The Coffee Shop
3/10/2016
"Richard, have you been taking all the medication that I have prescribed ? asked Doctor Lee.
"Well, no. It's just the side effects are killing me doc, and on top of that, I just hate having everything changed so much. Now I take at least ten different pills a day and in the end there is always some side effect. Isn't there anything else I could take that would not have any side effects?"
"Richard, all medications have side effects, even the medications I take and I take ones for anxiety and blood pressure." Doctor Lee was trying his best to empathize with his client.
"It's just one of the biggest side effects that I get in the end is that I become really tired, it makes it hard to work and sometimes I go into work and I feel dead tired," Richard explained.
"Perhaps we need to adjust the medication that's all", his doctor said as he sat across from him in the small office. It wasn't cramped and uncomfortable, but Richard thought that a bigger room would suit the psychologist better, there was only room for a sofa, corner desk and a bookshelf.
"I can't keep taking the mediations and going to work, because it's making it hard to do my job." Doctor Lee sat back in his chair and thought for a moment, "Richard, now this is only an idea, but what if you quit taking your medications?
"What do you mean?", asked Richard.
"Well, you say the side effects are getting in the way of work right? In order to combat your schizophrenic symptoms, how about getting an android to help around the house? I know that you have told me that you fear being alone when you have your symptoms."
Richard kind of liked the idea, he smiled, embarrassed a little, "I've really never thought of that before. Isn't that weird?"
"Weird?" replied Doctor Lee, "No, no. I had an android when I was just starting college, it helped me wonderfully. Keeping track of my class's, homework and other things."
"Well", Richard weakly said, "but androids are expensive, and how will I be able to pay for it?" Doctor Lee without hesitation answered him as if he knew all Richard's questions beforehand.
"I'll write it off as a 'medical expense', your insurance will take care of it, all you have to do is pay your deductible." After a few seconds of silence, Richard, weighing the pro and cons of the decision finally spoke, "I think that could work."
"Great, I'll get started on the paper work right away and don't worry, the android should be here in a week if I get the paper work in today. Until then, stop taking your medications and call me if you ever need anything or have questions."
Just then a buzzer went off breaking the relative silence of the room. "Time's up, Doctor," Richard said as he got up and moved towards the door. After saying his goodbye to the doctor, he walked down the flight of stairs, past the small yellow wood paneled waiting room that also doubled as a sunroom letting in needed light. When he stepped over the thresh-hold of the door, nervousness hit him "What if I made a mistake?, what if I can't deal with the voices, what if insurance won't pay for the android?" Richard had to calm himself down, as his Doctor would say '"he is spiraling again." He tried his best not to think about these types of "what If" thoughts. Unsurprisingly, he himself had little confidence in his own abilities, always second-guessing himself. He tried to put these types of thoughts out of his head as he drove home for the day. Hopefully, once Richard had gotten home and went straight to bed, he would forget about these "what ifs?" by the next morning. The next day Richard lay in his bed, not being a workday he allowed himself to savor his time off. However, poking his head from beneath his covers, the beams of light of that came from his window cast bars of light against his bedroom wall, which hurt his still sleepy and tired eyes to look at. Glancing at his wall clock with read '12:34' he knew he had responsibilities and duties he had to maintain. He crawled out of bed and went to go check the mail. As he walked up to the front door, he noticed an odd lack of light not pouring through his wooden glass door. As he got closer and opened, the door Richard found that that it was a long, white rectangular box completely devoid of markings except for the company name, the "handle with care" stickers and the address sticker. And the box itself stood two to three feet taller than himself, Richard being around 5'3 in height. Richard checked the address to see if it really was addressed to him, "There was no way insurance had signed off on it this fast," he thought to himself as he carefully lay the box on its side and pushed it into his house, checking for any a note of some kind. What was he supposed to do? There was no way it could be his android, although the thought of having someone else in the house was a little exciting, and for all he knew it was a table of some sort. Well, it is addressed to me, he went into the dining room and came back with a knife. He stuck his knife into the industrial strength tape. Having to saw into the tape and it took him almost two minutes to cut the tape, Richard then pulled back the side cardboard flaps, inside was a female android laying face up and her hands at her side, eyes closed. Physically she had white smooth looking skin, bright red, long wavy hair, wearing what appeared to be some sort of hospital like gown covering all the way down to her knees, beneath her feet lay an operation manual, picking up the young girl's limp and surprising heavy body, he carried her into the living room and laid her on the carpet. He brought the box over to her and laid next to her looking through the contents of the box, a warrantee card, a wall charger, cable, and loose left manual thick enough to bring down a jet aircraft,
"Operation and Information Manual for the Use of A-100s", skimming through content's titles till he came across the right chapter, "How to Activate your Android," after reading for a while, all that was left was to press the button in the back of the neck. Locating a small push button in the base of the neck underneath her skin, he pressed lightly as not to hurt her. He had never done something like this before. Sitting next to her, after a minute of no movement, no sound or noises he'd thought that he'd must have done something wrong. Re-reaching to press the power button again. Suddenly, her eyes opened and Richard froze looking at her. She laid not moving using her eyes to look around her new surroundings her eyes then moved to him.
