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Franklin made his way down the stairs and flipped on the vid-screen. He quickly selected the Street View sub-menu by touching it on the screen. The Street View display box grew large and moved into the center of the vid-screen while the chorus of other programs were relegated to smaller boxes that settled around the perimeter.
From the street view display on the vid-screen, Franklin could clearly see the Warmbot standing by the thick tree across the street. The Warmbot was seemingly watching his house. Franklin watched as another Warmbot approached. This new Warmbot Franklin recognized. It was the tall male model that he had seen in the showroom at Savant Organics. He remembered it by its distinctive black curls that hung down and covered the top of its clean white grill. Like Molly, this Warmbot looked expensive and Franklin wondered who in the neighborhood could afford this luxury.
Franklin watched the new Warmbot, with the white grill, walk until it was near the first. When the walking Warmbot got to the tree across from Franklins house, it stopped, turned, and began to watch alongside the first.
Franklin felt hot underneath his bathrobe. His armpits were wet and his ears radiated heat. Turning off the vid-screen he considered Molly. Molly was standing in the kitchen by the complex coffee machine. Perfect coffee was percolating. It had already mastered the operation of the household appliances. Molly had picked up all of Blanco’s functions with no instruction and no training.
Franklin looked at it. Its pink skin, its thin waist accentuated by the tightly drawn apron. When he first saw it at Savant Organic Robotics Dealership it looked perky.
Looking at it now, it repulsed him. Instead of seeing an “Organic Robot” as Savant Organics wanted him to see it, Franklin saw it now as a re-animated corpse. Molly and the other Warmbots standing outside under the tree were abominations.
Franklin entered into his study and closed the door so Molly could not see him. His decision was firm. Molly was going to go back to the dealership. He knew he could no longer live with a Warmbot in his house. Dolly, of course, would not agree. If Dolly wakes up and Molly is already gone, then Dolly would not be pleased, but he at least would have the Warmbot out of his house.
Franklin remembered the delight on Dolly’s face when Molly had first appeared so unexpectedly. He then imagined the nasty expression that Dolly would project if Molly disappeared also unexpectedly.
Franklin pushed these thoughts from his head. He would deal with Dolly later. Right now, he felt the urgent need to get Molly out of his house. He used the vid-phone in his study to order a skim-taxi. Although hungry, he stayed in his study and watched on a smaller vid-screen the display that showed the two Warmbots standing across the street. He thought about contacting someone to come and claim them, but could not think of a city authority who would deal with wandering Warmbots. And so the morning simply continued. The Warmbots stood outside blankly watching the house, and Franklin sat in his study watching the Warmbots over his vid-screen.
Eventually, the skim-taxi that Franklin had ordered pulled up in front of the house and broke the stand-off. Franklin quickly dressed for outside. He was mindful that he would be meeting with Ashley Van Houghten, the forthright sales woman who he had met when he first saw Molly. Franklin dressed in a clean white shirt with a high collar.
The shirt felt a little snug in the collar, but he was able to button it. He decided he could tolerate the collar until his meeting was done, then he would relax and unbutton it.
On his way out to the skim-taxi, he gathered his hat and jacket reflexively. The day was bright and clear, but the sun and the wind, or the birds and trees, did not bother him today.
Standing in the open doorway, he commanded Molly saying, “Molly, we are leaving now. Come with me.”
Obediently, the Warmbot stood to full attention. The grill became active and the nasal air intake openings flared. It was ready. It walked through the kitchen and past the stairs until it was standing with Franklin in the open doorway.
Franklin guided Molly down the steps and into the front seat of the skim-taxi. When Molly was seated next to the Warmbot driver, Franklin loaded his heavy frame into the back.
“Savant Organic Robotics Dealership on L Street,” Franklin said.
On this skim-taxi trip, he decided to keep the window occlusion controls in the open position. From his vantage in the back seat of the skim-taxi he kept a wary eye on the Warmbots standing by the tree across from his house. These Warmbots had carefully observed Franklin loading himself and Molly into the skim-taxi. The skim-taxi noiselessly started to move and Franklin continued to watch the Warmbots until they rounded the corner and he could no longer see them. He had the impression that they were watching the skim-taxi until he was out of their line of sight. He felt confident that they would still be there when he got back. Once the Warmbots were out of view, he exhaled, relaxed a little, and then settled back into the backseat of the skim-taxi.
