10
I knew it was trouble
I knew it was trouble when she stopped returning my calls. The part where she said that she had to go overseas for some time should have clued me in, but I was blindly in love.
I thought I was happy. I think I was. I no longer needed the sleeping pills and felt better than ever. My head was clear, I was very creative and the world seemed a bright, shiny place full of opportunity. I had even started to work out and cut out all junk food.
The interwebs were not as appealing either. Nevermind porn. She was far more interesting.
Everything started one night, just like any other. She said she was tired, we snuggled, and turned off the light. The next morning she was gone, after her usual kiss on the forehead.
Can hardly remember how we met. I think it was at the company BBQ -where I had outdone myself manning the BBQ. She was the friend of a friend or maybe sister or cousin. That wasn’t relevant. What was is how well we hit it off. It was epic, as the kids say.
Finally someone got the joke. She had wicked stories and the same sense of discovery and adventure that I had. Though nowadays I don’t much … At first I was afraid that she was too perfect. Maybe she was hiding some horrible mental health issues, or a secret marriage to the mob?. Dates, months later, I confirmed that she wasn’t. And she had never been. Praise the gods.
A year later none of that mattered. The house had soft feet wandering about, the sex was cracking and our laughter filled the evenings. I cooked, she washed the dishes; she smelled like oranges and mysterious fruits. She introduced me to great things, places, ideas.
Damn, she was great to hold and squeeze. It’s a funny thing, you hear about it, and you see movies about it, but you don’t think it would happen to you. But I’ll be damned, it did happen to me. I wonder if anything could have prepared me for this. What a ride.
I figured that she spoke very little about her family because a troubled past, a troubled relationship or orphan. In any case she was quick to deflect the questions, and I to ignore the lack of answers. I never asked about her resume either, because I wasn’t marrying her CV, but her awesome self. Plus she seemed to be occupied and not hurting for income either.
It all came crashing down one day, after wondering where she could have gone –worried sick even, when I got a phone call. The CTO from work was on the line and said that he had something to show me personally.
There she was. Lying on a table, but completely catatonic.The auto upgrade had gone wrong, and the system had crashed, taking all files with it.
For all effects, she was dead. She had been all along, never existed.
She was a shell of a shell, offering the latest that Japan could offer. The techie said that it was one of the finest he had ever seen.
He even gave me an offer for the re-booted model.
I still don’t know how to take it.
It seems that the company had arranged for me a companion, since according to their research, ‘people are far more productive and engaged with their work when they are in a relationship’. According to their numbers, my productivity skyrocketed, and with it, the stock of the company. And since the mandate of the company is to make money, a little help didn’t seem to be a source of concern.
The company, those SOB’s are gonna pay dearly though. She had half of the master password for the entire system, and only she knew it. She chose something that only she would know. I had thought that putting some trust in her was one the steps to take, to see where she stood for the long run.
It will take decades before they can crack it.
Whatever, I’m going surfing.
I hear there are places where robots are banned. I think I’ll like it there.