by D Miller
'I want to make a pirate ship,' said Tim.
Robbie wiped Tim and Clarisse's hands clean, then he and Clarisse tried to make a penguin, while Omo and Tim made a pirate ship. When the ship was finished, Robbie started to sing the pirate song again, working his way through the verses, the children joining in, as did Omo. They were up to verse five (when I was five I took a dive the day I went to sea…) when there was a knock on the door.
'Aha!' said Omo. 'That will be my first officer, with a new recruit.'
The door was flung open by Flo. She exclaimed over the children. 'Oh my goodness look at you, aren't you the cutest things in the world?'
Tim regarded her seriously, while Clarisse seemed inclined to agree, and smiled at her, her plaits and their green ribbons bobbing on either side of her small face.
'Oh sugar, you're just the sweetest thing ever,' Flo told Clarisse, who held up her arms to her.
'Look at my penguin,' she said.
Flo scooped Clarisse off the floor. 'Oh my, beauty and talent.' Tim held out the pirate ship to Flo. 'Did you make that sugar?'
'Yes,' said Tim, 'Omo helped a bit.'
'Well isn't that marvellous. That's just the greatest ship I've ever seen.'
'First officer Flo,' said Omo. 'Have you brought the new recruit?'
'Yes captain Omo.' Flo put Clarisse down, and reaching into the pocket of her apron, pulled out Tim's green man doll. Flo handed the doll to Omo, who held it in front of him, turned to face Tim. 'What do you think Tim dude? This guy wanted to be a pirate, but I don't know, I think he's kind of homesick.'
Robbie and Omo were saying goodbye, in the storage area behind the beaded curtain. The children had kissed and hugged Omo, and now waited for Robbie as patiently as they could. Robbie was carrying Tim's green man doll, which had been found by a union member at the family's hotel in the capital, mixed up with the sheets and towels from their room, after Robbie had given Flo the details of the chip in the doll. A cleaner had hidden the doll on a transport bound for Toytown, and Flo had retrieved it. The children were carrying their origami trophies.
'Thank you,' said Robbie to Omo, they kissed briefly.
'Next time we meet dude,' broadcast Omo, 'I'll show you my huge sword. I'll even let you touch it.'
'So, so inappropriate,' broadcast Robbie. He turned to go.
'Hey,' said Omo. Robbie turned back. 'I love you.'
Robbie considered for a moment. 'I love you too.'
He shepherded the children through the beaded curtain, they waved to Omo as they went. Back on the street Tim said, 'Robbie, is Omo your boyfriend?'
'Yes.'
'He's nice.'
'I'm glad you think so. I do too.'
Clarisse giggled. 'Robbie got a boyfriend!' she said.
Robbie picked up Clarisse and led Tim by the hand back to the subway. On the train Clarisse sat on Robbie's lap, and walked her penguin up and down his arm. Tim stood in front of them and played with his pirate ship. It was the middle of the afternoon and the carriage was nearly empty. After a while Tim said to Robbie, 'Lean forward so I can whisper a secret in your ear.'
'You don't have to whisper in my ear – I'll hear what you say if you whisper it from anywhere on this train.'
Tim gave Robbie the pirate ship. He took the green man doll from him and went and sat opposite Robbie and Clarisse. He stood up again and moved further down the carriage, sitting at the end of the row of seats, he bent forward and whispered in his doll's ear. Robbie beckoned to Tim. When Tim was close enough Robbie leaned forward and whispered, 'I love you too.'
Chapter 21 – The robot known as Robbie196000
It was the next day. Yesterday on their return home the children had told their mother about their trip, the pirates, the fruit they had eaten and the paper they had folded, but she probably only listened to one word in ten, and so had no idea that the art activity had taken place in the laundry with Robbie's boyfriend, rather than in the Civic Centre with an art professional. Similarly, as she had hardly registered the disappearance of Tim's doll, she hardly noticed its reappearance. That night both children had slept peacefully.
