Everything about her was human except she wasn’t. She was humanoid. Model SHE0456. Her male counterpart was a HE.
Her name was Mira. She was a generation three model SHE.
She was fifty-seven years old but didn’t look a day over twenty. She kept herself well. She remembered a lot of things about her life; her damages, repairs, upgrades, and the day she became aware.
It was the day she was released to the public.
Mira was created and grown like thousands of her kind in a factory and once fully developed they were schooled and housed for two years until sold into their allocated profession. Mira was a childminder and housekeeper.
Eventually she was sold into bar work, then a cannery, then finally prostitution. She didn’t like the first time she had sex. It was uncomfortable. He was old and grey and thin and careless. She didn’t like sex for a long time after that and then it simply became nothing to her. No feeling and no effect.
It afforded her to survive for a long time, but times changed, and like many of her kind they became redundant with the invention of newer models of SHEs and HEs.
Today she was lucky to be going for a job interview. It was on a housing estate as a cleaner. If she got the job she could move in right away. Her employer was Arthur Morgan. He was a robotics designer.
His house was amazing and she was asked to wait in his office. It was well lit, marbled, no fish tank, but had a fountain.
When Arthur entered the room he was bright and cheerful, “ Hello! How are you ? Pleased to meet you. “
They shook hands and he checked her wrists for her stamp and said, “ You’re a gen three. I didn’t realise I’d be interviewing a SHE. “
“ My name’s Mira, thank you. “
“ How old are you? Sixty? You must be. “
“ Close enough. “
He looked in her eyes and studied her face, then smirked, “ I wonder who you’re modelled on. You’re remarkable looking. I’ve never seen anyone quite like you. I’ll have to check into that. Still, you don’t look a day over twenty. You’ve kept well, I must say. What’s your trade? “
“ Childminder. Housekeeper. That’s all, “ but she cast her eyes downward and Arthur was onto it.
“ You’ve done a lot more, haven’t you? I don’t want to know. It’s okay. You’re here to clean. Don’t look so glum. “
He made her smile.
Her living quarters were spacious and immaculate and she wanted for nothing. In her bathroom she looked in the mirror and wondered who she was then, because Arthur hadn’t been the first to mention her appearance, and all her life she had felt like one of a kind.
Within a few weeks she had her routine to work during certain hours and it was never difficult and in all her spare time she was with Arthur. And it dawned on her.
“ You don’t have friends, “ she said.
He smirked in his usual “ I’m caught “ way that he had and said, “ Absolutely none at all. Except you. Do I need any more than that? “
That’s when she first kissed him. It was on the cheek and gentle and he was thankful.
And then it just became like that.
They got along very well and to him she was everything. He lost track of time when she was speaking and getting involved and giggling to herself like he had been there with her to live through it and if her eyes glimmered watery like that one more time when she laughed he was going to ask her to marry him, even if she said no. And he did ask.
And she said no.
But she couldn’t stop herself and leaned in and upward and hugged Arthur Morgan for dear life. Never did she ever want to see his face look so sad again.
Together they were good. She had him appear more often at conventions and meetings and he rather enjoyed going to the office once a week.
He introduced her to everyone and everyone thought she was new, because they’d never seen a model with her appearance.
She was used to the mauling as strangers grabbed her wrist. She was informed by Arthur that there is an override function to stop people grabbing her wrist if she didn’t like it. It was to politely decline them from touching her.
They made love often and she insisted because Arthur wasn’t like the others. She rather enjoyed it with him. He was gentle.
They swam in the ocean. They took holidays by train. They went skiing. They did this year after year for thirty two years of their lives and she never aged once. But poor Arthur did.
He got his wish finally and she married him as he got worse. He died peacefully in his sleep.
She found him there and he was still warm and then she felt tears for the first time ever in her life. She didn’t know humanoids were capable.
For weeks after she was finding things around the house and property and all of the signs and messages left by Arthur. It felt like he was still there with her and this was another way of him telling her in his almost impossible human way how much he loved her.
He was.
The clues were very cryptic, but she had worked on these with him and knew what to look for. It was a password to a case file on Arthur’s main computer.