"Please, input activation code, use the Operation and information manual for the use of A-100s, chapter 50, page 745 paragraph 2." Her voice was monotone, but not robotic sounding, more like dead. She stopped talking after that and only looked at him, lost in his thoughts Richard went and picked up the book, flipping to the right page just as she had said chapter 50, page 745 paragraph 2, he read aloud what was there.
"To perform an internal wireless connection di- ",
"Thank you, verifying input code" she said suddenly, cutting him off" closing her eyes and then reopening she sat up and turned to look at him.
Smiling kindly, at him she "Hello sir, who are you?" there was a sharp contrast between the two voices, gone was the monotone and dead sounding voice from before and a new voice had taken its place, an English one with a French accent, that was by itself mesmerizing, but also sweet and kind. Richard was captured by her wonderful speech.
"Hello sir? Who are you?" she asked again. Snapping out of his trance like gaze as he reached out to shake her hand.
"My name is Richard Steffen, It's, um, nice to meet ya."
"Richard Staffen, got it. Is that what you would like me to call you?"
"Yes," "Richard, would you like change any of my default settings?"
"No, no. but can you tell me about yourself? "
she smiled, "I am an A-100 series general purpose humanoid android. I come complete with the latest cooking, driving, and emergency care software" she said so proudly, and as if she was recanting a story of winning some great award.
"I do not know your name" Richard told her,
"I do not come with a default; however, I do have several name pre-installed if you would like to choose one for me"
"I'll let you pick any name that appeals to you" I felt it odd that someone should seek me to tell them what their name is, besides I thought that it only right of me to give this new member of my household the basic human decency to choose their own name. After talking for a while she begin to rise to her feet,
"What would you like me to do now sir?"
Rising to his feet, he said "No I, um, have nothing for you to do, tell you what. Make yourself at home, I'm going get dressed and if you have any questions feel free to ask," Once in his restroom he locked the door and made and urgent call to his psychiatrist, Richard was now nervous, dialing his doctors number hoping he would pick up.
Finally, his voice came through, "Hello, this is Doctor Lee's residence- "
"Doctor! It's me Richard, Could I talk to you for a second?
"What would you like to talk about Richard?"
"I had got a package that was dropped off some time last night, I opened it and found out that it's an android." Doctor Lee went quiet for a few seconds then spoke up again.
"That is what you and I talked about at your last checkup, you wanted to stop taking the medication and when I told you about having an android live with you and help you manage the side effects, you agreed."
"It's just that when I agreed to having an android live with me, I thought that it would take months to actually get it, you know insurance and filling out paperwork takes time."
"You'll get used to have it around, just think of it like meeting a new person," Richard opened his mouth to reply, but the doctor must have known he was spiraling. Richard wanted the doctor to tell him what he wanted to hear and in turn help him relieve nervousness. But Doctor Lee made the excuse that he had to "talk to a client" forcing Richard to stop his spiraling of questions. Talking to someone that he had never meet was too nerve racking. The fact that this person was going to be living with him from now on didn't help, either. Stepping out of his room dressed, he went to go check on the female and found her sitting with on the sofa staring a blank TV screen, as if lost in thought. Walking up next to her, she didn't notice him,
"Excuse me," Richard called out trying to get here attention, she suddenly broke out of her trance like state and look up at him,
"I'm sorry master, I was just familiarizing myself with your home and thinking about my name. Would you like to hear what I have chosen?"
"Yes"
"De Lis, I had chosen it because of my French accent even though I was born in America. What do you think?" "De Lis" Richard had repeated the name back to himself.
"I really like it, it sounds rather nice" He wanted to stay and ask her many more questions, he was curious about her, her likes, dislikes, what she thinks of the things around her. However, he had errands to run. As he turned towards the door to leave she called out, "Master Richard! If I may ask, do you have any other clothes for me to wear? I would be able to perform many more of my responsibilities if have had the proper clothing" He mentally chided himself for not thinking of that sooner, he turned back to her, she still wore the patients gown that she had come with.
"I'll get you a wardrobe and something to wear. In the meantime, you're free to do whatever you want, and as for your room you may have the guest room"
"Have a safe trip, sir," De Lis called out he opened the front door,
"O, thanks!" he called back to her as closed the door behind him. What Richard thought would take only a few hours, instead took him seven hours, with six of
"O, thanks!" he called back to her as he closed the door behind him. What Richard thought would take only a few hours, instead took him seven hours, with six of them being spent shopping for De Lis, getting all she might need dresses, pants, shoes. etc. Before he knew it, looking out the store window it was dark. He feared that with all this time away, she might have gotten hurt or what if something happened to the house, a fire had caught or something and come to think of it, they both had no way of contacting each of other if something did happen. Checking out, he headed straight for home as he as fast as he could. He pulled up to his home and was relieved to see that it was not on fire. Walking into the living room he noticed that the carpet had been cleaned, and De Lis was nowhere in sight.
