Donald was almost ready to sit down in his favorite chair. It was correctly positioned along the North wall of the large and fully enclosed patio setting. The early morning sun was just now reaching the chair, his chair. There were only a few other residents out, and it looked like it would be another beautiful day.

Donald wore a green terrycloth robe and carried a large steaming black coffee in a thermal cup. He knew that he was old and his movements could be a little wobbly and often much slower than he liked. He carefully placed the cup in a convenient holder that was part of the chair’s right armrest. He shuffled in front of the chair, ready to sit. The sun began warming his face. He was especially carefully as he eased himself into the chair without incident. A big bruise on his hip was beginning to fade. Last week he had lost his balance and missed the chair. One of the aides had helped him from the ground and he had to spend the better part of an hour mostly just waiting in the infirmary for some bureaucrat to decide his injury was not serious enough to warrant more care. Simply sitting anywhere had been uncomfortable for a few days, but now, except for this old bruise, he was good. He patted his pocket to assure himself he had remembered to bring his reader. First he leaned back his head and closed his eyes as the sun continued its rise and shared its warmth.

Bea should be here with him. She should be sitting next to him, her hand within easy reach. She didn’t live here with him. He wasn’t sure why not. She didn’t share his bed any more. He felt a tear form in his eye. He missed Bea. He missed her so much. Maybe she would visit him today. He hoped she would.

Some time later Donald was reading a book. He preferred his reader to a real book. It was simple to make the print bigger and easier on his eyes. He spent much of his time reading. It was good. He could lose himself for hours in a good story. He operated the reader one-handed while his other hand was inside his robe rubbing himself when he wasn’t sipping his coffee. He fantasized about Bea as his erection stiffened. He remembered how well she did this. He remembered how she would bend down and take him in her mouth, warm and wet and arousing.

“Mr. Peterson, Mr. Peterson, now you stop that! You know you can’t do that out here. Why aren’t you wearing your pants again? Come on, stand up. You’re going right back to your room to get dressed. Stand up now Mr. Peterson.” It was Emily. She was one of the supervising care aides. Emily was not the one who had helped after he had missed the chair last week. She was the nagging one. She enforced the rulebook, if there was a rulebook. Donald thought Emily probably made up half the rules she enforced. She was a big woman and he was no match for her anymore. He closed his reader and slipped it back into his pocket. He stopped rubbing himself with his other hand though he made no immediate effort to hide his erection. The sun felt good, there and everywhere.

He looked up, sheepish. “I’m sorry, Emily. I forgot.”

“You didn’t forget anything, Mr. Peterson. You planned this, just like you have done before. You know how it upsets your neighbors here. I’m going to have to ask nurse Nickerson again to give you something to suppress these urges you get. You’re getting to be too much for me to handle. Now stand up. We’re going back to your room and get you into something decent.” She also spoke softly into her collar mic. His hearing wasn’t decreeing enough to tell what she said, but what did it matter? She just wanted someone to take over Donald Peterson for her. She didn’t like having to deal with the randy old man any more than absolutely necessary.

“Do you know if Bea is coming to visit me today, Emily? I miss her.”

“No. Bea won’t be visiting. I know you miss her, but there’s nothing I can do about that. She won’t be visiting.”

“Maybe I could call her. Maybe I can just talk to her on the phone and tell her how much I need to see her. Maybe then she’ll visit.”

“No, Mr. Peterson. No phone calls, no visits, you can’t see her anymore.”

“That’s not right. She’s my wife. We’ve been married for more than 60 years.” Donald thought that was true, but he couldn’t really remember the number of years just now. He knew it was a lot though.

Emily was steering him through a doorway and down a hall towards his little tan painted room. Bethany was hurrying down the hallway towards them in response to Emily’s call. ‘Thank you, God,’ Emily thought to herself. She was ready to turn the old man over to someone ready to help him. “He’s naked under that. And he’s been wanking himself again. I can’t deal with him today. I’ve got too much on my plate already.”

“I’ll help you now, Donald. You remember me, don’t you?”

He smiled at the young woman. She was one of the good ones. “Bethany,” he said with a confident smile as she took over from her superior.

Some time later, Donald was dressed in more suitable khaki pants, a tropical themed shirt and sandals. Bethany had him put on a thick coating of sunscreen. He was back in his chair, reading. He had a cup of ice water at his side. The thought again about Bea and wondered again if she might visit him today. He let the reader lay on his lap and closed his eyes. He slipped into a nap.

“Daddy, Daddy. Wake up.”

Donald opened his eyes, still confused by the fog of sleep. There was a woman in front of him. The youthful smile of his wife’s face beamed at him. “Bea. You did come to visit.”

“No, Daddy. Its Brenda, not Mom. But I did come to visit. Jeff has the kids and I wanted to fly out for the day just to see you. It’s been too long.”

