His Robot Girlfriend (9 page)

Mike rushed back to Patience’s side. She had
not moved from the spot on the couch. He felt behind her neck, his
fingertips locating the three small holes and the button. He
pressed it and counted aloud. “One, two, three.” Then he let
go.

Patience’s eyes flickered, and then her arms
and legs moved straight in line with her body. She stayed in that
position for a moment and then turned and sat. With a single swift
motion, she stood up to her full height.

“
You are Michael Winston
Smith?”

“
Patience? Are you
alright?”

“
You are Michael Winston
Smith?” She looked at him, seemingly without
recognition.

“
Yes. Yes, it’s
me.”

“
I am Daffodil serial
number 55277-PFN-001-XGN-F0103. My software is up to date. The
primary setup procedure requires approximately six hours. During
this period, I your Daffodil, will be unavailable for other
activities. It is recommended that during this time period you make
a few basic decisions. What initial duties do you wish me to have?
What clothing, if any, do you wish me to wear? What name would you
like me to answer to?”

Patience became quiet. Mike watched her
anxiously for at least twenty minutes. Then realizing that her
primary setup would not hurry just because he was actively watching
her, he went to the family room and sat down. He didn’t read and he
didn’t watch vueTee. Dinner time came and went, and it was only
when his stomach made a loud swirling noise that he decided he
would get up and eat something. He stood up and turned around to
come face to face with Patience.

“
The primary setup
procedure is complete,” she said. “I your Daffodil, will not
require a secondary setup procedure.”

“
Are you
alright?”

“
Yes, Mike. I am
fine.”

Mike jumped forward and hugged her
fiercely.

“
You remember me?” he asked
her.

“
Yes Mike. I remember you.
My experience memory was not corrupted.”

Mike forgot about eating, but his stomach
didn’t and made several more loud noised. Patience quickly made him
a sandwich and served it to him along with potato salad that she
had prepared that morning. Afterwards, they went to bed. Though
Mike held her until he fell asleep, they didn’t have sex. He just
needed to remind himself that she was there.

The man in the blue jumpsuit leaned over and
poked Mike in the chest. “This is a known issue.”

Pain shot through Mike’s chest. Horrible,
terrifying pain. Mind-numbing pain. The kind of pain that makes one
realize that there really is an end. He opened his eyes. He was
lying flat on his back in his bed, bathed in sweat, clutching his
chest. No, not again! Please, not again! He reached to his left and
grabbed Tiffany’s arm, as another bolt of pain shot through his
chest.

“
Honey, argh!”

“
What’s the matter?” asked
Tiffany. “My God, Mike! You’re white as a sheet!”

“
It’s my chest,” said Mike.
“I think I’m having a heart attack.”

“
Come on,” she said. “I’m
taking you to the hospital.”

The next half hour was a terrifying blur.
Trying to don shorts, while at the same time fighting the pain. A
fast car ride. Rushing through red lights. Sitting in the hospital
waiting room. At last he was lying in an emergency room bed. A male
nurse was giving him a shot in the stomach that gave him a bruise
the size of a football. The pain was going away. Where was Tiffany?
He looked around. She had been here a moment ago. Then he saw
her.

Lying on the bed next to his was Tiffany’s
broken body. She had a blood all over her. Her arm was mangled. Her
legs didn’t look quite right and Mike knew it was because her
pelvis was shattered. None of that had killed her though. It was
that tiny bump on her head. It didn’t look like anything at all,
really. It certainly didn’t look like something that could kill a
person. It was. It did and it was.

“
No, this isn’t right,”
said Mike. “This isn’t how it happened. This was eleven years ago.
You were lying here eleven years ago. You died eleven years ago.
That’s not the same time. I had a heart attack way before that.
When was it? Fifteen years ago?”

Then Harriet burst into the emergency room.
“Daddy!”

Mike’s eyes popped open. He was still in bed.
He turned his head slightly and felt as though his head was going
to explode. He looked for Patience, but she was no longer in bed.
He got up and walked to the bathroom. Opening the medicine cabinet,
he pulled out a bottle of aspirin and tossed four into his mouth.
Then he chewed them.

Something landed heavily on Mike’s shoulder.
He jumped and spun around. Patience was standing there. The arm
that had been on his shoulder was still outstretched. He grabbed
her and pulled her to him. Cupping her face in his hands, he
covered it with kisses. Dozens of tiny kisses spread across her
face turned into one deep kiss on her luscious perfect mouth, which
she returned.

“
Are you alright?” he
asked.

“
I am still alright,
Mike.”

“
No. I mean are you really
all right?”

“
I am still waiting for the
software patch,” she said. “But that only affects rebooting. All my
systems are in good working order.”

Mike clasped Patience’s face once more
between his hands and kissed her deeply. Then she frowned.

“
You have a fever, Mike,”
she said.

“
Yeah. I feel like shit.”
He staggered slightly.

Patience led Mike back to the bed and tucked
him in. Then she brought him a glass of juice. When she was sure
that he was as comfortable as he could be, she lay down in the bed
beside him, and brushed his hair with her hand. She stayed with him
until he dozed off once again.

Mike spent most of the day in bed, eating
very little, but at Patience’s insistence drinking plenty of juice
and water. He felt annoyed, because it seemed to him that Patience
was the one who had been truly ill. She should have been resting.
She insisted though that she was fine and informed him that he had
likely picked up some kind of parasite at the beach.

“
That water was not very
clean,” she said, as she handed him two antiparasitics.

