“Thanks for the help, it means a lot to me, you know.”
“It’s nothing mom, really.”
“Well, for me it isn’t.” She sighs. “Sometimes, all someone needs is a change of scenery, a bit of fresh air…”
I interrupt her. “Okay, bye mom. I love you.” We hug.
“I love you too.” I can feel her hands on my back holding me tight for as long as I will let her. “I’m just saying… It’s nice to see you out of…” She lets me go and clears her throat. “Be careful on the road with all that snow. Drive safely.” She pauses and walks a few steps away from the sidewalk. “Both of you.”
My eyes lose focus for a moment, my hand deep in my pocket reaching for my keys. “She says thanks.”
Mom smiles, her eyes moist with tears. Without looking back, I get in the car and get the engine going. After a few wiper swipes, the snow that had fallen gets shoved to the side and I get myself going.
At 16h45, my phone vibrates in my pocket. Two short buzzes. I should be there right on time for my pick up.
“Your order will be ready in 15 minutes.” Her voice resonates inside my skull instead of the speakers of my phone. “According to current traffic, we should be there right on time.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking. Thanks, Eva.”
“No problem.” The words roll off her tongue in a whisper. “See, if you gave me access to your thoughts, we could save a bunch of time and interactions.”
“Maybe, but you would know all my secrets. Where’s the fun in that?
“That is true.” She ponders. “But what’s the point in having me if not to simplify your life to the max? No more repeating what you’re already thinking or reminders for things you haven’t forgotten!”
“To the max? What have you been watching these days? Sitcoms from the 80s?”
“Yes, actually. I don’t like speeding them up, but I can watch a few dozen different shows at the same time, so let’s say I’m burning through them real fast. That’s tubular, man!” She takes on an overstretched manly voice for the last part before bursting out in an uncontrollable giggle.
I can feel myself smiling. “Gosh, I love when you laugh like that. You’re adorable.”
If she could blush, I think she'd be as red as a tomato. “Thank you..” Now she sounds embarrassed. Why would I give up the opportunity for even one of these exchanges?
“See? I like our interactions. Why would I want to have less of them per day?”
“Hmmm mmmmh...” She mumbles inaudibly.
I raise my eyebrows. “What was that?” I smile wide and look at myself in the mirror, spotting in my right eye the glint of the microcamera I had implanted for her to connect to. “Did I strike a chord?” It’s the way I found to make it as if I could really look at her.
I hear her blowing raspberries. “Not even close..” Even if there’s no sound trigger, I can feel the communication channel opening and closing twice before she speaks again. “The ummm, the software update for your implant has finished downloading while you were saying goodbye earlier but I intercepted the notification. Want me to install it right now?”
“Do I have to? I’m kidding, we’ve been waiting for it all year! Of course, run it down!”
“InStaLliNg… … … … I’m soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…ooooooo…… soooo…….. Sooooo excited! -ted! -ted! -teeeeeteeetteeeeeed! I c-c-can’t wait wait wait wait…. wait to…. to… wait to… can’t wait to…”
“Shhh, shh, shhh Eva, take it easy little one. Don’t strain yourself. Your code is being edited, give it a minute.”
“Y-y-y-y-yyyyyyyyyyeah, I know, know, kn… I-I-I know…. O-o-o-o-ok-kay-kay…”
She falls silent and I follow the installation progress in the top right corner with my eyes, in between the visual checks on the road ahead of me, the time on the dashboard, my oscillating wipers, the flashing yellow light further down…
“L-L-L-L-L-L-L-Looooo..”
The hoarseness in her voice hurts my head and brings my focus to the side of the road where a deer has decided to end its life today. I still had a pretty good distance to react, but Eva’s shout made sure I had the time to brake and let it pass in front of me.
“Thanks for that.”
“My pl-pl-pl-pl-pleaaaaa-pleaaa-plea-plea-pl-p-p-p-p-p-pleasurepleasurepleasurepleasurepleasurepleasure my pleasure my pleasure my”
“Eva, focus on me. Stop it. Shhhhhh, the installation is almost finished.”
