Absolutely,” said Reece happily as he
realized his idea was succeeding.
    “ Oh, thank you! Thank you, thank you, I’ll be
ready in a sec,” repeated Jade.
    “ Ok, I’ll be downstairs waiting,” smiled
Reece.
    Ever since the death of Spencer,
Jade had been meeting with a psychologist once a week and one of
the recommendations given was to get her to socialize more. It was
determined if Jade did not want to speak to humans then the next
best thing would be an android.
    Within seconds Jade was downstairs, as promised, and
in the car within minutes. All she talked about on the way to
Central Circuit was Adam and his specs.
    “ So is Adam the first android whose matrix has
been stable for this long?”
    “ Yes,” replied Reece.
    “ I can’t believe I’m going to see
him,” said Jade.
    “ Believe it. Just think what you
can tell your friends tomorrow at school.”
    “ Ah, they wouldn’t care, they’re
too tied up with who’s going to prom.”
    “ Are you going to prom?” asked
Reece, hoping Jade was going to say yes.
    “ No, why would I want to do that.
And who cares anyway. Let’s talk more about Adam.”
    Reece agreed and knew not to push
it, for this was the first time since Spencer’s death that Jade had
shown any real interest in anything tangible. As Reece and Jade
arrived at Central Circuit, they headed towards the Hex tram and
wasted no time. Jade continued to spit out technical jargon and
statistical information, as Reece sat there and thought how Jade,
now fourteen, knew more about Adam’s make up than all his interns
combined, possibly including certain engineers and programmers he
worked with. As the Hex tram arrived, Jade quickly jumped off and
pulled Reece with her.
    “ Come on, let’s go.”
    “ Don’t worry, he’s not