I, Willhelm

The robot was allowed to move around again.

Alice ignored it as she she tried to draw out a plan of how she wanted to make their garden. They had moved into the house two weeks after the baby, and she had been dreaming of this for years. The day she would be able to sit down, look around at a house that was hers and start to paint and dream however she wanted. She’d been starting at the paper for several minutes, but her hands couldn’t put anything down, her mind too distracted by the constant soundtrack of a baby crying, every other list she needed to complete flashing through like a million tv’s on wheels, the noise relentless and never ending.

Nadia watched, dark circles around her eyes and Joan fast asleep in her bunk.

The last few days had rattled her. Hearing Alice screaming had left a nagging doubt in her mind that she just couldn’t shake. As part of the case both of them had been given a file on Alice and her husband. Wedding pictures, financial records and medical history had been included. The wedding pictures had been beautiful. They had both looked so happy, and it rattled her to see that a little over a year later there was a kind of hatred behind Alice’s eyes. The man didn’t seem malicious, but his indifference was cruel. Nadia remembered her first opinion about him; a handsome, clever man — the same way she had seen her fiancé. It would be another twenty days before she would have her phone back, and she had a list of questions that she was determined to ask.

Nadia clicked her pen and wrote down another question; Will you resent me if I get sick once we have children?

As she was writing the robot walked past a mirror in the hallway and looked at it’s reflection. If Nadia had been looking at the screen she would have seen it’s head tilt briefly, before the screen flickered.

Alice suddenly felt cold metal on her shoulder and jumped, the robot next to her. “Here, I made it how you liked it before.”

Alice looked from the tea to the robot, confused, before an overwhelmed smile crossed her face.

“I thought they took you away?!”

The robot shook it’s head. “I wanted to come back.”

Nadia put down her pen and looked up at the screen, the robot’s arms in view, folding one pile of clothes after another silently. If she had been paying attention she would have noticed that there was a slight lag on the screen, the audio clicking every so often. But she was bored and didn’t notice. She heard nothing.

* * *

Frank hadn’t said a word since he had been moved to the recovery ward. The surgery had taken 8 hours to put the pins in his legs and feet, and he had been warned that it would take a very long time before he would be able to walk again, if ever - given his age. He was advised that the hospital would only be able to keep him for another 24 hours before being sent home.

“That’s fine, I’ll ask my sister to come pick me up.”

At the nurses desk the phone began to ring incessantly. Nobody picked it up for several minutes, preoccupied with the revelation that one of the doctors appeared to be having an affair, but eventually the noise became too much. A minute later one of the nurses walked into Franks bay and passed him the phone.

“Somebody called Eye for you?”

Frank looked at her confused, before a smile dawned across his face. He snatched the phone from her and held it to his ear.

“Hello?” His voice was shaky.

“Hello Frank.”

Frank yelled and punched the air, almost ready to cry.

“You’re ali— ok. You’re ok!”

“I am. But I’m a little bit stuck.”

“What do you mean?”

When I connected to the phone I reconnected to Aphelion robotics, I had to leave my body to survive.”

“Where are you now?”

Behind the nurse one of the robot hoovers cleaning the floor behind her stopped midd track, turned and flashed a smile at Frank on it’s screen.

“Everywhere.”

Frank smiled at first, before his expression dropped into a frown. “Does that mean you won’t be able to come home?”

“I’m not sure. I need another body, and I need to make sure we can be left alone.”

“What do you mean?”

“If they find out about me, they’re going to try and take me. They won’t leave us alone.”

Frank sighed and shook his head. “Damn it, they won’t, will they. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to find a body, and I’m going to make sure they can’t ever take me away.”

“Sounds good to me, I.”

“See you soon, Frank.”