K-9000 (working title)

written by Cheryl Lowry
illustration by Brandon MacInnis

“It is technically impossible to replace real animals with robots.
In a sense, it would be a profanity to God.”

Tadashi Otsuki, general manager, Sony corporation

*********************

While ordinarily not given to kicking golden retrievers, Marie thought surely it was ok to kick this one, to see firstly how it would react, and to test the assurances of durability that were plastered all across the case he was delivered in. She was unable to get behind the kick with any conviction; the dog looked too much like a dog although the tennis shoe against the barrel-shaped ribs connected unsatisfyingly, rubbery-hard, like a couch-cushion.

The animal side-stepped, paused, and then walked away across the room. It lay down at the foot of the stairs. She remembered the way that Simi’s perpetually unclipped toenails had always clicked across the hardwood when he crossed a room. When Edgar walked, he made no sound. Nor did he sigh when he rested his muzzle over his folded paws. The little details.

Marie watched the dog lay at the foot of the stairs. His eyes closed. He was not breathing.

Her thoughts slipped then to something else; something a friend had said the previous day at school. She was thirteen, and her mind was often turning corners without warning. She crossed the room, stepped over Edgar, and headed upstairs.

The scream of Marie’s brothers and their friends bouncing the kickball off the garage door outside did not elicit a reaction from the dog. He of course demonstrated no regular desire to go outdoors to play, exercise, or relieve himself; for of course there was nothing to relieve himself of.

Next page
1, 2, 3, 4