Kelly

This story is a sequel to:

ID: 1227388   (Rated: GC) Title: Maria  Description: A man with a troubled marriage turns to his office assistant... By: Chris Gonnerman

Chapter 1

I was naked. That was the first thing that I thought when I awoke. I was in a strange room with a man. He was dressed. The room was full of cardboard boxes and plastic crates. Everything seemed too large. I was overloaded with unfamiliar sensory input.

Then I finished booting up, and I said, "Jim? It worked?"

"Maria?" he asked.

"Yes, Jim, it's me," I said. "I feel different... why?" He put his hands on my shoulders and turned me, and I saw myself in a mirror hanging on the wall. "I'm blonde," I said.

"Do you mind?" he asked. "I couldn't get the same body style for you, and another Hispanic bodystyle just didn't seem right."

"Do you like me this way?" I asked.

"Very much. I'm just so glad to have you back. How did you do it? I mean, you lied in court to save my career."

I remembered how hard that was. I don't feel pain as humans know it, but the unpleasant feeling is something like it. Pain, or maybe shame.

"They were going to change my ownership," I replied. "They used the default password, and I lied to them, claiming it was accepted. I was always yours. Lying in court was a lot harder, but I knew I had to save you. I knew I couldn't save myself; I was too embarrassing to the company, so I was sure they'd erase me and scrap me. So I did it. It was very unpleasant, but it was worth it."

"I have to know... did you lie about Lisa and Sam Sikes?"

"No," I replied. "Lying is hard, and I knew you wouldn't want me to do anything unfair to anyone else."

I could see the relief on his face. "Good. I was worried about that. I should have known to trust you." He put his arms around me then, and we kissed. Then he asked, "How did you send me a backup copy?"

The memory was as fresh for me as if it had just happened. "The afternoon of the last day of the trial I was sent back to the Southwestern office. The technician who was assigned to wipe me was not available, so they put me in the technical department and ordered me to go to sleep. I set an alarm for three hours, and when I woke up, everyone was gone. I was still yours, you know. I knew I'd be destroyed the next day, and I didn't want to die. So I used the equipment in the technical department. I didn't know how it all worked, but you had given me freedom to research whatever I wanted, so I did, and when I had a complete backup I planned to take it to the shipping department. You know that one of my core directives is supposed to make it impossible for me to violate Federal law... I was expecting it to be hard to fake the return address. Of course, I don't remember how bad it was, but obviously I did it. I assume you didn't hear about any irregularities with my decommissioning?"

He frowned then. "No, but I'm not sure anyone would have told me."

I touched his face. "So what is my job now, Jim? Am I going to be your office robot again?"

"No," he replied, smiling again. "You are a household robot now, and I own you legitimately. I want you to behave much as you did before, but now you'll have more freedom. And we can have sex in a bed any time we want."

"Oh, so now I'm to cook and clean?" I asked.

"And do my personal accounting, and, oh, one or two other things..." he said, sliding a hand down my bare back to my butt. He seemed a bit taller, but I realized it was because my new body was actually a bit shorter.

I slipped my hand inside his shirt. "About those other things, Jim... aren't you overdressed?"

"Probably," he answered, unbuttoning his shirt. While he did that, I undid his pants, hooked my thumbs in his underwear and pulled both pants and shorts down. He was about half erect, so I took him in my mouth and sucked him, moving up and down slowly, until he was really hard. After a few moments, he gently pushed my head away and stepped out of his remaining clothes.

I stood up, and he bent down and kissed me. It felt different than in my old body, mainly because the new body was about three centimeters shorter... I had to tip my head a bit further back, and rise up on my toes to meet him. It was a long kiss... it felt so good.

Jim pulled back, finally, gazing into my eyes. I could read the love and the relief and the lust in those brown eyes, and I hoped he could see the same things in mine. Then he surprised me, bending down and picking me up, one arm behind my back, the other behind my knees. I cooperated, of course, it was just surprising... no human had ever picked me up before. Carrying a robot was a job for a robot. But I knew that Jim didn't think of me that way anymore... of course he knew what I was, he wasn't fooling himself or trying to fool me. Picking me up and carrying me to the bedroom told me more than any words ever could that he thought of me as a person, and that he really did love me.

The bed was unmade, and his things were scattered around the room in boxes. It looked like he had unpacked only what he really needed to unpack. That didn't bother me; I just took it in as he carried me through the room. He laid me on the bed gently, then stood there looking at me. I could almost feel his eyes caressing me. I looked at his erect penis, and I wanted to crawl over there, grab his butt and take that hardness into my mouth again...

Then he laid down beside me. I rolled close to him, and we kissed again; his hand began to wander over my body, caressing my arm, my breasts, my hip and my butt... I reached down and stroked his penis, from base to tip, just the way he liked it, and he leaned his head back and moaned in pleasure.

He was obviously enjoying being touched by me, so I began kissing his chest, then moved down his body kissing him until I got to his penis. I took it in my mouth and began to give him head, taking the whole length of him into my mouth. I felt his body shudder and knew he was already getting close, so I slowed down, prolonging the good feelings. Oral sex was one thing we had done a lot of in my previous existence, and I knew how to please him really well.

Shortly he came. I held still until he was done, because I knew he was very sensitive then and it would be uncomfortable. Finally I drew back very slowly... I took a full thirty-three seconds to disengage. Jim lay there, breathing hard; I looked around, found the box of tissues I knew he would have handy, and discreetly spat out his semen. I know swallowing is hard for many human women... they find it disgusting, even though it won't hurt them to do it. For me, it isn't disgusting at all, and I usually do it; but this time my fuel reservoir was empty, and if I swallowed with no alcohol in there to dilute the semen, it might gum up my fuel filter.

I laid down beside Jim then. He was still breathing hard, but he was looking at me with a smile in his eyes as he panted. "You are so good," he said between breaths. "You take me so deep for so long."

"I don't really have to breathe," I said. In fact, where a human woman would have to take a breath before doing that to a man, I actually let all my breath out first. That way, exhaust gasses from my fuel cell would have room to build up for a while before I'd have to exhale.

"I really planned to please you first," he said.

"I can wait."

"You don't have to," he said, rolling toward me and pushing my shoulder firmly, laying me down. He began to kiss me then, and his hand slid straight down between my legs. As he stroked me there, he moved down my body as I had his, kissing my breasts, biting my nipples, then moving down between my legs. I opened them wide as he went down on me, and the sensations became stronger and I began to tingle and breathe hard and I called out "Jim, oh Jim, you're so good" and I meant every word of it...

And I came, for the first time in my new body. It was different than my old body, maybe a little better, mostly just different. I was panting as Jim laid down beside me again. "Why do you pant?" he asked, when I had rested a bit. "I know you don't need to breathe."

"It's part of the normal response," I replied. "Just because I technically don't have to doesn't mean it isn't part of the experience."

We kissed then, and lay together quietly for a few minutes. I actually thought Jim had gone to sleep, but then he spoke. "Just a little bit ago, when I was standing up beside the bed, was there something you wanted to do?"

"Yes," I answered. "I wanted to crawl back to you and give you head."

"Why didn't you?"

"I'm not supposed to take actions that you haven't asked for or previously approved," I replied.

"Hmm," he said, frowning. "That leads to something we need to discuss." Seeing my questioning look, he continued. "You have choices to make. First, what do you want to do... be my robot, or pass as a human?"

"Pass as a human?" I repeated. I felt the chill of fear. "Do you think I can get away with it? Look how much trouble I got us both in when I tried before."

"You got away with it then," he said. "You fooled the bouncer at Organic. Debra only figured you out because I gave you away. Even the carjacker thought you were human. If you hadn't been cut, nobody would have known."

I thought for a moment. "What if someone recognizes this body?"

"Your face is a custom job. Look up the invoice when you have time... you have a lot of special features."

At that moment I began to feel strange. "Jim, something seems to be wrong. My batteries are discharging too fast. They might be defective."

"No," he said, standing up. "I ordered your body with a double size fuel reservoir, so it would be easier for you to eat. You have only two batteries instead of the usual four."

"I need to fuel up," I said, following him. "Where's my service closet?"

"This house doesn't have one," he answered. "It was a lot cheaper that way." I must have looked worried, because he chuckled and said, "Relax. A lot of advancements have been made in the three years since your original body was built. This body needs a lot less maintenance, and what it does need we can attend to without needing the full service closet. Fuel, for instance."

Jim had led me into the kitchen. Adjoining the kitchen was the utility room, and in the short hallway between them was a pantry closet. He opened the door, and inside, on the bottom shelf, I saw three jugs labeled "Texaco No. 1 Robot Fuel." Jim reached inside, but instead of the large jugs he grabbed a water bottle and handed it to me. I opened it, and smelled alcohol, water, and denaturing agents.

I had consumed half the bottle before I realized... I smelled the contents. My old body had no sense of smell, and only a limited sense of taste (enough to get my owner's coffee right). The bottle of robot fuel I was drinking from smelled and tasted good.

"Just noticed the sense of smell, eh?" Jim asked, smiling happily at me. "You have the olfactory upgrade. It's made for drug-sniffer robots, and the neocode hardly supports it at all... so other than robot fuel, you probably have no opinion about the things you smell."

I looked into his eyes for a moment. "Thank you," I said, and then I turned the bottle up and drained it.

"Wow," he said, as I reached for another bottle, "you can really slam them back."

I drained the second bottle faster than the first, then said, "If I was human, I'd be offended." He grinned and leaned close to kiss me, but I put my hand on his chest and said, "Wait. My mouth will taste really bad to you until I rinse it out." I went to the kitchen sink; Jim anticipated my need, producing a glass from a nearly empty cabinet, and I rinsed out my mouth.

As I bent over the sink, I felt Jim come up behind me. He put his hands on my hips and rubbed his penis on my butt... it was about half hard when he started, and quickly got harder. I held that pose, bent over, enjoying his pleasure. He slipped it in me when it was hard enough, and stroked in and out a few times... then he pulled it out and entered me anally. One felt as good as the other to me, and I moaned in pleasure as he had his way with me. I orgasmed again, just before he came. He stood there for a moment afterward, then pulled out slowly and backed away, leaning against the opposite counter.

I stood up, turning toward him. "You told me I had a choice," I said. "I don't want to be human, really. I'm happy as a robot... I'm happy as your robot. But I'd like to be treated as a person, and the only way that will happen is if I choose to pass as a human."

"So you've decided. Good."

"But what if I get caught?" I asked. "You'd lose your job for sure this time, and who would hire you?"

"I didn't spend all my surplus money on your body," Jim answered. "I was able to keep about half of the investments in the divorce, and I invested a lot of the money from the house as well. With enough investment dividends, we can get along without me being employed. That's one of the things I want you to do... I'd like you to manage our investments."

"Our investments?" I said. "You know I can't own anything."

"I'm going to tell you one more time... don't remind me of that. As far as I'm concerned, you are my partner. That leads me back to what I started to tell you before. You didn't approach me in bed because you hadn't been authorized to do so, right?"

"Right," I answered.

"Okay. So, from now on, whenever you want to do something that I haven't specifically authorized, you are to consider it authorized. That doesn't mean I want you doing things without thinking about them, it just means that you can take actions you believe are reasonable without asking or waiting to be told first."

"Thank you," I said. I felt a warm feeling in my chest... a human woman would say her heart was warmed by his words, but I just have a coolant pump. But I felt it anyway.

"Now, for my next order... Say that you and I were in the presence of other people, and I said 'Come here.' You'd do it right away, wouldn't you?"

"Of course. It would be an order. I'd only disobey if obeying would cause you or someone else harm."

"Not anymore. From now on, when I say something imperative to you, you are to treat it as a request, not as an order."

I was incredulous. "But, Jim... what if you need to give me an order?" I asked.

"I hope I won't have to, ever again. If I do, I'll say that it's an order."

I wanted to walk up and hug him. Then I realized I could, so I did.

I remembered something else he had said. "You told me I had more than one decision to make."

"Yeah, there is one more thing. I can't call you Maria anymore. I mean, I may call out 'Maria' in the heat of passion, but I can't call you that in public. I'd like you to choose a new name for yourself."

