How to Date an Android

Chapter 7, revised & improved

You see this whole time the cops had wanted to talk to me, but the hospital staff told them for over a week that I'd been in critical condition. So they hadn't let them in. And I slept so much they wouldn't have been able to do anything yet.

But what I found out shocked me.

The long story short; Matt...my roommate and life time friend,... had tried to murder me. I'm shocked. I couldn't believe it. I was also lucky to be alive. He'd ran off thinking I was mortally wounded...and probably would have been if not for some unforeseen circumstances. He'd also planned to do it late night in a grocery store parking lot so that he wouldn't be looked at for it.

The police report was very detailed and thorough. The android that saved me had also in a self defense reaction taken the murder weapon from him. The android had been right there blending in as a civilian, which was bad luck on Matt's part. Matt somehow had borrowed a metal baseball bat from a chest in my garage, which he shouldn't have even known about. It was a family heirloom my dad gave me from when he was a kid. So it being at the scene was proof enough that he was into mischief. There don't make bats like that anymore either, because the metals shortages decades ago had forced them to stop.

Plus one of the leftist presidents a few years ago had banned baseball and made it illegal.

So...I'd gotten a severe tap to the head by Matt with a major concussion that I was lucky I didn't die from, and then he'd done a follow up couple of swats on my back and ribs with the same weapon. Even though it was a blunt object, what had made it feel sharp were my ribs cracking. He'd been about to finish me off when the other android had intervened to save me and chased him off, but not before he already had stolen my credit chip.

But the odd thing about it was how calculated it was. By the time they figured out who had done it, he'd already fled the country with having somehow used a hacker program to siphon off my bank accounts electronically. When they'd processed the crime scene, they'd also found out that the place he'd attacked me at, had the security cameras disabled a week before in such a way that they hadn't been able to see who did it. They had found other footage of him casing the bank mag parking area over a week before that however, and that had put him on their suspect list.

Add to the fact that I'd found out he'd also hit up two other people in a different state in the same way last summer, when he's supposedly 'been on vacation'. Because he'd been targeting people who were living alone or near to it, with no relatives living or in contact with said person the other victim's crime hadn't been noticed until now. And in like manner pillage and take all their finances and funds to live off so he wouldn't have to work. It still had received very little attention.

I couldn't believe it. This whole time he really was a criminal. What a dirtbag...

I should have seen the signs... I never saw him work. And I got stories of where he worked. But now that I think about it, he was at home too much for someone who truly worked.

But it was sad because he had been one of the few friends that I'd ever had and since childhood. It wasn't like I'd mistreated him or anything either. And he was still at large hunted by the law. I felt like he was a tragedy from wasting his life.

But then...

I couldn't help but be afraid of if he'd come back. What if he wanted to finish me off? Why had he even targeted me anyway? He had a job and a roof over his head. I was charging him a very cheap rent way lower than what he'd have gotten with others. And the house while old was in good shape. He was eating a little bit too well though if you ask me. He needed to work on his table manners too.

"What's going to happen to me? The cops said he stole a lot of my savings?" I said.

"I will be able to make an inquiry for you, to help you proceed and get the mentoring you need," Nurse Emma said. "Don't worry Jack. Things will work out."

"OK, good. How long will that take? How do you know for sure it'll work out? For me it seems I'm pretty exposed," I asked.

"Well you are scheduled to go home in a couple days. So we have to work fast. I'm assuming you are most concerned with the credit chip and your money that was stolen?" she said in a confident voice.

"Yeah. I want my things back and that's the biggest part of the stress. I need those things to support myself. I don't love money that much, but it represents a value and ability to take care of myself. Which I can't do now. What if the bank wants to give me some run around B.S.? What if the government help doesn't kick in? The law says they should, but people don't follow the law. What if there's like a lost paperwork problem because I'm like a needle in a haystack? There's so many things that can go wrong!"

"I believe Officers Diaz and Smith were working on that. I will follow up with them on that for you," she said. She was still pushing me, just like a normal human would except somehow we'd made our way outside to the garden in the yard.

"Flowers sure are pretty aren't they? Don't you think those flowers are just so amazing?" she asked with a slight pleasant look.

"Yeah it's nice out here. You like flowers?" I answered back. She was right. I needed to dwell on peaceful thoughts and not get worked up.

"I like to see beautiful things. It's part of my personality matrix. I could be out here for several hours watching the honeybees gather nectar," she offered.

I wasn't sure how I was supposed to answer that though. Would she be sensitive about me asking about what made up androids?

"Thank you very much. I don't know what I'd do without your help," I said without thinking.

"It's my duty, Jack. Don't worry about it. But even though it's my duty, you seem to be a quality human," she said.

"This is a really tough situation," I said.

"You'll get through it. It will be OK. I'll check on you again soon OK?" she smiled back at me.

How is it an android can resemble an angel so much? I...couldn't stand being around Emma much. It was too much. I mean...to be able to be around such a bright and peaceful atmosphere and then later not have it would be...painful remembering how wonderful it was and not having it again after that.