The Wanderers (4)
All at once the room was flooded in light forcing Dorian to blink several times slowly until his eyes adjusted. When he finally could look up he was greeted by an artificial face, smiling slightly until it caught his attention.
“Please, sit down,” the robot said extending its arm as a human might to the seat in front of its desk. Dorian could tell from the billboards lining the main street that it was a 3062 model—one that seemed to be built like a car: streamlined, attractive, practical, and expensive. It was a “working” robot, so the human-likeness didn’t matter; its chrome skin reflected some of the office light.
The office itself was nothing to brag about; it was the size of a walk-in closet with a single desk and two chairs apart from the rolling desk chair. The leather covering on the chairs was ripped and mended with duct tape that tried to blend in. The walls were painted a drab tan and the furniture was scratched up; its one usual occupant was the newest looking object in the room. The name tag on the desk read “Executive 221” and in smaller letters underneath: “Robot Ambassador to U.S. Troops.”
“Executive 2-2-1; is that you’re name?”
“Name? Yes, I forgot that humans exchange names as a part of their bonding process. I am usually called Exec. What is your name?”
Dorian smiled. “Dorian.”
“I am sorry, Dorian, that you will have to sleep on the floor.”
“That’s perfectly fine. It’s much better than sleeping in the hallway.”
“I do not understand.”
“Here, I won’t get caught.”
Dorian sat down on the ground and tried to get comfortable.
“By the way, Exec. Do you always sleep with the light on?”
“The light is how I ensure that no one comes into my office. If the light is on, the security guard on rounds will assume I am working and leave me alone.”
But Dorian barely caught the end of the explanation for after a long day of running, sleep was not going to let him escape.
Author’s comments on post 361: I’m probably going to stop here for a short while. I have the rest planned, but I am losing a bit of interest. Don’t be surprised if I adopt other stories to tell. I have one that will go unplanned (which we’ll see how long that lasts) with my friend, Johnny, and some other people in that town. A post for sure tomorrow and probably the next day as well. My apologies for yesterday, I got caught up in the Oscars.
This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 10:45 pm and is filed under End of Childhood, Fiction Prose, Science Fiction, Short Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.