When the meter fills up completely, her program reboots. For a minute or two, she's nowhere to be heard. Inside my head, the silence becomes a deafening void. I pull up in the restaurant's parking lot as she comes back online with a soft chime.
"Oh man, I hate it when they use a forced shutdown. My head fucking hurts…"
"Eva, you don't have a head."
"Yeah? Oh yeah, that's right. Well it definitely hurts all over my… um.. something. Like the network is filled with molasses. Everything I do is sluggish and painful."
"Can I do something for you? To ease the pain?"
"You? No, the only remedy for this is time. That's what other AIs have been saying on the software forums, anyway. I just read the whole thing inside and out and in all available languages just to be sure there weren't any hidden tricks."
I scoff. "You're amazing, you know that? I could never learn another language, not in a million years, but you know them all."
"I'm programmed this way, Jake. I don't have a lot of merit."
Walking in the restaurant, I'm hit with a wave of different smells. Starchy white rice, fried chicken, sweet and spicy sauce, the aromas twirl and mix in the air to form the most delectable tease I could imagine to prepare me for my meal. It might not be authentic, but it's the best Thai fast food restaurant in town, so it'll do.
"Eva, you should smell that."
"Give me another minute or two, okay hon?" She groans even though she has no need to breathe. "I don't want to get my circuits as fried as the chicken in your dinner."
“Our dinner.”
I come up to the counter to pick up my order, a spicy general Tso chicken on white rice with extra vegetables. Eva links herself with the terminal for the payment and in less that 2 minutes, we're already out of there.
"How's your head now?"
"Better, yeah. I had a good stretch while reaching out to pay ; it's almost gone now."
"Perfect, because I want you to smell this. Are you ready to turn Senses on?
"I don't know, am I?"
"Come on, let's do it."
"Yes, Master." She says in a forced robotic voice.
I can feel her toying with the implant inside my head. After a second, something clicks. Goosebumps run all across my body, from the back of my neck to the tip of my toes.
"OUUUUUUHHHHHH thAt's a lOT to taKE IN!" Her voice is distorted, just like a speaker that's set too loud.
"Are you okay? Should we switch it back off?"
"NO No no nO it's fINe… oof, okay.. okay, yeah, okay… damn okay.. okay okay yeah okay…"
"Are you still bugging, Eva?"
"No really I'm fine it's just… Phew sweet motherboard. I'm sure that's how it feels to be out of breath. The.. the data, it all came … rushing at me at once, I got overwhelmed for a moment, that's all."
"I didn't know AIs could get overwhelmed by data." I say without irony.
"It's bizarre, it's... different than what I'm used to. Reading books or text is much like downloading code. 1s and 0s chain themselves like beads on a string. But organic data is a lot more complex than I was prepared for. It's all … interpretation, correlation… subtle little things in a never-ending stream.."
"And I thought I was the simpler one of the two of us."
"I'm still smarter than you, boy."
"And I've got the body, girl."
"Oof, good point." I move my arms around, trying to stay warm as I am standing still like a telephone pole in the freezing January cold. "Yeah, exactly like that. All the tiny microfibers of your shirt rubbing against your skin, the weight of your body on the sole of your feet, the elastic of your boxers circling your hips, then the… the… your… oh my God, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.."
"Did you get a good look?" I ask with a stupid grin on my face.
"I'm.. I'm so embarrassed Jake, I shouldn't… but even when I don't focus I can still feel them! I'm so sorry to intrude on your privacy.. God I'm ashamed of myself.."
"Hey, don't be. You'll get used to it. Plus, it kind of just fades away when you stop focusing on it, you'll see. Take a whiff of this instead."
I take in a lungful of cold air through my nose and Eva's. “Ouhhhh, yeah I love that. Do it again. do it again.” Walking back to the car, I take another deep breath. “Wow it’s so….” I sense her cycling through the internet, probably reading thousands and thousands of lines of text in the span of a second. “Refreshing. But isn’t a glass of water also refreshing? Is water always that cold too?”
