Seaside Enchantment
Chapter 4
When Penny Brown opened her door the next morning, she saw Algie waiting for her outside her room. “Penny, I must have a word?” he said quite mysteriously. “Please come with me,” he appeared to add to the effect.
“Of course, love. Where are we going?”
“I need to show you something in the master bedroom,” he smiled.
“Algie, if you are asking me to make love to you, I’d be happy to, but…”
“You’d close your eyes and think of England?” interrupted Algie.
“Of course not! It would be something beautiful to do. Something that we both had wanted. I just don’t believe I have the energy and then there is your wife to consider. Still, I suppose if you want to I can try,” she smiled.
“No, it’s not that. At least not right now.”
“I’m not getting any stronger you know, coward,” she laughed.
Algie thought and mumbled, “I’m hoping you’ll be soon.” Instead he said audibly, “Don’t challenge me or I’m liable to do it.”
“You really are my brave Algie,” she grinned.
“And I’ll always be,” he smiled back.
Then Algie and Penny reached their destination. He had found a way to soften the shock, but it would not be easy. He opened the door and they walked in.
“So what do you want to show…” Penny stopped as she looked at a painting hanging on the wall and a strange feeling came over her. It was a painting of the house in the late afternoon with the sun setting in the background, giving the house an outline of light. This was the exact scene she had tried to paint unsuccessfully several days ago. “That looks exactly like the view I always wanted to capture, but never could. It’s my style, my perspective, my eye for color and shading… even my brushstroke style. The problem is I never painted that picture,” she said adamantly.
“No, you didn’t. But you would have if that July day never would have happened,” said Algie nervously, as he knew what was coming.
“I don’t understand. How is this possible? Did I have amnesia?”
“No, sweet. If you had come back one day earlier or one day later, you would have painted this picture and you would have become my wife.”
“I don’t doubt what you say, but that does not answer the question.” stated Penny weakly.
“I can answer your question,” said a familiar female voice, who walked through the door between the room and the sitting room next door.
Penny looked, and straight across from her was a woman who was her doppelganger when she was twenty.
“What… how?!!!” cried Penny Brown.
“Dearest, this is my wife, Penny,” he said softly.
“Who is she?!” cried Penny Brown.
“I am you from almost seventeen years ago,” said Penny Witt.
“I don’t understand,” said Penny Brown.
“I built her, love,” said Algie.
“You did what?!”
“Please sit down dearest and let me explain.”
Penny Brown did with a stunned expression still on her face, as Penny Witt walked over to her husband.
“Love, when you left, I felt that nothing had any meaning for me anymore. Then the first anniversary of that day came and I had an epiphany. I went back to University and got advanced degrees in Biology and both Electrical and Mechanical engineering. I learned everything I could. By then I was twenty-nine. Mother was in ill health and I decided to stop for a while. When she died, I began to throw myself into my idea. Father told me that I was wasting my time and then he died but a year later,” Algie paused before continuing.
“Then three years ago, I had a breakthrough. I had already developed the ability to create state of the art robotics. These robots were the most intricate, sophisticated and finely tuned in the world. Likewise, I had developed a self-sustaining and recharging power source. I was also able to develop microcomputers that are more advanced than anything existing. Still, my key breakthrough came in the field of genetics and biology. I was able to create real looking and feeling tissues using a compound of human cells and a silicon based polymer. I was able to increase and decrease the density based upon how long I fired the substance for, so it could imitate flesh, organs and even bone, which was reinforced by the strong titanium of the robotic frame. I even found that I could mutate it to create bodily fluids. While this ‘syntho-flesh’ contained no DNA, I found that it could be added when I extracted some from a hair from a brush you left. The final product was a flawless, reproduction of you that is mechanically powered.”
“You mean she’s a robot?” asked Penny, though still in shock.
“Not exactly,” As he pulled his Penny into an embrace, he noticed that this had become quite painful as she had started to cry. Algie knew this was hard on his wife, so he gently stroked her hair. “She is an android with thoughts, feelings and memories. Your thoughts, feelings and memories when you were twenty and what she has accrued in the last three years.”
