Grandma Robot (4 page)

Karen grabbed the journal and made
another entry about the transformation of the robot from yesterday
to today. Also, she jotted down Henie's hesitation to give
information about her name. Karen felt she might be hiding
something.

About the middle of the afternoon,
Karen found she was having trouble concentrating because of loud
noises in the living room.

The rumble of the
vacuum cleaner was just a tad louder than Henie humming
The Old Rugged Cross
.
Karen opened the door to tell her to be quiet. She needed peace to
be her most creative while she worked. She'd tell the robot to find
a different time to run the cleaner.

Karen stepped into the living room
as a dark blur skittered at her and streaked between her legs.
“What was that?” She squealed, peering back into her
office.

“My gracious! What a racket you're
making? What was what, dear?” Henie complained, shutting off the
vacuum cleaner.

“An animal of some kind just ran
into my office,” Karen said shrilly, edging backward toward the
couch.

Henie peeked around her into the
office. A blue gray cat perched on Karen's chair. Nervous because
of all the sudden attention, the cat greeted them with a tentative,
“Meow.”

Karen leaned against the couch as
she pointed her shaky finger at her chair. “That’s a cat. How did a
cat get in here?”

“The vacuum cleaner scared him,
and he ran in your office to hide. Either, it was that or your loud
voice frightened him. That was enough to scare me,” Henie scolded
softly as she walked slowly toward the cat.

“I meant how did the cat get in
the house. I don't have a cat.” Karen kept her eyes on her chair as
Henie edged closer. “Be careful, Henie. That cat's wild. It might
attack you,” warmed Karen, edging to beside the door so she'd be
out of the way if the cat got away from Henie.

“Don't worry, dear. What's the
worse the cat can do? Scratch my vinyl skin coating? I won't feel a
thing. I certainly can't bleed,” Henie joked.

“I don't know what patching you up
entails, but I don't want Amy mad at me for letting you get
damaged,” Karen declared.

“If worse comes to worse, between
the two of us, we might figure out a way to mend me without Amy
knowing. So stop worrying about something that hasn't happened.”
Henie turned back to the cat. “Naughty kitty, you shouldn’t disturb
Karen,” Henie scolded softly as she snatched the cat by the back of
the neck.

The cat struggled in Henie's arms
and gave a complaining meow as the robot headed across the living
room.

Karen followed along behind her.
“You didn't answer me. Henie, how did that cat get in this
house?”

“When I opened the back door, the
cat must have streaked in as if it owned the place.” In a low tone
as she disappeared into the kitchen, she scolded, “Sock, you have
to be seen and not heard. Karen doesn't like to be disturbed, and I
don't think she likes cats.”

Karen dropped into her office
chair. It came to her, she forgot to discuss what time might be
better for Henie to run the vacuum cleaner.

As she thought about what just
happened, she remembered Henie called that cat by a name. She
rushed to the kitchen and found Henie opening a drawer. “Henie, you
did get rid of that cat?”

Henie smiled, “Yes, dear. I put the
cat outside.”

“How did you know that cat's name
is Sock?” Karen demanded.

“The cat answered to that name,”
Henie said demurely.

Karen looked bewildered. “That's
odd.”

“What is odd, dear?” Henie asked
as she took a fork out of the dish drainer, wiped it dry and placed
the fork the tray in the drawer.

“That the cat is hanging around
here now. I haven't seen him in the yard before,” Karen
replied.

Henie rolled her eyes toward the
ceiling. “Pooh! There's nothing at all odd about it. You ever see a
country place that didn't have at least one cat hanging
around?”

“That's true, but how do you know
that?” Karen asked.

Henie's brown eyes shifted back and
forth as she contemplated her answer. “Well …. well, that's what
I'm programmed to know if I ever work in the country like now.”
Putting an end to the discussion, she hustled passed Karen and went
upstairs to her room.

Again it occurred to Karen, she
kept getting sidetracked. She still needed to tell Henie when to
vacuum. She followed Henie upstairs and found her standing in her
bedroom, looking out the window.

“Henie,” Karen said. “I need to
talk to you a minute.”

“Yes, dear. Come look out the
window. Isn't this the prettiest view? This high up we can see for
a long ways,” Henie said admiringly.

“I agree. This is a view that must
have been treasured by the people who built this house. I'll bet
they stood right here often and looked over their land,” Karen said
as she studied Henie's back. The robot reminded Karen of someone's
grandma. She even smelled like a grandma, a mixture of vanilla and
cinnamon. There wasn't anything wrong with that.

“I'm sure of it,” Henie answered
softly. “They saw that nice big red barn that now needs painting.
I'll bet they had a chicken house and hog house behind the fence,
and the green yard had a row of peonies along the edge.

Years ago, you could have seen a
pond in the pasture and just past the dam, the brambles of a
blackberry patch.” She stopped looking out the window and turned to
find Karen watching her. “I'm sorry to ramble on. You should
interrupt me when I do that. Did you want me to do something for
you right now?”

“No, I just wondered if I could
suggest you run the vacuum cleaner early in the mornings while I'm
asleep. I think I can sleep through the motor noise, but it's most
disconcerting when I'm trying to write,” Karen said.

“That is what I'll do if that's
what you tell me to do, dear,” Henie agreed amicably.

Karen nodded. “Good, I'm glad we
got that settled. Now I need to get back to work.”.

She took one more look over Henie's
shoulder. The only outbuilding was a large barn in bad need of
repair. How was it the robot knew about all those other things like
a chicken and hog house that wasn't there now? The pasture was
hilly and green with spring grass, but she didn't see a
pond.

The phone rang just as Karen sat
down at her desk. “Hello.”

