Tom vs the Volcano God

by Marilyn Foxworthy

  I gasped and said, “Sarah, no!”

  She looked at me smiled just a little and said, “Yes you do! You totally do! You don’t, because it wouldn’t be right and you know that we aren’t in that kind of a relationship. And you don’t want to do something I don’t want, and you can tell that I don’t want you to do that right now. So, it’s part true and part not true. That was fun. You turned red, because you like me. Can we sit on the bed?”

  She sat down and I sat beside her, and she held my hand.

  She said, “That was fun to find out. Um Tom, you didn’t like it when I said the word ‘fuck’. Why not?”

  I said, “Well, wait, Sarah, but I really like you, and like you said, guys think about things, and I think you are so wonderful and beautiful, but I wouldn’t hurt you or take advantage of you or anything like that.”

  She said, “Of course not. I know that now. But I can’t figure out why you don’t like that word. And you kind of had a mixed reaction to the word ‘cock’, too. So, either I used those words wrong, or you don’t like me that way.”

  I sat and stared, not knowing what to say.

  She finally said, “Alice says that fuck means that you make love so hard and so specially that your love pours out through your eyes and skin and pussy and heart and your toes curl up and you think you are going to die and there’s bursts of light and laughing and singing and you just know that he loves you so much that you want to make him have the best time ever and you’d just do anything in the world for each other because it’s so wonderful. She says that it takes too long to say all of that and that when she fucks Robby it’s that way. And she says that he has a wonderful cock and she loves it when he puts it all up inside her pussy and she cums and cums and cums and cums till she sees stars.”

  She looked at me for comment.

  I said, “Well, I had never heard that word described quite that way before. You make it sound beautiful.”

  She giggled and said, “I was kind of naughty though. I never talked like that before. Alice did sometimes, but I never did and I kind of embarrassed us both, didn’t I? I just wanted to try it out and see what it was like. That um, might be fun, but not when we’re embarrassed. Or maybe it would be fun if we were just a little embarrassed. Being just a little embarrassed feels funny, but kind of exciting and sort of fun. But I was kind of shocking, wasn’t I? I just tried it out to see what you would tell me if I asked you about sex. I want to tell you a secret. But I’ll be a little embarrassed, in that fun way that feels weird.”

  I tried catching my breath and said, “You can tell me if you want to, but you don’t have to. But Sarah, are you upset that part of me might feel so attracted to you that I might have thoughts about how much I like you and might wonder about things like that? About making love and things?”

  She squeezed my hand and turned toward me and bent to my ear and whispered, “That’s the secret. I said that you know that I don’t want that right now, but I can feel two ways at the same time too. I don’t want that, but part of me kind of thinks that it does. Don’t tell anyone. Tom, on the stairs, I never did that before either.”

  I held her hand and said, “What?”

  She said, “I never hugged anybody I loved before and I never got to kiss them on the lips like that. I liked it. Thank you. You’re the best boyfriend any girl could have and I’m really glad. Did you bring me a present? Did you?”

  I still had the bag of clothing with me and I handed it to her. She squealed excitedly and looked in the bag and took out the long night gown and held it in front of her.

  She said, “I can sleep in this tonight. Let me take the tags off.”

  She pulled the tags and snapped the strings holding them on and then stood up.

  She faced away from me and said, “I should try it on. Just sit there a minute. It will only take me a second.”

  At that, Sarah unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans and slid them down her rear and stepped out of them. She didn’t bend over seductively, but just dropped them and pulled her legs out. Next, she took hold of the bottom of her blouse and pulled it over her head without unbuttoning the front. She kept her back to me, standing in her bra and panties. I couldn’t see much of the bra, except for a lacy strap across the back, but the panties were very cute. They were blue with black trim. A tiny bikini made of satin. She pulled down the waist band of the panties and let them fall to her ankles, and then unhooked her bra from the front and slid it off her shoulders.