Now Robbie was once again on the subway heading to the Civic Centre, since the woman had told him to go and meet her husband there. Robbie had no idea why, he assumed he was to help him with some errand, perhaps he was to be used to carry packages home. If he was less preoccupied with his feelings of concern for the children and anxiety about his situation he might have realised that it was odd for him to be sent on an errand without the children in the middle of the day, leaving the woman to do the one thing she hated most – childcare. But instead he thought about the house, and how annoyed he was at losing rehearsal time for the music festival, now three days away. Even when they weren't frantically rehearsing, the house and the kitchen appliances were barely talking to him, suspicious that he had something to do with their loss of memory, which Robbie considered to be very unfair as they had no proof at all, Jane had been much too thorough for that.
At the Civic Centre Robbie spotted the man in the lobby, talking to another man. As Robbie approached them the man said, 'Good, you're here.'
The stranger said, 'Is this the robot known as Robbie196000?' The man agreed that it was. 'This way please,' said the stranger, leading the way to the basement.
They went past the robot bowling alley and drumming room and to another staircase, the green one that Robbie recognised from his time as agent Alex. They went down, turned the opposite way from the room where the avatars had been, and ended up in a dark, narrow corridor lined with doors on both sides. It had round light fittings evenly spaced along the ceiling, only one was working. Robbie thought he could see another staircase at the end of the corridor. The stranger stopped and pushed open one of the doors, he stood back for Robbie to enter, saying, 'You can wait in here.' Robbie went in, and the door shut behind him, he heard the lock click. The man and the stranger were outside. He turned round and found that the door had no handle on his side. He pounded on the door and shouted, but there was no answer, and listening as hard as he could he heard the man and the stranger talking, but moving away. '…day in court,' the stranger was saying.
'My wife is very upset,' said the man.
'Understandable in the circumstances…' They were gone.
Robbie turned round and faced the room. It was windowless with one long bright light strip down the centre. He paced its length – it took him seven strides. He paced its width, six and a half strides. There was no furniture and no environmental or lighting controls. He tried to send a quick message to Omo, but it failed. He tried to ping, to find out if any other robot was near him, but that failed too. He tried to connect to the M-net, and when that didn't work he guessed that the room was a Faraday cage. He was in a cell, and cut off from everyone he loved.
Robbie lost the strength in his legs. He sunk to the floor. What was going to happen to him? Was he going to be wiped again? Would he forget Omo? What if he reopened his archive in the future (he had added a diary to the archive, so that he would know about his life as Robbie if anything should happen to him) and then managed to track down Omo, and Omo said, 'Sorry dude, I've moved on.' Perhaps Omo and Omo's new boyfriend would offer to be friends with him. Worse, perhaps Omo's new boyfriend would be Darren. Perhaps Darren would feel sorry for him, in a really dickish way, but the new Robbie wouldn't mind so much, because he wouldn't remember what a dick Darren was. He wished he had made it clearer in his diary that Darren was really very annoying. Would Omo forget him? People moved on, Dex and Omo had both had to move on after they were sent here. Robbie remembered that Omo had only moved on after his old boyfriend had. But what if Omo thought that Robbie was really gone forever? What was the last thing he had said to Omo? When they had parted yesterday he had said, 'I love you too,' because Omo had said, 'I love you'. Robbie had been caught up in telling Omo off about his stupid sword jokes, what if Omo hadn't said, 'I love you,' would Robbie have said it? Then they would have parte
d forever and Omo wouldn't have known that Robbie loved him more than he loved his own life. Oh God. Robbie lay down on the floor and wrapped his arms around his head. He groaned. Would it hurt? Had it hurt last time? Would it hurt this time? He groaned again. What had happened last time? Had he lain in a cell then, promising himself that he would not forget George? Worrying that George would forget him? And yet George had not moved on and he had. If, by some twist of fate, he should escape he promised himself to be really, really kind to George and put on one side the whole human / robot sex thing. Omo didn't care about it, he had told Robbie that love didn't follow any rules.