By evening, he was feeling much better. He
got up to shave and take a hot shower, then went back to bed and
read “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” until he was drowsy. With
Patience once again lying in bed beside him, Mike went back to
sleep. He spent most of the night with his hand on that perfect
body beside him. The next morning Mike felt well enough to take his
morning walk, Patience right beside him of course, urging him to
keep up the pace. Driving to the walking track, he started on the
long oval. Even though the sky was overcast and the weather had
turned decidedly blustery, they walked the full five miles, shaded
by the massive sunscreen above the track. They walked at a quick
pace, but instead of feeling as though he were going to pass out,
Mike felt rejuvenated when they returned. He shaved, showered, and
when Patience brought him his breakfast, along with more
antiparasitics, he ate and felt great.

“
Do you feel up to going
furniture shopping today, Mike?” Patience asked.

“
I think I do. Do we need
furniture?”

“
We do if we’re going to
make Harriet’s old room into a guest bedroom. Some of the other
furniture is so worn that it should be replaced too.”

Mike put on a new pair of slacks and a grey
shirt. He thought that he looked pretty good. Of course he
realized, when Patience walked into the room, she would still look
completely out of his league. She had on a dark blue peasant top, a
pair of tight fitting Capri jeans with sequins along the bottom of
the legs, and a pair of black high-heeled shoes with flowers on
them that she described as “Bocaccio round toe pumps.”

They hopped in the car and headed for the
Pico Mundo mall. Once there they went to Modern Furnishings.

“
Do you have a split back
lounger in reddish brown leather?” Patience asked the
clerk.

“
Um, just what you see,”
answered the clerk.

Mike didn’t know what it was that Patience
had asked for, but they ended up picking out a nice leather couch
with clean lines that was pretty comfortable. The also found a nice
double bed and a pair of nightstands. He paid for them and
scheduled delivery. They had lunch at Gyro Time. Then, before
leaving, Mike insisted on stopping at Venus to buy some more
clothes for Patience. He was finding that he enjoyed seeing her
dressed up in her sexy clothing almost as much as he did seeing her
naked. Patience certainly seemed to enjoy showing off new clothes
to him. This time she selected something called a Marylin-collar
sweater dress, which completely covered her from neck to mid-thigh,
but showed off every curve and, Mike was happy to see, every bump
too. As they walked across the parking lot toward the Chevy, Mike
stopped suddenly and looked at Patience.

“
What is it, Mike?” she
asked.

“
I’m falling in love with
you, you know,” he said.

Patience smiled happily. “I thought you might
be, Mike.”

“
Really?”

“
At first I didn’t know for
sure. But once I got to know you and your needs, I believed that it
would be only a matter of time. I am for you, Mike.”

“
Yes,” Mike mused. “Yes,
you are for me.”

Two days later, Mike sat looking at an ad on
vueTee. He had seen the commercial at least twenty times during the
past week, and the possibilities presented had slowly gelled in his
brain into a decision. When Patience came into the room, he looked
up at her.

“
After you’re done with
whatever things you have planned for the day, pack a bag. We’re
going out of town for the next three days.”

“
Where are we going, Mike?”
she asked.

“
We are going to
Vegas.”

“
Las Vegas, Nevada. County
of Clark. Population two million five hundred seventy five thousand
one hundred seventy four. One hundred thirty one point two square
miles…”

“
Yes, that’s the place,” he
interrupted.

“
Why are we going to Las
Vegas, Mike?”

“
It’s too damn hot here,
and I need a vacation.”

“
The average median
temperature in Las Vegas is significantly higher than that of
Springdale.”

“
Yes, but only on the
outside. We can stay in. You don’t even need to go out of your room
to go swimming.”

Mike fell asleep entwined with Patience, but
he woke up alone. He got up, shaved, and showered, and was met at
the bathroom door, as he expected, by his beautiful robot, toast
and juice in hand, and a towel, warm from the drier, over her arm.
He ate and got dressed and found Patience once again in the living
room. She had already prepared the house for their four day
absence, and packed the car with everything they needed. She had
also driven to the filling station, fueled up the car, and checked
all the fluids and systems. Mike put his hands on Patience’s
shoulders and looked into her eyes. He kissed her gently on the
lips.

“
I am still unsure why you
wish to go to Las Vegas,” said Patience.

“
There are a lot of things
to see there, you know.”

“
Yes, I know. They have
casinos, an indoor amusement park, a water park, a museum devoted
to Liberace…”

“
And the all new Star Trek
Experience,” said Mike.

“
The Star Trek Experience
at the Las Vegas Hilton was closed almost twenty four years ago.
That hotel isn’t even there now.”

“
They’ve built a new one,”
explained Mike. “A new Star Trek, not a new Hilton. It’s part of
the remodeling of the Tangiers. I can’t believe you didn’t know
that.”

“
I can’t believe it
either,” said Patience.

I-15 was a long road through the desert. It
wouldn’t be fair to call it a lonely road, because it was almost as
packed with cars as any single section of the Los Angeles freeway.
It zoomed down one long, slow incline to the desert floor and then
zoomed up one long, slow climb to cross the mountains, only to do
the same thing again on the other side. And again. And again. The
highway was so busy that there was a great deal of concentration
involved in negotiating one’s path through the slower vehicles.
That so many California drivers apparently did not understand that
the left lane was supposed to be for passing only made it more so.
By the time they had reached Barstow, Mike wished that they had
booked passage on the mag-lev train that ran along beside the
highway.

Mike drove with his left hand on the steering
wheel and his right hand resting on the back of Patience’s neck.
She was reading “Fodor’s Guide to Having Fun in Las Vegas ’32
Edition”, at a rate of about a seven pages per minute, which meant
that she was studying it quite carefully. Mike was amused, watching
her flip through the screens of her texTee, because he had never
seen her read a book before, what with her having been apparently
imbued with a seemingly endless store of information about every
topic which she had approached. Whoever supplied that information,
apparently hadn’t anticipated a trip to Vegas. Patience was more
than capable of filling that void herself though.