WALL.E - Words of Love part 2

WALL-E still asleep when EVE left the truck.

She was tempted, at first, to go back, to turn up the volume on Hello, Dolly! and watch it over and over again until the empty feeling went away. But that, of course, would catch WALL-E’s attention, and EVE didn’t want that. She had slept happily, and that was a nice change, but now morning was approaching and the humans were coming out again. She spotted two familiar forms, a man and a woman WALL-E had made friends with. They were holding hands. The woman waved her rounded fingers at her as she passed, and EVE waved back.

The feeling was creeping up on her again.

Sighing, she tucked her arms behind her and took off into the sky, remembering how it felt to dance in space. WALL-E holding the fire hydrant close to his cube body, white color trailing off behind him, translucent blue like a neon shadow behind her. She flew alone now, and for once, she wanted to be alone, to collect her thoughts together and figure out what they meant. Even after time had passed, sometimes she wasn’t used to the feelings her awakening came along with.

She wandered into a space far from the re-colonize operation and settled down beside some cubed trash. EVE wondered how much of it was done by WALL-E. She cast her blue eyes down toward the still-preserved tracks curving across the land and knew her eyes were curving into a sad smile. He was so precious, she thought.

Extending her little white fingers, EVE probed into the trash and began to fish for items. An egg beater – how she remembered that – a little broken electronic device she couldn’t quite place, some coins – and then a certain cube caught her eye. It was almost completely blue – fabric. Curious, she glided closer and began to untangle the fabric from the rest of the trash.

The result was a very dirt, very battered child’s dress.

The empty feeling returned.

For some time, she continued to explore, looking for different clothes. They were hard to find, most of them torn into smaller pieces, but eventually she found something that made her eyes turn into wide ovals. Sheer and translucent, a once-white piece of fabric that trailed some distance past her hand floated before her. The top was meant to be curved but had been broken when it had been cubed. There were several tears, and the entire thing was filthy. No matter, M-O could fix that with some work. The tears, however, she would have to fix herself.

It would only take half a minute.

Turning the fabric over carefully in her hands, the word she was searching for finally surfaced. Bride.

It was a veil.

“Bride.” she said softly. “Bride, bride.”

She didn’t realize it at the time, but her depression had begun to ebb into excitement.

- - - - -

EVE was out with M-O, WALL-E was told, when he woke up.

What she could be doing with M-O he didn’t take the time to wonder, because the re-colonization was brimming with different robots teaming up to patch things together. But that didn’t stop him from being a little disappointed when he didn’t see her pretty face as he started back up.

Just looking at her made him so happy.

Rolling outside, WALL-E quickly busied himself with painting. The other robots were putting color to a human house, particularly John and Mary’s. It was a gift, the captain said, because they were considering getting married soon.

Married. He didn’t understand the word at first, until it was explained to him. Married meant together forever, and a ceremony, and a. . .dress. Ever since the humans had begun to settle down, they slowly began to make their own clothes again. Mary had made herself a wide, pink summery dress, and WALL-E thought she looked brand new in it. Everything looked brand new nowadays. It was so exciting.

As the day flew by, EVE still wasn’t returning.

“P-ain-t.” WALL-E sounded out as he turned the bright colors over unto the exterior of the house. “Pain-t.”

He missed her, though he knew just half a day wasn’t a long time for her to be gone. He always missed her, because he loved her hopelessly, and to be away from her for too long made him feel like something inside him was missing.

Maybe he’d surprise her when she returned. Maybe he’d ask John and Mary for help.

But still, deep down, he knew she was sad. And when EVE was sad, even when she was there to hold his hand, it still felt like something was gone.