by Bush, J. M.
“It’s amazing, sweets. I mean, this thing is just… incredible, August,” Samantha told him, genuinely impressed.
He looked proud as a peacock, grinned at his wife, and told her, “Just wait until it’s all finished, Sam. It will be a one -of -a -kind marvel.”
Samantha settled herself in to do some serious woodworking. It felt wonderful to work with her hands again. Together, the couple sat in that room until the sun faded, and worked side -by -side in between the lanterns. They had never worked like this before in their lives. Feverish didn’t quite describe it, but it was urgent. All of the wrongs they had experienced, all of the let-downs they had gone through, all of the tragedies they had suffered together;: all of that seemed to melt away. In fact, it acted as fuel to their work, you could say.
All of the awful moments in their lives drove them to work harder, faster, and better than they ever had at anything before. Eventually, they grew too tired to continue and headed up to bed with their lanterns floating along behind them. They may have been too tired to continue creating in the workshop, but they found some additional energy once they reached the bedroom, and celebrated their love with an intense passion.
Over the next month, they worked tirelessly day and night to create this new automaton. The tiny details and engineering were left up to August while Samantha crafted the beautiful, wooden frame and multiple moving pieces. The wood they used was hard and firm. It was real wood from China, but neither of them knew what kind of tree it used to be. It was knobby and gnarled, so it took a little more time for Samantha to bend it to her will.
August realized that this new model needed to have advanced internal components, but he wanted to keep it as natural as possible. He used some metal where necessary, but most of the new automaton was wood, and in keeping with the original Woodrow he used a system of strings and pulleys to create movement in the extremities.
“Realistically, he won’t last for very long,” he said.
“How long do you reckon, sweets?”
Considering, August scratched at the new growth of beard on his face. He had not shaved since they began this new Woodrow.
“Honestly, I don’t know. He definitely won’t last as long as even the earliest Montek.Automatons, simply because of his wooden body and the string and pulley system we used, even though the mind of this new Woodrow is years ahead of anythin’ that they have over at Montek.”
Samantha rubbed at one of the new Woodrow’s arms and said, “Sweets, I hate to tell you this now, but I kinda want him to act like the old one. I don’t want a thinking, problem-solving, wooden robot. I want our little old Woodrow back.”
“Yeah, I kinda figured that,” August said. “He will act just like the old one, don’t worry.”
Samantha examined the variable components of this new version of her old, wooden companion and found something she didn’t quite like.
“Is this a port to hold a BrainSave, August?” she asked.
He had known his wife would see that eventually, but was hoping it wouldn’t be so soon.
“Yes, Sam. But let me explain…”
She walked out of the workshop and slammed the door, cutting off his explanation. August found her in the kitchen leaning against the counter and sipping a large glass of sweet iced tea.
“Why would you build him with a BrainSave port, August?” she said icily. “After all we have ever talked about, and after everything they have done to us. Are you considering putting yourself into an automaton? The way Montek wants everyone to do?”
“Sam, hear me out,” he pleaded. “This is no corporate automaton. I built that port for either of us. If one of us goes first, this version of Woodrow will have the ability to extend one of our lives. Not as an unthinkin’ robot, babe. It will be capable of so much more. And I’m not giving it to Montek. This new device is just for us.”
Sam looked down at the ground, deep in thought.
“What if I don’t want that, sweets?” Samantha asked. “What if, when I go, I don’t want to come back in a hunk of wood? What if, when you go, I don’t want your voice coming from a lifeless shell?”
“Sam, that is your choice,” he told his wife. “But if you go first, I feel like I would die without you. I would need somethin’ like this so I could keep on livin’. I just know that, in my heart. But if you don’t think you would, that is your decision. And if you don’t wanna be put into Woodrow, that’s fine. But I do want my consciousness in Woodrow if I die first. That way, if you need me, I can be there for you. Just like with Tara, when we tried to say goodbye. You don’t ever have to turn it on, though.”