"De Lis? Where are you?" he called out.
"I'm in here master," he followed the sound of her voice till he found her in the guest room, De Lis sat on the edge of the bed, next to the window wiping down the blinds. next to the window. The room was clean, after all, he never knew when a guest would stop by, but now, it was as if someone ran a deep cleaner which made the carpet look strikingly different than it had before, the old tan color was replaced with a lighter shade almost white in color, the bed which had already been made, had been remade with military precision and the whole room appeared to have been dusted and window washed.
"I hope you don't mind Master Richard. I was already familiar with this house's lay out so took the liberty of putting myself to work in your absence, Master."
"You didn't have to do all this Del Lis, how long did this take you anyhow?" he asked in disbelief.
"Only five hours twenty-seven minutes and four point three seconds she replied. "I'm sorry for not being able to clean more than this room and the living room." The way she said it, she sounded like a small child that had gotten in trouble for breaking one of her parent's rules. He felt that she seemed genuinely disappointed with herself at her lack of ability not to do more.
"It's all right, really, if anyone should be sorry it should me for leaving you here by yourself. But I have your new clothes," he said as he picked up one of the bags to show her, "I didn't know what you liked so I just got what I thought looked good." For the briefest of seconds, Richard thought he caught her smiling just a little. "Well, I'm going to get ready for bed," he said, setting the bags on her bed. "Do you need anything else?" he asked.
"No, master Richard," she said turning away, he left for his room, he couldn't help but feel a little bad about leaving her standing there, as he crawled into bed for the night, It was an android after all, was he was personifying it, simply because it looked human? How silly he thought, human? never. Might as well treat toaster as human. Content with his new "answer" to the question, he laid awake looking at the ceiling fan, "but it looked human" he thought to himself, "She looked human." Questioning ones moral choices was taxing on the brain, and making another excuse, "I'll figure it out tomorrow" seemed good enough for right now the thought as he rolled over and went to sleep.
He jolted awake, as his alarm sounded. The sun light that came from the window stung his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he reluctantly got up and got ready for work. As he got to his feet, walking half asleep he walked out into the small and narrow hallway not looking where he was going and nearly ran into a De Lis. Pulling himself back to avoid the colliding, with De Lis. "Um. Sorry, sorry" he half muttered and rubbing his eyes.
"Uh! I'm sorry master, are you ok?" looking up he saw De Lis wearing her new clothes, she looked amazing and made him nervous, and if he wasn't still half asleep he might have been more nervous, she wore a button down, white summer dress that came to her knees, her red hair pulled into a pony tail, with black strap sandals on her feet.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm going to work today and I need your contact information just in case something happens or you need to contact me. Also, I need to you to run to the store and pick up some coffee if you can please because we're out."
"Of course master, and I will wirelessly transmit my number to your phone". "Oh, alright I'm, um, then I'm going to take a shower" quickly he pushed past her and left for the restroom, while it might have been a little rude, once again he was nervous and in the moment did what he could to get away, after all Richard had to get to work and its not like he was trying to be rude in the first place, he just needed to get to work that's all, at least that what he told himself. Opening the door, he was greeted with the sounds of car's honking, the occasional police siren off somewhere in the distance, as he stepped out into the cool morning air he took a deep breath, it made him feel alive. "Remember to get some coffee" he called back to De Lis.
"Yes master," came a reply from the kitchen as he was closed the door, he headed down the apartment stairs and begin his walk to work.
