Test Run

Robot Rules

So I have a date with John coming up and a playdate with Christoper coming up too. I drove back and I picked up Josh at his dad's house. His dad and him waved goodbye and he jumped into the car. On the ride home, all we spoke about was the Star Wars movies.  He was such a cute kid. Well, not a real kid, but I think I understood him a little better now. Every reaction was a reaction to a tag we saw, and it was all programed. Yet, he was charming anyway. He sat in the seat next to me, and I looked at him. I wasn't going to ask him his warranty. It would break my heart. I wondered if there was anyway around it. Maybe a little research on this would be good, but I wasn't going to bring that up to him.

"Hey" I said, "Did you enjoy the movies?"

"Yeah" said Josh, "Did you enjoy your stuff too?"

"Yeah" I said, "I did!" I really did. I just spoke to a couple of a great guys and girls who were really nice. Okay, they are robots, but no one is perfect. This included Josh.

"So Josh..." I said as we drove along back to my house. "This is your last week. Is there anything you want to do special?"

"Um..." said Josh and he stopped a minute. I could of sworn he was thinking like a real kid. The look on his face certainly was like a real kid thinking.

"Well" I said, "You have a playdate with Mackenzie on Friday..."

"Cool" he said, "Mackenzie was nice"

"So was Christoper" I said.

I patted his leg and he smirked at me. We pulled into my driveway and I went to the backdoor. I helped him out of his seat. His feet touhed the ground. I went inside and there was a message on the machine. It was from my mom. She said she would be working late. Okay, I figured, I'll make my own dinner.

Josh watched me take out a bowl and pour in some frozen pasta. He climbed up on the chair next to the counter and put one foot in the air. "We should have a family dinner..."

"Oh" I said, but was a little baffled by the request. "You can't eat, Josh..."

"I know" said Josh, "but I can watch you eat..."

"Okay" I smiled, "Do you want me to tell you what it tastes like?"

"Okay" said Josh, and I finished cooking up. I then poured the pasta into a bowl and sat down at the table.  "It tastes creamy Josh. It has cheese in the middle and sauce which melts. It tastes real good..."

"That's cool but I have no idea what any of that means" said Josh, "Thanks for describing it to me though..."

I took another bite. "You are very welcome..." I said.

I didn't even think of that, but it would be cool. Josh only had a week left, but maybe I could keep Josh and maybe me and John could date, and we could have a robot/human family. Maybe I can hang out with Jacob again.

"Maybe we should go hang out with Jacob again" I said.

"No, we shouldn't. The rules of robots is we aren't forever friends. We are meant to be only for  certain times. We are test runs. We are suppose to be only for when real people aren't around. We want to be replaced. We are meant to go away..."

"Oh" I said and I stopped. That made sense. Was I crazy? Having a robot family? That didn't make a lot of sense.

"Christoper is real" said Josh, "You should date him! John, me and Mackenzie should go away. We are just machines..."

I stopped and I looked at Josh. The week was almost up for him. Maybe I should ask him. "Josh" I said, "are you really going to be destroyed after this week?"

"I don't know" Josh said, "I might be reused for the school. I'll maybe go into storage?"

"Oh" I said and I felt a little bad.