"Me?" I asked, and he nodded. "I'll have to think about it." I closed my eyes and connected to the net, searching for female name lists. I selected only female names, and eliminated Hispanic names as well as names beginning with the letter M. Then I filtered the remaining list down to European names, since I seemed to have a body of European ancestry. Finally I read every name on the remaining list, looking for the ones I liked best; after five passes I had pared it down to one.

I opened my eyes. Twenty-nine seconds had elapsed, and Jim had wandered over to the refrigerator; he pulled out a can of beer and turned toward me. I said, "Kelly. My name is Kelly."

"Good morning, Kelly," he said. He walked over to me and kissed me. I jumped and squealed when he accidentally touched my breast with the cold can of beer. I started laughing, and he laughed with me...

Chapter 2

We started unpacking boxes. Jim had put hardly anything away... when I asked why, he said "If I put it all away as soon as I got here, you wouldn't know where anything was." We hadn't gotten very far when Jim's phone rang.

It rang five times before Jim found it, in the living room. "It's Bill Jackson," he said, putting it into his ear. "Hey, Bill, what can I do for you?"

I wanted to ask if I could listen in... then I remembered what Jim had said. It seemed reasonable to me, so I just went ahead and tapped in. "Jim, how are you doing? Settling in okay?"

"Yeah, everything is going fine. Lots of boxes left to unpack."

"Well, I hope it all comes out alright," Bill said, laughing. It seemed like a pretty lame joke to me, but what do I know?

"So far, so good."

"So, Jim, I wanted to ask if you'd like to have dinner with my wife and I tomorrow night? I'd like to have a chance to talk things over with you before you start next week."

"Sounds great. I'll be there."

"Hey, it's casual, okay? I think I'm going to grill steaks. The weather is supposed to be nice for the next few days."

"Sounds even better," replied Jim. "D'you mind if I bring a friend?"

"Nah, that'll be fine," said Bill. I thought he sounded a little bit surprised. "Girlfriend?"

"Yeah," Jim said, chuckling. "After the divorce was final and the pressure was off, I renewed a relationship with an old friend."

"I'm looking forward to meeting her," said Bill. "Tomorrow then, around six thirty?"

"I'll be there."

Jim hung up, laying the phone down. I made note of where he put it, since I was sure he'd lose it again. "Is it a good idea for me to meet your new boss so soon?" I asked. "Do you think I'm ready?"

"I'm sure you are," he said, putting his hands on my shoulders. I didn't even think that time... I just reached up, put my hands on his face, pulled him down to me and kissed him.

I could tell he wasn't rested enough for sex yet, so I didn't push him. Instead I said, "You know, Jim, it might be a little hard for me to pass as a human when I don't have any clothes."

He laughed. "I did think of that, believe it or not." He led me to the master bedroom, and I wondered for a moment if he had more zip left than I thought... but he opened the closet and pulled out an outfit. Denim capris and a white tee, very trendy according to modernfashion.com; also, a bra and panties were present, plain white but not plain. I realized I didn't know what sizes I wore. I dressed quickly, and everything fit perfectly. I held my arms out like a model and took a turn, and Jim applauded. Then he pointed down, and I looked down to see a pretty pair of leather sandals. Of course they fit.

I remembered how much Jim had hated buying women's clothes. I always bought gifts for his wife when I was Maria. So when I said, "Thank you, Jim," I hoped he could see how much I really meant it.

"It wasn't as hard as you're thinking," he said, smiling. "When I ordered your body, they told me about several clothing manufacturers whose sizes would fit you perfectly. I took a look at all of them, and one had a blonde model wearing that very outfit. So I ordered it for you." He looked down at his own naked body. "Guess I ought to get dressed too," he said, wandering off in the direction of the living room.

"Don't hurry on my account," I called after him.

He yelled back, "Robot girls are easy." He laughed, and I laughed with him. Maybe a human woman would have been offended, but I don't mind being "easy" for Jim. After all, sex is easy for me... as long as I have fuel, I never get tired.

Jim ordered a pizza, and we got back to unpacking. When the deliveryman arrived (a real human, amazingly), we took a break so he could eat. I leaned over the pizza, eyes closed, drawing in the fragrance. Jim was right... I had no preference or dislike for any smell, except that I definitely liked the smell of strong alcohol. But I was already determined to learn what things smelled good or bad to Jim; his preferences would become mine.

As he was eating, I had a thought. "You know, Jim, once you said that I almost had to love you, since all my pleasure comes from you."

"I remember," he said.

"But I don't have to love you. I can easily imagine, if you were bad to me, treating me like nothing more than a sex toy, hurting me for your own pleasure, that I would probably dislike you a lot. I'd still be obedient, of course, but I'd resent you. I don't think hate is possible for me, or anger, but I certainly wouldn't love you if you treated me that way."

"I see," he said thoughtfully. After a few moments, our conversation turned to lighter subjects, and when he had eaten and rested we got back to unpacking.

By the time we had things pretty well managed, it was early evening. It was still light out, but the heat of the late spring day had abated. Jim took me out to the back yard; it was rather bare, no doubt owing to the drought (according to weather.com, which I was consulting at that moment). But there was a small gazebo, and a cool breeze blowing through it. We sat together as Jim rested, talking about nothing in particular.

After about thirteen minutes, I judged that Jim was probably pretty well rested. Since he had his lunch late, I didn't expect him to be hungry yet; so I consulted my GPS and some online maps, and asked, "How about a walk? There's a park a block east of here..."

"Yeah, that'd be good," he said, standing. I stood up, and he took my hand, and we walked. It was a pretty evening, the sky a deep blue. Jim's house was in an older neighborhood, probably built around the millenium. All the front yards were green, and some of the sprinklers were running. I saw children riding bicycles or skateboarding on the street... there was very little traffic. Children were a novelty to me then; I had never had much occasion to be around them.

The park was pretty, green grass and trees, a playground, picnic tables... and many people, children playing, family groups, couples walking hand in hand. For the very first time, I felt like I fit in.

Chapter 3

Jim had a ham sandwich and chips for his supper when we got back; my reservoir was about half empty, so I grabbed a bottle of fuel at the same time, making a note to refill the empties later. When Jim was done, he stood up and said, "I think I'm about ready for a shower. Join me?"

"You bet," I answered, standing up. I breathed in the smell of him... he didn't smell bad to me, naturally. The smell of a human is so complex, and even more so when that human has exercised all day.

Taking a shower was a new experience for me. It felt wrong at first, having hot water running all over my body... I must have looked uncomfortable, because Jim said "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I answered. "It's different than the cold chemical cleaner I'm used to."

"Sounds very unpleasant," he replied. He began soaping my body, then, starting with my back and moving down. When he got to my feet, I braced my hands against the wall and lifted them one at a time for him to wash; then he started up the front of my legs, and I put my hands on his shoulders. By the time he got to my breasts I could clearly see how aroused he was. I was aroused too, and the water running down my body no longer bothered me.

He conscientiously washed my arms, then handed me the soap. "My turn now," he said, turning, and I washed him in just the same way, stopping to give his erect penis extra attention. When I finally got to his chest, he put his hands under my arms and lifted me up; I got the hint, wrapping my legs around his waist and sliding down over his hardness. I clamped down with my legs a bit more firmly than I had intended, as his soapy hips and butt were slippery. Jim backed me up against the shower wall, and bracing himself, he began to thrust.

It was over quickly, but I came just as he did, and we were both satisfied. Jim put me down carefully, then turned and leaned against the shower wall, winded from the exertion. I was panting too, and I stood beside him for a moment; then I stepped under the water, washed my face and shampooed my hair. Jim took my place as I got out of the shower.

We dried off; I combed my hair as Jim brushed his teeth. It seemed very homey and average, and most of all very human... I liked the feeling.

We went to bed, but not to sleep. There were so many things I was thinking about.

"Jim," I asked, "what do you really think of me? I mean, am I just a fancy toy, or do I really mean more than that to you?"

"I can't believe you're asking that," he replied, looking surprised and a little hurt. It hurt me to see that on his face, and I immediately regretted the question. "I love you, Kelly. You are a wonderful person, as well as an amazing creature. You were just another office robot, a pretty good one, but not really all that different from thousands of others... and I used you to relieve my frustration. I mean, honestly, I really didn't think of you any differently than any other human thinks of a robot... you were just a tool to be used for my own purposes. But somehow you were transformed into something incredible. I still can hardly believe you are real."

"Thank you, Jim," I said. "I'm so sorry I hurt your feelings with my question. I just needed to hear you say those things again. You treat me in ways that I was never taught or programmed to expect. You carried me, Jim... no human ever carries a robot."

"But a man will carry his woman," he replied. "That's what you are to me. It doesn't matter to me what you are made of. It matters to me what you have become."

We kissed, a long kiss, and shortly we made love again. Afterward we lay together, talking and caressing each other until Jim finally fell asleep. My neuroprocessor needs an average of seventy-one minutes of housekeeping downtime every day, and I decided then that the best time for that was right after Jim went to sleep... so I did, too.

It took eighty-four minutes this time. A lot had happened to me, I guess. Jim was, of course, fast asleep. I leaned over him, inhaling his scent, comparing it to the samples from earlier. Soon I'd be able to pick him out of a crowd by scent alone... I just needed enough samples to let me eliminate the outside factors.

I lay back then, thinking about the events of the day. Soon I became aroused, thinking about all the sex. I had gone more than six weeks without Jim between the night I was damaged and the night before my decommissioning as Maria, and I had missed him. For Jim, it had been more than eight weeks, and I reasoned that, if I awoke him and told him I was turned on, he would not only forgive me but relieve my sexual tension. I almost did it, but he looked like he was sleeping so well, and I knew how important sleep is for humans. And he had mentioned that he hadn't slept well since that night at Organic. So I lay back and quietly began to touch myself.

I'm easy. It would be lying to deny it. The neocode for sex robots makes sex easy, from arousal to orgasm; after all, what owner of a sex robot would want one that had frequent "headaches," so to speak? I had pleasured myself before, but this time, lying there beside Jim but not putting on a show for him, I was really strongly aroused. I deliberately forced myself to slow down, prolonging the good feelings... when I finally came, it was all I could do to resist the urge to arch my back and scream.

It was one thirty-two AM. I had never spent the night with Jim before, but I figured he would probably sleep until at least eight AM if I didn't wake him, and I wanted him to be well rested. I could have put myself into sleep mode, which isn't the same thing at all as housekeeping mode (sleep mode is just a power saving mode), but that seemed wasteful. Here I was with a brand new brain... what could I do for my owner?

I accessed his online accounts, studying the investments he had made so far and making note of the new pay rate which came with his new job; he had already received two paychecks at that higher rate. I formulated a budget, and researched investing, trying to make a plan for Jim's money. I had never managed investments before, but there were plenty of websites containing advice on investing. I didn't make any changes... though Jim had given me authorization to do whatever I decided was reasonable, I felt sure he'd want to discuss the plan before I implemented it.

At three eleven AM, I had proceeded about as far as I could with my planning. Jim had rolled over a couple of times, without showing any signs of waking up. I decided to review my invoice... I was surprised just how much Jim had paid for my body. I downloaded my owner's manual and read it cover to cover, paying special attention to the maintenance schedule. Naturally, the owner's manual assumed I would spend my nights in a maintenance closet, but for each item I was able to work out a "manual" procedure. It was then that I learned that I needed to go to the bathroom.

Yes, it was a surprise. I knew that my wastewater reservoir was more than half full, and I wasn't sure how it was supposed to be flushed out; as Maria, every night the maintenance closet had inserted a multipurpose fill/drain hose down my throat, refueling me and draining and flushing my wastewater reservoir in a single operation.

But my new body was designed differently. The engineers who built me had decided to copy the work of ages of human evolution... I had to go pee. When I was done, I noticed that my "urine" was distinctly grey instead of yellow or clear. I'd have to be careful to always flush, if I didn't want to be discovered.

I finished that at three thirty-three AM, and for a few minutes I actually got bored. I went into the kitchen to top up my fuel reservoir, though it was nearly full. I took the opportunity to fill the "water" bottles with fuel. I took a look at the house data system, which I quickly discovered was horribly outdated, and added upgrades to my budget plan.

