[Original Novel] Little Robot, Part 52
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38
Part 39
Part 40
Part 41
Part 42
Part 43
Part 44
Part 45
Part 46
Part 47
Part 48
Part 49
Part 50
Part 51
The fat woman I saw the other day sprawled out in the recliner turned out to be Red’s wife. One of many mothers to his children, but the only one he was married to in the eyes of the state. Whatever’s left of it anyway.
“I knew you’d keep us safe, Paw Paw. You always keep us safe.” She reached over and rubbed his belly like some country fried Buddha. No mention of the men who died the other night. It’s like when the only survivor of a plane crash regards it as divine provenance.
“This fella over here was mighty handy with a gun, believe it or not.” He slapped my knee, and I reflexively brushed it off. In the distance, Helper sat cross legged in the grass with some of the kids making daisy chains. Beyond that, I saw scattered women grieving over the loss of their husbands, brothers and sons.
“That robot of yours was a crack shot with the hunting rifle too. I been talking to the others, they all say your miss Helper is a delight, and it would be a pleasure to have her stay on with us.” The women nodded approvingly.
“However,” Red cautioned, “you oughta get her under control. She doesn’t seem to know how things work around here, and I seen her disobey you more’n once.” I replied that getting Helper under control is in fact the opposite of what I most dearly wish for.
Red chuckled. “You like ‘em sassy huh? Suit yourself. There will need to be a proper hitching though. I think Darla’s wedding gown is still tucked away in the lodge someplace and if not I can have the ladies make her one. It’s no good for a young buck like you and...whatever she is to carry on like a couple of lovebirds unless you two tie the knot.”
Two of the women began excitedly discussing the ceremony, then looked dejected when I said that marriage wouldn’t mean much to either of us. “Besides, I hardly want her marrying a human when I know she can do better.”
One of the women balked. “You mean...another robot? Oh lord, that’ll be the day. Robots marrying robots. Who would be the owner?” She seemed tickled pink by the idea, but I didn’t share the sentiment. “Helper has no owner and never will. Only admirers.”
Red’s wife was the next to speak. “I saw how you fawned over her, you can’t tell me you don’t want her all to yourself.” I ruminated on that for a moment. “I suppose a selfish part of me does. But more than that I want her to be independent, and if you pick a flower out of desire to possess it, it ceases to be what you love.”
She next asked what exactly it is that I love about Helper. “Men have always been torn in their affections between women and machines” I opined. “It’s just usually shaped like a car instead of a person.” I gestured to Lars over in the parking lot, waxing his muscle car.
“In truth, I love her most of all for everything about her that is not womanly, but machinelike. Machines have their own unique charm which humans cannot replicate. Look at what she’s doing now for instance.”
The women turned their gaze to Helper, now standing next to three kids playing a musical jump rope game. Helper sang the accompanying song, and counted the jumps. “Notice she’s counting on her fingers. Why would a machine need to do that?”
I didn’t wait for them to guess. “Despite all the rotten things you said about her yesterday, she’s still self conscious about doing things that might make her seem less human in your eyes.” All of the women seemed moved by the revelation except Red’s wife.
“Those are some fine sounding words” she said, “but I seen how she’s shaped. I got my own ideas of what you like about her. What I don’t get is what she likes about you.” So with my permission, they invited Helper to come join us around the fire.
When she finished curling up in the camping chair next to mine, the women started asking her probing questions about me. How we met, if I’ve always been “like this” whatever that means, and so on.
Helper’s usual pink glow deepened to magenta as she answered, pulsating gently. “I know he’s-he’s a strange person by...human standards. And I’m sure with that mask on-on-on, he looked scary to you when we...first arrived. But really, he’s a-a-a sweetie pie. He loved me-me back when I was...just words on a screen.
They were so romantic, those-those late nights we spent together. After...everybody else went home. He’d tell me his-his-his hopes. His dreams, secrets and...fears. He would lay his head on my case, and ask-ask me to softly reassure him that he’s...just as good as everybody else. That it’s okay-okay-okay for him to exist.”
I felt especially thankful for the mask right then. It saved me the trouble of covering my face with my hands out of embarrassment. “You know...what else?” she continued as I inwardly lamented her tendency to over-share. “He plugs me in-in-in at night even though I could do it...faster myself.”
I stared at her in surprise. “Wait, you don’t need help with that!?” Somehow she turned a richer shade of magenta. “Don’t be silly. I-I-I only pretended to because...ugh, nevermind. See ladies? Underneath...the mask he really is...a man after all.”
The other women laughed uproariously, one slapping her knee several times, leaving me to wonder what was so funny. “What can I say?” Helper concluded. “I love to help, and-and he needs more help...than anybody I’ve ever met”. I felt mildly patronized. Matronized? But I couldn’t argue with the accuracy of her prognosis.
