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The first time Mary saw him again, she was in the grocery store, in the bread aisle. She could tell it was not-Tim but only a little, the walk was too stiff and he was staring at her with too-bright eyes but then he blinked and it was like she was looking at her husband. It made her heart start to beat out of her chest.
“Mary,” he said. She startled back as he took a step toward her, making sure the shopping cart sat firmly between them. She knew she should run, call Troy, call Tim, but she doesn’t move away from the cart, doesn’t move from him coming towards her.
“What do you want?” She asked, hated the way her voice shook.
“Are you okay?” He asked.
She blinked. “What?”
He leaned in over the basket as if she was hard of hearing and repeated his question. “Mary, are you okay?”
She thought about the shitty day she had been having, thought about how she had thrown a bunch of junk food in the cart because it would mean she would have to cook less. She thought about how no one had asked her that in months.
“No.” She said, surprising herself. “I’m not.” Not-Tim frowned, looking at her with those intense blue eyes.
“I am sorry to hear that.” She laughed, bitterly and loud.
“I didn’t know you could do that.” She said, continuing to laugh with that raspy hurt sound. “Were you sorry when you ruined my family?” She didn’t mean to ask that but she and Tim were never good at not saying what was on their minds.
He looked conflicted, his eyes darting away from her. He looked guilty. Could robots do that?
“I didn’t,” he started. “I didn’t know!” And she scoffed. “I never meant to hurt you.”
“What about the boys? Troy?” He looked away. She hated that his reactions almost seemed genuine. She hated that she could almost feel bad for him. “Everyone, you hurt, what about them?” They were in a bread aisle, people would stare.
“Stop.” He said, closing his eyes. “I didn’t mean to,”
“I don’t believe you.” She said. It took a lot of courage for her to turn her back on him, to turn her cart around and head the other way. He didn’t follow.
She thought that would be the end. Not-Tim didn’t attack anyone, and she didn’t see him. She didn’t mention the encounter to Tim, what would the man do? It’s not like Not-Tim hurt her. But she didn’t forget about it either, it hung on her mind.
She was at the park with Little Tim, the boy playing in the dirt at her feet. She’s tuned at the world, making sure she can feel the heat of Tim on her ankles but not really paying attention.
It’s why she startled when Tim said “Daddy?”
“Dad-” She looked up to the shadow blocking her sun. Tim was supposed to be at work, he wasn’t supposed to, her voice died in her throat.
She watched Not-Tim bend down to her son, smile.
“Not Daddy,” Mary said firmly, knew running away would traumatize her son, tried to find the right words to not do that. “Mommy’s uh... friend.”
“Friend,” Tim repeated, and she watched as Not-Tim allowed her son to play with his fingers.
He shouldn’t be doing this. She thought about one of the other mothers seeing Tim and saying “I saw Mary and you at the park, the other day.” Could imagine Tim staring at her with big betrayed eyes.
Her son laughed as Not-Tim did something with his eyes.
“You can’t do this.” She hissed when he took a seat beside her.
“Hello, Mary. How are you today?” He said as if she hadn’t spoken.
“I’m fine.” She said, glaring at him. “What are you doing here?” He opened his mouth and then abruptly closed it, spasms shaking his body. “Hey!”
“I wanted to see you.” He said through gritted teeth. She leaned back on the bench, letting her head hit the back of the seat. She would not touch that with a ten-foot pole.
“Why?” She asked, staring at the sky.
“You weren’t okay last time I saw you.” Not looking at him was worse than looking at him because she could at least pretend he wasn’t Tim if she could pick out everything wrong with him looking at him. Listening to his voice, he sounded just like Tim.
“I don’t want you to think you can just show up!” She said. “This is,” weird. Strange. “I’m not okay because a robot replaced my husband for a year, you’re not helping.” He was silent, and she peeked out of the corner of her eye. He looked… guilty?
“I didn’t remember what they made me for.” He said. “I thought,” And he was silent as if searching for the right words and she hated that. It made her think of him as real, as someone with feelings. “I thought they made me to love you and the kids.”
Yep, enough of that.
“Well, you weren’t.” She said standing up, reaching for Little Tim’s hand. “Remember that.”
The next time she saw him, he was at her front door and she said: “nope, we’re not doing this here.”
He must have known Tim wasn’t here and the kids would be at school. She pushed hard on his chest, it doesn’t give way, it’s like pushing at a wall.
“How did you even get here?” She said. The cool thing about King Falls and small towns in general, none of her neighbors or the town were close to them. It was a good thing, she had told Tim when they moved in, having all this space to themselves. Now she growls in frustration, trying to get him off her front porch.