“How is this possible? How can a machine have feelings?” asked Penny Brown, as she softened her tone when she noticed Penny Witt crying.
“She’s not a machine. In every important way, she is a woman, except in one regard. Her personality hasn’t developed since she came into being. Emotionally, she’s virtually the same. I had hoped that by exposing her to different experiences, she would learn from them and grow. While she remembers everything that she did, most of her experiences have not changed her in the least. She’s practically exactly the way she was three years ago. The exception seems to be things that she does with me. She must interpret my feelings and changes to meet my needs.”
“How can she be so much like me?” asked Penny who was now almost numb from shock.
“The scans I did on that day and the DNA from the brush” said Algie. I almost lost the data from the brain scan as the magnetic tape was in a state of decay and was becoming degraded. That may be why she has this problem.
“Why are you telling me all this?” asked Penny Brown.
“Because he wants to help you and help me,” said Penny Witt through her tears.
“How can he help us?” asked Penny Brown with a short monotone delivery from her shock.
“He can make you, me,” said Penny Witt.
“What?! Is this true? You want to turn me into some robot?” exclaimed Penny Brown.
“No, love…
“Don’t you ‘no love’ me, Algernon Witt!”
“Penny!”
“Let me be, Algie!” shrieked Penny Brown. “Leave Algie and take your contraption with you!!”
Penny Witt hugged her husband. She knew that she was the last hope and nodded to him. When he left the room, she stayed. “How can you hurt the man we love like that!” she cried.
“What are you still doing here? Don’t you need to be plugged in or something?” snarled Penny Brown.
“This is MY bedroom and I will bloody well stay in it!” said Penny Witt, as another tear rolled down her face.
Penny Brown started laughing and all of the anger she had seemed to flood out of her. The problem was that most of her life had too.
“What’s so funny?” asked Penny Witt.
“That is exactly like something I would have said when I was twenty after I started to follow me feelings,” smiled Penny Brown wistfully.
“My dear Penny, that is because I am you.”
Penny Brown paused. She did not know what to say, so she listened.
“Do you know how destroyed Algie was after you left? He loved you so and he knew that part of you still loved him. On that day, he lost the woman that he loved, his best friend and his sister. He doesn’t blame you. If anything he blames himself for reacting the way he did when you turned down his proposal. Penny, he made me because he didn’t have a wife, a best friend and a sister. Over the last three years, I have been all of those things to him. When he told me that you were ill, I knew he would try to try save you; even before he did.”
“It was always like that between us.”
“And it still is! Penny, it can become that way for you again too!” she paused and looked at the fading woman. “I’m you from the first twenty years of your life. I remember and laugh at every dumb dare we challenged him to. I remember how he teased us. I remember the way we felt about him when we got off the train and saw his wonderful face.”
Both Penny’s started to cry. Penny Witt sat down on the bed and took the older version of herself’s hands with her own. “Penny, Algie could have me the way I have been for the last three years and the first twenty of yours, but that is not enough for him. He needs the experiences that you would have had or at least the ability to have these experiences. He needs me to have your love and your memories too. While I grow closer to him everyday, that is not what he wants.”
“What does he want?”
“He wants both of us, but to become one person.”
“How can he do that?”
Algie was eavesdropping at the door and figured it would be OK to come back. “I have it all figured out!”
“Algie!” cried Penny Brown extending her arms weakly as tears streamed down her face. Penny knew she was getting weaker. She knew she did not have long, as Algie came to hug her.
“Love, I can transfer your consciousness into my wife’s brain. This will include all of your memories.”
“Does this include memories of Merrial?” she asked.
“Yes,” smiled Algie.
“Will I still love her?” she asked.
“I don’t know. The enchantment would no longer affect you both because you won’t be in your old body, but the memories of the love and passion you shared will still be there.”
