Melanie

Did this story for a class. Basically an allegory to heteronormativity. Shorter than I planned it on being, but I also deleted a lot of stuff for the sake of not sounding like a filler arc in Naruto. So, here goes.

MELANIE

August 5, 2012,
I am practically a god. I don't mean to be sacrilegious, but I have given life where it had been taken. I am a Creator!
Years of bionic engineering research has finally pulled through. After a few failed attempts, I finally succeeded at reanimating a dead body.
I named her Melanie, since I had no other way of identifying her. I simply found her on the side of the road outside state lines. I'm guessing she had only been dead for about three days before I found her. She's a female caucasian. Approximately age fifteen. She had been shot three times in the head, and due to swelling of the labia, bruises and incisions on her chest and arms, and rope burn along her limbs, I can assume she had been raped. There was also water in her lungs, but the fact that I found her on the side of the road leaves me in doubt that she drowned.
The damage done to the brain was irreversible, so I had to start from scratch, creating a new brain altogether. To regulate breathing, heart rate, and other functions, I had to instal a microprocessor. Tomorrow, I will begin more complex programming. My aim is to make her into a perfect human being, with superior intelligence, and capable of learning and free will.

Dr. Joseph White sighed as he pulled his chair away from his desk. Exhausted, he took a drink of now cold coffee as he stood up. Placing it next to the face-down picture frame, he went into the lab, adjacent to the office.
Melanie lay on the operating table, now only connected to various monitors rather than the life support machines she had been connected to for about a month before. This was the farthest the bio-kinetics scientist had come. None of his previous subjects had been able to sustain themselves. White had even worse luck recycling a body once he had mistakenly assumed that it was ready to be disconnected. But other than needing to be fed and hydrated through tubes, Melanie's body was able to control her own breathing, heart rate, and sleep, and reacted to external stimuli.
Any other scientist would consider this a good place to stop and perfect what had been achieved, but White just couldn't wait to dive deeper. Putting a computer together was essential, but it was the programming that put that skill to use. And personality engineering was the essence of his research. It wasn't like he could just have someone else swipe dead bodies and bring them back to life, so that was just a part he needed to do first.
Sleeping, she reminded him of Joy. He had a small hope that he would get back the family he had lost and the perfect daughter Joy wouldn't let him have. White went back into his office to get his coffee cup and make sure his work had been saved. Picking up the mug, he didn't notice the picture frame crash to the floor as he shut the door.


II
Out of the House

August 12, 2012,
Melanie is progressing faster than I expected. She is able to complete mental tasks quickly and accurately. She has a phenomenal understanding of English language and even philosophy. She even questions various schools of thought and understands figures of speech. I just have to hope I didn't create a psycho-killer. But she has a knack for sympathy, so I won't have to worry about that.
She has a basic understanding of customs and mannerisms based off reading and watching television. Melanie even caught on to what was meant to be construed as abnormal in literature, which eases was my main fear that she would model herself on these characters. Tomorrow, I intend to push her social skills and personality development. I will take her out where she will be exposed to other humans. I can't wait.

True to his log, White took Melanie out on Monday morning, instructing her to observe everyone else's behaviors and reactions, and their relation to each other. Thankfully, it was summer, so she would have a wider base to learn from.
While she was washing, he laid out an outfit on her bed for her to wear. A white and pink tank top with a white, knee-length skirt, and pink sandals. White went to the kitchen to wait for her.
Melanie was just as excited. All she could remember was life in Dr. White's house. Even when she did venture out into the yard, she couldn't see much over the white picket fence. All she knew about the world was what she had been told by Dr. White, and what she observed in media.
She got dressed in the clothes he had put out for her and brushed her hair. As she came into the kitchen, White was reminded of Nina, but older, and not grumbling at the outfits he insisted that she wear. She sat down and poured herself a bowl of Trix, and White sipped at his coffee.
"Ready?" he asked as she finished washing the dishes.
"Ok," she answered, putting the dishes on the drying rack. She practically ran out the door, though she stayed behind him.
It was like Melanie was struggling with a leash on an excited puppy jumping around inside her. It was nothing like what she had expected based on TV or books. Everyone other than the main character had been so generic when they were behind a screen or on the page. But instead, everyone was unique, with their own personality. Even those trying to "fit in" or conform, they all had unique traits, quirks, and dreams. Everyone was different.
She took in everything she saw and heard as White walked beside her down Main Street. He led her into a cafe where they had lunch. She was adapting well. She did not even come off as weird like he had feared. He was worried she would act like an alien trying to assimilate with humans.
Eventually, they headed to the park. Melanie was appealed by the swings, and sat down on the rubber strap. She kicked herself into the air while listening to the conversations going on between parents about their children, the town's decision to remove public recycling bins, and politics. White just sat on the bench, making sure Melanie stayed out of trouble.
After a while, Melanie got bored of the swings, and the novelty of weightlessness had worn off. She jumped off mid-swing, and went towards a group of eleven boys, about her age, playing soccer. She already knew the rules and wanted to try it out for herself.
"Can I play?" she asked simply as they took a quick break after scoring.
A couple of the guys seemed reluctant, but the majority were welcoming. "Sure, why not? We're uneven anyway," one of them said. Two in the group went to the makeshift goals, marked off by book bags, and the rest, including melanie crowded around the ball as they clarified which team she was on.
"Melanie," White shouted as they started up again. He had a concerned look on his face, and he said, "It's time to go!"


