December 24, 2055

"Patrick! Hey, buddy, welcome to Boston. Come on in, it's freezing out there. How was your flight?"

"Late, as usual. Everyone trying to get wherever they're going for Christmas. And too expensive. Would you believe they expected me to pay full fare for my dolls?"

"You're kidding!"

"Nope. I guess I can't blame them. The dolls take up seats they could sell to a person. So I had to pack them."

"I can't wait to see them. But we really have to get going soon. I told Mom we'd be there by five o'clock."

"So call her and tell her I'm late. I want to get them unpacked. And I want you to be thinking about them all through dinner, Jake."

"Well, in that case, you'll have to meet my girls too. Come on, drag your luggage floater into the playroom..."

Jacob's "playroom" was distinctly not for children. Its largest feature was a large bed with satin sheets. Various sorts of sexual implements littered the area. There were also two rather larger toys.

"Nice setup you've got in here, Jake."

"Come on, it's not just the setup you're drooling over. Let me introduce you." Patrick's attention was firmly fixed on what appeared to be a lovely young woman wearing a gauzy blue... well, Patrick wasn't sure exactly what it was, but it draped like a skirt and hid very little. The woman had long brown hair and dark chocolate eyes. Her skin was lightly tanned, and flawless from the top of her forehead to the ends of her toes. She stood calmly with one shapely leg in front of the other, her hands at her sides, and a small smile fixed on her face as she stared blankly into space, showing no sign of having noticed the two men observing her. "This is Bethany. She's a '55 Nicoise, model 387C. I just bought her six months ago, and she's been worth every penny. It's like she knows what I want better than I do myself. Goes through batteries like nobody's business, but who cares? Beth, say hi to my little brother Patrick."

She turned her head slightly to look at Patrick, and smiled a bit wider, but otherwise did not move. "Hello, Patrick." Her voice was soft and sultry.

"Hello, Bethany," Patrick said, walking up to her. "Would you like to kiss me?"

"If Master Jacob wishes me to," the android answered.

Jacob nodded. Bethany lifted her face up to Patrick's. She put her arms around him and drew him against her. Patrick ran his hands up her sides, admiring the way her warm body squirmed softly against his. Their mouths met in a perfect kiss. When it ended, Bethany just took half a step back, lowered her arms, and waited. Patrick let his hand caress the smooth, warm skin of her chest and the tops of her breasts.

"Very nice," Patrick said. "I can see why you leave her turned on. How about that one?" He turned to point at another motionless girl. This one sat on the edge of the bed. Her head was tilted up and her lips slightly parted. Her spine was arched, and her left hand hung out in midair as if reaching for something. Patrick moved closer to her, and noticed that sticking out of the doll's back was a large metal key. The doll must have wound down in the middle of a kiss, and Jacob hadn't bothered to wind her up again.

"That's Katherine," Jacob said. "She's a '52 Dreamgirl. A few years old, but I like her looks." Like Bethany, Katherine had long dark hair and brown eyes, but her skin was much darker. Her cheeks were rounder than the android's, and her lips less full. She wore only a pink bathrobe that was open to expose her large, round breasts and her hairless, but otherwise fully realistic sex. Patrick stood in front of the wind-up doll and cupped its firm, cool breasts in his hands, rubbing his thumbs against the erect nipples. Katherine, of course, did not visibly react to this at all.

"How do you like the wind-up?" he wondered aloud. "I always thought it was out of place to have a wind-up key on a realistic doll. At least if you're going to, it should be a small unobtrusive one."

"The big key's harder to lose," Jacob said. "I'd be just as happy if she were an android. But there's definitely something satisfying about watching her wind down, and getting to decide whether to wind her again. Do you want to give her a try?"

"Sure," Patrick agreed.

"Just give her about a quarter-turn," Jacob instructed. "We haven't got a lot of time. I still want to see your girls."

"Go ahead and open the short case," Patrick said. He reached around the doll, letting his chest rub against her breasts, and turned the key, one quarter-turn. When he let go of the key, Katherine began to move. Her upraised hand circled his head and drew him down to her lips for a deep, sexy kiss. Patrick could just hear the slight whirring of the doll's mechanical innards as she moved, and a rhythmic click, click, click... as the key slowly turned in her back.

"Mmm," Katherine moaned, "I was afraid Master was going to leave me waiting for him like that all day. And I thought I would have to explode when you came and touched me without winding me up! But I thank you for it anyway... and for letting me do this..." She let her hands roam pleasantly about his body. Her movements were smooth and graceful, not at all mechanical. Patrick, of course, felt up her body as she explored his. He couldn't help noticing that Katherine's skin was a little firmer, more plasticky than Bethany's had been -- but still warm, now that she was wound, and lovely to the touch as well as to the eye.

