Chapter 14

I just wanted to sum things up at this point. Mainly to keep everything clear in my head.

1. I was now living in one of my girlfriend’s parents’ guest house.

2. So were Renée and Lucy.

3. Graduation was coming up shortly.

4. Dad had decided to divorce mom based on abandonment. He also hired a young woman as the nanny to care for the hellions.

5. Ben was engaged to a manipulative bitch.

6. I had a lawyer working on getting the settlement money mom had stolen. As well as working on the case with the city.

7. The incorporation of Androids-R-Us was completed. So, we now have a business. However, it looked like Ben was going to bow out.

8. Mom was in an Argentina jail. I am still not sure what she was charged with. I only know she could be there for 30 years.

9. Oh, we still had a month before the state fair competition. We used that time to add a few improvements to Amy and Franky.

I think that sums it up.

So, what should I tell you about next? Let’s see. Yes, the improvements to Amy. We added microphones to her ears. Mainly so she could respond to voice commands. We gave her optical cameras in her eyes. Well, she would video everything for later playback however they acted more as sensors to keep her from walking into things. We incorporated a voice recognition system that would allow Amy to respond to some questions. All we pre programmed responses of course. Amy was a robot after all. However, Lucy and Renée had some humorous responses built in. This meant an upgrade to her memory system and a co-processor had to be added to handle the enhancements. Make that 2 coprocessors.

We updated Franky a bit more before deciding to create a static cutaway for display. Then covering him with skin completely. With the sensors in his skin all one had to do was take hold of his hand and it would shake. If you said hello Frankie, he would raise his hand and wave it back and forth at you. If you said goodbye, he would raise his arm and open and close his hand in a different form of wave. We decided to have Amy be able to do the same. As both units had Wi-Fi from reprogramming if someone said something Amy didn’t like. Franky would show them his middle finger. Well, that’s as far as we got before the fair.

The Graduation party ended up being held at the Rainer’s for Renée, Lucy and myself. Dad paid for the beer. He was kind of strapped for cash at the moment. However, it was still a very nice party. Ben showed up briefly with his fiancée. She was cold to us. Found out later Ben was to go to college and get his degree. He offered to return his shares in the company as she was not going to let him be part of anything so immoral. We agreed as it didn’t look like he was going to be any help in the future. In fact, he was forbidden from going to the fair. I figure they would be devoiced within a year. The girls agreed with me. Ben’s stepmom was not happy with his decision. Then again, she was not happy with his fiancée either. She did let us know not to worry she would still be there for our company.

It was two days before the fair when I learned that the settlement money had been released. Also, that the City wanted to settle and that the officer who almost killed me was being charged with attempted homicide. Well, things were looking up. Of course, the downside was that the funds released were only 1.75 million. Apparently before my lawyer could claim the money an electronic request cleared the bank. It looked like a bribe was paid by dear old mom to get out of jail. Well, they released her anyway. Right into the hands of a US Marshal for extradition. And it cost me 250,000. I just shrugged it off. It’s not like she was going to get away with it. On the bright side I know I had the funds to start Android-R-Us up. So, we contacted a real-estate agent about finding a small manufacturing building. Then we were off to the fair.

It was two weeks in a hot building that we were showing Amy and Franky off to the public. The most interesting part was where we were seated next to Chris Weston and James Marlo. (Authors Note: See ‘Changing Our Past’ for the full background) They were the two that had been working on artificial intelligence for their science project. They had a couple of computers and a big screen TV with a face on it. It was a simple mouth, nose and eyes. You could ask it a question and it would respond with answers if it knew the answer that was. The 5 of them talked a lot the first day. Despite their being some interest in the AI most people gravitated towards Amy.

Amy would begin her programmed speech whenever one of us hit a small remote. She told everyone who she was, what she was and introduced Franky to the future of Robotic people. Franky would wave and then point at the static display of what was under his skin. Amy would recommend shaking Frankie’s hand if any were brave enough. When she finished her speech, she asked if anyone had any questions.