She’s grown, he thought. His little girl is a grown woman now. But he recognized the bright blue eyes and warm charm of his daughter, Brenda. “Oh yes, Brenda. You look so much like Bea when she was younger, you know. How is Bea? She hasn’t visited for a while.”

Brenda shook her head. “No she hasn’t has she, Daddy?” She didn’t want to tell him again that her mother has passed away years ago, before the twins were born. She sniffed her nose instead. “How have you been? Are they taking good care of you?”

He shrugged. “I don’t like that Emily. She is a big pain in the ass if you ask me.” Some of the others are nice though. He tried briefly to remember some more names, but the words were elusive today.

“How about the other residents? Your neighbors, have you made any new friends?”

He nodded, mostly because he thought he was supposed to. “Yes I have friends.” He smiled. He wondered for a moment if Brenda could see through his bluff.

“Jeff and I have a surprise for you, Daddy. You’re getting an AI. It’s being delivered today. That’s partly why I’m here.” She looked at the too blank expression on his face and realized he might not realize what an AI was. They had them here as aides and workers. She just assumed he would understand.

Donald was wondering who Jeff was. He hadn’t yet concerned himself with just what ‘AI’ meant or why it would be delivered.

“Chromium has come out with a new series. I spent hours and hours on the customizations and creating its history, Daddy. I think you’re going to love it.” She saw at once that her last statement seemed to make no sense to her dad. “Well, you’ll see soon enough. I just want you to know that you’re getting a big surprise today.”

“I like being surprised.” And that was good. Donald was easily and frequently surprised.

Brenda and Donald ate lunch at a small table, mostly away from the noise. They had small sandwiches He was occupied with showing her a music library pad he had borrowed from the library. He had his own old-school, over-the-ear headset that he cherished for its presumed sound quality. Brenda couldn’t distinguish any difference from her own, tiny earbuds and her dad’s hearing was in decline anyway. No matter though. He liked what he liked. Her dad favored the almost ancient 20th century jazz recordings. He was describing the Art Blakely recording he had chosen for them to listen to.

“I don’t know how you can recall all that detail about the music, Dad.”

“I remember details about Bea too. I wish she were here with us right now. I wish she’d visit more.”

Brenda wished her dad could put all that behind, but she understood that he couldn’t. The AI would help, she was sure. They had finished lunch and an AI was approaching to clear their table. It was an old unit, she thought. Maybe a Syncronics Labs model, obviously not the latest generation.

“Hello, Bethany,” Brenda watched as her dad greeted the AI. “This is my daughter, Brenda. She’s all grown up now.”

“Yes, Brenda visits you regularly. I know her.” Brenda looked at the AI. She smiled, not to be polite to a machine, but to please her dad.

“I wish she’d bring her mother with her. I really want to see Bea.”

“I’m sure you’d be happy if that were possible.” Donald watched fondly as Bethany left them, moving on to clear another table.

“Bethany is a good person,” he told his daughter. She’s always ready to help anyone who needs it.

Brenda smiled and nodded. She didn’t have anything to say.

Some time later, Bethany returned. “There’s a delivery for Mr. Peterson. I believe Brenda cleared it ahead of time. It has been placed in your room.”

“Really? A delivery for me? That’s interesting, isn’t it, dear? Perhaps we should go see what it could be.”

“Yes, Daddy. We should go and see.” Brenda stood up to accompany her father to his room. Bethany followed to remove and recycle any packaging materials.

The shipping box was about waist high. It was somewhat cube like, but with one dimension made narrow enough to fit through the door. It looked heavy, but it was fastened securely on a frictionless slider so that it was easy to move. The box was marked prominently with the big Chromium ‘C’ logo. Other than that, there was a clear envelope with shipping information and, in an upper corner on each face, an arrow proclaiming ‘This Side Up’.

“Wow, Dad. Do you want to open this or do you want some help?”

“I don’t know. It’s big isn’t it? Do you think I’ll have somewhere to keep it? What could it be?” Donald approached the shipment slowly. He looked at the clear shipping envelope confirming that it had his name. A green square on one corner of the top was labeled OPEN in block letters. The panel rotated smoothly and revealed a bio sensor. He held his hand near and the packaging begin to fold onto itself revealing the shape of a sitting girl with knees pulled forward and her arms seeming to hold them in place. Her face leaned forward as though she was asleep. The girl, and a zip-locked cloth bag were covered with a shimmery transparent film. The film seemed to evaporate into nothing. The girl lifted her face to look around the room and orient herself.

Donald took a step back, then stopped and stared. “Bea? Is that you? You’re different. Have you taken some kind of a youth treatment. You ... you’re ... young. Is that where you’ve been? I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you so very much.”