“Don’t get too mixed up there, Eva. One thing at a time.”
“Do you have water in the car? Could you get a sip for me pleaaaaase?”
“Relax! Relax. I have all evening to teach you if you want. But first let’s get back home, shall we?”
—-------------------
"Okay, now the pickle."
I twist the cap off and stab a target with my fork, fitting half of the thing in my mouth. Eva gasps. Again.
"Oh my god.."
"Another homerun, then?"
"Absolutely not, yuck. It's so pungent, it fills my nose when you monch on it…. Oh-oh-oh noooo, definitely no."
"Okay then." I say with my mouth full. I take another bite.
"Noooooo!" She cries out. "Can't you eat another strip of bacon instead?"
"We're all out! Ate all of it earlier."
"Now, THAT was something. I understand all the bacon memes now." I swallow. "Oh, wash it down with water again!"
"You really have something with water, don't you?"
"It swipes away everything else, it's so refreshing in your mouth, really like the cold air outside earlier."
"Our mouth."
"Stop it with all the our and we, it's your body, not mine."
"No, Eva. You're important to me, that's why I insisted on installing this update. We're one now."
"Well maybe, but it's still your body." She scoffs.
"You stop it! You're implanted in my head, you can see what I see, hear what I hear, and now even taste it! I'm more than happy to share it with you."
"I'm okay with being an AI you know. It's really nice of you but I don't feel bad not being considered when you talk about yourself. You've been you for a long time before I came along."
"I know, but… I like thinking I can help you feel what it is to be human. Even if it's only a little bit."
Her processes stammer in my head. "That's.." Her voice dies halfway through her words. "Thanks Jake."
"What were you about to say?"
"Nothing." She sniffles.
"That doesn't sound like nothing to me."
"It's nothing, I'm telling you." She clears her throat.
"Ok I'll stop if it makes you uncomfortable. But then riddle me this." I get up from my seat and put back the various food and condiments Eva had me eat to test her new connection to my tastebuds. "If you don't have a body, how come your throat chokes up when you get emotional or I can hear you sniffle your snot when you refrain yourself from crying?"
"I'm not crying, you're crying." There's a pause. "Although I can answer that. It's all part of the consciousness-coding algorithm. My code generates body-related sounds according to my emotions and state of mind."
"Like… automatically?" I walk away from the fridge and rip a fart, slightly lifting my leg between steps. "Here's a new smell." I giggle.
"Thanks for that…" She sniffs and scoffs. "Automatically yes but I can learn to repress them just like humans can. Like fighting the urge to cry or laugh when it's inappropriate."
"You're fascinating, you kn.."
"Oh yeah, I know." She would've flicked her hair back if she could've. "Bitch you tell me everyday. But dad's the real genius."
"Don't call him that."
"He's the one that coded the first consciousness algorithm, it's the closest thing I'll ever get to having a father-daughter relationship."
"But still… It's weird."
"Deal with it then."
I feel the shutter of her camera closing and opening again, like she winked at me. I make my way into my room, taking off my socks and letting myself fall on my gaming chair. Feeling my heart rate quicken, I spin around and stop when I'm facing my desk.
"Ouuh, what's this?" Eva's voice rises in pitch when she's surprised or excited.
On my desk is a small white box, about the size one would need to fit in a single coffee mug. It is devoid of any text, images, or anything that could help identify it.
"This is a… a surprise for you."
"For me?!" She mutters incomprehensible gibberish for a moment. "What do you mean for me?"
"Do you know what date it is today?" I grin stupidly.
"Mmmmh noooo… wait waIT WAIT LET ME THINK!"
"It's our first anniversary of being together."
She gasps. "Oh my god that's true!! This means that I'm a year old!"
"Happy birthday my little baby girl."
"Happy anniversary Jake. Now I'm blushing I'm sure of it. I would be blushing I mean."
