Parcel for You - Part 49

 

Vanessa sighed and dropped down onto the bed. She felt as if she’d had the stuffing knocked out of her as she stared at the vacant plug socket which normally housed Spencer’s charger. ‘If you were unhappy, why didn’t you say something?’ she said, placing her hand flat on the empty space on the bed.

 

It was puzzling because Spencer had never appeared unhappy, that was part of his appeal, his emotions spanned a very narrow breadth, he was perennially amenable, even-tempered and calm. There was never any possibility of him draining anyone’s energy by inflicting a bad mood upon them. Since he’d recent upgrades he had claimed to be capable of complex emotions but Vanessa was sceptical. It seemed more the case that he was somehow faking these feelings based upon observed behavioural patterns in the human world.

 

It occurred to her that this was exactly how children learned emotional responses and it was all part of Spencer’s journey into the human world. Now it seemed such a terrible waste. He had made progress, enormous progress since being unboxed and becoming her instant husband but recently Vanessa had been focusing too much on the minor irritations and ignoring the big picture.

 

In that respect it was just like any other relationship, the little things chipped away and she’d lost sight of the true value of their relationship. This combined with the fact that outsiders were constantly trivialising their relationship which somehow made Vanessa devalue it too, but why? Deep down she was still a little bit ashamed of him and had struggled at times to convince herself that the relationship was meaningful.

 

Every so often she quietened her thoughts and listened carefully for any sounds, the backdoor was unlocked and Spencer knew how to ring the doorbell. His footsteps were always so quiet and she kept expecting him to suddenly appear on the landing with a smile on his face, perhaps holding a cup of tea. That was the thing, his face was so handsome and always open, she was already missing this face. Intrusive thoughts hijacked her tired brain and she began to imagine it frozen, lifeless covered with rain and dirt, his brown eyes staring at nothing, she winced and clenched her fists.

 

Now she realised she was stuck in a strange situation whereby her husband had gone missing but her employers, friends and family would not quite see it this way. ‘Oh but he’s just a robot’, that would surely be their response, ‘just order another one’. There was little chance of her getting the emotional support she needed if he didn’t return home soon.

 

She wondered, with all the information which had been fed back to Cybermates Worldwide, if it would be possible to somehow get an identical model of Spencer, produced with the same digital footprint, the same memory. But then she thought about her original model, out there in the wild, fending for himself and she shuddered. Sick with exhaustion now, she took a couple of painkillers to numb her banging headache, got under the covers and closed her eyes.

 

It was a presence which woke her from a short but deep sleep, somebody was standing in the doorway of the bedroom. For a split second she thought it was Spencer.

 

‘Vanessa, I’ve got to leave,’ Pat had a towel on her head and a cup of coffee in her hand which she placed on the bedside table. ‘Stu is being picked up by Pete the Pest in half an hour and I need to speak to him before he goes. I’m going to give him an ultimatum..’

 

‘What?’ 

 

‘I’m going to tell him straight. I don’t mind if he’s got no money but he has to cut himself off from the past, pay his ex-girlfriend whatever it is he owes her.’

 

‘What time is it?’

 

‘It’s seven. Hey, did Spencer come back?’

 

Vanessa slowly got up, groaning a little, she went onto the landing and called his name. ‘No Pat, he hasn’t come home. What am I going to do?’

 

Pat looked sympathetic but it came across as fake. ‘Oh don’t worry, maybe it’s for the best, you know, in the long term,’ she shrugged.

 

Vanessa wiped a tear from the corner of her eye using her dressing gown sleeve. ‘Just go, Pat. I want to be on my own now.’

 

She waited for Pat to leave then checked her phone. It seemed absurd now that she had no way of contacting Spencer by phone and it was her own fault because she’d never let him have one. It had felt too risky to allow him constant access to the outside world. Occasional access to a laptop had been a much safer option. Now she was suddenly terrified that he’d taken that with him and rushed downstairs to make sure it was in its place.

 

She breathed a sigh of relief and opened it up. The last page he’d looked at was a recipe for creamy garlic pasta, probably in an attempt to try and make dinner more special for herself and Pat. Bless him, she thought, they hadn’t any cream but he’d definitely added garlic to the pasta, Vanessa could still taste it. He always tried so hard. She struggled to believe that all cybermates were like Spencer but maybe she was just applying the disparate nature of human traits and personalities onto what was essentially a programmed machine.

 

It was a relief to get a phone call from Annie. Out of everyone in her circle, it was her daughter who understood the most about Spencer. ‘Mum, has he come back?’

 

‘No, I’ve heard nothing. Haven’t a clue where he’s gone but he’s taken his charging cable, can you believe it?’

 

There were a few seconds of silence. ‘That’s not a good sign. It almost sounds as if he’d been planning this or at least worked out what he’d take if he ever decided to leave. I think he’s more sensitive than you give him credit for. Have you told work?’

 

‘No, I was just about to but then I decided to check his laptop.’

 

‘Oh you’ve checked his browsing history, that’s a really good idea.’

 

‘No, I haven’t actually, I was only looking at his current search, a recipe for pasta,’ she laughed.

 

‘Mum, you need to check his search history. There might be clues as to where he’s gone.’

 

‘Annie, you’re so clever!’ Vanessa typed in, control h, and scanned the long list of Google searches; musical instruments on Ebay, rare birds in the UK, feeling taken for granted and what to do about it, how to connect with people and make friends, can robots communicate with whales and dolphins. ‘Oh no, this one’s worrying,’ she said.

 

‘What, what is it?’

 

‘There were some recent news articles about cybermates going feral in UK towns and cities. Spencer’s been reading about them. Gosh, how does he find this stuff? I’ve never heard anything about this and I regularly listen to the news.’

 

‘He’s one of those men isn’t he, if he’s interested in something, he’ll keep digging until he finds it.’

 

‘One of those men, yes I suppose he is.’ Annie’s comment tugged at Vanessa’s heart strings, the way she described Spencer as a man. She coughed and composed herself before continuing, ‘Apparently some cybermates have formed small colonies and are living rough, under bridges and in disused warehouses. The public are advised, although they don’t pose a threat at this stage, not to approach them. The original manufacturers have been contacted and requested to collect them at their earliest convenience.’

 

‘No! Really?’

 

‘That’s what it says here. There’s a photo of them, it's been taken from some distance. They just look like homeless people. Oh no, Annie, he wouldn’t have joined up with a bunch of feral robots would he?’

 

 

‘Wait ... .I'm just googling it myself. I’m very shocked to be honest. How quickly these things have become debased, it’s almost as if anything that tries to be like a human adopts the most dysfunctional aspects of being human.’

 

‘Oh come on, it’s rare surely, and Spencer wouldn’t be doing this. He’s got a nice home and a wife and everything he needs.’

 

‘It says here that they are plugging themselves into electric car chargers to get high.’