When Avery arrived, she found her grandmother had passed away peacefully, a serene smile still resting on her face.
Avery couldn’t help but think that her grandmother had probably t the grandfather she’d never known in her dreams.
She truly believed that her grandparents had been deeply in love. Only that kind of love and happiness could have kept her grandmother so warm and forgiving, even after losing her husband so young. "Miss Carter, please accept our deepest condolences, the nurse and doctor said kindly. "This is a joyful sorrow. Your grandmother would want you to smile as you say goodbye."
Avery wiped away the last of her tears and nodded, her voice steady. "Yes, she’s just fallen asleep... into the most beautiful, eternal dream."
She had prepared herself for this mont. What she wanted most was for her grandmother to leave this world without any regrets.
Over the past few days, Isaac’s family had visited daily, doing everything they could to keep Avery’s grandmother happy. And they had succeeded-her grandmother was truly happy.
In addition to Avery and the Murphy family. Alexander and the Carter family had also made regular visits. Every ti Avery’s grandmother opened her eyes, she was surrounded by the people who loved her.
The love and attention had worked wonders. Avery’s grandmother had been in great spirits these past few days. She ate more than usual, smiled more, and even her wrinkles seed softer.
Her grandmother had always been afraid of goodbyes. Avery was too-especially the final, in-person kind. But knowing that her grandmother had passed peacefully, lost in a dream, almost felt like a relief. Once the nurse had left and the door to the room closed behind her, Avery was alone.
She turned off the lights, leaving only the soft glow of the bedside lamp. Sitting down beside the bed, she gently held her grandmother’s cold, wrinkled hand, her heart full of mories. She spoke softly, as if her grandmother were still there to hear her. "Grandma, I’ve been keeping sothing huge from you. It’s not because I wanted to hide it-I had to. My ntor insisted that unless it was gone from this world, I could never tell anyone. You always taught to keep my word, and I couldn’t break my vow to him. "I’m telling you now because you’re not just anyone-you’re my grandma, the one I love more than anything. You won’t believe this, but when I was five, I t sothing amazing. I t a cat in the park that could write. And it really could, Grandma. Avery’s voice softened as she continued, "It was injured at the ti, lying in the grass, wing weakly. I was about to pick it up and rush it to the vet when it surprised -it started writing on the ground with its paw, telling where it was hurt. "Then it said it was thirsty and asked to give it so water first. After drinking, it made promise not to tell anyone that it could read and write. Of course, I agreed"
She paused for a mont, her eyes reflecting the depth of the mory before she went on. "Once it was better, I took it ho: Since you’re allergic to cats, I kept it in my room, out of your way. It was unbelievably smart.
"It learned how to use the toilet, flush it, and even shower on its own. When it was hungry, it found its food. It never once made worry."
Avery smiled, her thoughts drifting back. "It even knew how to use a computer. It could type faster than anyone I knew and often helped with my howork by typing out explanations.
"It taught all my computer skills-even my hacking skills. It shared everything with -dicine, physics, astronomy chemistry. It knew it all, like a living, breathing encyclopedia. It beca my ntor"
She took a deep breath, as though bracing herself for what ca next. Then, one day, my ntor beca human. Well, not exactly human. The consciousness of my ntor transferred from the car’s body into a human one
Her voice dropped lower. "It told it ca from a place beyond even alien worlds-a dinsion higher than the three-dinsional space humans live in. Its ho had been invaded by a more advanced civilization, and to escape, it and its people had to lower their dinsion and enter our three-dinsional universe."
"It was like the idea of dinsional reduction in The Three-Body Problem. Their level of technology and knowledge was beyond anything humanity could imagine. My ntor didn’t explain much more than that, and I didn’t ask"
Avery’s expression softened, her gaze distant as she relived the tale. "What it did explain was that a physical body is too fragile to survive traveling through ti and space. Only consciousness can move freely between dinsions."
"That’s how my ntor and its people managed to survive-they stored their consciousness in higher-dinsional objects, lowered their dinsion, and entered our universe, hoping to find a new ho?"
She sighed, her voice quiet as she continued. "But the new ho they found wasn’t suitable for living. So of them boarded spaceships to search for a better place. After a long journey across ti and space, they finally reached Earth, thousands of years ago. But by then, their ships were barely functioning-out of resources and in terrible shape."
"When they landed, the ships broke apart. The fragile parts were destroyed, including the core that held all their important technology and the map to their holand-the so-called ancient civilization, or what we might call the ancient codes or treasure. That scattered across the Earth."
Her voice grew solemn. "Most of my ntor’s companions didn’t survive. The few who did scattered across the planet. My ntor, whose essence is pure consciousness, was now trapped in a malfunctioning robot body, barely functional. So, it had no choice but to keep searching for human bodies to attach itself to, living through others as a human"
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