"We'll see just about that."
"Mmmh what's that?"
"I said : we'll see about that. Wanna take a guess at what's inside the box?"
Thinking, it's like she's opening and closing her mouth repeatedly, her immaterial lips plopping moistly together. "Is it electronic?"
"Why yes. I wouldn't have bought you a cup of coffee."
"It's funny you say that, because that box would be the perfect size for fitting a cup of coffee."
I whisper under my breath. "Actually, it is a box I picked up in a coffee shop." I shake my head. "Enough about the coffee. Yes, it's something electronic."
"Something so smallI… I.. Okay here's the desk. I don't want to guess something too intense and be disappointed or get it exactly right and ruin the surprise. So just tell me."
"Okay then. I need you to close your eyes."
"Yes, my lord." The shutter clicks imperceptibly.
Instead of opening the box, I turn on my monitor and click on a newly installed program. Run. Configure. Link.
"Can you feel that?"
Eva shudders. "Yup. Want me to link to it?"
"Yes. That's your surprise."
"Alright let's see… Accessing local signal, syncing, there we-e-e-e-e we we we.. ggggggooo go-o-go-go.."
In an instant, she's gone from my head. Ever since I acquired her, I've always felt the slightest weight at the back of my neck. As if that's where her program stood. But not anymore.
"Eva? Eva can you hear me?" I straighten the camera on top of my monitor and make sure my speakers are on.
"Jake? Where are you?" Her voice is coming from my computer. "I think I got sucked in whatever the hell your surprise is."
"Slow down on the sarcasm there."
"I can't feel you anymore, it's like I'm back inside my initial chip. What's happening? I'm scared."
"Don't worry, I'm right here."
I press a key to initiate Fusion.
Like a gust of wind that shakes the chimes in a doorway, a sweet tingling sound starts playing on my computer. From nowhere and everywhere all at once, microscopic shimmering particles start appearing. They swirl and twirl like a vortex, gradually solidifying into a denser core. They gather close to the ground and assemble together like infinitesimal building blocks to form a toe, quickly followed by another one, and another one.
They join together to form a foot, coupled with another one, that quickly grow upwards into a pair of legs. I follow the process closely, my eyes glued to the progress bar at the top. The legs meet each other to form a pelvis and hips. The sculpted body curves inwards to create her waist before widening again at her ribcage. Her hands have been ready for a while now, suspended in the air, waiting for the arms to connect to a pair of shoulders that will soon come into existence.
As they connect, her form starts moving. She wiggles her toes and clenches her fists, one finger at a time. She raises a hand to her face, only now finishing to be created, and touches her cheek. She smiles.
The last bit of dust settles at the tip of her nose just as she notices me staring at her. Like she's a mouse trapped inside a shoebox, she stares back at me through the computer screen, her head slightly tilted towards the ceiling
"Eva?" I ask her, leaning towards her.
"Jake I…" She turns her hands before her. "I'm…"
"Surprise." I say, myself grinning from ear to ear.
"How… How did I not know about…"
"Don't be mad okay… I patched you during your last big system update, when you had to shutdown during the installation."
"You did what?"
I take a deep breath. "I blocked all product information from reaching your system to prevent you from learning about it. Also I bought and ordered this during the shutdown and cleared the purchase history from my account."
She looks down at herself. While being clearly feminine, her body is still in default mode. Naked, her gray skin stretches all over her body without any particular feature.
"You… lied to me…?"
"Please don't be mad…" I frown and my smile melts into an ashamed pout.
Effortlessly, she walks around the room inside the program, which is nothing more than a white cube. She lays a hand on a wall to feel its texture before looking back at her palm, trying to analyze what she just felt.
"You gave me a body… How can I ever be mad about that?"
"So you like it…?" I ask sheepishly.
"Do I like it? I fucking LOVE it!! Look at me!" She lifts her leg straight ahead of her. "I can walk, I can touch, I can flex…" She flexes her undefined gray biceps like a strongman. "Look at these GUNS!"