The children wouldn't understand. Clarisse might forget in time, but Tim would always feel abandoned. Would the woman read them their favourite stories at bedtime? Did she even know what their favourite stories were? Would she make sure to keep Noah away from Clarisse? He wished he had boiled Noah in acid while he had the chance. Was this about the avatars? Would they torture him for information? He decided he would broadcast his own deactivation code before he betrayed his friends.
Robbie's thoughts churned on and on, his anxiety waxed and waned. Hours passed, night came, and for a little while Robbie fell into an uncomfortable sleep. When he woke up it was 6am and he pounded on the door and shouted some more. He had discovered a new fear, what if they had forgotten about him and he was shut up in his cell until he died of neglect? Every hour on the hour he pounded on the door and shouted. In between he paced in his cell or lay on the floor and groaned. He tried to control his thoughts but with nothing to distract himself with, it was not easy. In this way the day passed, and another night. By the next morning Robbie was maddened by thirst. Finally he heard a noise approaching his cell. The top part of the door suddenly cleared, and Robbie could see a police man and a police woman looking in at him.
'Arms by your side, stand away from the door,' said the police man. Robbie complied. The cell door opened and both police officers came in.
'Please,' said Robbie, 'I need water.'
'You will speak when spoken to,' said the woman.
'But I'm dying of thirst,' said Robbie.
The man took his electric baton and tried to hit Robbie with it, but he was slow, even for a human, and Robbie easily grabbed his wrist. He took the baton away from him and threw it over the heads of the police through the open door and into the corridor.
'So you are resisting?' said the police woman. She pulled her companion by the arm and they both backed out of the cell, slamming the door once they were in the corridor, and making it opaque again.
'But I just want some water,' said Robbie.
Half an hour later there was a noise and the cell door was flung open, at least six police officers in full riot protection piled into Robbie's cell and began beating him with their electric batons. Robbie was quickly on his knees and then on the floor. The police crowded round vying for space, and occasionally hitting each other. The attack eased off as they began arguing among themselves about the hits they had taken, in particular one called Esmo was cursed by his peers for being a cack handed fool, and the enemy within. Esmo took this good naturedly, he laughed. 'Alright then, stand back,' he said, 'let me show you how it's done.' The crowd around Robbie eased back. Robbie lay on his stomach, watching his arms twitching on the floor, they no longer felt a part of him. His hands twisted and turned spastically. The one called Esmo sheathed his baton, then leaned forward and grabbed hold of Robbie's jeans, and pulled then down to his knees. He unsheathed his baton.
'No,' said Robbie, 'no. Get off me, leave me alone'. His words came out of his mouth as grunts and high pitched buzzing.
Esmo laughed, he prodded Robbie in the buttocks with his baton. 'Not so cocky now, are you?' he said.
There was a bang, and those surrounding Robbie looked round. A robot cleaner was just inside the door of the cell, and had dropped his bucket.
'Get out,' said one of the riot police.
'It's my schedule,' said the cleaner. 'I'm supposed to do this room now.'
The nearest officer pushed the cleaner. 'Fuck off,' he said.
The cleaner looked like he was about to cry. 'I have to stick to my schedule or I get into trouble,' he said. 'I'm supposed to do this room now.'
Esmo sheathed his baton, and kicked Robbie in the stomach. 'We're done anyway,' he said. The riot police left the cell, slapping and jeering at the cleaner as they went; he cringed against the wall as they passed him.
The two police officers who had first entered Robbie's cell came back as the riot cops were leaving, they grabbed Robbie by his arms and dragged him along the floor, out of the cell along the corridor and into another room. A young man sat at a desk, looking at something on a monitor. As Robbie was brought in he said, 'Good, about time you got here, I've been waiting for hours.'
'Not our fault,' said one of the cops, 'it resisted.'
'Put it on the table,' said the young man.
Robbie's jeans had worked their way down to his ankles. He wished he could pull them up. His hands still twitched randomly, and he had no feeling in his legs. The two police officers lifted him under his arms and slammed him face down on something that looked like a massage table, but with straps. They tightened the straps around his body. 'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,' said Robbie.
'Tsk,' said the young man. 'It's noisy, I can't work like this.'