“I just don’t know, sweets. I just don’t know what to think.”
August took Samantha by the hands, looked deep into her soul and softly said, “Sam, you don’t have to answer now. We have a long time to think about it. We might even have to build a new Woodrow before we ever have to make that decision.”
She nodded slowly, then looked up and muttered, “I just hate the way those machines act. It’s not real. It’s just an imitation of the person who died.”
“Don’t think of it like these Montek.Automatons that are walking around with their prehistoric BrainSaves,” he said. “That port ain’t for a BrainSave, Sam. I’ve been workin’ on a new tech for years. All up here,” he said, pointing to his head. “It is completely ours and cannot be owned by Montek. I ain’t built it yet, but it won’t take me too long since I’ve been dreamin’ about it for a while… Heck, I could probably make it right now with my dang eyes closed. I call it the SameSoul. This tech is so far beyond the BrainSave, babe. It will be able to capture exactly who you are or who I am at the time of death, and put that essence into Woodrow. New memories can be stored. New experiences had. New conversations. It’s never been done, Sam.”
“I don’t know, sweets. It sounds… sacrilegious,” she said in a quiet voice. “You can’t hold someone’s soul from going to Heaven or Hell.”
“Well, I like to think that it’s not your whole soul in there. It would just be a tiny part, meant to let the other one of us say goodbye in our own time. Like I said, it won’t last forever anyways,” August replied.
“But what if it hurts to be inside of that thing?. What if it’s actually eternal agony, but we can’t express it, sweets?”
She pulled August close and held her head against his chest, breathing in the aroma of his hard work, and noticing she had her own pungent smell to match.
“Sam, don’t worry,” he reassured her. “It won’t hurt a bit.”
Chapter 14
HELPFUL BUT AWKWARD
“Woodrow, please move this shelvin’ unit to that wall,” August instructed the tall, wooden automaton.
“SHELL VING,” Woodrow replied.
Having an unthinking automaton to help you set up your new business can be quite handy, as August was finding out. Over the past year, Samantha and August had found multiple uses for the new Woodrow and his new size. No longer a small thing, standing 5’10”, he was capable of a lot more and turned out to be a great help around the house.
Watching the two at work, Sam was ecstatic. She felt that August had finally come to his senses by starting his own tech shop, which he called Sweets, Inc., naturally. She even had no problem doing all the housework for a while, so that Woodrow could help set up the new shop.
“You two could use a break, sweets,” she said to August. “You’ve been at it for hours.”
August glanced back and wiped the sweat from his brow, smiling at his wife.
“I sure could,” he answered, “but I don’t think Woodrow is even winded.”
“WIN DID,” the helpful, but awkward robot replied.
The married couple laughed at their strange wooden friend. The neighbors had been thoroughly shocked when they first saw Woodrow. He looked nothing like the boxy, inhuman Montek.Automatons. He had a very human-like body shape, carved out lovingly by Samantha. There were grooves where the tough-fibered and almost unbreakable strings of tubing ran
along his arms and legs going into his mid-section, which housed the motor that controlled Woodrow’s movements. He hummed slightly and made sounds like children’s building blocks clacking together when he walked.
Now, though, the entire neighborhood was used to seeing the sleek wooden robot. Montek had heard about Woodrow and had sent their lawyers around with some techs from the Montek.Automaton division. They found absolutely nothing in common with their property, so they could not say a thing about this new Woodrow.
August had completed his mandatory free year of consultation, and, as he had promised his wife, had only given them just enough information to satisfy the higher- ups, m. Making no innovations during his time back in their grasp, and creating nothing close to Woodrow 2.0. When they finally did see this new automaton, the Montek officials scoffed at the material used to build him. But upon inspecting his internal components, the Montek employees were impressed to the point of jealousy and suspicion.
“Why didn’t you use this technology, or even tell us about it while consulting for Montek?,” one of the lawyers had asked.