“I walked,” Not-Tim said, acting as if she wasn’t doing anything worth noticing.
“You walked, of course.” She stopped pushing, pointed towards her car. “Move.”
Once she started driving, she could breathe a little easier. She thought about all the car accidents and fires that had happened in town since Tim was taken (Sammy and Ben started their little radio show. Since she activated the rainbow lights) She thought of how many of those incidents were connected to the man (robot) sitting beside her. She tried not to hyperventilate.
“You don’t like that I check up on you.” He said after they had driven in silence for quite some time.
“No!” She said, swerving the car a little. “Why would I?”
“I noticed no one else has been checking up on you.” She flexed her hands on the wheel. Sammy checked up on her, she almost fired back, but Sammy had been busy lately trying to get his boy back and she was okay with that. Plus, she was fine! She had her Tim back, they were doing okay (even if she thought his superhero nonsense with Dwayne was ridiculous), she didn’t need anyone to check on her she was grown and when she opened her mouth to say so, he said, “Just like making sure you’re safe.”
“The only thing I have to be afraid of is you.” She said before she could stop herself and he held his hands up as if to say that was valid. “Don’t you have other things to do, anyway? Like being evil or whatever the Institute has you doing,”
He opened his mouth to respond before it abruptly closed and then he began to spasm, full-body flinches that her quickly pulling over.
“What’s happening?!” She asked, hating the panic in her voice.
“Don’t, don’t ask about them.” He said hunching in on himself as if trying to get his body under control.
“What are you doing?” She asked, hating that she couldn’t stop the warmth from entering her voice.
“What I want.” He said, a little determined tense to his jaw. He looks out the window at the trees surrounding them. “Where are we?”
“You don’t know?” She asked. It was a test on her side, trying to see how much of her husband's memories the other man really had, how much of him was Tim and how much of him was RoboTim(?) no, she wasn’t going to call him that, but she wasn’t going to call him Tim either.
He looked around again and then closed his eyes and when he spoke he sounded exactly like the robot, she knew he was. “Tim Jensen and Mary’s first date.” He opened his eyes and pointed, “We hung out right there for hours, just talking. But we had to rush home because you had a curfew and time had gotten away from us.” He laughed and it sounded like Tim’s laugh. “We were in so much trouble.” She couldn’t help herself she laughed too.
“I couldn’t see you outside of school for weeks.” Shook her head. “Him, I couldn’t see him.” His smile fades.
“Yeah, him, Jensen.” She didn’t ask, couldn’t really but if her Tim was Tim Jensen, who was he?
They sat there for what feels like hours, her breathing gently, him seemingly recovering from those strange spasms, taking in the world around them before her phone beeped.
“I have to go get the kids.” She said to him, not really sure why she felt like apologizing to him.
“I could,” He started, and she just shook her head.
“No.” She said firmly. “Also I expect you to contribute if I’m going to be going out of my way like this,” She didn’t even finish, and he had put a hundred-dollar bill on the console. Her mouth gaped a little.
“Will that be enough?” It was too much but also he had destroyed so much of their stuff, she would be stupid not to take it. She nodded, not trusting her voice. “Can we do this again?” She hated he sounded almost excited at the prospect.
“We didn’t do anything.” She said weakly.
“I like hearing from you.” He said.
“Just call me next time.” She said and then she turned and started the car because she was so not going to go deeper into that thought. But Mary Jensen had also had the same phone number since she was twenty-one and Tim Jensen had it memorized by the time he was twenty-two, so she knows that Not-Tim knows it.
Later, as she helps Bella with her homework, her phone beeps.
“Thank you for today.” An unknown number texted her and it’s signed with a little robot emoji. She laughed out loud.
So maybe that was where it really started.
She would turn on the boys while she was sitting at home alone (There were sightings of The Dark and a metal man in a suit) and they’ll talk about the lack of RoboTims in town. Then in the morning after she dropped Bella and Little Tim off at school, she would meet a man with his hair dyed a truly god awful black, wearing glasses and he’ll say “Hi, Mary. Are you okay?” She won’t answer but then he’ll say “Tim Jensen and Mary leaving King Falls for the first time” and they’ll reminisce on it like he was there and she’ll laugh at a joke he made and he’ll smile at her.
Mary did not think of when it would all come crashing down again, because it would. She enjoyed having someone check on her, enjoyed having someone making sure she smiled.
When she would come home at night and hear Dwayne and Tim arguing in her garage. She would wave at them as she passed. Dwayne flashing her a bright, cocky smile and Tim, a small tired one. Tim would run over to hug her, dropping a kiss on top of her head and she would smile.
She was okay, and this was good.