Human After All

Watching a bird fly anymore seemed like the most bland thing to do in this world, but Beau found himself doing it a lot. Perched at his window, he would watch for the colorful creatures swaying in the sky, doing the dance of freedom in the air. Beau longed for that type of freedom. But being free meant being spontaneous, and that wasn't in Beau's nature really.

So he just watched the birds taunt him through chirps and clicks of their tongues. They would sway their bodies from left to right before disappearing through trees or fading away into the digitized sky. Beau wondered if they were even real. He had never touched a bird, and he probably never would, so he might as well forget it.

And on the eve of Clu, Beau was interrupted by the sound of his cell phone ringing. Dahlia came skipping into the room with his phone in her two tiny hands.

"Thank you, Dahlia." Beau smiled at her as he reached for the phone in her hands. She reached her arms up to him and dropped the phone in the palm of his hands before giggling and scampering off in the direction of the hallway.

"Hello?"

"Beau! Darling!" Beau pulled the phone away from his ear and rolled his eyes. His mother always called the eve of Clu, basically pouring out hints on what they got him for Clu. She would try her hardest to actually say it, but the hints weren't subtle either. "How are you, my dear?"

"Fine, mom." Beau said. Dahlia came skipping into the room again, tugging at Beau's jeans. When he didn't respond, she pulled harder. Beau waved her off. "How are you?" Beau continued flatly.

"Oh fine, darling, just wrapping your present. I have a feeling you'll like this year's gift." She said. Funny, Beau thought. She usually would have spilled a hint already. "In fact, you'll be very fascinated, especially with all of your techy nature and such." Beau smiled triumphantly. First clue, it had to do with technology, and it was something he used a lot. Another robot, most likely. "And with all those little robots around, this one should be different!"

Beau rubbed the back of his neck. She was practically telling him what it was at this point. A new robot, not doll sized. Most likely one of the earlier models. Maybe a personal computer robot that was a bit bigger than Dahlia.

"Oh, I just can't wait to tell you!" Beau's mother shouted. "It's a—"

Dahlia bit down on Beau's leg after pushing the jeans away. Beau shouted and dropped the cell phone against his window pane. Dahlia pulled away, arms crossed over her chest.

"Dahlia!" Beau said firmly, grabbing her by the collar of her shirt. Her pink pigtails fell to her shoulders, and she pouted.

"Master didn't listen to me. Therefore, I had to use force to get your attention."

"By biting me?!" Beau said. Dahlia nodded.

"I must have master's attention in the case of an emergency."

"Well, what's the emergency?" Beau said impatiently. Dahlia smiled awkwardly.

"I'm hungry."

Beau grabbed his phone off of the windowsill, finding himself being yelled at by his mother. He missed the chance to hear what they had gotten for him, and she wouldn't repeat it now.

"I gotta go, mom." His mother stopped her shrieking long enough to apologize for her yelling.

"I didn't mean it, honey. What happened?"

"Nothing, ma." Beau replied.

"Well, your father and I will drop your present off tomorrow. We have business to attend to, so we won't be there when you open it, but we'll drop it off." Beau's mother said as though it was nothing, but to be honest, it hurt Beau a little. They couldn't find enough time to spend Clu with Beau. They were always working, even when he lived with them before. Work was first priority.

"Okay, mom."

"Oh, gotta run, darling! Love you!" Then a click as his mother ended the call. Beau threw his cell phone onto the bed, turning his attention back to Dahlia who was twirling her foot ever so mischievously. Beau had to admit, even though she was a trouble maker, Dahlia was the best robot he had gotten for Clu, and she was the closest thing to a human he had ever had.

Beau put his hand down to the ground, and Dahlia jumped into his grasp. Beau then placed her on his shoulder.

"What do you want to eat?" He asked. Dahlia placed her finger at her bottom lip and thought for a few seconds before clapping her hands together.

"Pizza!" She shouted. Beau rolled his eyes, but made his way to the kitchen, leaving the birds behind him.



It was the day of Clu. Streets were empty of children because they were opening their presents. Beau missed that feeling of opening his first present of the morning. Tearing the gift wrap open, staring at the first amazing toy you got. Beau thought he was too old for that now.

Beau rubbed his head slowly while Dahlia, Kiyah and Leslie slept in an open drawer in Beau's dresser. Leslie yawned, rolling over in the blanket she had over her body, Dahlia and Kiyah snoozing softly. Beau crept out of his room, down the hall and into his kitchen where all he had to do was push a few buttons and there came a cup of coffee.

The streets were void of cars, but people were walking all along the sidewalks in glee, or in a rush to buy last minute gifts. The best gifts were gone already, so last minute shopping usually got you the worst presents ever.