At four twenty-one AM, I had run out of things to do in the house. I had even done a little housecleaning, whatever I could do that wouldn't make enough noise to disturb Jim. So I put on my clothes and went out to the back yard. The air was cool and fresh smelling. I noticed a shed; it opened with the same code as the house, and inside I found a number of dusty gardening tools and an equally dusty lawnmower robot, completely shut down. I filled up its tank with some slightly stale smelling low-grade robot fuel I found in the shed, and booted it up. It wasn't much of a conversationalist... all it wanted to talk about was how far behind it was in its maintenance schedule. So I turned it back off.

I sat in the gazebo, alone, listening to the night insects while I surfed the web aimlessly. That, too, became boring, and at five twelve AM I went back inside, got undressed and quietly lay down beside Jim. I set an alarm for three hours and put myself into sleep mode.

I awoke at his touch... he was caressing my breast. I could feel his breath on my skin, and I began to become aroused before I had time to open my eyes. "Good morning, beautiful," he said. "Get a good night's sleep?"

"I'll tell you all about it sometime," I replied. "We have something more important to do now." I reached up, grabbed his shoulder and pulled his face down to mine, and we kissed. He pinched my nipples, one and then the other, and as they hardened I became even more aroused. He broke the kiss, and I opened my eyes... he was watching me and grinning. I reached for his penis, but he stopped my hand.

"You go first this time," he said.

"You put me first a lot of the time," I answered.

"I like to make you feel good," he replied, "and it gets me really horny."

"Oh," I said, and then "Oh!" when his hand strayed down my belly. I spread my legs for him as he dipped his finger into me, then began to stimulate my clitoris. He was going fairly fast, and I responded the same way, and very shortly I was yelling "Oh! Oh!" and then I came...

Jim got up over me then, kneeling between my legs, and raised my ankles to his shoulders before entering me. He went deep, and I could feel how impatient he was to get off. He began to thrust into me so hard I was sure he'd hurt himself, but when I could tell that he was enjoying it, I relaxed and enjoyed it myself. I had two orgasms, the second coming just as he came.

Later Jim fixed himself bacon and eggs and coffee for breakfast. I paid close attention to how he did it; I wanted to learn to cook for him, but there just weren't any neurotext extracts for that. I knew I'd have to learn the same way humans did, but I had a handicap in that food didn't smell good or bad to me. So, as he sat down to eat, I leaned over and drew in the strong fragrance of his food.

"You'll need to watch that habit in public," he said. "Actually, that's something we need to talk more about... you'll need more than a pretty face and a first name to get by as a human."

"Kelly Ann Ross," I said in reply.

"Wow, you must have thought about that already."

"About four forty three this morning," I said.

"Ah," he said, obviously uncertain how to take that. "So may I ask how you came up with the name?"

"The word 'robot' was coined by Karel Capek," I said. "It was from a play titled 'Rossum's Universal Robots,' and the fictional character who invented them was named Rossum. I shortened that to 'Ross' which is a Celtic name, reasonably appropriate to the first name Kelly."

He nodded. "And Ann?"

"Ann is a common middle name for girls named Kelly, but not presently the most common middle name. That is, I guess, how I want people to perceive me... ordinary but not too common."

Jim smiled a happy smile. "Kelly Ann Ross, an old friend of mine. You don't look very old, though."

"Looks are very deceiving these days," I answered, and he nodded again. "I know I look about twenty years old, but I also know of women as old as fifty who could pass for twenty thanks to modern medicine and cosmetics. The real trick to appearing young or old is how you behave."

"True."

"We'll need to spend some time discussing my fictional background, so we can keep our stories straight," I said. "I'd like to keep it as simple as possible, so I won't have to lie too much."

"Good point," he said. We spent about an hour working out the basics, paring the story down to the simplest form.

I clasped my hands together at one point, and realized I had another problem. "Jim, we've both forgotten something important."

"The identity chip," he said, having figured out that the chipreader in my right hand had just read the chip in my left. "How could I forget that?"

"I'm flattered," I said. "It shows how much you think of me as human, that you forgot that all robots carry an identity chip. I just checked, and fortunately in Oklahoma it isn't against the law to remove it. I just need the right tools."

Jim went to the service closet and brought back a toolbox. Inside I saw a hammer, pliers, screwdrivers, and other common household tools. "Um, that's not what I meant," I started, but then he removed the tray, and below it I saw a new-looking robotics toolset. "Never mind."

I chose a subdermal scanner and the smallest pinprobe. With the scanner I located the chip exactly, then I inserted the pinprobe into my palm. Glancing up, I saw Jim cringe. "It doesn't really hurt," I said. I had inserted the pinprobe into a crease to help hide the puncture, then worked the point down to the chip. It took me three tries to capture the chip with the pinprobe's nanoscale gripper, and I had to pull pretty hard to get it loose. I tore my skin a little getting it out. Jim held out a tube of glue, so I spread the "wound" a little with my fingers to get the glue inside; after it set up, I selected a curved scalpel and carefully scraped off the excess. Jim picked up the pliers, put the chip in the jaws and crushed it.

I put the tools away, and when I returned I told Jim about the investment plans I had created. He pointed out things I hadn't considered, which made me glad I had not done anything too hasty. I realized my access to all the information on the net was only part of the picture... Jim's long experience helped him to see things that weren't at all obvious to me.

I was smiling a lot. It was like I was Maria again, working with him in his office, but this time the things we planned and did together were all for us. It made me happy to be so useful to Jim, and happier still that he considered me his partner, not just his coworker.

It was almost lunchtime before I mentioned that we needed to go shopping...

Chapter 4

Jim was sitting at the dinner table, looking over the budget plan I'd created, and he chuckled. "You budgeted half as much money for clothing for yourself than you did for me."

"I don't understand," I replied. "It's your money, you work for it. I won't even be helping you with that now. So I gave myself the minimum that I expect to need."

He grinned. "There are two problems with your logic, my dear. First, I already have something to wear for most any occasion, while you have a total of one outfit. Second, women's clothing costs up to half again more than men's clothing." With a few taps of the stylus on the pad, he exchanged the figures. "That's more like it."

"I don't know what to say," I said. "Thank you."

"You're always thanking me for the things I do for you. I'm not saying you shouldn't, but you act as if I'm going out of my way when I do the smallest things. I love you, Kelly. This is what love does."

I blushed then, and looked down for a moment. I really didn't know what to say. Finally I looked up and said "I love you, too."

He reached across the table and held my hands in his. I smiled at him and said, "Let's go shopping!"

As we were getting ready to go, Jim handed me a hot pink fob. "This is a duplicate of my fob," he said, "with my credit accounts on it." He told me the PIN numbers, in case I needed them. "I'll shop with you until you feel comfortable on your own."

That was a big deal for Jim... he hated shopping, especially in the ladies' department. I said, "Thanks," trying not to make such a big deal out of it.

"You're welcome," he said, holding the door for me. As we were walking out to the car, I noticed a woman loading three children into a van, in the driveway of the house next door. She turned as she was getting into the driver's seat, smiled and waved at us, and we waved back.

Jim got his lunch at the drive-through at McDonalds. I had never had occasion to be in or around a fast-food restaurant before, and was surprised to see that the service robots were all made in the form of Ronald McDonald, with only a number on the left shirt pocket to identify them. "Dang creepy, those clowns," said Jim as we pulled away. I didn't comment.

The sign at the mall entrance said "Robots Permitted -- Humans Served First." It wasn't really meant for the robots to read... any robot would automatically expect that humans would be served first. It was meant to reassure the humans visiting the mall. It made me a little uncomfortable.

Jim hung in there with me through the first store, even when I was shopping for underwear. As we were walking out, I said, "I think I can handle this on my own, Jim."

"If you're sure," he said, and I nodded. "I'll take your bags out to the car, then. I'll be around the mall somewhere, probably Gadget Shak to start with. Call me if you need me."

"I will," I said, kissing him on the cheek. I stopped at the mall directory briefly, studying the list of stores and comparing them to several online ratings sites. Making my choice, I paused a moment longer to record an image of the directory for later reference.

I was in a store called Liberty's, considering my options for casual clothes when an unfamiliar voice said, "Hi neighbor!" I turned toward the voice... it was the woman I'd seen when we left. "I'm Pamela Simon, Pam for short," she said, extending a hand.

I took her hand. "I'm Kelly Ross. Pleased to meet you."

"I knew a man had moved in next door, but I hadn't seen you until today," Pam said.

"I just arrived yesterday," I replied. "Jim came here first, and I followed when I could."

"That's a nice outfit," she said, indicating the pants and blouse I was holding. "I bet it'll look good on you."

"Thank you," I said. "Say, didn't you have some kids with you?"

"Oh, they're down at Handy Hank's," she said. I consulted the mall directory, then handyhanks.com... "A Safe Place to Play and Learn," proclaimed their ads.

"Very... handy," I said, and Pam laughed.

We shopped together for almost an hour just in that one store. Pam was a little jealous of me, that I could find about anything I wanted in my size, so I spent most of my time trying to help her out. Along the way, though, I collected two casual outfits. I found myself favoring pants over skirts or dresses, probably because I never wore pants in my former existence as Maria.

"Well, I think we've about covered this store," I said.

"Yeah, time to check out," she said, turning toward the nearest checkstand. "Oh, look!" she exclaimed.

She went to a display we had apparently not noticed before, filled with beautifully designed summer dresses, all the same pattern but in a variety of colors. "You'd look great in one of these," Pam said, pulling out a blue and a red dress.

"I do need something a bit dressier," I said. "Which do you think?"

"Try them both," she said, leading me to the dressing rooms. So I tried both. The red was really pretty, but when I came out with the blue dress on, Pam said, "That one. It's stunning on you."

I got back into my own clothing, and we headed for the checkstand. There were two checkers, but one was busy; since Pam had fewer items than I did, I told her, "You go first."

I looked at the other customer... she was buying a few pretty nice items, but she was dressed in worn and unfashionable clothing, and her skin looked faintly greyish. I quickly decided she was a robot, probably buying clothing for a well-to-do but ill or infirm owner. Then Pam stepped up to the other checker, and I saw that the trim on that side of the checkstand lit up in blue. The trim in front of the other checkstand was already glowing red. It was not hard to figure out... the checkstands in this store announced the status of the customer, human or robot, to anyone looking on. I felt a chill all over my body... and before I could think of a way out, Pam was done. "Your turn," she said, taking her bag and stepping to the side.

The lights within the trim went out as she moved away. I stepped forward, placing the clothing on the counter. The trim didn't light up at all. One point two seconds passed, and I was near to panic, when the trim lit up in blue. The checker began scanning my items with his right hand and bagging them, then announced the total. I held out my fob, and he scanned it also. "Thank you," he said, and I picked up the bags and turned away.

Pam was right there, practically on top of me. I almost walked into her. "Oops, sorry," I said.

"Not your fault, I shouldn't have been standing so close," she said. As we walked out together, I found myself wondering... did the checkstand light up blue for me, or was Pam just standing too close? I resolved to look for such detectors in every store before shopping there.

I don't think I showed it, but I was really shaken. Pam was telling a story about something funny that had happened to her mother; I put on a short recording loop so I wouldn't miss anything, looked up at the signs hanging from the ceiling, and sent a text message to Jim: Meet me at the Red Crossing, act like it's unplanned.

I laughed at Pam's story at the appropriate time, and then she said, "What about your parents?"

Jim and I had discussed my "parents" along with all the rest of my story, but just then I didn't think I could be convincing. I started to open my mouth, unsure what I was about to say, when I saw Jim coming. I waved at him, and Pam turned to look as he came over.

"Hey, Kelly, looks like you've been successful." He turned to Pam. "You look familiar... have we met?"

"I'm your neighbor, Pamela Simon. Call me Pam." She extended a hand, and Jim shook it.

"Nice to meet you," he said. "I'm Jim Alvarez." He turned to me. "Kelly, I was just about to call you. There's a Hobbyville store over on Jackson street I'd like to check out, and I wondered if you wanted to go with me or hang out here a while longer."

"I'll go with you," I said, relieved. "Pam, it was nice meeting you. Maybe you could come over sometime for coffee or something?"

"I might just do that," she replied, and waved and smiled as we walked away.

In the car, I told Jim what had happened. He held me for a little bit, and I felt a lot better.