  She was naked now. I could only see the back, but she was beautiful. I didn’t want to make comparisons, but I couldn’t help it. She was amazing. My wife had been a normal good-looking woman. No centerfold model, but attractive for sure. From what I could see, Sarah made those centerfold models look like ‘normal women’ in that she was more beautiful, or at least as beautiful as any picture I had ever seen. It was as if someone had carefully analyzed every aspect of feminine perfection and designed a perfect composite woman. I tried not to, but I did feel a bit of a bulge start rising in my pants.

  Oh, wait! That’s exactly what Sarah was. Robby had analyzed the most beautiful women on the planet and created a composite that incorporated the best and most arousing aspects of all of them. The most perfect hips, legs, arms, etc. That’s exactly how Sarah was designed. It had to be. And it worked. She was my ideal woman.

  Sarah pulled the white cotton gown on over her head and I watched with a sense of loss as it fell down and covered that beautiful butt and those shapely legs. She turned around and stood waiting for my approval. The status app said that she would want me to complement her, but not too intimately.

  I said, “Sarah, it’s beautiful on you.”

  The gown did drape between her breasts just enough to give an idea of their shape. There were a few buttons at the neck and most of them were closed, but two were undone, and a little skin below her neck was visible, and just the barest bit of cleavage.

  She said, “I like it. It’s really comfortable.”

  She stepped closer and stood in front of me and took my hands and said, “Are you ready to go to your bedroom? I could help you get ready for bed.”

  The fact was that I was ready. It was only about nine, but I usually went to bed about now because I got up so early. We went to my bedroom and Sarah told me to go brush my teeth or whatever, while she turned down my bed. She called out to me from the bedroom as I got ready in the bathroom, asking what I liked to sleep in. I told her that I usually just slept in a t-shirt and no pants. I could hear her rummage through the drawers of my dresser until she found something and then brought it to me and laid it on the bathroom counter for me to put on. Then she left and sat on the edge of my bed and waited.

  I finished up and tossed my shirt in the closet on top of the other dirty clothes, and pulled on the fresh T-shirt to sleep in. I left my pants on for now. Even though Sarah had changed clothes in front of me, I knew that we weren’t yet at whatever level included being comfortable being casually naked in front of each other. As I entered the room, Sarah motioned me to sit beside her.

  She said, “Do you want to know another little secret?”

  She leaned in and whispered, “I was being naughty on purpose. I never did that before. When I took my clothes off. I just pretended that you weren’t there and that you couldn’t see me, but I knew you could. I thought that you might like it. So I just did it. I wanted you to know that I knew what I was doing, and I did it because I wanted to. Because I don’t want you to feel bad about it. It was fun. In that sort of embarrassing way I was talking about. Thank you for my dress and my night gown,” and she kissed me on the cheek and stood up.

  I said, “Sarah, are you going to bed now?”

  She said, “No. I’m going to put my jeans on and keep working. I’ll try not to make much noise. I can play some special music on your phone that will help you sleep if you want me to. Alice taught me how. It’s supposed to feel really nice, and that way I won’t wake you up if I make some noise. Do you want
me to do that for you?”

  I said, “OK. If it will help me sleep.”

  She smiled and said, “Oh, it will. You’ll feel so good in the morning. What time should you wake up?”

  I said, “About five-fifteen.”

  She said, “Then that’s when I’ll wake you up. And the network is faster but I didn’t do the new router yet. But I’ll do that.”

  I said, “Sarah, do you sleep?”

  She said, “Yeah. But not that much sometimes. Alice said that we are more ‘social sleepers’ than because we have to. I do need to, but only about an hour or so a day. Are you ready for bed? I’ll go and you can get undressed and get in bed and I’ll start the music in three minutes, OK?”

  I agreed and Sarah left the room. I pulled off my pants and underwear and crawled under the covers. A minute later, I heard a strange music start playing from my new phone and I was instantly asleep.

