Between the Lanterns(39)
The next day, August stood in the lobby of their resort flipping through pamphlets and checking out the different excursions they could take. They could explore the island, or they could do some extreme water sports, or maybe get a massage on the beach.
Nearby, Samantha was reading a local magazine and saw a feature her husband would want to see.
“August, there is a local tech shop not far from here. You wanna check it out today, sweets?” she asked.
“Actually, yeah, that’d be kinda cool,” he said, excited. “If you don’t mind, that is. I could scope out the future competition,” he added with a wink.
Mouth agape, she replied, “Are you saying that you’re considering moving here, sweets? Really?”
August shrugged and said, “Well, yeah, Sam. You love it here, and I know that it’s the most relaxed I’ve ever felt. Why not go for it? We could buy a house right on the beach and live the rest of our lives happy, warm, and sandy.”
Samantha threw the magazine on the floor of the lobby and ran to August, leaping into his arms and wrapping her legs around his waist while kissing every square inch of his face.
“OH, SWEETS!” she cried, “I can’t believe it! Do you really mean it?”
“I do. I mean, heck,” August said, “I fit in here more than in New Dothan. You, on the other hand , still stick out like a sore thumb.”
She slapped his arm and then hugged him tight again, replying, “Ok sweets, let’s go see this tech shop. Find out if they’ll pose any threat to your hostile takeover of Jamaica City’s tech scene.”
They rolled up to the shop on a rented scooter, Samantha driving and August on the back with his arms wrapped around her. They could’ve rented two scooters, but August liked holding onto his wife and enjoyed the smell of her dark hair as it blew in the wind surrounding his face. It was an experience he wanted to have as often as possible.
The shop looked no different than most of the other buildings on the island. Bayuss Tech was painted in pastel colors with white accents, preserving the old, relaxed island feel, even though the building was obviously brand new and very modern.
As they entered the store, their happiness turned sour in an instant. Looking around, they had a very odd sense of déjà vu. The very first display they saw was a stand of retro cellphones made to accept a SmartChip.
“What the hell? They stole my idea,” August said, walking over to examine them.
Samantha scanned the rest of the shop while August stared in disbelief at the Bayuss Phone. It was an exact rip-off of his models. They weren’t even trying to make it look different. The ports that accept the SmartChip were exactly his design, down to the fingernail groove he put in to make it easier to open.
“Sweets, it gets worse,” Samantha said in a worried tone. “You might want to see this.”
August rushed over to a table where two lanterns hovered a foot above the surface, changing lights and slowly rotating. A sign on the table told of all the functions that Love.Lanterns possessed. They were, once again, an exact copy of his Life Lanterns. The functions were all exactly the same. Even the lanterns were identical. Instead of using the ones found floating around Jamaica City, these creeps had used the style found in New Dothan.
“What the hell?” August repeated, growing angry. “How… how is this possible?”
Samantha put a calming hand on his shoulder that almost worked in calming her husband down until August glanced through the window behind the register and saw the workshop in back.
There on the table were pieces of a wooden automaton in a halted state of assembly. It looked a lot like Woodrow, but not the new one. It resembled a full-size version of the original Woodrow, blocky and inorganic like the Montek.Automatons made of metal.
August reached his boiling point. He threw open the door to the back room and rushed in. There were no employees in the shop or the workroom. He began examining their poor attempt at re-creating his wooden automaton. They had everything wrong, and the materials were poor. This thing would never work.
That was a relief, at least.
The sound of a toilet flushing and a door opening caught the couple’s attention. Turning to find the source, they were met with a look of astonishment, followed by recognition, and then finally outrage.
“What the hell are you doing in my workshop?” tThe man hissed as he pushed August in the chest, forcing him back out onto the main sales floor.
“YOU!” August shouted. “You stole my designs. You stole my inventions. How could you do this? And why?”
“Go screw yourself, Mr. Lurie,” the tech thief replied. “None of your designs are copyrighted. You foolishly started a company without filing patents for your inventions. All I had to do was buy them and re-create them. I didn’t even have to modify the original design because you’re a moron.”
The customer who had most recently tried to buy the new Woodrow, the man who had bought two phones and two sets of lanterns had a smug look on his face that drove August to clench his fists.
“Joshua Stevens,” he said, trying not to punch the man in his face. “You bought my tech just to steal my ideas and sell them as your own. Of course, it’s all shitty workmanship, and that wooden hunk of junk in the back will never work. You’re a thief and a bastard. But the real question is how did you get the details of the original Woodrow? Montek’s legal division confiscated it.”