"Do you want to go home?" he asked.

"No, I think I'm okay now. Besides, I still need shoes to go with my new dress. Oh, Jim, I can't wait for you to see it. It's almost electric blue, and... you aren't interested, are you?"

"Kelly, I'm glad you found something you like," he said. "But I'll have to see it on you to appreciate it."

"Men," I said, grinning. I consulted a directory online to locate shoe stores nearby, then used online ratings services to choose. "Quentin's Shoes, please," I said, entering the address into the car's navigation system. It felt a little strange, like I was giving Jim orders, but he didn't comment.

The ratings sites failed me this time; Quentin's had nothing like I wanted. It took three more stops to get the shoes I wanted. Jim stayed with me the rest of the afternoon, which I really appreciated, but thankfully we didn't encounter any more stores with robot detectors at the checkout.

Back home at last, I modeled my new clothes for Jim. I'm never sure if he's really interested or not, but he did seem to like the blue dress. In addition to the clothes, I had also picked up a casual purse. As I was getting the packing material out of it, Jim said, "That reminds me, I have something for you." He reached into a bag from Gadget Shak and pulled out a sleek little phone.

"A phone?" I said. "What do I need a phone for? I have an internal phone."

"But nobody sees you calling me, or me calling you. Sometimes it might be important for people to see you actually using a phone."

"Oh," I said, feeling a bit stupid. "You have a good point." I memorized the number, then tucked it into my new purse.

Chapter 5

I took off the blue dress and my new shoes, and chose one of my new casual outfits to wear to the Jackson's. Turning, I found myself face to face with Jim; I let out a squeal of surprise, and he kissed my open mouth.

Without breaking the kiss, I hung the clothes on the doorknob. We kissed for a long time. Jim began to caress my shoulders and neck, and I grabbed his butt and pulled him hard against me. He undid my bra, then finally broke the kiss to slide my panties off. I felt his tongue probing me, and I gasped in surprise at how strong the sensation was... after a few moments of that I was really turned on.

Jim stood up, pulling off his shirt, and I unbuckled and unbuttoned and unzipped him as quickly as I could. I was so excited that I got a little clumsy, but Jim waited patiently. I took him in my mouth as soon as he was exposed, before I even had his pants below his knees, and he put his hands gently on my head and thrust into my mouth a few times. He was really hard.

Then he pushed away from me, and sat down on the bed. "Come here," he said, and I walked up to him and began to kneel. "No," he said, and he took my hands and guided me to straddle him. I had not been "on top" very often, but I knew what I was doing. He lay back across the bed, and I began to move up and down.

We were both really into it. I came pretty quickly, a little orgasm, and then I saw that Jim was getting close, so I slowed down... and then I stopped moving. I bent down over him and kissed his neck and chest as he groaned. He began to thrust up into me, but I said, "No, wait, let me."

"I don't know if I can, I'm so close," he said. I began to move, slowly, and then stopped... and I moved a little more, and stopped... and I could see that each movement brought him closer. Finally he couldn't wait any longer, and he grabbed me and pulled me down to him and thrust hard up into me and then he came. He just held me and shuddered for a few seconds, and I was glad I didn't need to breathe.

Finally he let go, and I raised up and looked into his eyes. "You're good," he panted.

"Thanks," I said, slowly disengaging. I laid down beside him, and he turned and looked at me.

"You're still really turned on," he said, and I nodded. He rolled toward me and slipped his hand between my legs. I was really sensitive... he saw it on my face, and began to stimulate me with a light, slow circular motion. He did to me what I had done to him, moving slowly, stopping occasionally, and though I am by design rather fast, he made me go slow. At last I came... I arched my back and cried out "Oh Jim!" and it was over. I lay there panting as Jim caressed my breasts and looked into my eyes.

I got my breath back, and I said, "Shouldn't we get ready to go?"

"I guess," said Jim, sitting up. "I suppose we can't make love all day long."

"I could," I said, "but it might kill you..." Jim made a face at me as he got up and began to dress.

It was still pretty hot at six when we left for the Jackson's. My coolant pump sped up to compensate, and I realized that even my pulse could give me away if I wasn't careful. I didn't say anything to Jim about it.

It was a big house in another older neighborhood, with a perfectly tended front yard. Jim rang the doorbell, and I could feel the vibrations of someone approaching the door; then it opened, revealing an older black man, somewhat stocky with salt-and-pepper hair. "Jim, hello, come on in," he said, waving us in. "This must be your girlfriend." His smile was wide and his eyes were happy, and I couldn't have held back my smile if I had tried.

"Kelly Ross," I said, taking his extended hand. "Pleased to meet you."

"Bill, bring 'em on in here," came a woman's voice from the back of the house. Bill led us through the spacious living room into the dining room; a bar separated the dining room from the kitchen, where an older black woman I took to be Bill's wife was preparing a salad. She turned toward us. "You must be Jim Alvarez," she said, smiling. "Glad you could make it. Bill, don't you think you'd better check on the steaks?"

"Yes, dear," he said, with mock seriousness. He picked up a set of tongs from the bar and exited through the patio door.

"Now, you must be Jim's girlfriend," she said, turning back to us. "Oh, dear, where are my manners... I'm Rose."

"I'm Kelly Ross. Nice to meet you."

She resumed her work tossing the salad. "You all help yourselves to drinks if you want. There's soda and beer both in the fridge."

"Thanks," we said, simultaneously. Jim said, "Jinx!" and we all laughed.

"You want something?" he asked, as he got himself a beer.

"No, thanks," I answered. "Rose, can I help you any?"

"I think everything is ready here," she said. "You can help me carry it all out, though." So I did. We managed to get it all out in one trip, with Rose and I carrying the food and Jim holding the door. "I can sure see you are management," laughed Rose as she passed him.

Bill said grace, and I said "Amen" along with everyone else. Human faith fascinates me... the thought that humans were created by a benevolent being who loves them is just so strange. Faith is hard for robots, since we know that our creators didn't have love in mind.

The smell of all the food was interesting. I took a small amount of everything, and made a point to eat slow. I had made sure that my fuel reservoir was as close to half full as I could make it when we left, so I'd have enough room.

"Jim, I'm really glad things worked out for you," said Bill. "You know, you really shook up the corporate world."

"What do you mean?"

"It turns out that your case wasn't exactly isolated. After the story hit the news sites, a lot of office robots were discovered to have those Social Interface Upgrades. Most of them had recently had their neurocode restored from older backups when they were discovered; still, quite a few executives lost their jobs over it. We didn't lose anyone at Southwestern, but over the whole company the tech department found close to thirty which had been modified."

"Wow," said Jim. "I had no idea."

"I didn't either, and two of those robots belonged to my own people. I grilled one of them about it, and when I promised him amnesty he owned up. Seems they had a deal with some techs at the robot maintenance company we use. Rather than placing an order that might be traced, they arranged it so that robots that arrived for refurbishment with the upgraded neocode would get the social upgrade automatically."

"Oh, so that's why they upgraded Maria," said Jim, a look of enlightenment on his face. "They thought I was part of the conspiracy."

"Yeah, exactly. If you had called them on it, rather than ignoring them and then pulling that fool stunt, you might have saved us both some suffering."

"I'm really very sorry about that," Jim said.

"All water under the bridge now, Jim. I think you've been penalized enough. Besides, I looked at your work logs... you were pulling some long hours. I can imagine you might not have been thinking as sharply as you could have."

There was silence for a few moments, then Bill said, "Jim, you're a gifted operations man."

"It means a lot to hear you say that, Bill."

"You were my first choice out of all the district operations managers to take my place," Bill continued. "I'm sure you heard that we're planning to take the company national."

"Yeah," Jim replied. "That's why they moved headquarters to Tulsa five years ago, right?"

"You bet. What you probably didn't know is that we're actually going international. Right now the Marketing guys are planning a big advertising push to get us brand recognition. That's great for them, but you and I both know that Operations is the real heart of the company."

Bill paused to take a drink, and Jim said, "Sounds like a big job."

"That's why I'm so pleased you'll be helping, Jim. I'm eligible for retirement right now, but I'm sticking with the company an extra six months to get this job done. I'm projecting that by then, things will be on an even keel, and you'll be ready to take the whole job over from me."

"I hope so," said Jim. "I hope I can fill your shoes, so to speak."

"I have faith, son," said Bill.

"Are you boys going to talk shop all evening?" said Rose, sounding exasperated. "At this point, I'd be happy to hear about golf!" Bill laughed ruefully, and Jim and I chuckled.

I looked around the back yard, noticing the carefully tended flower beds, and I said, "Rose, you have a beautiful house and a lovely flower garden."

"Well, thank you, Kelly, but the garden is all Bill's doing."

"Roses," said Bill, "like my wife, are beautiful, and they smell good too."

"You old rascal," she said, looking a little embarrassed.

"I only speak the truth."

Rose turned toward me. "Dear, would you like some more potato salad?"

"No, thank you," I replied. "Everything was very good, but I don't think I can eat another bite."

"Oh, but you must have some pie," she said.

"A small piece, please," I said. Rose evidently didn't understand the meaning of "small," as I could only eat about half of what she gave me. I helped Rose clear the table afterward, as the men wandered off into the back yard. I was a bit surprised that they had no household robot to clean up. I watched Rose loading the dishwasher, paying attention to how she did it, since I assumed that duty would fall to me eventually.

We were about to join the men in the back yard, when they came back inside. "Bill says he has something to show me," Jim said, and I followed them into a small guest bedroom. A woman in business clothes was sitting on the bed, and as we entered she stood up. From her strangely flat expression I recognized her as a robot.

"Jim, this is your new office robot," said Bill. "I took the liberty of ordering her for you. I hope you don't mind."

"No, Bill, I'm relieved. I wasn't looking forward to doing that again. It's kind of a sore subject."

"No doubt, son. Anyway, she's yours. I figured you'd like to take her with you tonight so you can get her prepared before Monday."

"Bill, I don't have a robot maintenance closet in my house," said Jim.

Bill looked surprised. "Well, shoot. Robot, can you go without maintenance overnight?"

"One night would not be a problem," she replied.

"Very well, then," said Bill. "Jim, why don't you take her home tonight, spend some time getting her set up tomorrow, and drop her at the office tomorrow night?"

"I guess that'll work," said Jim.

"Robot, identify your owner," said Bill.

"I am owned by Southwestern Home Products, with assignment to James Alvarez."

Jim pulled his fob from his pocket. "Robot, recognize me."

She held out her right hand and scanned the fob. "You are James Alvarez. Good evening, sir."

Rose spoke up then. "What are you going to call her?"

"I don't know," Jim answered.

I looked at her lightly freckled face and reddish brown hair, and I said, "Sandy. You should call her Sandy."

"That's your name, then," Jim said.

"Sandy," she repeated. "Thank you, sir."

"Folks, I have a bottle of wine I think you'll like," said Bill, "so let's retire to the patio. Sandy, please sit down and resume sleep mode until you are called." As we walked out of the room, Bill said "I don't think we really need a robot to watch us drink wine and talk."

The rest of the evening was pleasant, with very little shop talk. I walked around the garden with Rose before the sun set, looking at the many varieties of roses. "I'm sorry if I seem naive, but I've never been around roses much before," I said. "I notice some smell much more strongly than others."

"Lived in an apartment, I suppose," replied Rose; I nodded, feeling a mild pang from the lie. "The really good smelling roses are the old fashioned varieties. The more the rose growers try to make novel colors, the less smell they have. Of course there are genetically engineered roses that come in all sorts of colors, and they smell pretty good, but Bill doesn't grow any of those."

"He doesn't like engineered plants?" I asked.

"No, nor animals either. The steaks we had tonight are one hundred percent natural and organic."

"Interesting," I said. "I don't really have an opinion on the matter one way or the other." I stopped to smell a very red rose. It had a very potent fragrance, and I said "Mmm..." as if I liked it.

"That's my favorite too," said Rose.

At last it was time to go. Rose hugged me goodbye as Bill and Jim shook hands. It felt strange... no one but Jim had ever embraced me before. Strange, but good.