“Hi, this is Amy. How are things
going with the robot?”

“All right, I guess,” Karen said
half heartedly.

“Oh no, something is wrong. I can
hear it in your voice. What happened?” Amy demanded.

“I can't put my finger on it
exactly. Out of curiosity, how did you decide to name the robot
Henie?” Karen inquired.

“Well, I don't know for sure. We
came up with a bunch of names. I wasn't the one that settled on the
name for your robot. I think Joe did,” Amy said.

“Isn't Henie a strange
name?”

“It is now that you mention it. I
can check with Joe and see how he came up with that name. I'll let
you know if you're really interested,” Amy assured her. “That
doesn't seem like much of a concern. What else is
wrong?”

“Were the robots programmed to
appraise furniture? Henie said she liked my fifties
couch.”

“She wasn't appraising your
furniture cost wise. The robots were programmed to compliment the
owners when they could,” Amy explained. “Anything else?”

“Yes, I've been keeping notes in
the journal you gave me. You know the personality the robot had
yesterday like a teenager? I said she needed to be
reprogrammed.”

“Yes. What about it?” Amy asked
guardedly.

“This morning I woke up to an
entirely different robot. She'd changed to an elderly woman that
could pass for someone's grandma. Can the lab techs change the
computer works in a robot from miles away? This transformation
seems too much of a switch from one day to the next without someone
helping it along. Sort of freaks me out,” Karen
admitted.

“No, the techs could have done
anything to a robot from miles away. I can't explain how that could
happen. You want to bring the robot back and exchange her? We have
a cute man robot left. His name is Bruce,” Amy offered.

“No, I don't want any man named
Bruce, a robot or human. I'll get along with the grandma robot you
gave me. That is if I don't get up in the morning and find she's
evolved into some sort of wicked witch,” Karen said.

“No danger of that, but her
personality changing any at all is strange. She was programmed to
stay the same way all the time until a tech changes it. Give me a
call if you want me to come out there and examine the robot. I can
bring a tech along to check out the computer in her and tweak it to
work differently.” Amy said, accommodating.

“I just might do that, but give me
a day or two to get used to her and see if she's going to work out
like she is. I must admit I like the robot's personality better now
than I did the way she was yesterday,” Karen said. “That's why I'm
willing to keep her and go through with this
experiment.”

“That a girl,” Amy
cheered.

Chapter 5

That afternoon, strange thumping
noises in the living room brought Amy out of her concentration. She
opened the office door to investigate. She was ready to chew Henie
out again for making so much noise after she'd asked for quiet in
the afternoons.

Only the noise didn't come from
Henie. She was no where to be seen. Instead, it was Sock. The cat
had a sugar cookie in its mouth. The animal dropped the cookie and
batted it, leaving a trail of crumbs on the freshly vacuumed carpet
as the cookie scooted a few feet. Sock pounced on the mangled
cookie and snatched it up. The cat turned over on its back,
growling and screaming like the creature was in a fierce fight with
another tom cat.

“Henie!” Karen yelled.

Her voice scared the cat. The
animal came up on all four feet, arched its back and hiss at the
space in front of it. When the cat spotted her, it raced past her
to hide in her office.

Henie peeked out of the kitchen.
“Yes, dear.”

“That cat is in the house again.
Get him out of here now. He just stole a cookie and made a mess on
the floor,” Karen protested.

“Sock would never do that. He’s
housebroken,” Henie defended.

“Not that kind of mess. He had a
cookie he broke into crumbs on the carpet when he batted it.” Karen
stopped to think about her last grocery purchase. “Wait a minute! I
didn't buy cookies. Where did he get it?”

“Well, you can have a sugar cookie
now if you would like one. Just come in the kitchen and sit down.
Take a break. It will help you think better to calm down. I can
brew you a cup of coffee in a jiffy to go along with that sugar
cookie.” Henie sounded like she was talking to a child as she took
Karen by the arm. “I just baked a fresh batch of sugar cookies like
Grandma used to make. You will like them.”

The kitchen smelled like vanilla,
butter and sweetness. Baking cookies explained the scent on Henie.
It had been a long time since Karen tasted the homemade sugar
cookies her mother used to make.

She weakened as she studied the
plate, mound high with large cookies. “All right, but on one
condition. You go catch that cat and throw him out the door before
I go back in the office to work. He has taken over my chair
again.”

“Anything you say, dear. Right
away.” Henie set a cup of coffee in front of Amy, pushed the plate
of cookies closer and hurried after the cat.

Henie came back with her arms
wrapped tightly around the struggling cat. After she placed the cat
on the back step, she closed the door on him. “How's the
cookies?”

“Very good,” Karen said around the
mouth full she was chewing.

“I'm glad you like them,” Henie
said.

Karen took a swallow of coffee. “I
thought I might as well eat a few before that cat mysteriously gets
back in and gets the rest.”

“Hopefully, that doesn't happen. I
didn't think cats liked cookies other than to play with them. Now I
better go vacuum the crumbs off that rug before you have
company.”

Karen's hand with the half eaten
cookie in it stopped in mid air. “What makes you think I'll have
company?”

“Oh, in a house like this one,
with a nice parlor like yours, in the old days company was just a
given. We have to keep the parlor looking nice for when the company
does come,” Henie said in a knowing manner.

Later, an ominous feeling stuck in
Amy’s gut as the robot's remarks swirled in her head. For one
thing, how could Henie know anything about what she called the good
old days? How did she know what to put in a recipe for bread or
cookies? How would she know what kind of cookie a grandmother
baked?

After she finished her cookie and
coffee, Karen went to her office shut the door and called Amy at
the lab. “I’ve got a question about this robot.”