SAD ROBOT: an autobiography of my unfortunate existence

90. THE MAN WHO ASKED QUESTIONS

90. THE MAN WHO ASKED QUESTIONS

"This man who called himself John says that he had heard about what had happened to Milo and that he feels awful about it and how he wishes our neighborhoods weren't so overrun with violence and lawlessness. Milo thanks him for his concern but then the man brings up Angelica and Milo becomes emotional and agitated all over again.

From my place over by the corner, I try to calm Milo and tell him that it's alright. None of us knew who this John man was and none of us had the presence of mind to even ask him; we just kind of let him come in and ask his questions, knowing it could be our only way of getting anything out of Milo because he sure was set on not talking to his own siblings.

'This Angelica, she was your Companion-oid, correct?'

'Yes', Milo manages to say. 'What about her? Are you going to fix her?'

The man formed a grim line with his mouth. 'I'm afraid I couldn't do that if I'd wanted to, son. These men, they'd seen you with a robot - a female one at that - and they saw easy prey, they saw a man who was associating with something they probably saw as unnatural, like how some long ago people might have viewed inter-racial couples, and they scorned it. Believe me, this is far from the first hate crime I have seen.'

The man inched up his chair a bit closer and takes an empathetic tone when he speaks to Milo.

'She was a good girl though, wasn't she?'

His demeanor is kindly and Milo doesn't seem compelled to lash out in anger like he was moments ago with the officer. None of us knew what he was here for, but as long as Milo answered his questions, the faster he would leave. There was just something a bit off about this man. But Bridget and I wouldn't stop him; we just wanted to know more and we saw that this was our way how.

Milo gave a sad nod.

'She was, wasn't she. A fine beauty that one was. Personally, my favorite model. Whimsical, refined, and ladylike. But with the uncanny ability to make you feel so young again, am I right?'

The man chortled. Milo sat expressionless.

'I'm sorry for your loss, my boy,' he went back to serious. 'But Angelica wasn't the only robot you had, was she?' He asks this more like an observation than any kind of question. He obviously already knew these details but felt compelled to make Milo answer them like a witness on the stand.

Milo didn't wish to answer the question and stayed quiet.

'No,' I spoke up for him. 'He had Hiram for a long time before Angelica. But he took her arrival...poorly. He left and never came back.'

'He probably felt like he was being replaced.'

'I'm sure Milo didn't intend it to happen that way.'

He turns back to Milo. 'I know you have a lot to be upset about, son. You lost what you had grown close to. I know that no bot could ever replace Angelica, or even Hiram. No substitute could live up to the standards of companionship provided by either of them. Companion-oids, they... I want to call them something else. Friends. Let's call them friends. Our friends, they grow individual personalities over time. They may begin alike and virtually as copies of each other once booted up for the very first time, but over the course of our lives with them and with our constant interaction, they develop such remarkable individual uniquenesses never again replicable.'

'What did you like most about Angelica?' the man rested an elbow on Milo's bed, chin on his hand as if ready to listen to all the wonderful stories about her.