The Vessel
laura had always prided herself on her rational and by the numbers approach to life because on many an occasion it had spared her from reliving the hurt her mother had dealt her in childhood.
as time passed laura had become a prisoner of her status quo caged behind the walls she herself had raised.
As much as laura loved her family Her self imposed distance kept her from truly being a part of it. That is until the day Joe brought anita into their lives.
From the very beginning laura could sense within her that anita was more than meets the amidst the skepticism she was met with by Her family she knew that anita was something more than just an empty vessel encased in a beautiful shell.
Proof of it was played before her the night she witnessed anita staring in stoic wonder at a full something else was happening to laura that she could not quite place. Something within herself was beginning to change. She merely chalked it up to curiosity when it was something more but she had no way to know what it day anita would give subtle signs of a humanity she should NOT posses and in turn without laura realizing a bit of her wall would begin to crack .
Yet,laura would NOT and could NOT admit to herself that by now it was more than mere human curiosity that was guiding her steps.
With every breach of synth protocol she couldn't help but become more enthralled by anita
Laura at times would stare into anitas eyes admonishing herself for believing she could see life within the glassy green gleam of them.
Anita in turn was a synthetic form built solely for the purpose of being a nurturer and mother to Leo her creators son and now the Hawkins family.
After being taken from Leo, having been reprogrammed and sold to Joe Hawkins Laura's husband anita begins to have random recollections of her former life. As a synth anita should NOT posses feelings and as such attempts to control them as best she can but as hard as she tries laura could see through it and that in turn made anita both cautious yet intrigued as to how laura could see through her with such ease.
Laura was an expert at had spent years carefully creating one for herself to hide her pain so why wouldn't she be an expert at seeing through anitas facade of feigned synth compliance.
At first there had been resistance on Laura's part she felt that her walls had created a way for her to be displaced by anita within her family.
She slowly saw how with each passing day anita won over her family one by one starting with Sophie Hawkins Laura's precocious young daughter ,then winning over the resentful Mattie Hawkins Laura's teenage daughter who had at first had only perceived anita as a threat . She then won over Toby Hawkins Laura's only son even though it was NOT a completely complicated task since Toby became enamored by anita as young men tend to do at his age.
The only hawkins not won over by anita was Joe Hawkins himself . Joe had purchased anita as one does a toaster or a vacuum in the hopes of assisting him in running his household as a more aesthetically pleasing version of Rosie the robot from the jetsons fame.
Joe could NOT see the light of sentience that laura could see. to Joe anita was nothing more and nothing less than a machine built with the sole purpose to serve a human master.
Yet that perception would soon change the day anita risked her own synth existence to save Toby from certain death.
On that day everything changed because for laura it became the final sign she required to confirm that anita could feel! that ultimate sacrifice confirmed a humanity she already knew was there yet sadly for Joe it was just further proof that anita was a machine performing the task of guarding its masters she was programmed to do.
It would be these diverging perceptions that would destroy a marriage that had already been agonizing for years.
Laura and Joe were together for their children but had been distant for many years before anita appeared in their lives.
2 people who once loved each other were now mere strangers held together by the tattered seems of complacency and unity for the sake of their children.
Yet those seems would irreparably torn in the blink of an eye the fateful day Joe's frustration and loneliness cause him to cross a line from which there would be no return.
Laura had gone in search of answers to whether anita was the only one of her kind in her absence and the absence of the elder Hawkins children Joe after a few drinks and moments of venting his amorous frustrations to anita decides no harm would come from installing the 18+ adult chip that had been given to him by anitas vendor.
Once the process of activation is complete anita gives Joe a blatant sign of her sentience but yet again he cannot bring himself to see anita as anything more than a machine .
he then proceeds to satiate his most base instinct possessing anita as a dog would in heat only to be enveloped by a sense of guilt in violating anita but in having satiated his sexual need with a machine in the absence of his wife.
As a user clears a computers hard drive joe orders anita to erase his transgressions from the recesses of her synthetic mind yet in the end IT is his son Toby with disheartening dissapointment becomes aware of the fact that his father has been unfaithful yet still attempts to spare his mother the devastation of his father's betrayal by placing blame upon himself.
In the end all is to no available because in a moment of clarity Joe realises he must purge himself of his guilt and be truthful no matter what the cost.
As Joe opens up to laura her confusion at his rambling turns into the anger of betrayal then into the disgust at realizing the magnitude of what he had done. A magnitude that he himself could still not see! To Joe anita was nothing more than a machine which perplexed him as to why laura could deem his transgression as anything but entertaining himself in his loneliness with a lifelike sex toy.
Laura looked into Joe's eyes looking for the life she could clearly see in anitas eyes but she could no longer recognize this man who was the father of her children and a man she once loved that had now through distance and the mundaneness of every day life become an unrecognizable stranger to her.
Laura angrily requests that Joe leave their home as he does laura begins to wonder why she's so angry and cannot bring herself to forgive the man who has been by her side for years and for the life of her she can't understand why her thoughts keep wandering to admonished herself for wondering what she's feeling and whether she's ok when she was the one betrayed in the vilest way.
now alone in that home with anita laura could only bite her tongue and wonder if in that moment with Joe, anita had felt something .she wanted to ask but every time she found the nerve to she would backdown she was afraid of what the answer might be which would then cause her to admit to herself the real reason she was jealous.
She couldn't and would never admit to herself what she could slowly realize she was feeling. The implications frightened her more than anything.