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<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\u201cThey want to keep her until tomorrow, maybe the following day, but they\u2019re no longer worried about her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo when can Sophie come home?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd how did she seem to you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTired, and frustrated. She\u2019s angry that she\u2019s so vulnerable to something so normal, and that she\u2019ll always have to be very careful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt affects other people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt does, and they don\u2019t like it. It\u2019s too easy to have an encounter with a peanut.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her lips twitched, a hint at a smile. She had begun to understand dark humour, and that there were times when someone shouldn\u2019t laugh. We settled into another brief silence. It was a respite from the trauma I had endured; and a breather before what was to come. Adele spoke first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDid something like this ever happen when Sophie\u2019s mother was alive?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNot like this. A couple of times she was violently sick, but it wasn\u2019t life threatening. We learned quickly and took steps to protect her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou were good parents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe wanted to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I realised this was the first time in a while that she had mentioned Caroline; not since I had crossed that line with her. Adele stared at me for a moment and blinked, a sign of her neural processor assessing my response. It should ensure that she said something comforting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure you were. I know from the way that Sophie talks about her mother, and you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I waited a moment, knowing the empathy came from the algorithms in her neural processor, but feeling an instinct to respond in kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThank you, but Caroline always did more than me. Work took up so much of my life. Then I felt inadequate when she was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI understand that\u2019s often the feeling when one parent is left alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI agree. But then there was you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She dipped her eyes. There was a faint smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve done a great job at looking after her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s what I was made to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes. My work, my experiment, but you\u2019ve been so much more than that. You brought something special to Sophie, and you filled a gap for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her smile broadened. She had developed to the point of understanding the relationship between physical and emotional contact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s seemed natural,\u201d she said. \u201cI know I wasn\u2019t programmed for that, but it\u2019s how my intelligence has developed. I had to extend from comforting Sophie to comforting you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure,\u201d I said. \u201cBefore that first time it had been on my mind for weeks but I had doubts that it was the right thing. Then on that particular evening it seemed natural.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She moved her hand across the table. I left mine still but allowed her fingers to slide flat between mine. Then the waiter appeared and asked if we wanted dessert. Adele declined; I said I would have a mint tea. The lights went down, there was laughter from another table, a chorus of \u2018Happy birthday to you!\u2019 and a waiter brought a cake with a single candle. The birthday group swapped loud jokes for a while, distracting us from any serious conversation until our waiter brought my tea. I took the first sip before Adele spoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDo you think they\u2019ll find out what caused what Sophie\u2019s reaction?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I felt a moment of anger, stifled it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe school has run some checks. She ate from her lunch box as usual, didn\u2019t enter the canteen, and didn\u2019t share food with anyone. She\u2019s always very careful about those things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDid she go into a sandwich bar, or a shop? Somewhere that somebody had been eating a snack bar with peanuts?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo. The bus dropped her by the school gate and she didn\u2019t leave the premises before the attack.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen did it happen?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAn hour after lunch, in a corridor between lessons. The school checked everywhere she had been but didn\u2019t find anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She closed her eyes for a moment. It might have been emotional fatigue. She had been designed for her neural impulses to evolve in her environment, which meant she should feel protective towards Sophie. That\u2019s what I had believed. She looked up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou must feel better now. Do you want me again? This evening?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I shook my head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe time\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaybe soon?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I didn\u2019t reply, and noticed a turn of her lips, the hint of a disappointed frown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI understand,\u201d she said. \u201cNot the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I called for the bill and neither of us spoke until it had been paid. Then we walked back through the restaurant, Adele drawing glances again, and outside towards the car. We were a few feet away when I paused. She asked if something was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have to tell you something I saw yesterday. When I came home for a while, before I knew Sophie would pull through, I noticed a mess in the road. A fox must have got into the public bin along the street and pulled out a carrier bag. I stopped to clear it up \u2013 must have wanted a moment of control while I was feeling helpless \u2013 and noticed the bag was from Ryman\u2019s, like one that had been in the back of the understairs cupboard for a long time. The fox had pulled out some mouldy food and plastic wrappers, and as I placed them back in the bag I noticed another of its contents \u2026. a jar of peanut butter, the smooth variety, full except for couple of scrapes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adele\u2019s eyes widened, a symptom of the programming for human reactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen it occurred to me that it would take just a thin layer on the bread, with a thicker layer of butter spread over it, and a filling with a strong taste, like that smoked Polish sausage that Sophie and I enjoy in a sandwich, to hide the peanut butter. It would need just a little to cause her severe harm, maybe to kill her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She stared at me for a few seconds then closed her eyes. Her neural algorithm was struggling to process the situation. I allowed her to stand in silence for almost a minute. Then she opened her eyes and spoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI can only think that my neural algorithm developed in a way that wasn\u2019t expected, became confused. A few days ago the compulsion to care for you became stronger than that for Sophie, created a tension with my original purpose and disrupted my intelligence. The only way it could cope, in the short term, was to try to expel her from the system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo you did what I\u2019ve been thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes. It was a short term reaction, something that corrected itself when Sophie was taken to hospital, made me realise I was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I stepped back and turned away, needing more silence, to not look at her. It lasted for a while before being broken by three young men laughing and jostling as they entered the approached the restaurant. Then I was able to look at her again. She stared for a moment then blinked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI suppose I\u2019ll be taken back to the centre,\u201d she said. \u201cYour people there will want to look inside me, see what went wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat happens now?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou were designed with a shutdown feature, four words to be spoken in a specific order that closes your neural and physical functions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve already notified the centre. When I arrive home a van will be waiting, and they will take you back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor examination and repair?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo. You\u2019ll be dismantled. Your organic features will be removed and examined, possibly used for cloning. The contents of your neural processor will be transferred to a server and subject to rigorous scrutiny, any learnings recorded. Some elements may be used in future simulations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I walked to the car. Adele followed, sat without complaint in the passenger\u2019s seat and put on her seatbelt. She spoke quietly, with an inflexion of pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWill my neural processor be retained? Is there a possibility that at some time it could be renewed, when you know how to prevent the malfunction?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt might be possible, but I won\u2019t allow it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I paused then glanced at her. She looked straight ahead, her lip quivering and, something that hadn\u2019t been in her design, a tear on her cheek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou tried to kill my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I turned on the car ignition, then spoke the four words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n