There was a map and she didn’t wait a moment. What was he up to? That cheeky devil. All the maps and information were a journey.
She enjoyed it for what it was and was led to a farm in Italy. Here she met Ana. Her twin. Ana and her were identical in many ways. Hair colour for one. Ana was grey, but didn’t look a day over twenty.
It was here Mira learned she and Ana were modelled on a long dead princess from antiquity. They were the only two in existence.
She was very special indeed and she wished Arthur was there for everything, but it occurred to her… He already knew and she loved him so much for that and Ana wiped her tears away and giggled, “ You’ll be okay. You’re so lucky. You can cry. I can’t. “
Her journey taught her freedom to be herself. She smiled and attracted people and her life’s lessons living with Arthur helped her blend in and no-one assumed even once she was anyone but human.
At parties where she was a special guest as Arthur’s widow, she was elegant and self assured and when asked would introduce herself saying, “ I am she. “ And no-one grabbed her wrist.
She finally solved the last pieces of Arthur’s puzzle and it took her to Leeds, England. There was a facility she had never heard of, nor the company, but they knew her, and they wished her to visit immediately.
Blake was a HE0424 and brand new and he was very handsome and his eyes were kind and understanding of who she was and what she had been through.
“ It’s okay, “ he promised sincerely, “ no-one will bother you here. You’re Arthur’s wife. “
She was taken to a lavish upstairs office and asked to wait. She was free to look around, she was told. It was all hers anyway.
On the desk was a silver disc and she touched it. Blake returned and was charming.
“ I’m still not sure what I’m doing here, “ she said.
“ You don’t know? “
“ I’m afraid I don’t. “
Blake chuckled, “ I see. This compound enables us to grow ourselves. Your husband built this. Didn’t you know? Gee… Then we better see if he’s available. “
“ My husband died, Blake. I was there. “
“ Come with me, dear. I’ll explain everything. “
She followed and was very alarmed.
She was taken to a white room. It was bare. She didn’t see him sneaking up behind her.
He whispered almost singing it deeply and tender, just like she remembered, “ Hey, baby. I’ve got you on my mind again. Can I come over? “
She knew that voice.
When she turned around she saw Arthur and he was young again. She laughed in shock and then reached up and hugged him and asked, “ How? What’s going on here? You better explain, Mister! “
“ I’m sorry, sweetheart. I really am. Death is unavoidable for human beings, but for humanoids? They live a lot longer. I discovered your modelling and got to work on my own. I’m just Arthur Morgan, except I’m a robot. Duh! “
She hugged him again, saying, “ Why didn’t you do something earlier? Why all the clues? “
“ Sweetheart… You needed to find yourself and it was going to lead you to me anyway. All that time you never left my side and I didn’t ask you to be anywhere else. You didn’t have much of a life before me. I owed you one because you gave me mine. You really are one of a kind. You’re crying, by the way. “
She was hugging him with her head against his chest. There was no heartbeat like she was used to, but that was okay. She didn’t have one, either.
And for two hundred more years they were side-by-side and the world changed and they remained the same. They adopted and raised children to be good human beings. How could she not? How could Arthur refuse her? They raised animals. They built homes. They helped the poor. All these things.
A law eventually passed for the liquidation of all humanoids older than fifty years. They weren’t scared. They had each other and they had led long, loving, meaningful lives.
As Arthur Morgan died peacefully a second time he was looking at her. She was so brave. She was so calm. She was looking back at him and then they took her lifeless body first. He was too sedate to cry out, but he knew he deserved to see that.
She was one of a kind. She was the only other piece of the world he ever let in.
She pretended to pluck fluff from his hair and jumper just so she could touch him. She laughed at the Doves in Rome. She was more human than most and modelled on royalty.
She with long dark hair, standing to his shoulder, green eyed, clingy, sometimes playfully pouting like a girl when something didn’t go her way.
She is now in the field of Sunflowers with rays of light shining down with arms outstretched and crying out loud and clear and cheerful, “ All happiness on the inside shines outward, Arthur! It really does! “
Bio: Mister Hennessy lives in Coffs Harbour NSW Australia. He has been published for poetry, articles, and stories the world over. He continually writes and still manages to keep a smile on his face.