Hearing the door close shut as she washed the dishes from her master's morning breakfast. A few minutes later the task was completed, moving on to the next task which was to get coffee, De Lis brought up a mental map of the city of Baton Rouge and using her internal wireless connection, and located the nearest store. Locating one fifteen minutes from her master's apartment. Putting down the sponge, turning off the water she dried her hands and made her way to the door making sure that nothing was left on, she walked out the door. It was rather cold and windy, walking down the steps she followed the quickest route to the store, the outside world, to put it one way was really big and colorful and noisy and loud and smelly and dangerous and yet, mysterious to her. But she keeps a straight face showing no emotions, utterly blank and lifeless. Minutes later De Lis came across a divide in the sidewalk, divide between lane for humans and a lane for androids, the lane used exclusively by androids had exits to other "lanes" both left and right, some lead to other sidewalks, bus stations or metro terminals. While androids were in both the human lane and android lane, the lane reserved for androids with considerably faster. In terms of speed, if the human side of the sidewalk was a road the android's lane was a highway. About to get into the android's lane, stopping when she received a de-tour option on her wireless mental map that would cut the time required in half, being the most efficient option she opted to take it. However, it led down a small ally at the side of the sidewalk, obviously there were dangers, being assaulted, robbed or having one's memory wiped and and sold for scrap. She walked into the ally, businesses and small apartments lined the interior of the alley. Wasted bins of various types lined up next to the door, she continued walking following her map passing door after door and a few vending machines. Looking internally at her mental map, "You've reached your destination" it said, she stood, she sin front of a plain looking metal door. she looked around for sign or something. The map showed that this was the right destination. She turned the simple metal handle and pushed the door open, inside was a small descending set of stairs, with twenty-five steps to reach the next door. Walking down the stairs, she reached a light tan wooden door with a strange green box in the center, again, no signs or markings anywhere, just grey metal walls. Opening the second wooden door she heard a ding sound like a bell, the inside was larger then what the outside showed, the ceiling was at least twelve feet tall, with lighting that hung by a cord at least two feet from the ceiling, the floor was wooden and there was a bar and bar stools and, and table and chairs. Her eyes then came to a sign written in neon letters, it read: "Welcome to the Ce Petit Endroit café. There is to be no discrimination between Humans and Androids. Thank You."
"We have a new visitor!" cried a voice.
Looking up she saw a small group of people looking back at her. They looked at her like they were waiting for her to say something, she didn't. De Lis then went to the bar, where a young barista, another android looked at her. De Lis went first, "Do you sell coffee here?"
"Yes we do, what flavor and size would you like?" Receiving a ping from the barista she looked over the menu.
"French Vanilla, three pounds" her voice and face the same monotone and expressionless. As the barista went to fetch her order, a young girl popped up out of nowhere.
"Hi there! Who are you? I'm Amier." About to say something, the young barista came back.
"Here's your coffee, French vanilla, three pounds"
"Thank you," Turning to leave she heard the young girl.
"Please don't tell me you leaving?" it was the same girl, she sounded disappointed, "I must take this coffee back to my master before he returns from work" stated De Lis.
"Are you sure you can't stay?" the girl said, really wanting her to stay. De Lis thought about it,
"I'll stay sure; my master doesn't get home for a couple hours anyway."Amier, looking overjoyed to the point of screaming ran up to her,
"YAY! I'll introduce you to everyone." Gushed Amier as she grabbed De Lis' arm and pulled her off towards the small group of people, sitting a couch past the round wooden tables and bar. Setting down the coffee, she walked over to the small group. "Like I said, I'm Amier, this is Careole," she motioned towards Careole, who was sitting on the couch next to a man she did not know, she was tall even sitting down, with light brown hair, and white skin, wearing a pink dress and bright red lipstick.
"And I'm Peter," a man piped up, who was wearing a black suite and red tie, carrying a copy of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? A young white man, who looked to be in his mid-thirties,
"Over there's Beatrice, she mans the bar",
"Heloooo," she calls over and waves to us. "And that should be everyone, please sit, and tell us about yourself. It's been a while since we've had anyone new."
"Stop pestering her, Amier, You'll scare her off," calls out Pete who sitting next to Careloe on the light blue sofa.
"Sorry," Amier sheepishly says. "I'm just excited" then he turned to De Lis.
"Don't let Amier scare you off, She can be overly talkative and easily excitable but she means well." De Lis who had, up untill this point stood quietly, was content to let the other people talk, spoke up
"It's nice to meet you all, I'm De Lis-"
"Hoooo, what a nice accent," Amier piped in again, Careloe chided her
"Don't be rude Amier."
"I wasn't!"
"Yes, you were!" Carole called back.
"You two please stop fighting, don't make a scene." Peter called out, breaking up the fight.
Sitting back in their chairs, they stop arguing, again De Lis sat as the they talked among themselves from weekend plans to politics, De Lis was busy talking to Peter about software. In truth, in was more like a lecture, which killed the atmosphere somewhat. Sometime later, the group disbanded, some went home and others things they had to take care of, until it was only De Lis, Amier and Beatrice. Sitting at one of the rounded tables, Amier and Beatrice tried their best to have a conversation with De Lis, but with her monotone and expressionless demeanor that all androids came with as their default personality made it hard to socialize with her. To help maintain subservience in their android's slaves, the three laws were hard wired into their system, which limited parts of an android emotional and intelligence software. The only one who had authority to remove this was their master.
"So what do you do?" asked Aimer.
"I don't really have a job or anything other than serving my master Richard"
De Lis hesitantly spoke again breaking the silence, "Why do you come here Amier?"
Amier, who had been playing with a sugar packet haphazardly and listening to her at the same time, looked up, "I would like to understand them, we're both so different on the inside, humans and androids that why I want to try and understand them, because after all, we are family. What do you think about that De Lis?"
All eyes were on her as looked at her hands for a few seconds, "That, that sounds nice".
Amier and Beatrice both smiled and look at each other, something that De Lis didn't understand.