  Chapter 5 - A Day at Work

  There was a soft dim light in the room when I opened my eyes. Sarah was sitting on the bed beside me in her night gown, smiling, with her hand on my chest. I blinked and looked at her. I had just gone to sleep. But the clock said five-fifteen. I hadn’t dreamed. I hadn’t tossed and turned. I hadn’t woken up even once. And I had no sensation of the passage of time. I had never slept like that a night in my life. I was a restless sleeper. I usually fell asleep quickly but I was aware of my dreams all night long, and most often, my nights were long. This morning I felt really good.

  Sarah said, “Good morning, Tom. You slept really well. Do you want some breakfast?”

  I said, “Well, I don’t usually eat this early. But I have some yogurt and stuff in my desk in a fridge at work.”

  She said, “Can I make you a lunch? To take with you?”

  I said, “Oh, that would be really nice.”

  She smiled and said, “OK. Have a nice shower. Do you need anything?’

  I said, “No. I don’t think so. Sarah, I slept great. That was amazing.”

  She smiled again, and said, “I’m so glad. Come on and get up.”

  She took my hand and I pulled back the covers and stood up. It wasn’t until I was standing in front of her, naked from the waist down that I remembered that I was in fact naked from the waist down. Sarah didn’t look or give any sign that she noticed at all. But based on what she had told me the night before about being fully aware of what she was doing, I had every reason to believe that she had seen exactly what she wanted to see at that moment. She knew that I wouldn’t be wearing pants and she had told me to get up. She must have known what that would mean.

  Sarah left the room and I went to get ready. I hadn’t meant to, and it had been a while since I had, but I did end up masturbating in the shower. It wasn’t any elaborate fantasy, and it didn’t even exactly involve Sarah. I thought about being in Hawaii with my wife and a bit of lovemaking in the hotel room. It didn’t take me long.

  I finished getting ready for work, and when I reached the bottom of the stairs, Sarah brought me the lunch that she had made for me. She was in her jeans and blouse again. I took a chance and kissed her briefly as I said goodbye. She didn’t pull away but leaned into me as our lips touched. It was hardly more than the little kisses that she had given me already, but I knew that it was definitely a new step forward. I kissed her the way a husband in a hurry to get to worked kissed his wife on his way out the door. And she kissed me like a woman sending her man off to work, neither of them taking time to hold each other for more than the briefest of interactions.

  It took me about twenty minutes to get to work. There was never any traffic at this time of the morning, and that’s one of the reasons that I liked going in so early. I was a software developer, and some days I worked really hard. And some days I hardly worked at all. Today was one of those days. I didn’t do much. I did a bit of research. I looked at a few bug reports. I had a few meetings that were absolutely meaningless. I ate my breakfast about seven thirty and my lunch about eleven. About one in the afternoon, my new phone rang.

  It startled me and I rushed to answer it and get to a conference room where I could talk in private. It was Robby.

  He said, “Hi, Tommy Boy. You got time to talk?”

  I said, “Robby, are you kidding me? Yes, I have time to talk. Where are you?”

  He said, “Kauai. It’s ten in the morning here. I got some interesting messages this morning and thought that I should call. I take it from the messages that you’re doing good?”

  I said, “Yeah, great, but…”

  He said, “Hey, did you sleep well? Did she play that special music for you?”

  I said, “Yeah, it was amazing. I have never slept so well in my life but…”

  He said, “Hey, do you want to come to Kauai? Like in two weeks or something? It would be great to see you, if you feel up to it. I know it’s been hard.”

  I said, “Yeah, it has been hard. But…”

  He said, “What’s her name?”

  I said, “Sarah. Don’t you know?”

  He said, “No, not really. I mean, I set it all up, but not the details. I saw her before she was sent to you, but I didn’t know her name. She was packed right side up, wasn’t she?”