Looking up towards the front of the skim-taxi, Franklin was disturbed to see the dark grill of the Warmbot driver reflected back at him in the rear-view mirror. Franklin had the distinct impression that this Warmbot was also watching him. The Warmbot driver was not a new model. The old style grill showed signs of rust and wear. The skin around the grill was irritated and red with some rash that was probably caused by constant contact between the organic with the metal of the faceplate. The thin hair on the driver Warmbot was long and unkempt. Its skin was grey.
Franklin slid across the bench-seat to sit on the other side, behind the driver. From this position, the driver could no longer watch Franklin by using the rear-view mirror.
During the short ride to Savant Organics, Franklin observed the world going by on the outside the window of the skim-taxi. His purpose was to see the city and the people.
Anand’s words echoed in his head, “Can you take yourself out of your story and see, really see the world around you?”
Today, Franklin would find out. But by the time they reached L Street, he had not noticed anything unusual or extraordinary. The sun was out. People were walking in the streets. Skimmers buzzed by him going the opposite direction. Sacramento seemed like Sacramento.
Franklin observed many Warmbots walking on the streets during his transit. They were all following along behind their master or they looked like they were performing mundane tasks like walking the dog or carrying groceries home from a corner market. Their candy-colored grills sparkled in the bright daylight. These artificial faces did not distract him. Franklin now saw them as walking corpses.
He opened his notebook and wrote, “Warmbots are reanimated dead people. The living have made servants from the dead.”
He re-read the words on the page. It was a simple truth. How did this never occur to him before? Blanco had seemed tired and grey because her body had died when she was old. The new model represented by Molly with bouncy brown curls and warm pink skin looked young and perky because the girl whose body they re-animated had died at a young age. Without the face, it was hard to tell, but just looking at the smooth pink skin and rich thick hair, Franklin guessed she was in her early twenties when she died. Maybe younger, maybe she was just a teen-ager.
Franklin remembered the other new models that were on display at Savant Organics. He thought about the sales pitch when she said, “We do not often get organics of this quality.” Did she know what she was saying? He wondered. Did Ashley the sales woman recognize that the new more expensive features that they were selling in their new model Warmbots was simply youth? The bodies they had converted were simply younger than the previous models.
The skim-taxi was idling in front of Savant Organic Robotics dealerships main entrance. Franklin eventually noticed they were not moving and looked up from his notebook where he had been busily updating his thoughts about Warmbots around him. He waited till Molly was out of the skim-taxi, and then paid the fare and then he watched as the ski
m-taxi quietly slipped away and into traffic.
Franklin and Molly stood on the steps leading into the Savant Organic Robotic Dealership. The building had no windows, and the outside wall was decorated with tall full color advertisements. It reminded Franklin of an old style movie house where the features and coming attraction were displayed in large frame colorful posters on the outside.
The first poster showed a male Warmbot playing catch with a young boy. The boy’s Mother stood off to the side watching. The Mother was clearly looking at the strong musculature of the Warmbot. The caption at the bottom read, “Frisky and Playful.”
The next poster showed a young female Warmbot. It was serving a steaming hot meal to a family sitting at the dinner table. The family seemed obscured except for the father. He was looking hungrily at the buxom Warmbot as it leaned across the table with the serving platter heaped with food. The caption read, “Festive and Satisfying.”
Looking at these posters Franklin realized that Savant was clearly selling sex as a reason to own a Warmbot. He recalled his own reaction to Molly when he first saw her and was repulsed by his natural attraction to her.
As Franklin stood considering the posters, he felt a cool breeze blow across his hot face. He realized he was standing in the direct sun and had been for some time. He was standing outside and without a hat.
Strangely, he realized, the Sun and Wind did not bother him today. He lingered on the steps admiring the day. The world outside the building was clean and natural. He heard the songs of birds in the trees and they made him feel at ease and part of the healthy living world around him. He was glad for the first time in his life to be standing outside in the sunshine.
Finally, he said quietly,“Come along Molly.”
He navigated his large frame up the steps and up to the tall front door of the Savant Organic Robotics Dealership. He pulled heavily and the door swung open and outwards. Franklin followed Molly into the dark interior.