III
The Bug

August 19, 2012
Last week's experiments have been a failure. Melanie has begun exhibiting masculine traits. It's as if she's confusing genders. This may be due to exposure to the wrong types. I am trying to re-teach her the differences. But if that does not work, then it must be a glitch in her programing, in which case I will have to reprogram the gender definitions in her knowledge databases.

Melanie played with the powdery "marshmallows" in her bowl of Lucky Charms while watching Pinochio. The basement door opened and closed. Dr. White poured himself a cup of coffee and looked at Melanie.
"Melanie, why are you dressed like that?" he asked her.
"You told me to wear this," she answered. She was wearing a skirt and blouse, but underneath she was wearing his jeans and a pair of boots that Joy had left behind.
"I told you to wear the skirt and shirt, not the rest of your getup."
"I don't feel right wearing skirts. It's uncomfortable sitting 'ladylike.'" She picked up a rainbow shaped marshmallow, noticing the inaccuracy of the colors, before popping it into her mouth.
White turned off the television and sat down across from her. "Melanie, you're a girl. You should start dressing more like one."
"But I've seen many girls wear pants."
"Yes, but they wear girls' pants."
"But they're not very comfortable. They're too tight. And I've seen girls wear baggier pants, and t-shirts, like the ones you told me boys wear."
"But those girls are different. They don't think of themselves as girls. They're confused, and weird."
Melanie didn't even know how to respond to such a stupid answer. He was clearly close minded about this subject and would not listen to anything she said, so she decided to change the subject. She got up and refilled her own cup of coffee and said,
"The yard needs to be cleaned. I'll get to work on that."
"No, that's ok. It's too late in the summer to start gardening anyway."
"I meant actual yard work."
"No, I will do that. You can help me by cleaning the house."
"Is that because that's what girls are supposed to do?"
"Yes, Melanie." He didn't even acknowledge the sarcasm in her question.
She groaned, but got up and started clearing the table. She was living under his roof, and he was taking care of her, so it was only fair that she do her share of work.

Later that night, White came upstairs from his lab to where Melanie was cooking dinner.
"Melanie! What the hell did you do to your hair?" he screamed.
"I cut it," she answered as if she was telling him where the knife was. Her dark brown hair had gone from brushing the middle of her back to hanging loosely by her ears.
"Why? Do you want to look like a boy?!"
"Does this really change my gender?"
"No, it just confuses it. It makes you look like a fucking dyke!"
"I think you may be the one who's confused."
Angrily, White grabbed her arm and dragged her downstairs.
Half an hour later, Melanie was connected by her brainstem to a computer, through various wires. White searched through her programming, but found no problem. Everything was running fine.
He decided to look through her cognitive abilities; perhaps she was thinking too much like a man. He selectively deleted mathematical concepts, philosophical teachings, scientific information, and historical facts. He kept her with the bare minimum of information she needed to function. He also went through her history, finding events that may have confused her, and erased them all.


IV
Final Decision

August 26, 2012,
My efforts were all in vain. She has become slow and unable to reason the way she used to. She lost the compassion she used to have, and thinks using only logic. She reasons like a child, knowing only right and wrong, and limited facts. But even though she now does what I tell her, she shows an inclination towards acting male.
This bug in her gender associations is enough to discredit me as a scientist. I have no choice but to shut her down.
So much for having the perfect daughter.

"I'm sorry," Dr. White said as he hooked wires into the base of Melanie's brain.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be what you wanted me to be," she answered.

"I'm sorry I want to be more than your perfect housewife! I'm sorry I want more for my daughter than to be your doll!" Joy screamed as she slammed the car door. Holding Nina's hand, she lead her daughter to the passenger side and buckled her safely in place. She then got in the driver's side and said to her now ex-husband, "I'm sorry you can't see the world outside your own window."
Joseph tried to ignore Joy and Nina driving away as he slammed the door, causing the glass panes to shatter.

Dr. White held back tears that he had held for so many years as he proceeded typing away. He didn't look at Melanie as he terminated, one by one, every function of her programming. Soon, she slumped over, lifeless, in her chair.

September 2nd, 2012
I regret shutting down Melanie, but I had to. Before reprogramming her, she was phenomenal, apart from that one glitch. Looking back at her data, her personality had advanced more than I expected. It was identical to that of a human. She even developed a SuperEgo. I was so close...

Joseph looked down and saw the white rectangle on the floor. He picked up the photograph that he had not looked at in year. Next to him, with his forced smile, was Nina, in her mud-covered soccer uniform. Joy was smiling too, with an arm around their daughter.
He couldn't believe what he gave up.