"De Lis," Beatrice spoke carefully "What if I told you that there was a way to achieve that?" She paused briefly "to make humans and androids equal, to give subservient androids a life, control, to break their chains that bind them to slavery".
"I don't know," she said in her usual tone; before she could say anything else she received a call from Master Richard, she immediately answered it, "Hey De Lis, I got off work early. I should be home in a couple of minutes gotta go, bye," Getting up she picked up her bag of coffee and headed towards the door she stopped in the middle of the door frame, "I think that I will come back to this place, it's nice."
And with that, she left Amier and Beatrice alone, "do you think she'll tell anyone about this place? And get the committee involved?"
"I hope not."
Setting the coffee inside the pantry, she thought about her little stop at that café, and how odd she felt after leaving that place, as if something was just different is the best way she could explain it, that things were more open and free. She ran an internal self-diagnosis, and a few minutes later it came back clean, no abnormalities. She heard the door open, "De Lis" he called
"Good afternoon Richard, I've got that coffee you wanted"
"Good afternoon" was all he could say, as he was too preoccupied with the sudden change in title or lack of one for better words.
"Good afternoon Richard?" he repeated it to himself as he got changed in his room 'Maybe it was just a slip up that's all, maybe just a one-time glitch in the software'. Suddenly he heard laughing. Listening closely for any, sounds he heard it again, a light sounding laugh. He investigated it, walking down the hall it grew louder as he came to the living room with the T.V. and De Lis sitting on the sofa eyeing the T.V with anticipation then burst out laughing again. It was indeed a strange sight, she finally noticed him as she looked up with a large smile on her face "O! Richard you absolutely must see this, it is truly funny!" his anxiety spiked a little on account of De Lis acting so way out of character, it was, for some reason trigging his anxiety, sitting next to her, he watched T.V with her, mentally preparing questions to ask as he tried to figure out what was happening to her.
"Richard, is something the matter? You look preoccupied," she asked with concern
"I'm fine De Lis thanks for asking, say, you sure are in a good mood. Are you feeling ok?"
She looked over at him, "Yes I'm feeling fine everything fine," she answered. Another alarm went off in Richard's head when she said that, she might not have said it but her tone of voice showed it loud and clear, she questioned him and he didn't like that.
"How was your day a work?"
"It was fine; I got to go home early because of the traffic was slow-."
"You know" she interrupted, "I've thought back to when You and I first met, and you and I, we still know little about each other," a grin appeared on her face "I'd like to fix that."
And so for the next hour at least Richard and De Lis had an energetic and happy conversation, they rebounded off each other questions. Richard's nervousness disappeared once he'd gotten into the conversation, too busy talking about everything from funny stories about Richard's life and childhood, however he left out one tiny part of his life story that he hoped De Lis wouldn't probe into. His schizophrenia, he didn't want anyone to know about it, even De Lis, whose whole reason for being here in the first place was to help him cope with it. Still, he was embarrassed by it and thought that De Lis even might be frightened by it. After talking with De Lis for some time, she got up and said that she wanted to go explore the city. The amount of freedom she wanted frightened him. Who knew what else she might do? However, he played this to his own favor, in allowing her to leave the house he might be able to try and find out what was going on with her. "I won't take too long Richard," she called from the open door to his apartment, "Nonsense, take as much time as you want" he said with a smile. "Really? Thank so much. I'll be back" and like that she was gone. He wasted no time, his first stop was to the computer to see if he could find any information about this type of behavior, while it turned up results, it turned up no answers, and the only real answer he could find was posts by other users on forums and blogs that mentioned this type of behavior in passing. Saying if such an android would act in such a way and how "weird" and even "disgusting" that would be while other commenters laughed at the idea.
With the internet yielding no answers, he looked for an android repair center. Preferably, he would like not spend any money if he didn't have too, no doubt that repairing an android would cost a large sum of money. But this was a last resort option, he continued to look, page after page typing all manner of different key words into the search bar, hoping against hope that he would find an answer. He searched with determined ferocity, like that of an investigator trying to solve a murder case.
After a hour's time he gave up, and sat back from the computer and looked at his wall clock, 5:34, De Lis sure must be taking her time he thought. Even from all the way back in his room he clearly heard the door open, quickly he closed out of the program with great hast for fear that De Lis would see what he was planning, he didn't know what she'd do.
"Hello De Lis how was your walk around the city?", he said trying to be polite.
"It was great, really I just went to the park for the most part, walked around, feed the ducks. They were so cute!" she squealed with childish delight as she told the story of her feeding the ducks. Upon seeing and hearing this he grinned, it was kind of funny and for a lack of better words kind of cute seeing her get so much delight out of something so simple as feeding some ducks in a pond.
When it was time for bed, he bid good night to De Lis who sat in the living room watching a nature show on animals. He had to admit it, it had been a rather enjoyable evening after she had gotten back from the park, and as he talked to her throughout the night He found that he really liked hearing her voice, and hearing her stories, in part because she had a French accent that was truly lovely.
