A Gift for a Gift

"He-llo, my name... is KUUUUUUUURIIIIIIII" The robotic voice whirred as it stuck on the name Kuri.

"Okay... okay. One second," a male voice drifted through the air from behind a large computer screen. His words were greeted by vicious typing, fast and accurate as he corrected whatever error that appeared on his screen.

"Go!"

"Testing in three... two... one..." a soft female voice replied from the other side of the room.

"He-llo, my name is Kori!" Although the voice came across happy and inviting, even coherent, there was still an exasperated sigh.

"Did you spell it wrong?" the woman asked, walking over to the computer.

"No?" the man replied, questioning the thought himself. "I think I didn't? Maybe I did?"

"One way to check!" she smiled at him, her white teeth showing in full. She tapped on the keyboard a couple of times and scrolled drastically with the mouse wheel, which offered a fun whir to the atmosphere. "Ah. You put an o that time rather and the u. Easy mistake! Easy fix!"

The man rolled his eyes at the woman's enthusiasm and rolled back in his chair while she fixed his error.

Standing up, he took long strides to stand by their creation. Kuri. The perfect robot. Programmed to be helpful both physically and mentally to whoever owns her, Kuri is the best robot in current home robotics. He reached a hand up towards the robot, running it softly down the front of her sleek white panel as he admired their handy work.

"Hello! I am Kuri!" the robot chirped at him, startling him slightly from his thoughts.

"Oh, you changed it," his face turned to look at her, with her grey eyes sparkling over the top of the computer screen, looking straight back at him.

"I was just trying it out. If you don't like it, I can change it back..."

"No. I like it," he settled his words, with no response. A smile was exchanged as they got back to their stations to work.

~

Knock, knock.

Opening the door, a young girl smiled up at the postal delivery guy.

"Uhhhhh..." briefly confused by the age of the girl, he lost his thoughts.

"Is that for me?"

"Oh!" snapping out of his trance, he glanced hurriedly at the name on the box. "That depends, are you a Miss Rae Frost?" she replies with a squeal.

"Yes, I am!" Excitedly, her arms reach up to grab the box before the postie had a chance to think about giving it to her. Once she had it, she went to close the door but turned back to smile at the boy. "Thank you!" The door shut quickly as she scuttled off inside to open her post.

She sat in the centre of her bed, box poised in front of her. Before she had a proper chance to pull it open, it burst open on her bed. A small, rounded, white robot floated in her face.

"Hello! I am Kuri! You must be Rae!" the robot floated down into the hands of the girl, its big eyes looking very human and very excited.

"Hi, Kuri! I'm so glad to finally have you here!" the girls face couldn't lose its smile.

"Me too, Rae! What shall we do first?" the eager robot's face lit up, small LED lights sparkling in different places and different colours in the shape of a face.

"Let's dance! Then you can help me make dinner!" the girl clamoured off of her bed, ready to start dancing.

"Okay, I will select a song!"

Within moments, the robot was projecting songs and musical pieces only the girl would be able to dance to with a robot. Maybe because she was the only girl who had a robot to dance with. Maybe because she was special.

They danced in circles, the girl making large swooping movements with her arms and legs while Kuri spun in circles around her like an orbiting moon. As it began to darken outside, they moved gracefully as a unit to the kitchen.

"I think... I will have... Pasta!" Rae mused to the robot. Eager to help, Kuri lit up.

"How would you like your pasta?"

"Just with cheese... lots of cheese!" she grins at the white bot.

"You got it, Rae! First you need to boil water in a saucepan!"...

The two continued on, Kuri making sure Rae was safe with her cooking. She was only eight, after all. All the while, Kuri was taking photos of the young girl, under orders from the mobile sat in her parent's hand.

Tired, grey eyes and a weary smile sat on her mother's face as she sat back in her chair in the lab. Her husband sat beside her, softly snoring. The captured moments, photos, requests, all being logged and saved on the computers in the lab.

The parents, locked in their lab until their client was finally happy; but at least their little princess was.

#KuriStory

#HeyKuri