I Pronounced you, Husband and Waifu (Pt 2)

A Short Story

Find the first part here.

I didn’t see and talk to Jimmy much for the following month, as work were crazy and I had to travel around. But the memory of him smiling, almost crying when New Rose became alive, and leaping out to hug her, to her confusion, was still fresh. New Rose, of course, as the technician said, acted as if nothing happened. It didn’t know that it was a replacement for a malfunctioning unit and Jimmy probably had one the toughest time in his life.

A week after that, actually Jimmy tried to tell me something. He texted me, said he wanted to ask me something. But I was out of town for work, and when I responded the next day, he said “Nevermind. It’s probably nothing.”

I didn’t think of it much, until that night, when I went to Jimmy’s apartment to get back some books he had borrowed. There, I found Jimmy alone, and he had deactivated New Rose and put her back in the box in which she was delivered.

“Okay, okay, I’m kinda lost here,” I said as Jimmy was trying to explain what happened in the last couple of weeks, “different, how ?”

“She’s just.. Is.. It is subtle, but I noticed differences in her habit, choice of words, gestures.. You have to see it, but I guess you wouldn’t notice it, you don’t know her like I do.” Then Jimmy went on and on about how weird and different New Rose was. How it said “Hi” instead of “Hello” when Jimmy comes home from work. How its arm were at different angles from Old Rose when it was cooking or making coffee. How Jimmy noticed a lot of differences when they are having sex.

And when I asked about if he tried to contact the technician again, he said he had spent countless telephone calls, chat and emails trying to convince them that they made a mistake. He did manage to get them come once, to run some diagnostics, but they didn’t find anything.

“Then I asked about the Rose, you know, the original one, what really happened to her system and if I could trade this one with Rose when they fix her. But no, they said, they couldn’t found the root cause of the problem, and after they transferred all of Rose’s memory to this one, they had her destroyed. Can you believe that ?!”

“So.. What are you going to do now ?” I asked.

“I don’t know, Nat.” He shook his head, “All I know, the one in the box right there, is not Rose. Right now I cannot deal with her, maybe I’ll activate her again someday, but maybe not. Or maybe I..” His voice was choking up. “Maybe I just have to face the fact that Rose is gone.”

I gave Jimmy a hug, and I could sense that he was trying hard not to cry. “Hey now, Jimmy.. Everything is going to be alright, like I said before, remember ? I’m here for you, like always.. If you need anything, just call, or knock on my door.”

Jimmy said the next words while trying hard to smile, hiding his sadness, “I know, Nat. I know. I couldn’t thank you enough. I don’t know what I’ll do without you.”

A few days after that, I remember it was a Friday. Jimmy texted me to ask if I had any plans after work, and to see If I wanted to hang out. And I was happy to see that text, as it’s been a while since we hang out. And even longer time if it was just the two of us, since Jimmy was always taking Rose every where.

That night, we met at our favorite bar. It’s a crappy old bar we had been coming to since we first moved out to this city. The drinks are okay, the food are not horrible, but we know the people there it’s practically a second home.

“So how are you holding up ?” I asked Jimmy.

“ Yeah.. Well.. I’m okay.. Adjusting to.. You know, everything. I tried to talk with the customer service again yesterday, but I hung up after they put me on hold. I was like ‘why am I still doing this ?’ and maybe that’s the final slap in the face that I needed.” Jimmy paused, let out a deep sigh, and take another sip of his beer. “You, we haven’t really talk in a while. How are you ? How’s your work, are you seeing anyone ? Oh my God I’m so sorry If I was being an asshole this whole time.”

“You are. But I love you anyway, Jim. I’m good. Work is good. And guys.. You know I haven’t been seeing or WITH anyone in a while. And I blame guys like you for that !” I said, half jokingly.

“What ? What did I do ?”

“You know I’m old school, right ? I want the whole wine and dine, dinner and movie dates. I want the deep conversation in the middle of the night. I want the phone calls during the day. I want the full romance package. But maybe romance is dead now.”

“And why is that ?”

“Because ! Because of people like you ! Ever since Tinder, people only want to get laid, like instantly. No more building up chemistry first. No more investing your time to a person. Just wham, bam, and on to the next one. And I’m sorry Jimmy, but people like you, who dates their androids.. I get it that they were built to look impossibly like a human person, and with a personality to match and please the owner. But.. For me, it’s like taking the easy what out. And I get the appeal and why more and more people are doing that. But for the rest of us.. It’s getting harder, Jimmy. We’re not only competing with each other, but also with these machines.”

I took a deep breath. And I saw Jimmy’s face, and I immediately felt bad.

“Look, Jim, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to put you on the spot like that. I was just-” but before I finished my sentence, Jimmy said

“No, Nat. You’re right. I’m sorry. But you’re totally right. What I was doing was.. Wrong. Where society is going is wrong. Hell, humanity even might go extinct if we keep heading this way.” He paused. “Rose.. My feelings for her, they’re real. But she’s.. In the end of the day, she’s artificial. She’s perfectly programmed to respond to my feeling. I gotta admit, things were perfect for me. But, you know, maybe like her, it’s all artificial. It’s not real.”

Jimmy took the last sip to finish his bottle, and said. “Maybe I should start looking for something real.”

Then he said, “Hey it’s late, let’s get the check and head back.”

We couldn’t get a cab, and Uber was criminally surging the price up, so we decided to walk home. We were having a nice walk, just joking around, and reminiscing about how things used to be, but suddenly, Jimmy stopped as he saw some guy walking into his apartment with a girl.

“What’s wrong ?” I asked him.

“It’s.. It’s Rose. That guy was with Rose. The one they took away that night.”

“What are you talking about, man..”

“I’m telling you. That was Rose. I didn’t get a good look on her, but I’m sure it was her.”

“You’re sure ?”

“Well. Pretty sure.”

“Look, Jim. You had a lot of drinks earlier. And after all of that happened, well, people tend to see things, you know, seeing their ex in the middle of the crowd, but it’s actually another person ?”

“…Yeah.. You’re probably right.” Said Jimmy, and continued to walk

But I remember that the look on his face that time. Things wasn’t over for Jimmy.

To be continued..(Click for the Part 3)