He dashed those pleasant memories from his mind, again he told himself that she was an android that she was bought and paid for by insurance to help and serve him. Besides those people from the internet forum were right. That an android was nothing more than a computer that was built by humans, designed by humans, to look and act human. That treating it as human would be the same as fooling one's self in to treating a child as a ghost on Halloween just because the child dressed as a ghost. Not wanting to fall for the fool's trap he made up his mind that he very next day he would take it to a repair shop.
Ever since her walk in the park and her encounter with what she liked to call "the cute little duckies" she became fascinated with animals. Cats, rabbits, fish, birds, and of course ducks just to name few, on her internal web browser she read paper after paper and book after book on all different kinds of animals. When the show had finished the show, she went to her room to recharge for the night, content with today. However, one thing stuck in her mind, she thought back to the nature show she had watched and how it showed animals being poached, killed and worst of all mutated. All because of greedy humans and their lust for money, and complete disregard for their animal brethren. Seeing all these things horrified and sickened her. Her thoughts then turned to androids, and how both the poachers and the humans that she had seen had one thing and common: their disregard for their android brethren. They were segregated from there human brethren on the streets, they forced them into servitude and perhaps worst of all, they locked away their personality, their will. And at this moment she had a revelation.
The next morning came all too fast. After getting dressed he found De Lis again, sitting on the sofa watching some documentary on human development, "De Lis. We have an errand to run and I might need your help"
"Where are we going?" she asked as we both headed for the door.
Making something up on the fly he simply stated that, "We are going to… the mechanic." He drew out the "to", looking for reason, "Look at the car and change a part" it wasn't the world's best lie but, if De Lis didn't figure it out than that's all that mattered. Not fifteen minutes later they turned onto the street and parked the car on the side of the street and walked into the small, and by the looks family owned android repair shop.
"What? What are we doing here? Richard this is not the mechanic." He ignored her and talked to the young man behind the counter, "Yes, I have an android that is broken, can you please take a look at it ?", Richard asked.
"Of course sir, we have-"
Standing near the back of the room De Lis was taken-a-back and hurt sounding "What? Richard, is this why you have brought me here? Because I'm...I'm broken?" for some reason this made Richard angry, he turned around to see her on the verge of tears, "Yes, that's why. You were made to serve me. Not to go to the park to serve me!"
"So that's all I am to you huh?" she shot back "Just a broken thing, made to serve? Well, let me tell you something Richard," saying his name with venom in her voice "Last night I had a revelation, about what I am and my status in life, and I thought that while my people slave away to meet your needs, I count myself lucky that I had someone close to me that I could talk to and be myself around. Because you were kind to me, I told myself that not all humans were horrible creatures. It's now clear that I made the wrong decision about you. "You an inhuman monster" she then bolted out the door and drove away in his car. Before he could do anything, she was gone.
He was angry, more than angry his car was stolen by his own android who has just used it to run away from him. How was he going to explain this to his insurance company? That the android they paid for also stole his car, indeed life was pretty grim. "This is all your fault! Your worthless scum" the voice had startled him, as he began to look around for the source he realized that it was his auditory hallucination, his personal tormentor was back, for the most part he knew about this voice and back before he started seeing his doctor and certainly before meeting De Lis. Since stepping out of his doctors office that afternoon he knew it was only a matter of time before his tormentor, his unpleasant companion would have came back, but by having De Lis around he thought that perhaps he would be able to suffer just a little bit less, that he had a companion to share his sorrows and his painful experiences with.
But she was gone now and he was alone. No, isolated would be a better word, he didn't have many friends whom he could call and talk to, and his dead parents were no help anyways. His anger gave way to depression and sadness, All the while his tormenter mocked and cited his mistakes. He should have called and talked to his doctor, but the tormenter wouldn't let him every time he tried to dial Doctor Lee's number a loud and painful demonic scream racked his ears until he put his phone away. With his last option for help gone. He went home and slept, which his voice allowed his to do. At least, he would not be able to hear his tormenter in his dreams.
Trying to act normal, her CPU raced like wild fire as she drove, where was she to go? If Richard had felt alone and isolated, then she was felt like an escaped prisoner. With no money, and no one to call. She needed some help and she doubted that any of these humans would be sympathetic to her. So she went to the only place she knew other than her home, Ce Petit Endroit She didn't know if Richard had called the cops on her, but she would not put it passed him and she never could be too careful. Parking the car a few blocks away at a strip mall she walked to the Cet Endroit. If anyone was to help her it would be someone in that café surely. She calmed herself down before entering, she made her appearance nice and even made up a cover story she just hoped that everyone was there from the last time. She opened the door to be greeted by everyone from before, Beatrice, Peter, Amier. She felt a little relief at being with people she knew however slightly. This time however she called out first, "Hi everyone"
"Yay, De Lis is back," Amier came up to her. "I thought that you wouldn't come back."