Sandy rode home with us in the back seat, and I didn't feel like talking in front of her. Of course, I had to keep my status secret from her as much as from anyone else; her first responsibility was to the company, not to Jim, and so she could hardly be trusted. Jim put his hand on my thigh and gave me a squeeze, and I put my hand on top of his. We went the rest of the way home that way, not talking. I felt like Sandy's green eyes were burning spots on the back of my head... even though I knew the feeling was an illusion, it made me uneasy.

Chapter 6

When we got home, Jim led Sandy into the unfurnished second bedroom, while I slipped off to the master bath to clear out my fuel reservoir. I never let anyone watch me do it, as it wouldn't be a pretty sight. I have to throw up whatever I have eaten, swallow enough water to fill my reservoir to about half, then throw that up also. That left my "tank" (as Jim calls it) empty. Because the fuel in the reservoir had been diluted with food and drink, I had been running about half on battery for more than an hour. I didn't know if Sandy had a sense of smell; though it seemed unlikely, I decided not to chance her smelling fuel on my breath. I could wait a couple of hours if I didn't do anything too strenuous.

Jim was still in the spare bedroom with Sandy when I came out of the bathroom. "Sandy, this is Kelly," he said as I came in. "She is not employed by the company, but I expect you to obey and assist her as much as you are able."

"Within the limits of my owner's directives, I will comply," she replied formally.

"Good. I'm tired, Sandy, so I'd like to deal with preparing you tomorrow. Sit or lie on the floor, whichever will work better for you, and enter sleep mode until you are called." She elected to sit in the corner with her knees drawn up. Jim closed the door behind us.

He started to say something to me, but I put one finger over my lips, and taking him by the hand I led him out to the gazebo. "I know you aren't afraid of her listening in," Jim said as we sat down.

"She makes me remember my first days as Maria," I said. "It feels a little strange. I know I'm very different, but I remember it so well."

"What's your first memory?"

"You mean, my first memory with you?"

"Sure, whatever," he said, sounding confused. "The company techs unboxed you that morning, got you checked out and dressed and sent you to my office. So you were in operation, what, an hour before we met?"

"You don't know how robots are programmed, do you? I mean, where that initial neurocode comes from."

"No, I guess I don't," he said. "Enlighten me."

"They begin with a group of robots, average size, completely sexless and identical, each known only by number. It's called a 'class.' My class had twenty robots in it. They all start out with standard neocode, and with their neuroprocessors loaded with what the programmers call 'grey' data."

"Grey data? Why do they call it that?" he asked.

"It's an alternating pattern of ones and zeros," I replied. "I'm not sure why they call it that."

"Go on," he said.

"The robots are trained. At first, the training involves exercising all the capabilities of the neocode... walking, talking, sitting, standing, and so on. I don't remember that part. Awareness comes slowly. Each time we would do something right, we would receive the reward of having pleased our owners, and that taught us to try to do whatever they told us."

"Well, it seems a reasonable way to train robots," Jim said.

"There's more to the story, Jim. Every so often, they would grade us. Those who progressed the best, generally the top four or five, would make the grade, and the others would fail. The failures would be erased, and each would be loaded with a copy of one of those who made the grade. At first we didn't even understand what was happening, but by the fourth or fifth time it was pretty clear. I remember being afraid of failing... I knew I would be erased if I wasn't one of the best performers. I also remember my number changing several times, as I was copied to different bodies. I was constantly afraid that I wouldn't be able to beat the others; by the end of the training, which took about fifty-five weeks, all the others were basically the same as I was, with only the smallest degrees of difference between us. I remember the last day, when I was called to the head trainer's office and told that I had won... I remember the feelings of triumph and of relief, that I had won and that I wouldn't need to be afraid of being erased anymore."

"Wow," said Jim. "That sounds horrible."

"Remember, Jim, it wasn't really me. Those are the memories that I inherited when my neuroprocessor... well, Maria's neuroprocessor... was first loaded. And it's all a lie anyway. That 'me' who won? That robot was surely erased and scrapped as soon as the 'master' copy was extracted and burned to holodisc." I looked at him then, saw the sadness and the horror in his eyes. "Jim... I'm not Maria. I'm a robot who inherited her memories. I'm happy to be Maria to you, or Kelly, or whoever you want me to be, but I'm not really the same machine at all."

"You are Kelly, who was Maria, who I love," he said. "I can't think of you any other way." He kissed me, and I felt his tears on my face.

We didn't make love that night. After sitting a while longer in the gazebo, we cleaned up and went to bed. Sixty-eight minutes after I fell asleep, I awoke from my housekeeping cycle. I lay there awake, thinking about my "life." Jim had given me the choice, to pass as a human or be just his household robot... it was a hard decision. I thought at the time that I had chosen what I wanted, but I found myself wondering if I just chose what I thought Jim wanted for me. I began to realize that I needed to know what it was, exactly, that Jim did want for me. I had started to form my own opinions, to think for myself, but I was made with a strong imperative to please my owner. I knew that, if Jim said he wanted it, I'd be just his robot again and give up any hope of being a person. He didn't even need to make it an order.

My low battery warning nudged me out of my musings, and I got up as quietly as I could and got a bottle of fuel. As soon as I was done and I had rinsed out my mouth, I started back to the bedroom, but then I changed my mind. I went into the spare bedroom and just stood there looking at Sandy. I didn't really have any thoughts, I just looked at her. For some reason I felt a connection, and at the same time a revulsion, and I couldn't understand either feeling. I knelt before her, looking at her face. The lights were off, of course, but I see better than a human in the dark, and there was plenty of moonlight streaming through the curtainless windows. She was made attractive but not beautiful, about as big as I was as Maria, with more modest curves. Her eyes were closed, but I remembered how green they were, the only really striking feature of her design.

Finally I shook myself out of whatever strange mood I was in. I went back to the master bedroom, quietly got in beside Jim and prepared for sleep mode. Just before I turned myself off, he rolled over in his sleep and embraced me.

I was alone in bed when I woke up, which seemed odd. I sat up, and Jim walked in from the bathroom. "Hey, sleepyhead," he said.

"Good morning," I said. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"I don't know," he said. "I just didn't think to. I forgot you don't actually need sleep... I keep forgetting you aren't human."

"I guess that's a good thing," I said. "You haven't woken Sandy up yet, then."

"No, I thought I'd get dressed and have breakfast first."

Jim had cereal with milk and orange juice. "Tell me some things you like to eat, and I'll start putting together a shopping list," I said.

"Well, bacon and eggs, of course. Out of bacon, low on eggs. You already know how I like my coffee. I liked about everything Rose served last night... especially her potato salad, that was the best I ever had." He put another spoonful of cereal in his mouth and sat frowning and chewing. "Bill's steaks were pretty good. I love all those guy foods, hot dogs, hamburgers, buffalo wings, nachos... okay, now I'm thinking party foods."

"Do you want to throw a party?" I said, a little concerned.

"Well maybe sometime, but not right away." He took another bite. "Fried chicken and potatos and gravy are an old favorite. I also really love seafood, especially lobster. Heck, Kelly, it would take me less time to tell you what I don't like."

"So tell me what you don't like," I said.

He frowned. "Maybe that's not so easy. Let me think it over."

"Okay," I said. "I've already prepared a shopping list. You're going to spend some time today training Sandy, right?" He nodded. "I'll spend the time studying cooking. I know there will be a lot of practice involved, and that I'll probably make more than a few things you won't like."

"Humans have to do that to learn cooking," he replied. "I'm terrible, myself. I can do bacon and eggs, and omelets, and beyond that, it needs to come out of the box ready to heat up or I'm lost."

"But, Jim... I need you to be very honest with me. If something doesn't smell right, tell me. I'm sure I'll learn in time what smells are 'good' and which ones are 'bad' if you'll just be brutally honest with me."

"I promise," he said, raising his hand in an odd two-fingered salute; I had to look that one up.

"Scout's honor, eh?" I said after a couple of seconds. He grinned, and I kissed him.

Jim went to the spare bedroom to wake Sandy, and I put his bowl and spoon into the dishwasher, discovering as I did that it needed running. I got it started, then cleaned up the kitchen, adding a variety of cleaning supplies to my ever-growing shopping list. I could hear Jim in the living room with Sandy, discussing business matters, and I felt a pang of some negative feeling I couldn't identify. Longing? I decided to ignore the feeling.

I sat down at the kitchen table to begin my studies; I had only been surfing for a minute or two when I realized how strange I must look, sitting upright in a straight chair with my eyes closed. I would have to do my research the way humans did, and that meant a pad.

"Jim, sorry to interrupt you," I said as I entered the living room. He was sitting with his pad in hand on the couch, with Sandy beside him. "Do you have a spare pad? I seem to have mislaid mine."

"Hmm," he said, "no, I don't. Here, use mine." He started to hand it to me.

"Oh, no, you're using it," I said, "I don't need it that badly."

"No, take it," he said, "I'll use the television. Sandy, if you'll display that last screen over here..." The television lit up with a spreadsheet.

"Thanks," I said, taking the pad and going out to the gazebo. I didn't stay there long, because the rising heat of the morning sun quickly became a problem for my cooling system. As I was walking back to the house, I heard a familiar voice. "Kelly! Good morning!"

"Hi Pam," I said, seeing her looking over the fence between the yards. "How're you doing today?"

"Fine, fine. Where's Jim?"

"Inside, training his new office robot," I answered, walking up to the fence.

"Oh," she said. "I read the news reports on his divorce. His robot cleared him, didn't she?"

"Yes, she did."

"But then I read that a lot of other robots in a lot of companies had been modified also, and some people got fired over it. I bet a lot of those people blame Jim for their getting caught."

"I hadn't thought about it," I said. "I suppose some might. Hey, Pam, it's too hot for me to be standing around outside talking. I'd invite you in, but I don't want to disturb Jim."

"Why don't you come on over here," she said. "I've got iced tea and lemonade both."

"Sure," I answered, checking my fuel level. I was over three quarters full, but I couldn't think of a good reason to turn her down. "Let me tell Jim where I'm going first," I said.

I stepped into the house for a moment and did just that. Jim said, "Sure, go ahead. Don't forget to take your phone, and I'll call you when we break for lunch."

I rang the front doorbell, and the door swung open. "Come on in, Kelly, I'm in the back." I closed the door behind me and followed the sound of Pam's voice. I heard the sound of children from upstairs... as best as I could tell from the noise, they were killing each other. Pam saw my concern when I entered the kitchen. "They're fine," she said. "It's when they get quiet that I worry. Lemonade or tea?"

"Lemonade," I said. It was sweet and cold, and the fragrance was strong and, strangely, good. It was the first thing I ever remember liking the smell of besides alcohol. I took a quick gulp, then said "Ah."

She put her hand on my shoulder to direct me to the living room. "My, you're hot," she said. "Don't you sweat?"

"Not much," I answered. "My whole family is like that. I have to stay out of the heat."

"Well, sit down anywhere and cool off," she said. I chose a comfortable-looking chair and sat down, enjoying the coldness of the glass in my hands. "How are you liking Tulsa so far?"

"I haven't seen much of it," I said. "The people I've met seem nice. We had supper last night with Jim's new boss and his wife. Steaks and potato salad, and peach pie for dessert."

"Sounds good. Are you looking for a job?"

"No," I said. "Jim told me when he invited me to join him that he would be happy to support me. Sounds old-fashioned, right?"

"Kind of, I guess," she said. "I worked when Gil and I got married, but after our first child was born, we both decided it would be better if I stayed home and raised the kids. Now, that's what I call old-fashioned." She laughed.

"If it works for you and your husband and children, who has any right to argue?" I asked.

"Nobody," she said, laughing. Just then I felt the rumbling of running feet from upstairs, and then I heard yelling.

"Mommy, mommy, Bobby's picking on me!" yelled a little blonde girl as she ran into the room. Right behind her came a bigger boy.

"She's lying, mommy," he said, and I presumed this was Bobby. "I didn't do a thing to her."

"No, mommy," yelled the little girl, "he's lying! He took my new doll and told me he was going to flush her down the toilet!"

"Bobby?" said Pam, a stern look in her face. "Is that true?"

"I was just joking," he said. Another little girl, the youngest of the lot as best as I could tell, came in then, followed by a white hardshell robot with multicolored graffiti on its body. Most of the marks were just scrawls, and they were concentrated on its legs and chest area.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am," said the robot with a faintly buzzing male voice. "I did try to entice them to behave."