Jacob had taken advantage of his brother's offer, and unsealed a large, roughly cubical case. Inside, lying in a soft, form-fitting foam tray, was a lovely female head made of plastic. The tray bore a label, "SONY Girlfriend EB". Another compartment held a three-foot length of dark red hair. Jacob removed the head and wig, and lifted the foam tray to reveal a very feminine torso, made of the same pale flesh-colored material as the head. He pulled it out and found that it could stand up on its waist. A metallic joint at the neck seemed like it should fit a matching socket on the bottom of the head.

"Pat, how do I put her together?"

"There's a little electronic gadget in there. Just plug the pieces together, touch the control device to each joint, and press the white button labeled 'Join.' That seals the joint. Her name's Anna, by the way, and she's a wind-up too."

"Master, wouldn't you rather play with me than with that dummy?" Katherine demanded.

"Maybe, but you'll still be here next week. Have fun with Patrick till you wind down."

"Hmph," Katherine sulked, pulling Patrick down on next to her and starting to undo his shirt buttons. "Maybe I'll go home with you instead. You feel almost as nice as Master."

"Well, don't insult my dolls if you want me to like you," said Patrick. "Anna's as real as you are. And she's nicer than you."

"But can she do this?"

"Hey! Don't you do that either. Not now, anyway. I can't stay here long enough to enjoy it." Katherine sulked, but stopped.

Meanwhile, Jacob had followed Patrick's directions, and attached Anna's head to her torso. He also found a socket in the middle of the hair, and affixed it to the top of the head. It fell neatly into shape with just a few straightening touches. Jacob lifted the whole assembly by its narrow hips -- it only weighed about ten pounds -- and kissed the mannequin-like girl gently on its lovely lips. She was quite chilly -- undoubtedly from having been stored in the luggage section of the plane on the trip to Boston.

After a few minutes, he'd unpacked and assembled the rest of Anna: two bent arms, two hands, a set of hips (complete with a stylized sex, although Jacob wondered whether one could pleasantly make love to it), a pair of long, lovely legs, bent at the knees, and feet. Once all the pieces were out, Jacob realized they fit together perfectly if he closed the crate and assembled Anna in a sitting position on the box. There was also a large gold wind-up key that fit into a slot in the doll's back, and a diaphanous pink garment that draped about her breasts and hips, giving her a semblance of decency but actually just increasing her allure even more. She was distinctly less realistic than his own girls -- she looked more like a well-made mannequin than a real girl -- but definitely charming for all that.

Jacob stepped behind the doll and gave the key a quarter-turn. He could feel the working of the doll's mechanism as he turned the key, but otherwise nothing happened. He tried again, with no further result.

"Pat? Is there a problem here? I can't get Anna to turn on."

Jacob disengaged himself from Katherine's amorous clutches, and came over to see. "Looks like you put her together right. Did you turn her on?"

"Well, I wound her up."

"Oh, that's the problem. Give me the control. I shut her down completely for traveling." Patrick found the control box, and pressed a green button labeled "Activate."

Anna's eyes blinked twice with an audible click. She showed no surprise at finding herself in an unfamiliar place, nor any inclination to move from the spot where she sat. She simply looked around to see what was around her, as her key began to slowly unwind. "Hel-lo love," she said upon noticing Patrick. "And you must be Ja-cob." Her voice was high and pretty and very expressive, even though each syllable was clipped off mechanically. When she moved, her motions were similarly robotic. "Was our trip pleas-ant, love?"

"Yes, Anna, our trip was fine."

"Her skin's not flexible like a modern doll's," Jacob mentioned. "I guess you can get used to some things, but how does she... I mean, can she even change expression?"

"Sure she can," Patrick said. Anna demonstrated, by turning to look at Jacob, cocking her head just so, raising her eyebrows, and widening her lips -- each small motion accompanied by a little sound of moving pistons or snapping relays, far more audible than in Katherine.

"I may not have the full range of ex-pres-sion of a re-a-lis-tic doll, but I ma-nage quite well," she asserted.

"Sure, but... well, I mean, how can you make love to a solid doll?"

"The same way you make love to any other kind of doll," Patrick said. "Or a real woman for that matter. Oh, the solid structure does put certain limits on her. She was the first doll I ever bought, back when I couldn't afford much, and it took me a little while to get used to her. But she really is fun once you get used to her. And she's so innocent. I really like that sometimes. I thought you might like to try her out, so I brought her. She definitely can make love. And if I'm not looking for straight sex, she's the best doll companion I've ever seen -- even better than the modern androids."

