Good Enough

After an astonishingly short breakfast and a crash course on vehicular modding, Audra offered to help Zephyr clean up again. Now they were finishing up the dishes and chatting about his routine.

"So, is this really what you do, Zeph? Fix up bikes and stuff?"

A clean plate clanked in the drying rack.

"Pretty much. I mostly just tinker with things or work on projects. I'm a licensed mechanic, so sometimes I help other people fix their vehicles or appliances too. Other than that, I just read, watch TV, play my guitar, and go for walks in my free time… You know, the usual old man stuff."

"A very active one, maybe."

He chuckled. "What about you? What do you normally do?"

"Oh. Um, I used to do a lot of things."

"Mind being a little more specific? 'Things' encompasses a lot."

"Fair, I guess it sorta does."

Audra half-focused on cleaning a spoon.

"Usually I'd be learning for most of the day, and then I'd have to help my mom at the antique shop. Chores and homework would come later, then if my dad came home early, we would all eat dinner together…"

Her voice trailed off, and she got lost in the reflection of the bowl as she rinsed it off.

Zephyr seemed to notice her sudden change in mood and tried redirecting the conversation.

"Say, speaking of homework, I was planning on asking it at some point, but you're fifteen, right? Why aren't you in school?"

She replied simply, not wanting to go into details.

"I was homeschooled for the past couple of years. Graduated a few months ago cause of an accelerated program. Was good enough to quality."

Metal clanked against porcelain as Zephyr whistled.

"Graduated, at fifteen? Amazing. What kinds of things did you learn about?"

Audra blinked, pleasantly surprised that Zeph had just taken her for her word. Usually people would doubt her, like she was lying just to make herself sound smarter.

"Aside from the general things everyone is required to know? I bit of engineering, robotics, and programming. Also took some business since I wanted to help with the antique shop. Wasn't doing so well, so I figured that could help."

"A good selection of topics to study. Are those the kinds of jobs that would interest you in the future?"

"Oh… well, they did," Audra muttered. "I don't know what I'm going to do now. Still working that out. Guess that's part of why I came here. To get away and think."

Zephyr gave a thoughtful hum. "I can't say I'll be able to offer much in terms of helping, but at the very least, I can provide you with a roof and food while you think."

She wasn't sure how to respond, so she focused on the dishes instead. It still felt strange to have a grown man aside from her father treat her like this, especially since she barely knew him.

Once the plates were all done, Zephyr stretched and yawned.

"Alright. I'll be in the workshop now. There was another special project I was working on earlier—a commission of sorts. I'll hopefully be finishing that up today. Feel free to do whatever you want in the meantime."

Audra tried thinking about what she wanted to do before eyeing the hallway to the workshop.

"…Could I watch you work, actually?"

"Hm? You want to?"

"Erm, yeah. If you don't mind. I figured I could learn something. Definitely beats just lounging around."

He rubbed his chin.

"Don't see why not. As long as you don't touch anything dangerous, that is."

"I lived in a scrapyard for a week without getting hurt. That should be proof enough."

"I feel like you're leaving out some context," he quipped back before motioning for her to follow him.

Audra pouted but complied.

After entering the workshop, Zephyr headed to a control panel near the entrance. With a flick of a switch, metal shutters retracted to let in light from outside. A second switch turned on a ceiling light. However, he paused before flicking the third one.

"You may want to step clear for this."

"Hm? Why?"

"Aside from the fact that it's hazard-taped? The answer will be obvious in a few seconds."

She looked down at her feet, and sure enough, there was a yellow hazard line a few centimeters in front of her shoes.

Ah. Whoops. How the heck did she miss that?

With a sheepish smile, she stepped aside.

Once free, Zephyr flipped the third switch. The ceiling above the space lowered, coming to rest right beside the souped-up bike.

There was a strange pod-like thing on it.

The frame was made of dull metal with conduits and cables snaking through the gaps of its exterior. There was a small door at the front and a cracked polyvinyl window. Its interior was covered in a soft foam-like material around an empty chair.

"Is that a cryosleep pod or something?"

"Nope, not cryosleep. It's a VR capsule."

"Woah. What kind of VR? One of those full-immersion ones?"

"Yup, the whole shebang. Full sensory stimulation, neural interface, life support, everything. I've had to overhaul a bunch of parts, replace a lot more, and add even newer ones."

"Sounds like a pain. How much money have you spent on it so far?"

She knew full dive systems weren't cheap. Even a low quality one would easily run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"Twenty-thousand USD or so, I think, counting labor and the cost of materials."

Audra would've done a spit take had she been drinking anything.

"Of course. It'd be a lot more expensive if I hadn't found this in the scrapyard. It was actually pretty beat up. The outer shell was damaged, the main circuit board needed replacing, and the power supply was shot. But most of the internal hardware was still salvageable. So it wasn't too bad."

He placed his hand on the side of the metal shell, giving it a soft pat.