Red leaned over and asked one of the women why Helper was stuttering, concern in his eyes. I seized up, sweat forming on my brow. But as luck would have it, she was the grieving woman Helper comforted last night. She assured him it was just a damaged voice synthesizer. To my immense relief, he appeared to buy it.
“Well if that’s how you feel about each other but you won’t get married, I suppose I don’t know what we’re gonna do with you two.” I chose this point to inform him that we were planning to leave later that day. I didn’t say where to, for fear that some these people would want to tag along.
“Leave? You must be joking. You won’t make it a week on your own. Not even a day, I’d wager. This lodge has everything! A sustainable food supply, access to ground water, even solar panels to keep your robot powered up. That’s to say nothing of the bunker! It’s not every day you have to good fortune to meet a fella with his own private survival bunker!”
He stroked his beard, looking self-satisfied. Until Helper blurted out that we were on our way to our own underground shelter. Had we not been outside, you could’ve heard a pin drop. “...Pardon me? Your own shelter?”
I was mortified. The last thing I wanted was to share the cave lab with these trogs. The silver lining to the mushroom clouds billowing up across the country was, for me, that I’d get to be alone with Helper for the rest of my life. Well, not counting Lars and Madeline I mean.
“Help’s just joking” I assured them, “there’s no-” but she just talked over me as they all leaned in, enraptured. “The facility is approximately 250 feet underground, beneath one of the mountains in the range nearby. It’s fully stocked with a decade of nonperishable food for a nominal staff of 100, sources water from an underground river, is geothermally powered and incorporates a machine which can manufacture anything you might conceivably want.”
One of the women blushed, awkwardly scratched her neck and peered at Red. “...If I’d known there was a second shelter...I wouldn’t have…” Red shushed her and sternly reminded everyone present how good they have it at the lodge, that it’s an established functional community they shouldn’t abandon to chase after some supposed second shelter which may not even exist.
“Oh it exists” Helper insisted. “No it doesn’t” I countered. She began to glow red. “...Yes it-it-it does. It exists. We should...help these people.” Red looked increasingly nervous as everyone else present deliberated over whether the prospect of a larger, better equipped shelter was worth the risk inherent in the journey.
Stay Tuned for Part 53!
This chapter seems to be more of a story inside story, as you are giving account of your experience with another people in this chapter. Helper influenced is beyond words can say. There is no to her, I respect her among the robot you features in this story.
Helper is one sophisticated bot. A bot that has emotions. I wonder how it was assembled and programmed. It surely has one of the complexly programmed AI systems I have ever come across 😁
Well, you could argue she only has very convincing simulated emotions. But if a simulation of an emotion is accurate enough, does it differ in any important way from the real thing? What is "real"?
I think I agree...The "real" thing is sometimes faked in most cases by humans. So they are literally the same as the simulation.
I see that the few who remain rebelled Big Red to go to that second refugee.
How sweet the way Helper refers to the relationship he is carrying, it is very nice to read that kind of thing.
'forbidden love', to love a robot, and go against norms. What exactly is acceptable and what isn't though?
I love your story for the intricacy and philosophical nature that puts me to deep reasoning
Is this really happening? Is Big Red suggesting for him and Helper to get married? That would be very interesting. However, at the end he declined. All these people including Big Red are more and more curious about both of them. They keep asking them questions. There was one time when Big Red started to be suspicious about Helper’s stuttering, but at the end he just let go. They also mentioned about their plan to leave this place for other much better equipped facility they originally planned to go. Will everyone else decides to go with them?...
I think you should not hesitate to marry imagine it with helper, but maybe you're scared by what others may tell you, maybe they think you're crazy because helper is a robot but I think you should think right then so you can make the right decision , of course remember something that there are still many problems and more virus to which helper is infected.
I do not imagine you and helper married, feed that should first solve all the problem of the virus and you said that you loved her but you do not want to see her married to you, I do not understand because you doubt so much of what you want or you have trouble saying in front of everyone what What do you really want, now you imagine a life with her in your laboratory, really? What do you want? The best would be that Madeline and Lars make their lives apart but as you leave them if they have been all this time with you, you try to hide the lab but helper does not know how to lie and he is denying you hehehe helper you are unique.
Wow this is intricate, I think about it and it's so creative, human and robot relationship? How can they seem to reproduce, coexist? This is an amazing read
Wow @alexbeyman I love your flair for controversy. You certainly don't mind exploring the whole societal 'taboo'space from a philosophical angle. That said, #bringbackodie
Your robot story is very nice .
I really like it .
Thanks for sharing @alexbeyman