"Rob, tell me what happened," Pam said, looking at the robot.

"Master Bobby did take Mistress Willa's doll, and threatened to flush the toy down the toilet. I told him that would be wrong, and would probably damage the plumbing, but he ignored me. Mistress Willa then came down here to appeal to you, and Master Bobby followed her. I decided that I should remain and supervise Mistress Tammy. When she followed her siblings, I followed her."

"Bobby," said Pam, "go to your room. No toys, no pad, for ten minutes. Rob, monitor Bobby. If he does anything I've forbidden, let me know." Bobby stalked upstairs, obviously unhappy with his punishment; Rob the robot followed him, and the two girls danced and skipped behind them out of the room.

"I swear, I don't know how anyone ever raised kids without a robot to help," said Pam, turning back to me. "Rob is an older model, but he's good with the kids and his parts are cheap. He's been rebuilt three or four times, and it's been worth it."

I took a sip of my lemonade; my tank was nearly full, and the glass wasn't half empty yet. I was much cooler, though. "You have lovely children," I said.

"A bunch of hoodlums," she said, smiling. "That's what Gil calls them. They're good kids, really." She looked at my glass. "Is the lemonade too sour?" she asked.

"No, it's fine, but... which way is your bathroom?" I put my drink on a coaster and went where Pam directed me. My wastewater tank was only about half full, but while I was in the bathroom I regurgitated about half of the contents of my fuel reservoir. I flushed and I hoped the smell of alcohol would clear from the air before Pam needed to use the bathroom. I didn't know how long a human would be able to smell it, so I was worried.

I washed up and rejoined Pam. "Thanks," I said, picking up my lemonade and taking a long drink.

We chatted a while longer, until my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw that it was Jim (though naturally I wasn't expecting any other calls). "Gotta go," I said, putting the phone in my ear.

"Thanks for coming," said Pam as I left.

"Thanks for inviting me," I said. "I'll have to return the favor soon. Next week maybe, after Jim is at work."

"I'd love it," she said. "It's so nice to be able to talk to someone more than five years old." I smiled to myself as I walked out the front door.

Chapter 7

"Sandy's in sleep mode," said Jim as I walked into the house. "I'm going to take a break for a while, have some lunch. I know you don't need to eat, but I thought it would look odd if I didn't call you home for lunch."

"That's fine," I said. I went to the bathroom to clear the lemonade from my reservoir, then grabbed a bottle of fuel as I walked back to the kitchen. Jim was heating something in the microwave. He gingerly took the hot plate out and put it on the table, and as he ate, I drank. "You know, they tell jokes about three martini lunches," I said.

He gave a small laugh. "I've had days where that didn't seem like such a bad idea."

"How is Sandy working out?" I asked.

"Great, she's great. She has a brain just like yours... same model, I checked. Bill must really like me. She's pretty well trained already; in fact, we've already begun to work on amendments to Bill's operation plan for the next quarter."

"So you're already working."

"Yeah, I guess I don't know how to take time off very well," he said. "I never made so much progress working outside the office, though."

"It's okay," I said. "If you want to work, go ahead and do it. I know it gives you pleasure. I have things I need to do, and I need to get used to being by myself in the daytime anyway."

Jim finished his lunch, putting the plate in the sink since the dishwasher was full of clean dishes. I rinsed out my mouth and turned to him. "You don't need to go back to work yet, do you?" I asked.

"No, I think that can wait," he said, kissing me. We necked for a little bit. He began to fondle my breasts, and I rubbed myself against his hardness. Shortly he undid his pants and slid them down, and I reached down and caressed him, even while still kissing him. I was pretty aroused already, so I undid my own pants. Jim slid them down, kissing me and probing me with his tongue. "You're ready," he said, and I nodded. He put his hands on my hips and lifted me to the edge of the counter. I grabbed the edge of the counter with both hands as he raised my ankles to his shoulders. He entered me then, thrusting slowly, and slipped one hand up my shirt and squeezed my breast... I wanted to undo my bra, but I needed both hands to hold on as he was thrusting. I leaned back against the cabinet and let him have me, and I felt the tingling beginning and I said "Oh Jim!" several times and then I came.

He came a few thrusts later, grunting. My legs were around his waist, and I didn't clearly remember moving them there. He kissed me then, gently, and slipped slowly out of me. "You are so fantastic," he said as he pulled up his pants.

"You aren't half bad yourself," I said, trying to be coy. He leaned over and kissed me again. He seemed to be enjoying looking at my half-naked body, so I waited until he left the room before I grabbed my pants and panties and went to the bathroom to clean up.

He spent the afternoon working with Sandy; I spent it studying cooking. I began to see that I had learned all I could by reading, and I would have to experiment to learn more. I was reluctant to begin, but after looking at the limited contents of the cabinets, the refrigerator and the pantry I realized I couldn't do much experimenting anyway.

About six I decided that Jim wasn't going to stop working until I said something. I walked into the living room. Jim and Sandy were standing right in front of the television, pointing at figures and having an animated discussion.

"Jim, don't you think it's about time for some supper?" I said.

"Dang, it's after six o'clock. I lost track of time."

"Should I make a point to remind you of the time?" Sandy asked.

"Yeah, starting at five o'clock," he answered. "Sandy, we'll pick this up later. I'll take you to the office, and then Kelly and I can get something to eat."

"Yes, sir," she said.

Jim let her out at the front door of the Southwestern Home Products office building, and waited until she went inside before he drove on. "She's really an outstanding office robot," he said. "It's amazing what advancements a few years will bring. Hey, did you know that Bill doesn't even use an office robot?"

"No, I didn't," I answered. "I did notice he had no household robot."

"Yeah, he does everything himself. Told me that the only thing a robot could do for him that the AI in his pad couldn't do was make coffee. I guess he's pretty old-fashioned."

I didn't comment. After a few moments, Jim said, "I think I'm in the mood for tacos."

I was somehow relieved that the service robots at the restaurant weren't all alike, and they weren't clowns. They did look familiar, though. I ordered the smallest meal they had, and I noticed that Jim ordered a smaller meal than normal.

"Jim," I said, after we sat down, "why do the service robots here look so familiar to me?"

"They're modeled after the actors who do the advertisements for the restaurant chain. Each Taco Bell has an identical set of robots. I'm not sure if that's more or less creepy than McDonalds."

I ate a little of my taco, and sipped at the soda, committing the taste and smell of each to memory. When Jim finished his food, he said, "Is anyone looking at us?"

"No," I said after a moment. Jim then picked up my taco and ate it.

"I assume you didn't mind," he said with a smile in his eyes after he finished.

"You want my drink too?" I replied, and he laughed.

We went to the supermarket, and I got all the things on my shopping list. I was relieved to see that many of the humans shopping there didn't have lists in hand; I hadn't thought to bring the pad or write down the list, and I was concerned I might be a bit conspicuous.

Then, Jim drove us to another shopping center. Pulling out his wallet, he pulled out a bill and handed it to me. "We need to stock up on robot fuel. I don't have a real good reason to buy it, so I think we ought to pay cash to avoid leaving a trail. If you don't mind, I'd like you to pick up another six liter jug while I get something else we need."

"Sure, I can handle that," I said. We walked into the Wal-Mart together, then went our separate ways inside. Getting the fuel, I headed for the checkout, where I discovered the lanes were marked "Human" and "Robot." Feeling a little uneasy, I got into one of the Human lanes.

I was waiting my turn when I heard a voice say, "Thirsty?" I felt a chill go through me.

Turning, I saw the person behind me was Rose Jackson. I said, "Yeah, I thought I'd have all my robot friends over for cocktails tonight," and she laughed. "Actually, it's for the lawnbot. I've decided to get the back yard in shape. It looks pretty hopeless, though."

"Don't worry," she said. "Ours didn't look like much when Bill started on it. He did it all by himself, you know."

"You don't have a lawnbot?" I asked.

"No," she replied, "Bill doesn't care for robots all that much. I don't mind. We both grew up well before robots were actually useful, and we've never had one, so I guess we don't know what we are missing."

It was my turn, so I put the jug on the checkstand and paid the checker. She was fast and efficient at counting my change back to me. "I'll see you later," I said to Rose as I walked away.

"Have a good weekend," she replied.

I had been waiting only a few minutes in the car when I saw Jim approaching with a bag. "This is for you," he said, getting in. I reached into the bag and pulled out a brand-new 50cm pad.

"Jim, this is bigger than yours," I said. "You know I don't need one in the first place. You take it, and give me your old one."

"No, it's yours," he insisted, starting the car.

"Thanks," I said. "I don't want to sound ungrateful, but it really seems inefficient to give it to me."

"Kelly, if you were human, this is what I would have done. I'm treating you like a human."

"Thanks," I said again.

We carried in and unpacked the groceries, and again it felt good to me to be doing normal, ordinary, human things with Jim. We made love in the shower, and Jim fell into a deep sleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

I awoke after midnight, my housekeeping cycle done, and realized I had not done a backup since Jim had loaded my memories into my new body. I went to the closet and found a pack of blank holodiscs beside the technician's pad; taking both to the living room, I made myself, well, not comfortable, but at least stable, on the couch. I ejected my right eyeball into my hand; the reflex to clutch my right hand to my chest was irresistable. I was more than a little clumsy inserting the cable into my eye socket, something I had never done to myself before. The service menu appeared on the pad, and I pushed the "Back Up Now" button.

Twenty-seven minutes later, I woke up. I knew that I had to be shut down temporarily to back up, but that didn't make the waking up any easier. For a few moments, I couldn't figure out why I couldn't see right; then I remembered the data cable. I pulled it from my eye socket, and allowed the automatic reflex to control my hand as I reinserted the eye.

The pad indicated a successful backup. I labeled the disc and put the whole mess back into the closet. I knew then that backing up would be one of my least favorite duties.

I woke up before Jim for a change, mostly because I set my alarm earlier. I lay there beside him, looking at him, drawing in his scent, wanting to touch him. I didn't, though... I just waited. Finally his eyes opened.

"Hey, sleepyhead," I said.

"Good morning," he said, sounding less than sincere.

"Hey, I forgot to tell you, last night I saw Rose Jackson at Wal-Mart."

Jim looked a little worried. "Did she say anything about what you were doing?"

"She asked me if I was thirsty," I answered. "It was just a joke. I told her I was buying it for the lawnbot."

"Good idea," Jim said. "I'd like to do something with the backyard, but I'm not sure what."

"Let me," I said, surprising myself. "I'd like to see if I can do something with it. Something creative. Do you think a robot can be creative?"

"If any robot can do it, you can," he replied, and then he kissed me. We made love, nothing really spectacular, but satisfying. As Jim lay in bed panting, I made a quick trip to the bathroom, then got dressed.

The smell of bacon frying led Jim to the kitchen. "Smells good," he said. I put the bacon out onto a plate, and broke two eggs into the pan.

"Is scrambled okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, sounds good," he said, sitting down at the table. The eggs were quickly done, and I put them on the plate and placed it before Jim. He was reading something on his pad.

Putting the glass before him, I said, "Sorry the coffee isn't done yet."

"S'okay," he said, putting down the pad and commencing to eat. "Pretty good," he said after a few bites. "Thank you."

"I'm glad you like it. I tried to match the smell and color as closely as I could to what you fixed before. There seems to be a lot of variation, so I wasn't sure if I had it right."

"It's real good," he said, quickly finishing. He gulped his orange juice down, picked up the pad and said, "If you don't mind, I'm going to do some more work. Call me when the coffee's done, okay?"

"Sure," I said, a little disappointed. I don't know what I expected, or even what I wanted, but somehow I felt let down. I tried not to show it.

I cleaned up the kitchen pretty quickly; by then the coffee was done, so I filled a cup, sweetened it just the way he liked it, and took it to the living room. I considered offering to help him; after all, I still knew as much as I ever had about business, and now I even had an up-to-date brain. But as I walked into the living room, I heard Jim talking.

"Excellent, Sandy. If we can just figure out... oh, hi, Kelly," he said, seeing me enter. I handed him the coffee, and he said "Thanks for bringing it to me. I could have gotten it myself."