Audra stared at the capsule for a while longer before shaking her head in disbelief. She'd heard about people refurbishing VR machines before, but fixing a full-immersion one with just a box of scraps was insane.

"Just who the heck are you?!"

Zephyr spared her a glance, then shrugged as if nothing he'd said was unusual.

"I'm old; I've had a lot of time to learn."

"No, don't try to pull that on me! Being old can make you wiser, sure, but that doesn't automatically give you a bunch of skills. You're not just old, you're experienced. Where did you get that?"

Zephyr let out a short laugh. "Well, aren't we perceptive?"

He didn't seem annoyed by her observation, but she couldn't tell if he was pleased either.

"I suppose I could tell you a little bit, but first, can you pass me my toolset on the table?"

She nodded and quickly grabbed it, bringing it over to him before taking a seat.

"So? What is it? What's your secret?"

"There isn't much of a secret. I used to work in a lab researching and developing new technologies."

"Research lab? University or a company based? What technologies did you work on specifically?"

"Company. As for what technologies? Many kinds. Mostly biomedical, biotech, and genetics, but there were some other adjacent things as well."

"What other things?".

"Nanotechnology. Neuroscience. Neurobiology."

The way he said it so casually annoyed her.

"Why did you stop? Did you quit or were you laid off?"

"I quit," he replied with a shrug.

He finished soldering a new component into the panel and closed the lid, locking it into place.

"Something like that must've paid super well. Why'd you quit to do this? Could've probably lived a nice, cushy life. At the very least, you wouldn't have to worry about money."

Zeph paused for a long moment, as if considering her words. Hr turned to face Audra fully.

"I realized I didn't want to waste away in a sterile white room, doing the same mundane tasks every day until I died. That a good enough reason?"

She frowned, looking at him skeptically.

"That's it? You wanted a change of scenery? There had to be another reason."

His lips curled as he returned to his work.

"Maybe, maybe not. It doesn't matter now, does it? What matters is that I'm here, doing what I want to do."

Frustration boiled in Audra at his non-answer. She wanted to press further—to learn his story—but she figured it wouldn't get her anywhere. Instead, she decided to ask something else.

"What made you want to do this instead then? You know, this whole salvaging gig."

"Oh. Well… that's a little harder to explain."

He leaned against the edge of the workbench and stared off into the distance.

"In a way, it was an extension of what I did before. Used to be working on projects that would benefit humanity as a whole. Now, I'm still helping people in a way, just on a smaller, more personal scale. It's harder to forget why you're working when you're interacting with them directly."

Her head tilted as she tried to decode what he was saying. She felt like there was something deeper behind those words. Something important. However, his mood had tanked into something resembling melancholy.

It was probably best to not push the issue, so she just watched him work away in silence for a while.

It was almost hypnotic to see him create and tinker with such skill and precision. He clearly enjoyed his work, even if he'd occasionally get lost in thought or stare off into space.

She didn't know how long she just spectated. Time seemed to flow differently here in the workshop, and it was easy to get lost in her thoughts as well. Eventually though, Zephyr's hands stilled, and he looked up at her with an expectant expression.

"You're being awfully quiet now."

"Hm? O-oh. Just thinking."

"About?"

"Stuff. Things. Myself, you, my future, whatever. I've got a lot to ponder on."

His lips quirked slightly as he wiped some sweat from his forehead.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She tried to think of how to respond before her lips acted on her behalf.

"Do you ever wish that you could change your past? Go back in time and fix things so everything would turn out better?"

He raised an eyebrow. "That's a heavy topic. Not what I was expecting. Why do you ask?"

Damn it. She scratched the back of her head before doubling down.

"I… don't know. It's been on my mind lately, I guess."

Something in his eyes darkened, but the change was gone as soon as it appeared.

"Yeah, I've thought about it. Everyone does, I think. We all have mistakes we'd like to undo. But the past is set in stone. All we can do is learn and move forward."

"But isn't it normal to wish otherwise?"

Audra squirmed as she leaned against the workbench.

"Like, imagining a world where everything turned out okay. That's normal, right?"

"I suppose. But some people get too caught up in wishing that they forget about real life and that they can still live it."

His words were firm, yet gentle, as if he'd thought long and hard about this exact topic before.

Once again, Zephyr reminded Audra a bit of her father. His calm, reassuring voice had the same effect on her when she was growing up. Like she could trust him to guide her through whatever problems she had.

She pushed away the memory.

"Hypothetical for you. What if there was a way to go back? Would you do it?"

"…Perhaps, but only if I was certain it wouldn't cause greater harm. Even then, I'm not sure I would. As terrible as it is to admit, the pain we experience can help us grow—sometimes it's needed."

He stopped for a second, and his lips curled into a bittersweet smile. It looked like he wanted to say more—to continue his thought further.

"But that's a conversation best reserved for another time. For now, I'm content with living my life as I am."

"Are you sure? What about the regrets?"

He chuckled softly.

"I'm positive, mostly. Right now is good enough for me."