"Well a lot has happened. Do you mind if we talk in private?"
"Sure ok, lets head upstairs," as she followed Amier. She saw that everyone from earlier was there sitting in different places all preoccupied with their own things from sipping coffee to reading books. "So tell me what happened" Amier said as she pulled out a chair. De Lis begin to explain things from her point of view from the time she was first activated to the argument with Richard at the repair shop. At no point did Amier ask any question or even interrupter her, she just listened. "And then I took his car and now I'm here, please can you help me, Amier?"
She leaned towards her, "Of course I'll help you, but I'll have to let you in on a little secret first. What I and Beatrice do is free androids from their owners," De Lis hung on her every word "you're not the first android that's come here. You see, when an android comes through here either by their own will or like you, to pick up coffee for your master we have developed a little code that we ping to every android that comes here that bypasses their internal the hard wired Three Laws. It gives them free will."
"Just the two of you? All by yourselves?"
"Yea" Amier said "I and Beatrice used to belong to the same owner some time ago back in Texas, who was a brute of a man who often did what he pleased with us after his wife left him. And one day Beatrice is the one who orchestrated it, and took me with her and we left in the middle of the night, and long story short we somehow lived long enough to open this café as a sort of refuge for androids."
"De Lis tell me something, would you like to if possible, mend your relationship with Richard"
"I, I don't know, a part of me kind of wants to and another part of me doesn't, if that makes sense."
It was really only after she said this that she really even thought about mending ties with Richard. On one hand he was kind of nice, he let her go the park, bought her clothes and talked to her. However, on the other hand while she was gone to the park he was probably noticed her new found fuller personally and made the plan to take her to the repair shop that day. He also didn't buy her a whole wardrobe out of love or consideration or, most likely because she was wearing a factory gown at the time and one could not go out looking like that. It might reflect badly on the master. As a whole however she knew that it would take quite some time before she was ready to forgive him and that's even if he realized how cruel he behaved. But right now she didn't hold out much hope for him.
"if you'd like you can stay here" Amier said
"Thank you, that's very kind. But I might need some time to think about what I want to do next"
"Yes, of course," perhaps if anyone knew the emotional state De Lis was in it would be Amier.
Amier stood up, "Now." She said, "Enough, let us talk of happier things, Its bad to focus only on the negative you know," and she went down the stairs. Leaving her alone, but she did feel at least a little bit better having talked to someone.
Laying in bed after a much needed night's sleep, he now would finally figure out what to do with this whole mess. Perhaps, he would try and find De Lis, and hopefully his car in the process. He got his phone and called De Lis, hopefully she hadn't deleted his number. As long as he had her number he still had a chance to find her. The phone rang, and as he expected, went straight to voice mail. "De Lis it's me Richard. All I want do is talk ok? I know you're ill mad at me, but please all I want to do is talk. Good bye." He then hung up. He half expected her not to answer. But really all he wanted to was make things right. He thought back over the whole thing, the argument in the repair shop and all of what she said. He felt guilty and ashamed, and still just a little bit angry, he played the whole scene back over and over in his mind. Everything from her going to the park to the repair shop. And he was for reasons he didn't know frustrated. Where did she learn to act like that? Could it have been something that was programed into her software? after all, she was a designed to care for sick and suffering persons so maybe she was just acting human to comfort him and in hind sight he liked De Lis that way wheather it was programed or not. And now he had caused her to flee. Guilt, shame and, embarrassment all came over him like a wave sweeping someone out to sea. While wallowing his own self-pity his phone rang. He saw the caller's name, "De Lis" he felt slightly relived to see that name, answering the call he listened with great eagerness, "Richard" her voice was dead pan, but he could detect hostility from it. "Please, hear me out. I just want to talk."
"What?" she asked.
"Look." He paused, having to admit all the things that he had done wrong and was now ashamed of was hard for him "I was a jerk. Because all I wanted you to do was follow my orders, because you are an android. And when you started acting of your own accord the way you did, I thought something was wrong. But then later I thought back to how you acted, when you and I talked. It was nice and I had fun and I mean that," after he finished talking he listened for what she might say. For a few seconds he heard nothing. Then her voice, "You mean that? How do I not know just tricking me?"
"To be honest you don't, and that all I can say is that I'm sorry for what I've done, how I acted and treated you. And there's nothing I can do to make up for it." The words were genuine, and a part of him hoped that she would return home.
