My New Pet Robot 03

"Hello, dear, you look like you've had a busy day," Mother said from behind me.

"Oh, what?" I said, sitting up again.

"Been busy?"

"No, boring day. I wish I could get out."

"I'm sure it's all for the best."

"That's the trouble, it is. I can't go anywhere with Vincent trailing behind me so I'm stuck here."

"Did your father say how long for?"

"No, I presume it's till they've extracted all the useful data from Vinnie here."

"Well, how long can that take?"

"I don't know, I should just ask him the answer to everything, life, the universe, infinity."

Mother laughed. "That's easy, forty-two."

I gave a little chuckle. "That's cheating, give me the reason."

"Oh, I'm still working on that," she said, laughing again. "Your sister home?"

"Yes, some time ago. She's probably in her room."

"Dinner in fifteen, okay?"

"Yes, fine. I'll message Maggie."

I lied back down as Mother walked to the kitchen, grabbing my pad and sending Maggie the message. I turned the TV on and started to channel surf, ending up with an easy listening channel. I let Mother take control of the channels after dinner and sat watching her soap.

When Father arrived home I dragged him to his study, bringing up the folder of stories I'd downloaded from Vinnie.

"I don't know what you want to do with them, there looks to be about forty or fifty of them. They should shed some light on Vinnie's people."

"Well," he said studying one on the screen. "Well done on finding them. We don't really have the skills to analyse them up here. I fear they'll have to go on the back burner till we start negotiating with Earth."

"Oh, okay. How's the examination of the pod going?"

"We're not much further forward with that. We've cracked it open but we don't have a clue what we're looking at. Like a caveman looking at a fusion generator. Are you sure your robot can't help?

'Vincent,' I thought. 'Do you have any engineering skills at all?"

"No, I can diagnose module faults and change those but we have specialised robots in repair and maintenance. Things don't usually break down that often."

"Sorry, Dad, Vinnie can't help with that. He's limited to changing out boards."

"Even that might help. They're all just shrugging their shoulders up there."

"It'd be nice to get out, but let's get the question sessions out of the way first."

Meaning spending time with Rose, time with her that was precious. I didn't want to lose a minute of it.

"Oh, that reminds me. You've got the freedom of the lower levels back. You and your 'Vinnie' are free to roam anywhere but topside. The council agreed on it this afternoon."

"Thank, Dad," I said excitedly. I wanted to hug him for freeing me, now I could spend more time with Rose.

I thought about messaging Rose to tell her then thought I'd wait and walk her home, surprise her with the unexpected.

"Anything else?" he asked.

"No, I've got nothing. I'm just glad I'm free again."

"Go enjoy yourself, then."

I was out the door quicker than he could open his pad again. I stopped in the hallway. If I knew where she was I might have been tempted but there was only an hour to wait so instead I turned to my room and thoughts of her as I watched the minutes tick by.

I was on the front porch, wine in a cooler bag, five minutes before she was due. I caught my first sight of her, my excitement bubbling up as she drew near. She waved as she noticed me waiting. I could wait no longer and started down the path to meet her.

I stopped in front of her, feeling awkward, wanting to hug her, kiss her, but not wanting to seem as if I was pawing her. Tonight she was wearing a near knee length skirt with a blouse under an open bolero.

"Let me take the bag, it looks heavy," I said, holding my hand out.

"It's okay, I've carried it this far."

I walked alongside her as she continued walking, daring to catch her hand and hold it as we strolled up to the door. I led her through the house and out into the back, picking up the blanket by the back door.