“It’s just something I’ve been messing around with in my home workshop. I didn’t think Montek would be interested in this kind of tech,” August had answered.
Now that his time with them was over, and Sweets,, Inc was close to opening., August was ecstatic. His shop would specialize in tech repair, but also offer his own line of affordable products to solve modern problems. He, of course, offered nothing made by Montek. Every piece of tech in the shop was of August’s personal design.
August had created a line of levitating lanterns, modeled after the modifications he had made to his and Sam’s lanterns. He had a line of cellphones for people who didn’t want to use a SmartChip. August figured the target audience was small for that, but people did love retro stuff these days, so maybe it would be a big seller. Time would tell. He couldn’t use his cellphone’s design, tapping into Montek.Communication satellites, since it was illegal. Instead, he modded old cellphones and even built new ones from scratch, that could hold a SmartChip inside of it. People would still have to pay Montek.Communication for their bills; they just wouldn’t have a chip implanted in their ear anymore.
He also had an oven that was easier to use than the real one he and Sam had at home. It was automated, which people would like. But it required the use of real ingredients and food. No Nutricator muck put into a reservoir in the back. Samantha was especially hoping this one would be a big seller.
“Well, sweets, come on over here and have some lunch,” his wife said. “I made your favorite:; meat loaf, green beans, and home-made biscuits. There’s sweet tea to drink, too.”
August came over and sat down on the blanket Sam had laid out for them. As he hungrily devoured the delicious food she had made for them, he took it all in. His shop was fantastic. He was as proud of this as he was of Woodrow. August believed that it would be successful in this neighborhood. Of course, they had rented a spot on West Main Street, very close to where they had first met.
Samantha looked around and took it all in. She was so impressed by how much August had accomplished since their first meeting. He had gone from an awkward tinkerer working on an assembly line in a factory to an inventor that held a lot of clout with the biggest corporation and seller of tech in the entire world. Just a regular guy from Alabama had made a real mark in the major company on Earth.
“When are you going to open the shop, sweets?” she asked, her voice tight with emotion.
August shrugged his shoulders, chewed on a biscuit, and said, “Everythin’ is almost ready to go. I figure I can put out some flyers, maybe an ad in the New Dothan Eagle digital news, you know, let people know about us. Maybe offer some Grand Openin’ discounts? People love a good deal.”
Samantha ran her fingers lightly across his thigh and said, “I actually had an idea about the logo and slogan. I thought that since a lot of people were into retro stuff, and since a lot of your tech plays off of that, we could play on that idea. Something like, ‘Yesterday’s Answers to Tomorrow’s Problems’ and have a picture of you with a cellphone up to your ear and me cooking on one of your new ovens. What do you think of that, sweets?”
August rubbed his lightly bearded face and looked sternly at the floor, before shaking his head in disagreement.
“I don’t like it, babe. Nope, I don’t like it,” he said in a disapproving voice. “I LOVE IT!” he then yelled to the ceiling.
August grabbed her in a constricting embrace and they rolled around on the newly installed gel -cushioned floors, which made for a nice place to stand on your feet all day, but also an excellent place to mess around when the time was right. And the time was suddenly right.
-
“Hi! Welcome to Sweets, Inc. We have yesterday’s answers to tomorrow’s problems. Are you lookin’ for anythin’, in particular, today?” August said, greeting the new customer the same way he greeted everyone who came into his store.
His first week of business had so far been incredible. Everyone in the area had to come in to see what this new store was all about. And the desire to be the first one of your friends with the newest gadget had certainly helped business.
“Well, normally I would say that I was just browsing, but I have to be honest with you,” the man said. “My cousin told me he bought one of your cellphones and a set of your lanterns. The way he described them made me want to come and have a look for myself. Can you show me what he was talking about?”
August had to grin. Those had been the two most popular items since he had opened. It’s was funny to him because one was an old version of new tech:; the cellphone. But the other was a new version of old tech:; the lanterns. And for whatever reason, those two are what the people wanted.
