Page 23 of Possibly Texas

Why’d I have to talk to Jack about school and stuff?

The guy probably didn’t even want me around.

Why hasn’t Mom texted or called me?

Thoughts swirled through my head and my heart couldn’t decide which emotion to settle on as my eyes glazed over until I wasn’t really watching the man tear up the street anymore. Sure, I was looking in his general direction, but I really wasn’t seeing much. What had just happened at Jack’s place kept replaying in my head. Why had I even mentioned my thoughts about school and the future? In fact, why did those things even pop into my head? It had only been a few days since Mom had dropped me off at the end of Two-Mile Trail.

As I’d walked down the dirt road, lugging my suitcases along, the thought of Mom eventually returning—probably before summer was over—and saving me from Possibly had been on my mind. Why had I suddenly shifted from thinking about Mom rescuing me at some point soon to thinking about where I would be going to school in a few months?

Then it hit me.

I’d been on the road with Mom for a decade. Since I was six years old. It was the only life I’d known for a long time. But it wasn’t really a good life. Don’t get me wrong, I love my mom and everything, but bouncing from city to city, motel to motel, having a different uncle every time—it wasn’t great. In fact, I didn’t really like it all that much. At least, not once I realized how lonely it was to be on the road with an underemployed actress.

So, when I realized that I had a chance to stay in one place for a while and maybe make a friend or…something…it had excited me.

But I’d gotten ahead of myself.

Without me realizing it, my feet had been spurred into action by my thoughts. I didn’t want to stand around being ticked off and embarrassed. My feet had an idea of how to keep my mind occupied and distracted from the last few hours. A minute later, I found myself walking up to the big pirate ship in the center of downtown. A cup of coffee would make me feel better. Especially one loaded with chocolate, milk, and foam.

There was no longer a man in a green-screen suit waiting out front. Instead, it looked like Levi Lee had given up on being one with the hull of Starbuck’s. Instead, he had decided that dressing in all silver from head to toe, plus applying silver make up to his exposed skin, and walking around like a robot was the thing to do. Levi Lee had on a silver tux—which I didn’t figure they sold in Possibly—a silver top hat, silver shoes, silver socks, and his hands and face had been painted silver. He was doing a passable robot walk, but it wasn’t perfect. When he saw me approach, he raised an arm jerkily and waved back and forth like a metronome.

“Hello, new guy!” he announced.

“Hello. New. Guy,” I repeated in a robot voice.

“Right!” Levi Lee announced. “Hello. I. Am. Levi. Lee.”

“Pretty good, man.” I congratulated him on the voice. “Uh, give up on the green suit or something?”

Levi Lee nodded jerkily. He was definitely better at being a robot than he was being part of Starbuck’s hull. I watched him for a minute as he moved his arms and legs as if they were on screws and pins, moving them robotically as he walked and waved—sometimes at nothing at all. His head turned back and forth smoothly, as though upon a well-oiled caster. Every movement was a little too smooth and quickly performed, though. Levi Lee had the basics down, but he wasn’t fully convincing as a robot. However, I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he should rehearse more. Of course, I didn’t know why he wanted to be a robot—or part of the hull—so, I didn’t know what he’d be rehearsing for, really.

No one stopped, aside from myself—to watch Levi Lee perform his strange robot routine outside of Starbuck’s. In fact, while I stood there watching him, three different people entered the coffee shop and one left, and none of them even seemed to notice him. He definitely should have tried being a hull that day. He was more than invisible to everyone except me.

“You’re doing pretty good, man.” I only lied a little. “Pretty soon, people will think that robots are taking over Possibly.”

“You really think so?” Levi Lee stopped his movements immediately and gasped with pleasure.

“Yeah.” I shrugged. “Just stop breaking character, ya’ know?”

Levi Lee kicked at the ground, realizing he had messed up his routine yet again.

“You’ll get it,” I said. “Just keep working.”

Levi Lee went back into a robot pose and began moving his arms, legs, and head as he had been before, though he seemed to have lost a little confidence.

“Just don’t get so mad at yourself when you mess up,” I suggested. “That makes you nervous or something, I think.”

“You’re. Right,” he responded robotically and his movements improved slightly.

“You’re getting it, man!” I cheered him on.

Levi Lee let a small smile come to his lips but I could tell his concentration ratcheted up higher as he tried to make himself seem even more robotic. It suddenly dawned on me that Levi Lee just needed someone to believe in him and encourage him. He was a pretty friendly guy, and he was always willing to carry on a conversation, so maybe he would talk to me about the people in Possibly since Jack wouldn’t.

“Hey, Robot Levi Lee?” I asked.

“Yes?” he responded perfectly as a robot.

“Would you mind being human Levi Lee for a minute?” I asked. “Just take a little break? Maybe you can help me with something.”