“What will become of your wife?”
“You both will be my wife. My Penny still loves me. You have told me that you still have feelings for me,” Algie paused and looked at his wife. “Darling, this saucy wench practically threw herself at me just a mere ten minutes ago” laughed Algie, as Penny Witt laughed and Penny Brown smiled wistfully. He then turned back to Penny Brown. “You said that you regretted not being in love with me.”
“I did… I still do… I want it more than anything. But won’t my feelings for Merrial still get in the way?”
“My girl, the reason why you could not love me the way we wanted you to, was not because of Merrial. It was the enchantment itself that was our obstacle.”
Penny was floored as this truth hit her. In her already weakened state she began to groan and her head began to list to the side.
“Penny!” cried Algie, as he used her arm to gently stabilize her.
“I don’t think we have much time,” she groaned.
“Do you want this?”
“Yesssss dear Algie,” she kind of hissed as her consciousness was beginning to fade. Algie quickly picked up Penny and carried her to his work room with Penny Witt quickly in tow. He laid her on his new scan table put on the new and improved brain scan helmet. He saw the readings of her brain activity. They were low, but still functioning. He quickly started the process. A bright localized light began to flood the helmet, as a faint whine could be heard in Penny Brown’s ears and a tingling in her nostrils. She began to groan, barely audibly. Algie thought of that day almost seventeen years ago when he handed her the helmet. It had worked. It had worked too well. He only prayed that it would work just as well this time.
When the process was complete, Algie checked the finished brain pattern. He looked at his wife. “I think it worked!”
“Are you sure? We only have one chance here. You were unable to save my pattern anywhere else, as it was somewhat distorted,” said his Penny.
“The levels in the buffer seem right.”
“Then let’s do this, love!” she smiled nervously as she carefully removed the helmet from her older self and put it on her head as she sat in a chair. Algie looked at the woman he loved. This woman had two bodies, but she was the same woman. He positioned his hand, closed his eyes, said a prayer and pushed a button, as his wife’s head was covered with a bright light.
Algie looked at the fading body of Penny Brown. He walked over to her and he took her hand. “Penny love. If you can hear me, squeeze my hand.” Algie felt a soft squeeze. “I think it worked, darling,” as he felt her hand squeeze him a few times in the excitement she currently felt.
Penny Brown lost consciousness and soon after, her spirit left her body to move on to better things. Her last thought was how happy everybody would be now.
When the process was over, Algie removed the helmet from his Penny’s head and a minute or so later, her eyes opened. “Hello coward,” she grinned.
“Who are you?” asked Algie
“Kind sir, you have the pleasure of addressing Lady Penelope Witt.”
“Do you love your husband?” he asked, waiting for an answer that seem like an eternity, though would take only two seconds.
“Yes. I love my husband. My Algie is the sweetest, most caring man in the world. He’s also a ruddy coward,” she giggled.
“I am not!” he complained.
“Then I dare you to do what you want to do with me! What we both would want you to do, if we were two people! Since we are only one, what I want you to do…need you to do!” she grinned yet even wider.
“Madame, I will take your dare. But first we must see to the late Penny Brown.”
Algie tried to be somber but he couldn’t. He was too excited. Everything that was Penny was in his wife. She had both memories of the past seventeen years as well as the past three. He even suspected that she still loved Merrial, which was fine with him. As long as she still loved him too.
They took Penny’s body and laid it on her bed, while Lady Witt called the local constabulary to explain that their dear friend had died. Both Algie and his wife kissed Penny before her body was taken away. Both of them smiled because they knew where Penny really was.
That night, Algie smiled happily as he gazed out on the balcony. There was a cool breeze blowing off of the Channel and he felt a hand lovingly rubbing his shoulder. “That feels wonderful, love,” he happily sighed.
“For me too, my darling boy,” glowed his love.
Algie leaned his head to his shoulder and kissed her hand and she smiled and walked back to into the house. Algie smiled brightly and followed her comely body back to their bed.