I, Willhelm

Frank was able to keep i a secret for the next twelve years. Hardly anyone ever came to visit him, the nearest farm was too far to see, and using the aid of government provided robots themselves. To hide the obvious older appearance of his robot frank began to decorate i’s outer shell with several cans of spare paint that he had around the farm. Every few days he would add a few more colours. At first there was no pattern or method, but very quickly he decided to try his hand at giving I a little bit of style. Unfortunately, Franks idea of style could only be described as cosmic vomit, i’s outer shell a strange dappling of green, grey, red and an offensively bright shade of yellow. Frank liked it.

They years rolled on. Early mornings, long days, and the constant plod of I’s footsteps beside him. Life was perfect.

Then Frank fell down.

It was such a silly mistake really, Frank knew he needed to stop leaving things on the stairs, but he did anyway. One moment he was standing, next minute he was on the floor, his leg at a strange angle and his head pounding. I appeared minutes later, helped him up and carried him to the nearest chair. Frank reached up to his head and looked at his fingers. He had blood on them.

“How bad is it?”

“You have a large gash, and your leg is broken.”

“My leg isn’t broken. You don’t have x-ray, i”

“Your foot is sideways, Frank.”

Frank looked down and felt queasy. “Well, shit. Duct-tape not going to do it on this one.”

“No shit.”

Frank laughed and then winced. “Oh bugger, that hurts, that really fucking hurts! Shit!”

“You need to go to a hospital, Frank.”

“How am I going to do that?”

“I’ll drive you?”

“I, we’ve been lucky that nobody has spotted you so far. Out here nobody cares, but if we go into Plymouth we might not be so lucky.”

“You can pretend that you drove and I’ll hide as soon as we get there?”

“That’s too risky. It’s just a sprain.”

“Don’t be stubborn.”

“I’m no being stubborn, I’m scared they’ll kill you. If they do, it’s over. I can’t run this farm without you and I don’t want to either. There has to be another way.”

The robot looks from side to side, the vents in either side of it’s head whirring as it thought. “Call an ambulance, I’ll hide here and take care of the farm while you are gone.”

Frank pulled out his mobile and swore. The screen was completely broken.

“Shit. This makes things a little more complicated.”

The robot shook it’s head and reached for the phone. The screen lit up and flickered for a few seconds before the phone began to ring.

“What service do you require?” A man’s voice spoke from the phone.

“Ambulance.” Frank gasped.

“I’m putting you through now.” The phone began to ring again.

Frank groaned and loudly and them smiled at i. “Better make it sound urgent, eh?”

“It is urgent, Frank.”

The robot watched him, as emotive as a metal orb with lights for eyes could be. It was worried. Franks’ skin had gone a funny colour and his pupils were both different sizes.

They waited. Frank joked and laughed in-between grimaces, I watched the clock impatiently, it’s fingers tapping against each other.

“Frank, they’re taking too long.”

“Wait, just wait.”

The robot’s eyes flickered suddenly and it stood up, mobile lit up a bright fractured blue.

“i? What’s wrong?”

Frank stared as the robot twitched and jerked, it’s eyes flashing like a failing street light. “i? I, please tell me what’s happening!”

With a whir the robot’s eyes faded, slumped and fell on the ground with a clash.

“I?! I!”

* * *

The ambulance arrived less than 30 minutes later to find Frank cradling the robot, sobbing. Once they eventually convinced him to let them take him to the hospital, he lay motionless on the gurney, starting into space, crying.

He could only assume that by connecting to the phone he had somehow managed to connect to the internet and activated the self-destruct sequence. i was gone.