“Keeping Up”
   K.M.Yoss

The android family the Andersons moved in next door.  Their constructs unloaded wave after wave of glittering transmetal from a moving truck more modern than Tom James’ scuttle.  Tom, still trying to deal with the ramifications of Joyce, poised beyond the twinkling waves of Andersons’ communiqué, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

The container, gentle and yielding, protective against skinned oils, weighed as heavily on his biceps as his morality.  Peeling back the onion skin layers, Tom freed layer after layer of intricately colorful underwear.
 

Joyce, dissatisfied by infinite failures, rang the android family the Andersons’ doorbell. Andersons’ female lingered behind the door, feeling Joyce’s desire and anger palpable through the translucent barriers projecting shadows beyond boundaries.  Joyce, dissatisfied, trampled newly planted flowers before turning the key in her own door.
 

The ball rolled freely between the two children.  Andersons’ child glinted in the sun momentarily revealed between darkening clouds.  Will examined the ball’s rough texture, imagining pocket universes superseding his own.