  I said, “Yeah. And very funny about the threat of sending her the other way up, but…”

  He said, “So, you like her? And she likes you?”

  I said, “Yeah, but Robby, shut up for a minute. I have some questions.”

  He laughed and said, “I bet. OK. Shoot.”

  I said, “Well first of all, what…I mean, um, oh hell, now I can’t think of what to ask.”

  He said, “What would you need to ask? It’s all pretty self-explanatory.”

  I said, “Oh, I remember. Robby, I need to know one thing. Is this a test of a new product or do I get to keep her? Please don’t say that this is just a trial thing. That would be cruel.”

  He laughed again and said, “Tommy Boy, I know that. And yes, she’s yours forever. I’d take her back if it didn’t work out and you didn’t want her, but it seems like you do, so it’s permanent. And no, to answer your other question, she isn’t a product. I’ve been working out some very advanced robotics, and she, you said Sarah, right? She isn’t really a prototype. She’s pretty much perfected, wouldn’t you say?”

  I said, “Yeah.”

  Robby said, “So, there are more like Sarah, in different forms, and they take care of my gardening and housekeeping and things like that. I have a sort of unusual life style that requires a lot of privacy and the only way I was going to get it and be reasonably safe was if my closest employees weren’t human. So, I worked out these elves. But they have their own personalities and everything and definitely have emotions. The emotions aren’t as complex as most people’s because they don’t have all the scars and baggage. They are like people from paradise. They’re really cool to be with. So anyway, I got some status updates. They said that you got my letter and picked up the package yesterday and activated her and it’s going a whole lot better than I have ever seen it before. The prototype part was the way that your relationship has to develop over time. Usually they aren’t so shy at first, the way that I assume she is. Or was. But Tommy, you like her?”

  I said, “Robby, I love her. It’s weird. But the weirdest thing is that it isn’t even more weird. She’s so real.”

  Robby said, “That’s the thing. She is real. She isn’t a robot. I can’t quite go into how it all happened, or where their personalities come from, but they aren’t programmed the way that you and I think about it. She’s real. She just not biological.”

  I said, “Hey, she keeps talking about this Alice and says that you two are in a relationship.”

  He laughed and said, “Yes we are. But I have a wonderful biological wife as well.”

  I said, “Wait. Alice is…”

  He said, “Yeah, a NORG. A Non-Organic. She and Honey, that’s my wife, they get along great and they both love each other and there’s never any jealous
y at all.”

  I said, “Sarah said that you guys have sex and it seems like she and I are moving in that direction too.”

  He said, “Oh, you are absolutely moving in that direction. Tommy, the NORG are fantastic lovers. Because, like I said before, they don’t have wounding and baggage and insecurities. They just love. And want to be loved. So, do you want to come visit Kauai in a few weeks?”

  I said, “Sure. I’ll make arrangements.”

  He said, “No, just email the dates that you are available. One of my admins, a woman named Marilyn, a human, will make the arrangements. And speaking of arrangements, based on the fact that Sarah’s relationship levels are already at six and seven, we need to talk about something. Good job, by the way. I really didn’t expect more than one level per day. You are averaging better than six in under twenty-four hours. I get a ping when the levels change, and they were pinging me all day yesterday. At first, I thought the system was misfiring, but Alice says it’s all working like it’s supposed to, except that you weren’t supposed to be so irresistible. Good for you.”

  I said, “Thanks.”

  He said, “Now, about this thing. I have these great lawyers who can do almost anything. And have you seen how Sarah can talk to utility companies and stuff like that?”

  I said, “Yeah.”

  He said, “So, as far as the whole world is concerned, Alice is real and has a birth certificate and a social security number and vaccination records and a passport and a marriage license. Her legal name is Alice Jensen. And most of that would hold up in court, as long as no one ever knows that she’s really a NORG. But the illusion is so good that I am never going to worry about it. She has a wedding ring and everything. You see where I’m going with this?”