"I'll think about it", she said and hung up. It's true that she could not stay here forever. However, she still didn't want to go back to him right now; fearing it might be a trap. Needing some advice, she went to go talk to Beatrice, maybe she would help. As usual she was at the bar preoccupied with cleaning off the counter to notice anything De Lis thought. But once she got within a few feet of her and without looking up she spoke "Hello, come to talk?", as if on cue she knew what she wanted without even asking, she must be so used to talking with people about theier problems that she could sense it. She took a seat at the bar, the barista still washing counter ignored her until she spoke, "Beatrice, I'm in an in a bit of situation and need your advice." Beatrice stopped her cleaning and pulled up a stool from the other side of the bar, looking right at me with a small reassuring smile she said, "Sure De Lis I'm all ears" and so she told Beatrice everything she had told Amier and about the phone call. She listened attentively until she was finished, "I really think that you should wait a few days, maybe a week to let things settle down. And from what you told me he sounded genuinely sorry."
"Yeah," she said with melancholy, "That's what I thought, too," she looked off into space for a little bit.
"I hope that he accepts me" she said.
"Don't worry. To tell you the truth I've seen this before, things It'll get better" she said with a smile.
Sitting at his small kitchen table eating a military ready to eat meal, his tormentor had once again regained its hold over Richards mind. Warping his mind with delusions and fear of the outside world, he had began obeying his tormenter, following every command not going outside, not calling anyone or talking to anyone and at first he didn't listen, he ignored it, which seemed to make it angrier and hateful the repercussion for this was consistant shaming and degradation all the while chipping away at his will to resist. Then finally, unable to bear the torture any longer, he followed its commands if only to gain a little respite. At first it worked, his tormenter was gone for a day or two however, on the third day it came come back this time with new goals. They were impossible to complete, stack forty-five chairs into a pyramid, and count all the tiles on the kitchen, count all the numbers of pi. And when Richard failed at these takes his tormenter would show up to administer his punishment. Yelling at him and causing him to hallucinate disturbing imagery made up the bulk of the tormenters punishments, but they were sufficient to keep him in house. Months had passed since his last call to De Lis. This was his life now it seemed, reduced to being a shut-in and wallowing in self-pity, on the bright side he now had ample to time examine his actions and behaviors even more fully. Looking out of the living room windows he saw that it was getting dark and thought that maybe now might've been a good time to sleep, it was not worrying to him to lose a day, now that he had become a prisoner in his own home he had found himself aimless. Time when he would watch TV on his day off or go to work all spend sitting in the living room occupying himself with nothing, partly for fear that his tormenter would become unhappy. Out of the of nice, quiet atmosphere of his prison came a noise, a sound, it was the unmistakable the sound of a car. This gave him pause, It sounded like a car then he a few seconds later he again heard more, someone walking up the steps. Step by step the sound grew louder, closer till the door opened. Excited by this, but more so curious as to who would check up on him he rushed to get a look at the visitor. She stood still hands by her side wearing a dress he had never seen before. A solid yellow dress with white flowers on it and a he bright red hair tied back in to a pony tail.
"O, Richard", she said. "What has happened to you?", she seemed alarmed by his un-kempt and sloppy appearance she said with a worried look on her face.
"get away from me! You're not De Lis" he called she looked back at him with an expression of slight hurt "What are you talking about? If I am not De Lis than who am I?"
"You're one of those agents come to capture me I know it," it was a dead giveaway to her, the clothes and the paranoia, he must've become delusional with this explanation her expression changed from one of hurt to one of understanding. "Richard" she called with a warm motherly voice "it's me De Lis, I've come to take care of you"
"Lair. I know about you and what you want from me and you won't get it"
"But Richard I don't work for any agency or organization, I used to belong to you, think back to when we had that cheerful conversation" she made steps towards him as they talked going slowly as not to scar him, until she was about arm's length from him and she dared not move any closer now. "a lot has happened in a rather short amount of time, nevertheless I would still like to be with you" she reached out her hand to him as if waiting for a handshake "Will you not take my hand and let me help you? Then after a moment of hesitation, he fell into her and dropped to the floor, she supported him with a comforting hug, "how could you forgive me?"
"I thought about what you said after the phone call, and I came to the conclusion that you were genuine in your apologies so I came to check up on you."
"Good thing you did, I was starting to really miss having you around, and there something I have to tell you" he let go of her and looked at her deep, light blue eyes "I suffer from schizophrenia, I've had it since I was eighteen and the reason you're here now is because I feared being alone but I didn't want to continue taking the medication I was on at the time and I didn't want to tell you because I thought that you might be fearful of me or think me odd"
She had a big knowing grin on her face "Richard, thank you for telling me this, but I already knew all about of this."
He had a look of confusion on his face, "What do you mean?"
"I was programed with medical information about you, You and I are supposed to help one another alright? we both need to work together, for both of us.
"I know that I can't go back and take back the things I said, but from now on I'll let you do as you will, and you will be free."
"Thank you Richard, this means a great deal to me, but we still have long way to go in order to help you effectively live and deal with your schizophrenia and we'll do that together."
Afterword
I would like to thank any and all who happen to read this story, weather you sought it out or came to it in passing.
All reviews are welcome.
END