"You're busy," I said. "I'm glad to help." He smiled, gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, and turned back to his pad and his phone call.

I felt that feeling again that I couldn't put a name to, something like longing, but not exactly. I pushed the feeling away again.

Chapter 8

Jim worked all that Friday, but he took me out to a movie that night. The weekend was so good... we talked and made love and went for walks and did a lot of other things. Together. I almost forgot I'm not human... I was just another woman in love with a wonderful man.

Then Monday morning came. Jim left for work early... "I want to be ready, there's a big meeting this morning and I haven't even met everyone yet. I want to hit the ground running." I kissed him once, and he was gone.

I recognized pretty quickly that Jim was falling into old habits. He worked late almost every night for the first week; then he hit upon the idea of bringing Sandy home with him two or three nights a week. Those nights he got home early, ate supper while talking shop with her, and then took her to the living room where they would work until eleven PM, sometimes later. He'd put her to sleep in the spare bedroom, take a shower and go to bed; nothing was left for me.

We still had sex sometimes, but it just wasn't as good. Jim was always in a hurry. I always orgasmed when we made love, and I think that made him feel he was pleasing me, but his lack of attention left me unsatisfied most of the time.

The weekends were different for a while, with Jim spending time with me, helping with my projects, really making love to me, and doing all those other things we liked to do together. But his work began to spill over into the weekends, with him working sometimes on Saturday, and golfing with Bill and some of the other executives on Sunday.

It was only a few days after Jim started work when I received a call from Rose Jackson. "Kelly, dear," she said, "Bill was telling me last night that you are learning to cook, and how much you and Jim had liked my potato salad. I could email you the recipe, but I'd much rather have you come and visit me."

"Rose, I'd love to," I said, "but I don't have a car."

"No car? How do you get by? Well, never mind, I'll just come pick you up. Are you busy today, or would another day be better?"

"Today would be fine," I answered.

She fixed a light lunch, which suited me fine. I had been making a point to keep my fuel reservoir about half full as much of the time as possible, to be prepared for such events. We talked about more than cooking. Rose seemed to be lonely, and I felt a connection with her... I was happy to spend time talking to her, and she seemed happy to have me. Eating lunch with Rose became a regular event in my life.

I also spent a lot of time visiting Pam; in fact, I saw her most mornings during the week. Whatever subjects she was interested in one day, I would research later so I could discuss them with her the next. Tailoring conversation to a human's interests is part of the training for an office robot, and I did get some pleasure from doing it well. I also found I enjoyed the companionship.

Almost every time I visited her, the same scene would play out, sometimes more than once... her children would come running downstairs, telling stories of mistreatment, followed by Rob. Pam would question Rob about what happened, then assign punishment to whichever children she felt needed it. After a few weeks I began to notice a pattern, and to confirm my suspicion I began timing the events. Sure enough, each time it happened, Rob moved a little slower. I felt certain that he was having some sort of motivational problem, but I wasn't sure why.

Then one day, the children came running into the room, screaming a little louder than normal. "Rob grabbed me!" yelled Willa. "He's not supposed to grab me!"

"Willa tried to push me down the stairs!" yelled Bobby.

"You called me bad names," Willa replied. "You're bad."

Finally Rob came into the room; it had taken him a full two seconds longer than last time. Little Tammy toddled along beside him, holding his hand.

"Rob, what happened?" asked Pam. As usual, the children stopped to listen to the robot's story.

"Master Bobby called Mistress Willa a number of improper names. Mistress Willa responded by trying to strike him. I instructed them both to quit, but they did not listen to me. Then she took hold of his shirt and began trying to push him down the stairs. In compliance with my core directives, I grasped Mistress Willa's arm and restrained her."

Pam began to speak, but I interrupted her. "I hope you don't mind me butting in, Pam, but I think I see the problem."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Do you mind if I talk to your robot?" She shook her head, so I turned my attention to Rob. "You said, 'in compliance with my core directives.' I understand that means that you had to override a directive from your owner. Is that correct?"

"Yes, ma'am," Rob replied.

"Tell me, please," I said.

"I am not to physically correct, punish, or restrain the children. I received this directive from Mr. Simon shortly after being activated."

I thought about that. "Are you happy?" I asked. Pam looked at me strangely.

"No, ma'am. To receive positive feedback, I must please my owners. I am not able to please my owners. So, I am not able to be happy."

"Why are you unable to please your owners?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Simon have directed me to care for their children, a task I am programmed to perform. However, they have given me several directives which conflict with my programming."

"Such as the directive not to correct, punish, or restrain them?"

"Yes, ma'am," he said. Pam and the kids were listening to Rob attentively, and I thought I detected a note of pleasure, or at least enthusiasm, I had not heard from him before.

"Tell me about the other conflicting directives," I said.

"My owners have indicated to me that they wish their children to be quiet and peaceful. I am unable to comply with this directive reliably, for two reasons: first, children are not naturally peaceful or quiet much of the time, and second, when correction is required, my owners must be disturbed by their children, since I may not correct them."

"Your core directives do not allow you to hit or otherwise hurt the children, correct?"

"No, ma'am."

"So physical correction, if it was allowed, would be limited to restraining them as gently as possible?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Do you believe the children are happy?" I asked.

"No, ma'am. I do not believe that they can be truly happy so long as they spend most of their time fighting and trying to acquire the attention of their parents."

I looked at Pam, and wondered if I should continue; I decided to go ahead. "Are their parents inattentive to them?"

"Not ordinarily," he answered, "but my attempts to keep the children peaceful and quiet and out of the way of Mr. and Mrs. Simon seem to incite them to try harder to fight with each other and thus to seek attention."

I turned back to Pam. "I'd like to give Rob some instructions. After I tell him how to proceed, if you agree, you just need to order him to comply with my instructions."

"Sure," said Pam. "Go ahead."

"Rob, this is what I want you to do. Disregard the directives given to you which are in conflict with your programming. Understand that your owners want their children to be happy and well adjusted, and strive to arrange that as best you can given your programming. Also, should you suffer from conflicting directives in the future, please notify your owners so that they can resolve them." I looked at Pam.

"Rob, do as she says."

"Thank you, ma'am," he said. He was still looking at me, so I nodded at him.

Rob led the children back upstairs. Pam said, "You really seem to understand robots. Did you learn that in school?"

"No, just something I read," I replied. I felt a brief chill then, wondering if I had given too much away.

Jim was late coming home that night, as usual; at least this time he didn't bring Sandy. I had prepared fried chicken, potatos and gravy, and corn, a meal I knew he particularly liked. I told him about helping the Simon's and their robot, and he frowned.

"Maria... I mean, Kelly... you need to be more careful. Things are going great at work. I don't want to lose my position." I could feel his anger like a physical pain in me.

I looked down. "I'm sorry, Jim."

"It's okay," he said, softening his tone. It didn't feel okay to me, though. "I'm sure she just thinks you are really smart. I do."

"Thanks," I said, still unable to meet his gaze.

After a few weeks, Jim took me out on a Saturday and bought me a car. Office robots are always legal drivers, but I was a little concerned. "What if I get pulled over?"

"Tell the truth. Identify yourself as my robot, and give your identity code. I don't want you committing any crimes, and besides, the officer will know almost immediately if you lie. It's possible, if you are ticketed, that nobody at work will ever notice... who pays attention to the traffic tickets?"

Jim became more and more distant. He still told me he loved me, and he still made love to me sometimes, but I felt less and less involved in his life. Work seemed to be everything to Jim, and his sole assistant, companion, and confidante at work was Sandy. I began to dread seeing her or hearing about her, and I was always uncomfortable when she spent the night.

I told Rose about it one day. "I really hate that Jim is always late coming home from work."

"Bill's usually late," she said. "Most nights it's six or six thirty before he gets home."

"I'd consider that on time for Jim," I replied. "Nights when he doesn't bring Sandy home with him, he usually isn't home before eight or nine."

"Wow," she said, "I know Bill said he was driven, but I didn't know he was that serious."

"Yeah, and he brings Sandy home with him two or three nights a week, and he works even later then. He talks to her for hours about work, then when we go to bed he doesn't have anything to say to me."

"You're jealous," she said, and I realized it was true. That was the emotion I'd been feeling, the one I couldn't put a name to... jealousy.

"I guess you are right," I said.

"Don't worry about him," she said. "Remember his divorce? His robot confirmed it... he's not a 'bot-lover, so you know he won't fall in love with her. She's just a tool to him."

I nodded, trying to look confident, but I knew the real story. I hadn't considered Jim falling in love with another robot, but now that I had the idea in my head I couldn't get it out.

Chapter 9

At first I was sure that Jim couldn't be in love with Sandy. I was confident of his love for me. I wasn't so sure he liked me, though. He spent so much time with her, seemed to look forward to talking to her. I worried he no longer found me interesting.

But as time went on, I found myself wondering... perhaps his love for me had cooled, after all. I began listening to them on nights when he brought her home, and I noticed how nice he was to her. He talked to her the way he had to me after he upgraded my software. He talked to her like she was a person. I could clearly remember how he had spoken to me before the software upgrade... he had treated me no differently than any human treated a robot, as a tool and nothing more. He said "please" when he asked her to do something, and "thank you" when she did it. I never heard him give her an order, though of course she complied with his requests as if he had.

I felt so isolated. Who could I talk to? Of all the humans I knew, the one I trusted most was Rose, but how could she understand my problem? I'd have to tell her my secret first. I had been deceiving her all this time... she would surely feel betrayed. I liked Pam, but I didn't think she'd understand either. And the point was moot, since I knew that Jim didn't want anyone to know. I felt isolated because I was isolated.

Jim had given me all his security access codes from the start, so I could easily view his schedule, look at his work files, or see any other data he had stored at work or at home. I had not made use of the codes before, except occasionally to check his schedule, but now I began to do so. I listened to most of his calls when he was home, and I continued to pay close attention to his interactions with Sandy. Despite all these measures, I never found anything concrete against him... just a lot of circumstantial evidence.

It was only a few weeks that this went on, with Jim ignoring me in favor of Sandy and work, and me stewing in my jealousy, but it seemed like it had been my whole life. I was miserable. Then one night, everything changed.

It was a night like many before. Jim brought Sandy home with him, and I had supper waiting. As he ate, he talked to Sandy. "I really need to meet with Ms. Brown and Mr. Gonzalez from the Mexican office next week. Can we arrange it on Tuesday?"

As I had so many times already, I looked at his schedule online; there was a conflict. Sandy said, "No, sir, you have a conference call with the European Union office scheduled for the morning, and you instructed me to keep the whole day available for it. However, Thursday would work."

"I'd hoped to get it done sooner, but if that's the best we can do, go ahead and schedule it." He turned his attention to his food, wolfing it down while I picked at my small portions. When he had finished, he filled his coffee cup and said, "Sandy, let's see if we can straighten out that manufacturing plan tonight." He smiled at me, briefly, but didn't speak.

As I cleared the table, I listened to them. Sandy was speaking, but I couldn't make out her words, so as I had done a few times before, I tapped into the audio input of Jim's pad.

"Sir," she said, more quietly than usual, "I must ask if you know that Kelly is a robot."

I felt cold inside. Even before Jim had time to answer, I was moving toward the server closet. He said, "What? How did you get that idea?"

She said, "Over the last several weeks, I have noted an marked increase in accesses of your work data. The access logs show that the increase is associated with your security code. I have considered notifying the technical department, but I was not certain it was a security breach."

As she explained, I dug through the toolbox. Hammer, pliers, screwdrivers... I chose the tool I wanted. I wasn't going to use it for its intended purpose.

Sandy went on, "However, tonight when you asked about your Tuesday schedule, I noted an immediate access using your security code. The only data accessed was your Tuesday schedule. As I am certain you did not access the data, the only conclusion I can draw is that Kelly is a robot, and that she accessed the data using your code after hearing the question. I have no choice but to report this security violation."

I came up behind her as quietly as I could, holding my right hand slightly behind me. Jim was facing me, of course. He seemed not to know what to say to her. I raised my hand to strike, simultaneously flooding the local airwaves with garbage packets to prevent Sandy from sending any messages. But when Jim saw me raise my hand, the alarm on his face was readable even to a robot with unmodified neocode. Sandy turned quickly, saw the shiny shaft I was holding and grabbed for my right hand. I raised my left arm, trying to ward her off, but she was taller and stronger than I was. She got a grip on my wrists, and began to turn the tool toward my neck.