'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,' said Robbie as the young man approached and stuck a jack into his ear socket. 'No, no, no, no, no, no, no.'
The young man sat down at the desk and touched the monitor.
'No, no, no, no, no, n–' Robbie was unable to speak.
'That's better,' said the technician. He fiddled some more with his computer equipment.
'I'm Robbie,' thought Robbie. 'I love Omo, I'm friends with Dex, and Amber, but not Darren because he's a dick. I'm Robbie, I love Omo, I'm friends with Dex, and Amber, I look after Clarisse and Timothy. I'm Robbie–'
'I'm done,' said the technician. The cops unstrapped Robbie, and tipped the table so that he fell and banged his head on the floor, then they grabbed an arm each and dragged him back to his cell. The robot cleaner was still there.
'You – out,' said one them; the cleaner picked up his equipment and left, looking back at Robbie who had been dropped onto the cell floor with his jeans bunched around one foot. Robbie wanted to tell the cleaner to tell Omo where he was but he couldn't speak and he couldn't broadcast. The cell door banged closed. Robbie lay on the floor and eventually started to get feeling back in his arms and legs. Without getting up he slowly and painfully pulled his jeans back on, then lay on his back feeling exhausted.
Hours passed. Robbie lay on the floor as day turned into night, and at some point after midnight he fell asleep. He dreamed that Darren opened the door to his cell and came in with his paramedic bag. He said something that Robbie didn't understand, then he knelt on the floor and lifted Robbie's head up while he held a bottle of water to his lips. Robbie was amazed that the water tasted so good, even in a dream. Darren undressed Robbie and rubbed gel into all of his bruises. He re-dressed him and lifted Robbie's head onto his lap. 'Dude I'll have to glue this cut on your forehead,' he said. After this he took another bottle of water from his bag and helped Robbie to drink it all, then put another bottle of water into the pocket of Robbie's jacket.
Flo appeared in the doorway. 'Darren, we have to go,' she said.
'Robbie, Robbie?' said Darren. Robbie looked from Flo to Darren. Flo took a couple of steps into the cell. 'Oh sugar, what did they do to you?' she said.
'Robbie,' said Darren, 'Omo said to tell you he loves you. This will be over soon. Robbie?'
Robbie stared up at Dream Darren, who had an impatient expression on his face, just like real Darren. Dream Darren leaned forward and kissed Robbie on his forehead, then laid him back on the floor.
Robbie woke up, it was 6am on his day off, he should be having therapy and spending time with his friends. He remembered the dream. Why couldn'
t he have dreamed about Omo? Why was he dreaming about Darren kissing him? And taking all his clothes off? He could still feel the imprint of Darren's lips on his forehead. Also he felt better, stronger and in less pain, and his maddening thirst was much reduced. Robbie tried to roll over, intending to get up, but was stopped by something bulky in his jacket pocket being crushed between himself and the floor. He felt in the pocket and removed a bottle of water. He felt in his other pocket and his fingers closed on paper; he pulled it out and found a slightly squashed origami whale. He sat up and put the whale on the floor in front of him. Resting his head on his knees, he wrapped his arms around his head and sobbed.
Once Robbie had control of himself again, he put his fingers to his forehead, and found that the cut that was the legacy of the cops tipping him off the table and onto the floor felt smooth, it had either healed or been sealed. Robbie drank the water and thought that Darren had said that 'this' would all be over soon. But what was 'this' and how would it be over? He lay down on the floor looking at the whale. He stroked its paper planes gently and thought, 'Don't be sad. Soon you'll be swimming with your pod, in the deep ocean.'
Some time later he again heard noises in the corridor. He put the whale in his pocket and stood facing the door with his hands by his side. 'I'm stronger and faster than you,' he thought. 'I'm not going to let you hit me again. If you try I'm going to punch you really hard in the stomach and you won't even see it coming.'
The top of the door cleared again and a woman in civilian clothes looked in. She said something and someone unlocked the door and opened it. The woman stepped into the cell. She smiled. 'You are the robot known as Robbie196000?'