There was some repair work coming in, too. People came to see August because he would fix and mod any tech; not just his stuff, but also Montek’s and other companies’ products. His competition would only ever touch their own products.
“Absolutely, sir,” August cheerily replied. “Over here we have all the available models of our Sweet Phones. As I’m sure your cousin told you, we take an existin’ SmartChip and insert it into any one of these you’d like. It’s not a replacement for a SmartChip, you understand? Just an accessory that get’s that tech out of your head and into your hand. It’s a little bit like takin’ a step back in time. You’ll have the same functions as you do now;, you’ll just look more… old school, as they used to say.”
The customer was visibly interested but said nothing. August could just tell by his body language that they guy was going to buy one.
“Over here we have the Life Lanterns,” August continued. “A while back, I bought some of the city’s maglev lanterns that you see on every street. My wife and I had some very personal moments between those lanterns and I wanted to have them in our home as a symbol of our life together. I modded them out with voice recognition software, multiple light filters, a dimming feature, and a simple AI; they’ll follow you when told to do so, or stay put when instructed. You can voice command all of it, or tell the lanterns to enter predictive mode and assume what you want based on past instructions. They can learn your habits, sir!”
At this, the customer couldn’t stay quiet anymore. August could tell:; the man just had to have this stuff.
“Ok, I don’t care what they cost,” the customer said greedily. “I need two sets of Life Lanterns and two Sweet Phones. Ring it up.”
As August began to type up the order and enter it into the system, Woodrow walked onto the sales floor from the back room.
“Whoa,” the customer exclaimed, “what on Earth is that thing?”
August laughed a little and gestured to Woodrow with an air of theatrics.
“That, my friend,” he said, “is my pride and joy. Made by my wife and me workin’ together. It’s a wooden automaton, with the most sophisticated internal components the world has ever seen. Woodrow is the only employee I’ll ever need, a
nd a major part of our family. He’s pretty helpful, but a little awkward. Ain’t that right, Woodrow?”
“RIGHT,” the wooden robot replied.
The customer stroked his chin and squinted his eyes as he assessed as this new tech was strolling across the floor. Woodrow wandered over to a display of Life Lanterns, straightened it, and then went back into the stockroom.
“Now that is something I’d be interested in buying! How much for one of those wooden automatons? It’s like the future and the past all mixed into one. I’ve never seen anything like it!”
August just shook his head and smiled apologetically, saying, “I’m terribly sorry, sir, but Woodrow is one of a kind and will stay that way. He’s a special part of our family. My wife and I made him, and we certainly don’t want a bunch of copies runnin’ around. I’m very sorry.”
The customer looked disappointed, but not upset. August could tell the man wasn’t ready to give up just yet. Already, quite a few residents of New Dothan had begged to buy Woodrow, or even have August make a duplicate. With the popular fashion right now being retro, people went crazy over the wooden but sophisticated automaton.
“Oh, it’s alright, Mr. Lurie. I totally understand. He does seem to appropriately be one of a kind,” the customer replied. “Thank you for the phones and lanterns. I’m sure I’ll be back soon. This is a fabulous shop with some truly unique tech. Goodbye, now.”
“Thank you for your business, sir. We hope to see you soon. Tell your friends about us!” August said, waving goodbye.
The man walked out of the shop with his purchases, and Woodrow came back onto the floor to refill the phone and lantern displays. August replayed the interaction with the man over in his head for a minute. There was something a little bit funny about him, but August couldn’t put his finger on it.
Looking at the receipt, August noticed the customer’s name, Joshua Stevens. August had never heard the name before. But there was something odd about him. For one, the man was rather pleasant. That was relatively unusual; most people were brusque and ill-mannered. This Joshua fellow was complimentary and even said goodbye. Most folks just bought something and left, only saying how cool everyone would think they were now that they had this weird tech.