"Hey!" Katherine pouted from the bed. "She's not better than me, is she?" The wind-up doll crouched sexily on the bed.

"She probably is," Patrick answered. "She knows how to think about things other than sex, for example!"

"Really?" Katherine sounded surprised. "And you like that?"

Patrick smiled and shook his head. "See, Jake, the modern ones are made for sex, sex, and more sex, even if the censors don't let them advertise them that way. Anna's a classic."

"Well, maybe," the older man conceded. "I'll certainly give her a try later on, if you don't mind. But we're running out of time, and I still want to meet the other doll you brought."

"Okay. Pose pretty for us, Anna."

The doll crossed her legs and positioned her arms, one hand draped softly on her thigh, the other raised in an inviting gesture. "Good night, love," she said.

"Oh, I'm not putting you to sleep. I'll let you talk to Jake's dolls if you want. Maybe they'll learn a thing or two from you." Patrick pressed a few more buttons on the remote control, one of which was the control to disconnect the doll's power spring from both her mechanisms and her key. The two men heard a loud whirr from within the doll's body as the spring unwound itself all at once. The key stopped turning, and Anna did not move again. Patrick stroked her raised, motionless hand before turning away. Jacob, more direct, ran his finger down Anna's plastic cheek, and once around her solid left breast. She did not respond to either touch.

Finally, Patrick opened a long coffin-like crate. "Michaela's an Intimate Fantasy T, this year's model. She can't be disassembled the way Anna can," he explained, as he lifted a piece of protective foam to reveal a tall, beautiful, lifelike blonde. She wore a brown halter-top and matching skirt. Her pale skin looked soft and beautiful, with a slight gloss on her pale pink lips. Her eyes were closed, but something about the rigidity of her pose made it very clear that she was not simply a sleeping woman. "However," Patrick continued, "she's much easier to reactivate after travel." He pulled out a tan plastic remote control and pressed a button.

The android opened her clear blue eyes. In a husky emotionless voice, she recited, "Activation check. All systems operational. Beginning software initialization: three. Two. One. Checking personality module. Personality module verified intact. Full startup in five seconds. Thank you for choosing an Intimate Fantasy T personal android companion."

Michaela blinked. She spoke again, but this time in a lovely natural-sounding contralto. "Good morning. Are we there?"

"Yes, we're here," Patrick said. "This is my big brother Jacob. Jake, this is Michaela. Come on out of there, Kay." The android reached up and grasped Patrick's outstretched hand, and he pulled her to her feet. Like most dolls, she weighed only fifty pounds or so. Once standing, she reached up and fluffed her long golden mane, letting it cascade over her left shoulder.

"Hello, Jacob. I've been looking forward to meeting you ever since Pat told me about you. Pat, may I kiss him? Please?" She clasped her hands together and looked at Patrick imploringly.

"Well, just this once," Patrick grinned. "If it's okay with him, of course. He knew Jacob wouldn't turn her down.

"May I, Jacob? I'm a little chilly, but I'll warm up fast."

Jacob grinned and opened his arms. The blonde android smiled and approached him. There could be no doubt that her chest, unlike Anna's, was quite flexible. Her breasts heaved as she kissed Jacob greedily. Her body was almost as cold as Anna's, but Jacob could feel it warming up quickly beneath his hands, as he explored the bare skin of her midsection and arms. If anything, her skin was even more sensual than his own Bethany's. By the time her mobile lips had drawn away from his, she was almost humanly warm. He softly caressed her cheek.

"You kiss wonderfully, Jacob," Michaela sighed. "Thank you. And thank you for letting me, Pat."

"You're quite a kisser yourself," Jacob said. He turned to his brother. "Is she always this forward?"

Katherine spoke up from the bed. "Mas-ter, I'm win-ding down. Don't you want to kiss me again? For com-par-i-son, may-be?" Except for the opening and closing of her mouth as she slowly spoke, she was already motionless. She was crouched sexily on the bed, her silver key sticking up at an angle. Her liquid brown eyes looked wistfully toward Jacob, Patrick, and Michaela. Michaela glanced toward the immobilized brunette doll, but the men ignored her.

"The 'T' in her make means Michaela's one of the new Transferred models," Patrick said.

"A Transferred? You mean, she's a real woman in there?"

"Not physically, of course," Patrick said quickly. "Her body is pure android, and she has an android mind as well, probably almost as advanced as your Bethany's. But her personality module is based on a real woman's mental patterns. It makes her a lot more human."

"So I heard. But I wasn't sure that would be a good thing. Does that mean she doesn't have to obey you, if she doesn't want to?"

"Of course not. Oh, she can be configured to be able to disobey orders, but I don't see why anyone would do that. You can shut down the personality too, but I like her this way."