2. The Observation Deck

“Oh, okay. I’m stepping back now.” Cameron said, as he took several steps back from the window. His girlfriend, Tory, turned to check on him.

“You all right?” she asked?

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just the vertigo kicking in.”

Tory smiled. “Why you wanted to come up here when heights do this to you is beyond me.”

“Because the view is incredible,” Cameron said as he sat down on a nearby bench. “As long as you don’t look down.”

“Wimp”

“I love you too”

Cameron leant back and took a deep breath. His little bout of dizziness was starting to pass. Clinical Vertigo, his doctor had called it. A combination of a few different elements, including low blood pressure, that resulted in his head spinning and his knees getting rubbery every time he was presented with a high place. It wasn’t that he didn’t like heights, or was even scared of them. His body, every now and then, just couldn’t take them.

He looked over at the beautiful girl standing in the window, enjoying the view. Tory. Her real name was Victoria, but he’d only ever know her by the shortened version of her name. At 5 foot 3 tall, she was quite the contrast to his 6 foot 4 frame. But they fit well together. Their friend Sharleen, who had introduced the pair, had gone as far as to say they complemented each other. Today was the first time in a while that they had the chance to spend any time with each other. With her studies, the erratic nature of his job, her living in towards the beach and him stuck out in the suburbs, finding any sort of quality time with each other was rare. That’s why he had suggested this trip to the top of the world. If he had her, Cameron thought, he wanted to make the most of it.

He caught himself smiling as he watched her. Tory had shown up in his life at a most unexpected time. He’d recently ended a long-term relationship before they met, which had embittered him against women a bit. Actually, it was the latest in a long run of bad relationships. 10 years of women in his life that had, for whatever reason, left him feeling less like a boyfriend, partner or friend and more like an expendable, replaceable pet. You know it’s not a good thing when your ex girlfriends are only ever referred to with such clever nick names as “the Ice Queen”, “The Parasite” and “The Succubus”. That’s why Tory such a surprise. To re-use and old Cliché, she was everything he never knew he always wanted. Funny, sweet, smart, creative, talented and extraordinarily opinionated. She called a spade a spade and didn’t care if others called it a shovel. She was inspiring and frustrating all in the one breath, which made Cameron feel more alert and alive than he had in years. Most importantly though, was that she liked Cameron for who he was, not what she thought he should be. Cameron had never met anyone like her before; much less a woman, and she continually surprised and delighted him. To say he adored her was a huge understatement. He loved Tory in a way he had never felt before. He loved her nearly as much . . .

. . . as he was starting to hate that kid.

Over to his left, running around like an unchained ferret in need of an overdose of Ridilin, was a six or seven year old boy. He had just somehow managed to knock over an information display, sending brochures and pamphlets everywhere, and was now evading capture at the hands of some very annoyed security guards. The boy’s parents, far off to the side, had either, through sheer necessity, developed a seeming deaf and blindness to their child’s activities, or plain old didn’t give a damn. Looking at them, Cameron guessed the latter. They stood stationary, paying no attention, as their little hell spawn started to climb up onto the ledge that separated the viewing windows from the floor. Watching the child, he was reminded of a similar incident that had happened years ago.

When he was around 15, 16 years old, Cameron was helping out his mother with the weekly grocery shopping. A young boy – who could have been the same kid, if it hadn’t been 15 or so years ago – was running wildly through the isles. About the only attempt at discipline his young mother had attempted was an occasional “Stop that” or – much to Cameron’s amusement – “Is this acceptable behaviour?” It had proved all too much when the small boy, for no apparent reason, had kicked Cameron in the shin. Grabbing the boy, he marched up to the young mother, told her what had happened and asked her to control her child. Her response still seemed incredulous to Cameron, even to this day.

“My son has a free upbringing. We want him to learn through experience, not punishment.”

Cameron had stared at the women in disbelief for a moment. Then, reaching into the woman’s shopping trolley, he removed a tub of yogurt. Removing the lid, he turned to the boy, and proceeded to dump the entire contents on the child’s head. Upon facing the young mother again, he smiled sweetly and stated, very simply and directly:

“I had a free upbringing as well”

Cameron was snapped out of his brief moment of nostalgia by the current calamity before him, who was now banging on the window and calling out insults to the people below.

Where was a tub of yogurt when you needed one?

Tory sat down beside him and wrapped her arms around one of his.

“Let it go”

“What?”

“I can see that look on your face. Whatever you’re planning, forget about it.”

“It’s just . . . rude”

“I know”

Tory grabbed Cameron’s hand and held it. Looking at him, she realised that his mind was becoming more and more set on a course of action. Even though they hadn’t been together for very long, she knew him well enough to know that when he got like this, there really wasn’t a lot she could do to dissuade him. Cameron took a deep breath in and made a small groaning sound under his breath as he let it out. He was fighting it for her sake, she realised. As much as she appreciated it, she knew it wasn’t going to last. Cameron had a pretty developed sense of right and wrong. Whenever something came up that wasn’t right, or fair as he believed it, it got to him. And it wasn’t the fact that the kid was annoying that was making him this way. That’s what kids do, after all. What was getting under her boyfriends skin was that the parents didn’t have enough respect or courtesy to realise the child’s antics were annoying the other people around them. That was Cameron’s gripe.

The boy thudded his hands on the glass again. The noise of it made Cameron flinch slightly.

“Hey! Stupid People!” He cried out, banging on the glass again.

Cameron looked over at the boy’s parents. His mother briefly glanced at the child and, maybe deciding that he wasn’t getting into enough trouble to be worth bothering about, maybe just not caring what he got up to, returned to her conversation. The woman seemed completely oblivious to the filthy looks her son’s antics were earning her.

THOOM went the glass as the bot thudded on it again. Cameron took a very deep breath in.

‘Here we go’, thought Tory. THOOM!

“Wait here a second, Sweety” Cameron said, rising to his feet.

Tory Knew it was pointless to stop him, but she tried anyway.

“Cam!”

“I’m just going to get him away from the window. Back in a sec.”

Tory rested her head in her hand and watched him start to walk towards the child. He wouldn’t hurt the kid. She at least knew that much. Maybe put the fear of God into him, but he’d never hurt him. Or anyone for that matter. Cam spoke big and acted all tough, but if he ever truly hurt anyone, either physically or emotionally, he’d be absolutely devastated. The guy was a big softy at heart. The bot had no more to fear from Cameron than he did Santa Claus.

Which is why it struck her as such a surprise when Cameron broke into a sprint and took a flying leap towards the kid.