From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
The Exoskeleton Waltz
Mr and Mrs McRae, residents of the Bolton Street car park apartment, wake to find Katita rolling an unconscious Leif across their ceiling on parallel wires. They deploy their pendant exoskeletons—matching suits of brushed steel, limbs moving in perfect synchrony—to block her. What unfolds is a cartoonish, almost intimate battle: Leif's hand cannon fires. The Mighty Mechas parry. Mrs McRae laughs, a sound like grinding gears. Mr McRae: “"You could have asked, you know."” Katita: “"Would you have said yes?"” Silence stretches. Behind them, Newcastle's rooftop sprawls indifferent. The couple exchanges a glance—a wordless question they've asked each other for forty-three years: *are we the obstacle or the path?* They lower their arms. Katita wheels Leif toward the stairwell. Mr McRae watches them go, one hand still raised, suspended in the air like a question. Mrs McRae: “"Honey, I think we just let history happen."”