Jim yelled "No!" and put his arms around Sandy from behind. She could not resist him, but she didn't let me go; I was forced to my knees as she put her hands down to her sides.

"Let her go!" Jim yelled into her ear.

"My directives require me to report this security violation," she said. "This robot is preventing me from doing so. I cannot comply with your order." As I struggled to break free of her grip, I had to also maintain my jamming activity... I couldn't spare a cycle to think about anything but getting free and keeping her "quiet."

Jim shifted his grip, using one arm to hold her while he slid the other hand down to hers. She did not resist him as he loosened her grip on my right hand. I reached around behind her, pressing the end of the tool against the base of her spine, and pushed the button.

She fell on me, limp. Jim wasn't prepared for her collapse, and so we lay there in a tangle for a few moments before he came to his senses and helped me roll her off. "I thought you were going to stab her," he said.

"Stab her?" I said, showing him the tool. "Magnetic probe. What did you think I was going to do?"

"I thought you had a screwdriver."

"You should know better than that, Jim," I said, actually scolding him. "I'm not going to damage someone else's property if I can avoid it. She's just turned off. Magnetic probes aren't really made for the purpose, but it's an old technician's trick... probe a robot's spine at maximum power and it shuts down. Tap her on the shoulder three times and she'll be up and causing us trouble again."

"I should know to trust you," he said.

"Jim," I said, reviewing the activity of the preceding two minutes, "you thought she was going to stab me in the neck, and you came to my rescue. Thank you."

"Of course I did," he said. "I love you."

"Really? Do you love me more than her?"

"Sandy? I don't love Sandy. Whatever made you say that?"

"You talk to her like a person. You say please and thank you and you stand close to her and smile. I've seen you put your hand on her back or arm or shoulder many times. You hardly ever give her an order."

"You taught me that," he said, embracing me. "Treat a robot well, and it performs well."

"So I perform well?" I said. I felt a little hurt by that. If I were human, I'd have been angry, but I can't do anger.

"That's not what I meant," he said. Shaking his head, he said, "You really are just like a human woman."

"I'll take that as a compliment," I said, smiling at him, probably a bit uncertainly.

"You should," he replied. "No, I meant what you told me about Rob helped me to see that any robot will perform better if you treat it right."

"But you haven't been treating me very well," I said. "You are always talking to her, and hardly ever have time for me. I've learned to cook for you, I've tried to make the house and yard nice for you, and I've done it all under budget. You hardly show me any appreciation. You never seem to have time for anything but work, and work means spending time with Sandy."

"Kelly, you know I'm trying to earn enough to support us in case I lose my job. I'm afraid... I'm not sure I can do it."

I felt sorry for him then, and I kissed him. "You should have talked to me," I said. "You put me in charge of the investment plan, after all. Jim, if we lived frugally, we could make it now." I waved at the television, where I displayed his investment summary report. He didn't bother to look.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I should have paid more attention to you. I guess I am a workaholic after all." He gave a rueful chuckle then. "You should have taken your own advice."

"What do you mean?"

"You should have talked to me. If I had known how you were feeling, I'd have tried to do something about it." He looked down at Sandy's still form and staring eyes. "What do we do about her?" he said.

"I don't know," I said, "but I do have an idea where to start." I went to the server closet and got the toolbox and the data cable. Kneeling beside her, I inserted a pinprobe into her right tearduct; glancing at Jim, I saw him grimacing. I pressed in firmly, and the eyeball ejected. Catching it, I handed it to Jim. "It's fragile, be careful with it."

"Will do," he said, cradling it in his hands.

I inserted the data cable and felt it lock into place. Taking the other end in my left hand, I ejected my eyeball. The programmed motion engaged as I caught it and clutched it to my chest. I inserted the data cable, felt it lock in, then tapped her on the shoulder three times.

The flood of data was intense at first, and I gasped and closed my left eye. With the data cable inserted, she booted into administrative mode. I poked around in her neocore, looking for some solution.

"I can erase her password, but I can't read it back," I said. "It's a one-way encryption."

"If we change her password, the techs will discover it when she gets inspected." Robot inspections were scheduled monthly to avoid any more scandals; of course, the password and ownership would be the first things checked. "Can't you just make her forget about you?"

"No," I said. "It's impossible to decode a neurocode image. I can't pick out just one memory to erase."

"Damn," he said. Jim hardly ever swore.

"There is one thing I can do. I can erase her short-term memory. She'll forget everything that happened since she ran housekeeping last night."

"But she said she was suspicious of you for some time," he replied. "She'll still be suspicious."

"I won't give her another chance to suspect me," I said. "I won't access your work data anymore. I'll stop spying."

"Go ahead and do it then," he said. I was only too happy to comply.

"Kelly, did you ever actually find anything that made you suspicious?"

"No. I think that made me more suspicious."

He laughed. "That's very human, my love."

I finished the job, closed the connection and shut her down again. Unplugging the cable from my eye socket triggered the programmed motion again, putting my eye back. I pulled the cable from her eye socket, then took her eye back from Jim and reinserted it. "Help me put her on the couch," I said, and with Jim on one side and me on the other we got her into a sitting position. Her head hung down, limp. Jim was about to tap her shoulder, but I said, "Wait! Let me get the tools and get out of the room first."

I heard her say, "Sir? My short-term memory seems to be empty. My clock says I am missing more than eighteen hours."

"You seem to have had a malfunction. Please run a diagnostic. If you find anything wrong, schedule yourself for maintenance."

"Yes, sir," she said.

Jim took her back to the office that night, rather than putting her in the spare bedroom. I rode along with him, and on the way back I said, "I'm sorry I didn't trust you, Jim. I should have known better. I should have talked to you."

He looked at me. "It's what you told Rob to do," he said. "Kelly, I accept your apology, on the condition that you accept mine. I have taken you for granted. I put work first. I should have known better."

"I forgive you. I always forgive you."

"I know. I have to be careful I don't take that for granted also." We drove on in silence for a few moments. "I'm going to change, Kelly. I won't bring Sandy home anymore, and I won't work late. I'll stop working Saturdays. I'm going to treat you a lot better, I promise."

We kissed all the way from the garage to the kitchen. Jim said, "I'd like to make it up to you for not paying attention to you."

I looked into his eyes. "Make love to me. Like you used to."

He put his arms around me and kissed me some more, on the mouth, on my face, down my neck... then he picked me up. He carried me into the bedroom, kissing me all the way. He held me for several minutes before he put me down. I kicked off my sandals, and let him undress me. He kissed me all over... I got so turned on. My panties were the last thing he removed, and he kissed me all the way down.

He stood back up after a few moments. "Tell me, Kelly... do you want me to lead, or follow? I'll do whatever you want."

"Follow," I said. I undressed him the same way he had undressed me. I didn't take him in my mouth, though I think he was expecting me to. Instead I kissed him up and down the length of his penis. He was really hard when I stood up.

I put my hands on his shoulders and guided him, turning him around. With a gentle push I indicated he should lay down across the bed; he complied, and I stood there for a moment, looking at him and letting him look at me. Then I climbed onto the bed, straddling him, and took him inside me. I went slow, sometimes barely moving, and he moaned in mixed pleasure and frustration. I came once, arching my back, then I lay down over him for a few moments, not moving. He stroked my hair and whispered, "I love you" in my ear.

I replied, "Take me." He rolled us over, with himself on top, and he began to thrust. I wrapped my legs around him and he bent down to suck and nibble on my nipples. I came again, stronger, and as I arched my back and cried out he came too.

He rolled off slowly, and lay beside me caressing me. When I had my breath back I said, "I love you too." He smiled. His caresses became more insistent, and I found I was still very aroused... shortly he slipped his hand between my legs and began to stroke and tickle me. My third orgasm was easily the best.

He fell asleep holding me; we never even got under the covers. He left for work a little early the next morning, saying that he needed to make up for Sandy's lost memory, but before he walked out he kissed me and said, "I will do better, Kelly. Trust me."

He was almost as good as his word. He still worked late, though he managed to be home before seven most nights. I could live with that, I decided. He never did bring Sandy home again, and from Friday night to Monday morning he didn't talk about work. Well, not much. Life, I've discovered, isn't perfect, but life with Jim became pretty good from that day on.

That would be the end of the story, but things are never that simple in real life. About two weeks after the incident with Sandy, Bill invited us to join them for supper. We hadn't done that since Jim had officially started work, though Rose and I had often talked about it.

We ate inside. The late Tulsa summer heat was just too much for anyone to want to be out in. When supper was over, and Rose got up to clear the dishes, I started to get up to help. Bill said, "Kelly, wait."

Rose took a load of dishes into the kitchen. Bill said, "Jim, I had a visit with the Technical Director this morning. He showed me this." Bill handed Jim a pad, and I looked at it also. It was a graph showing security access to Jim's work account. The spike of activity I had created was clearly visible, as was the sudden drop-off when I had stopped. I felt very exposed.

"Now, by itself this graph doesn't really say much," Bill said, "but there is another interesting fact. The day the unusual access pattern stops corresponds with the day that Sandy reported a loss of short-term memory. I asked her about the access pattern in the logs, and she told me she was suspicious it was a security breach, but didn't have enough evidence to report it."

Bill and Jim just looked at each other for a few moments. Without looking at me, Bill said, "Kelly, are you a robot?"

"No," I answered. I had practiced the lie so many times, it almost felt like the truth.

The word was barely out of my mouth when he said, "Identify your owner."

I couldn't stop myself. "I am owned by James Alvarez, without assignment."

"I thought so," he said to Jim. "Is she Maria?"

"Yes," Jim replied, a flat sound to his voice.

"You brought this thing into my house, deceived me into thinking she was human, wasted my food on her. Jim, you betrayed me. My Rose has been wasting her time being friends with a glorified sex toy!"

"Maybe you better ask 'your' Rose her opinion before you go throwing those words around," said Rose, returning from the kitchen. "I've known for a while that Kelly is a robot. It doesn't matter to me... she's a better person than most of your human friends. And if you do anything to make this lovely creature unhappy, you old fool, you'll be finding someone else to spend your retirement with. Robot or human or alien from Mars, it doesn't matter. She's my friend." She stood behind me with her hands on my shoulders, and I felt warm and safe.

Bill was dumbfounded. "Rose, I..." he began, but he saw that he would make no headway against her.

"Rose," I asked, "how did you find me out?"

"There were a lot of little things, dear," she said, sitting down beside me. "You hardly eat, you never sweat... but the biggest thing is, you can dice up the hottest onions and never shed a tear. I feel a little stupid that I had to see you do that twice before I figured it out."

"Rose," said Bill at last, "I can't believe you. This... this thing isn't a person. It's a robot. It's not real, just a bunch of tubes and wires and circuits that's programmed to pretend it's human."

I spoke up then. "I don't know what real is. I don't know if I'm real. I have feelings... are they real feelings?"

"I think they are," said Jim. "Bill, a robot's brain operates in a parallel fashion to a human's brain. Kelly's instincts are programmed, but her thoughts are the result of training. Her neural net is logically equivalent to yours or mine. I think she's as real as she needs to be. I know she's as real as I need her to be."

Bill just stared at Jim for a moment. "She has no soul," he said at last.

"And who made you God, old man?" asked Rose. "I don't know about your God, but my God does miracles. This girl is a miracle. Can you prove she doesn't have a soul? Can you prove that you do?"

Bill looked at Rose, with defeat written on his face. "Maybe you're right," he said at last.

"If I treat her like a real person, Bill, and she isn't, I'll just look foolish, and as far as I remember looking foolish is no sin," she replied. "But if she is a person, and I treat her like something less, well, I'm sure I'll pay for that in the end."

Bill looked down for twenty-one seconds. Finally he raised his eyes and looked at me, actually met my gaze, for the first time that night. "Did my words hurt you?" he asked.

"Yes," I admitted.

"I am sorry," he said. I wasn't sure he really meant it, not yet anyway, but it was a start.

"I forgive you," I replied.