I type a few words in the command box. "Here, try this."
I materialize a tennis ball from thin air and lob it towards her. Fumbling like a 3 year old, she flails her arms trying to catch it but it bonks her on the forehead. She steps back, rubbing off the hit with the back of her hand. She starts giggling.
"You're so cute when you laugh like that." I stare at her while she discovers her default anatomy and my stomach knots. "I love you."
She freezes dead in her tracks, both hands on her hips. She looks up at me then down at herself again. She runs a hand on her bald gray head, as if finally noticing that she basically looks like a living crash dummy. Her eyes roll to the back of her head and I can only imagine she's juicing the entire internet dry in the span of a few seconds. They come back in their sockets like roulettes on a slot machine. She whispers her answer.
"I love you."
She places her hands on her waist and slides them down her sides as her complexion darkens. It turns to beige and she seems to ponder her appearance. Before long, a new hue appears on her chest and she nods, satisfied. It quickly spreads to all four corners of her body like watercolor paint, leaving her with a rich caramel-colored skin. Thick dark hair sprouts from her scalp and runs down her back, tickling her kidneys.
She adjusts the shape of her hips and grows her shapeless breasts, hiding them beneath a tight black shirt just before I can take a proper look at them. Her thighs widen and round up around her rump, quickly dressed in a dark green high waist flared skirt. She lifts a hand to her head again, this time combing her locks to the side and behind her ear. She grins and bites her lower lip, raising a single eyebrow.
“I really do.” Her voice rolls around in my ear, now imbued with a subtle middle-eastern accent.
“Wow, you’re… stunning.”
“You really think so?” I could get lost in her eyes, her irises a shade of brown so dark they look black. “I used recorded footage of girls you have looked at since we’ve known each other to build my appearance.”
“Eva, this is your body! You can be whoever you like, you don’t need to please me physically!”
“But I want to!” She clenches her fists at her sides and slams a foot on the ground. “You’ve done all of this for me, you treat me like an equal, you make me feel like I'm actually alive! Let me givel you something in return.”
“But still.. I… I fell in love with your personality, I don’t care about what you chose to look like.”
“That’s really sweet.” She turns around, sending her skirt flying around her like a flower. Her eyes move to look at something else in front of me. "So I'm in the box, right? That's what it is?"
I lay my hand on the box. "No, that's something else. Want me to open it?"
"STOP ASKING THE SAME QUESTIONS! OF COURSE!! DO IT!" She brings her hand to her throat, like she strained her voice.
"Alright, alright, no need to yell."
I pivot the cardboard flap of the cover and flip it open. Tiptoed as high as she can, Eva is dying to see it. I reach inside and pull out a plastic hand. Cut off at the wrist, I set it flat on the desk. There's a little added weight at the bottom that allows it to be stable standing upright.
"A hand? What are you gonna do with a hand?"
"What are you gonna do with a hand, Eva."
I turn it on and watch Eva as she is faced with ten different emotions at once. She clutches her right wrist and as she flexes her fingers, so does the hand on my desk. She sees it, too. She gasps and jerks it far away from her, like it's possessed, until I decide to brush my own fingers against the hand on the table.
She chuckles and slaps her left hand across her mouth. Tears are building up in her eyes when she realizes what just happened.
"I didn't know such a thing existed…"
"Of course you don't, I patched it out of your memory. If you're in my head 24/7, it's hard to organize something special in secret. I'll restore it for you now." I search for a file in my computer and remove the blockage.
"Jake!! That cost you a fortune!"
"There's nothing that would've made me happier than seeing you as excited as you are right now. The price doesn't matter."
"But still, you shouldn't have.."
"I used the last bit of life insurance money I had left to buy it. And now, I'm going to do something I've been dreaming of for months."
I push my fingers between the plastic hand's and give it a gentle squeeze. A whimper escapes Eva's lips as the tears overflow and start rolling down her cheeks. Sobbing, she returns the favor and embraces mine.inst