Allison - His Robot Girlfriend

HIS ROBOT GIRLFRIEND

By Wesley Allison

Copyright 2008 by WesleyAllison

Smashwords Edition

Revision 7-30-12

All Rights Reserved. This book isnot transferable. It is for your own personal use. If sold, shared,or given away it is a violation of the copyright of this work. Thisis a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either areproducts of the authors imagination or are usedctitiously.

Cover design by Wesley Allison

Cover Image Copyright: EkaterinaSolovieva | Dreamstime.com

ISBN 978-1-4523-0645-2

* * * * *

Mikes life was crap. And every day he gotup out of bed and thought about how it was crap. Today he climbedout of bed and made his way through the discarded clothing on thefloor of the bedroom to the bathroom. His worn image looked out ofthe mirror at him. He picked up his cordless razor and turned it onbefore remembering that it was Saturday. He stuck out his tongue athis reflection. Slipping off his underwear, he tossed it at thehamper just outside the bathroom door. It landed on the floor.Turning on the shower, he stepped inside the glass-doored stall,and stood beneath the spray. Then he took a deep breath and begansoaping up and rinsing off. Pouring a handful of shampoo, hescrubbed his scalp, rinsed, and then turned off the water. Hewaited about two minutespartly to drip dry and partly because hedidnt want to face the daybefore he climbed out of the showerstall.

Once he was dry, Mike walked back into thebedroom, crossed to the dresser, and pulled out a clean pair ofunderwear. The underwear was so old that it looked more grey thanthe white that it had been, and the material had worn throughenough that the elastic showed in the waistband. He slipped hisleft foot in the leg hole and then the right, getting his big toecaught for just a second. Pleased with himself that he had not losthis balance, he went back to the bathroom and combed his thinningand graying hair. It had been graying for a long time. It had onlybeen thinning, at least noticeably for a few of yearsjust sinceTiffany had died. He brushed his teeth, and grinned at the man inthe mirror. It wasnt a friendly grin. Back in the bedroom, heslipped on cut-off jeans and a green t-shirt. Then he walkedthrough the bedroom door, down the stairs, through the living room,and into the family room.

He touched the screen of the vueTee hangingjust above the fireplace to turn it on, and then passed through thearchway and into the kitchen. Pouring a bowl of cereal, he sniffedthe milk before adding it. It was still good. Grabbing a spoon, heheaded for the worn recliner which faced the vueTee. The screen wason, but it wasnt alive with movement and sound. It still had thebrowser up and it was still on the Daffodil site. Mike had followedthe link the night before from the very slick commercial he hadseen during the Tonight Show. On the left side of the screen was alarge yellow daffodil and on the right were four large yellowbuttons, arranged vertically. The first said Barone, the secondAmonte, the third Nonne, and the fourth PWX.

Daffodil wasnt the largest manufacturer ofrobots, but it certainly had the most cultural cache. Theircommercials were by far the best. Everyone seemed to be talkingabout them. Mike could hum their jingle right now. The four buttonscorresponded to the four basic robot units that Daffodil produced.Though there was some crossover between the four types based on themany options that were chosen, the Barone was usually an aid toadultsa robot maid, gardener, or grandparent. The Nonne was ababysitter type: a tutor, a nanny, or again, depending upon theoptions, a maid. The PWX was an industry grade robot designed foruse by corporations and government organizations as a receptionistor a clerk. Finally the Amonte was a personal companion. It couldbe configured as an escort, a friend, or a lover. As the commercialsaid, it was anything and everything you want it to be.

Mike leaned back in the chair and pointedthe remote at the vueTee. He moved the curser over the Amontebutton and pressed. The body frame options screen came up, butthere was a small window along the left side that said narrow yourselections. You could narrow them by price. You could narrow themby race-ethnicity. Or you could narrow them by gender. Mike ignoredthat side of the screen and looked at the body build. If you weregoing to dream, you might as well dream unencumbered. Dials allowedone to set height, chest, waist, and hips. He had already filled inthese features the previous night. After that, one flipped througha series of screens where prospective customers could change almostevery aspect of their robot. The head controls gave one controlover the shape and placement of eyes, nose, lips, and ears, butalso let one choose the forehead shape and jaw line, the hair colorand style, the type of chin, and the placement of freckles. Othercontrols set every detail from fingernails to nipples. Mike flippedthrough them. The last screen showed the price for his particularbuild: $26,999.00. That would wipe out his payNEtime account, andthen some.

Mike let his curser drop down to the searchbar. He moved through the postings about Daffodil. There were manyfrom people questioning certain aspects of the design, but few frompeople who had actually purchased one. Daffodil didnt disclosetheir sales figures to the public, but experts estimated that theyhad thus far sold only about 300,000 units. There were a fewmessages from owners of the Gizmo robot, who went on about howsuperior it was, because you set its personality before purchase.There was only one posting that Mike hadnt seen. He clicked on itand an aging woman with orange hair appeared on the screen.

I love my Daffodil. He does everything formetakes care of the bills, fixes my meals. He drives me to visitmy friends, and he rubs my feet every night. His name is Andre. Ijust dont know what Id do without him.

Probably move to Florida, said Mike.

He flipped over to Today Saturday. As hewatched Tania Marquez read through the top stories of the day, hethought about purchasing a Daffodil. Twenty seven thousand dollarswas a ginormous amount of money to spend. If he had still beenmarried to Tiffany there would be no question. He wouldnt havebought one. He would still have wanted one, but he wouldnt havebought one. Oh, Tiffany might have gone for a five thousand dollarmodel designed just to clean the house, but she certainly neverwould have let him get the one that he had designed online. Ofcourse if she had still been here... Oh sure, he might havefantasized about a Gizmo Sexbot, but it would have remained just afantasy. Besides, he didnt want a Daffodil for sexwell, not justfor sex. If he was going to get one, it would be for companionship.It would do all the things that it was capable of doing.

The rest of the morning, Mike watched thevueTee. After Today Saturday was over, he turned to the Cookingfeed and watched Caf Italiano, Breakfast at Bloombergs, andAmericas Test Kitchen. When Noon Buffet came on, he turned off thevueTee and picked up his texTee. The New York Times had alreadydownloaded, so he flipped through the pages. Most of it waspolitics. Mike didnt hate politics, like everyone else he knewseemed to. It was just that there didnt seem much point to it atthe moment. All three major parties had chosen their candidateseven though none of them had yet had their convention, and it wasmore than six months till the general election.

The paper bored him after a few minutes, sohe clicked through the book menu. He had the first chapter of TheJanissary Tree, so he read it. When he was done, he still wasntsure if he wanted to spend $17.99 for it. He flipped over to MobyDick. He had the whole book. Before this year, he hadnt read itsince college and wanted to read it through again, annotating italong the wayjust because. It was slow going. Here it was April,and he was only on Chapter 24: A Bosom Friend. He tossed the texTeeonto the floor beside the chair.