Beau took the cup of coffee that was prepared in less than 20 seconds, starting his way to his living room in hopes to find something on the television. Maybe the news would take his mind off of what his mother got him, and maybe slow his daydreaming down. Maybe he would visit Drew today, see what he got for Clu. Maybe they could work out some hacking programs on that new desktop he wanted. Drew was never tech-savvy.

Just as Beau went to sit down, he spotted a large, human sized cylinder at his door. His mother must have still had the key to his apartment, that's how she put it there. A purple/maroon colored silk blanket sat over the cylinder. Beau grazed his fingers over the material, hastily pulling it off of the cylinder with a smile on his face.

Under the silk blanket sat a glass cylinder, and inside of it, a robot. But not just any robot; a new model. It was the new personal robot that was life sized, the one that Beau told his parents not to get! Beau stared at the robot carefully, studying its facial features with squinted eyes. Its skin was flawless, like most of the robots were, and his hair was long, feathery, auburn colored. It accentuated the robot's face perfectly, matched only by the long eyelashes the robot had. Beau took a step back and recognized the robot to be a boy. He never had a male personal computer before.

The boy wore a plain white shirt, contrasting with his blue jeans. Beau marveled at how real it he looked. Even at the joints of his body looked real, no apparent lines where the joints met. They must have spent weeks on this robot! Imagine how long it took them to do the rest of them!

Beau opened the door to the glass container, grabbing the user manual out of the pocket of the robot. There were specifics about robots that must be learned, like they're pre-destined name, age, language, sexuality function, so on and so forth. Beau never used the sexuality function (but then again, most of his androids weren't a day past 12 years old either, so what use would that be?) And the thought of having a homosexual robot was foreign to him. He had heard of it, but hearing something and doing something were two completely different things.

The robot's skin was a creamy white color, and he had small, faint freckles splattered across his nose and a bit of his cheeks. Beau opened the manual and found the first page, telling the basics of the robot.



Beau went on to read the rest of the manual where it indicated where the bot's restart button was (the back of the bot's knee), and the pre-programmed emotions. The android was to be a sensitive, young teenager, was the conclusion Beau made. The manual said it was sensitive to choices made by itself or others, and emotions others displayed. The android put other people before itself, but Beau thought that was a bit redundant. Aren't robots supposed to put others before them anyways?

Dahlia ran into the living room, squealing and pointing at the tall bot. The On/Off button was just behind his ear. Beau grazed his fingers along the silky, auburn hair of the droid and found the button. Ever-so-gently, he pushed it and then took a step back.

"Master, master! It's another robot!" Dahlia hopped up and down, screaming in delight. She ran into the cylinder, making circles around the robot who was still waking up. Slowly, the bot's eyes slid open, and Beau peered closer at him. He was shorter than Beau, but then again, most people were. Beau was a good 6'2", and the robots were made under 5'8". This specific appeared to be maybe 5'6".

"Master, master! What's his name?" Dahlia jumped out of the cylinder as the robot looked down at her with curious eyes. Beau reached a hand out to the boy, no longer addressing him as a bot, droid or robot, or even personal computer. Beau called them by their gender. 'Him' instead of 'it'.

Beau watched as the boy took Beau's hand in his own, slipping out of the cylinder with ease. He was exactly like a human; his joints didn't make noise as Beau thought it would, and he could move his appendages just as Beau could.

"Introduce yourself." Beau said to the boy. The boy jumped at the sound of Beau's voice, studying him for a minute before the boy pointed at his own chest and swallowed eagerly.

"Hello." His voice was soft. "I'm PC936777, named Joshua."

"You're Joshua." Beau corrected him. He never liked when his robots called themselves by their PC numbers. It sounded degrading, and he only called them those names when he was disappointed in their performance.

Leslie and Kiyah walked hand-in-hand into the living room. Kiyah squeaked loudly and hid behind Leslie, but Leslie didn't stop, since she could not see.

"Leslie." Beau said loudly. Leslie stopped in her tracks. "Meet Joshua. He's one of you."

Leslie clapped her hands together, and Beau looked at Joshua who was staring down at the doll sized PC's.

Joshua went on his knees and placed his open palm on the floor. Kiyah urged Leslie into the palm of his hand, and Joshua lifted her up to his face with haste. His breathing was soft, gentle, nothing like Beau expected. This robot was more than Beau bargained for.

"Joshua." Leslie reached her small hands out for his face. Her fingers caressed the soft skin of his face. "My name is Leslie." Her voice was small and squeaky. Joshua nodded while she studied the beautiful features of his face. Then she pulled her hands away from his face and smiled. "I apologize." She bowed. "I cannot see. My sight function has glitched. I must use my hands to visualize things."

Joshua nodded, studying the doll before placing her back on the hard wood floor. Joshua turned to Beau. Beau reached his hand out again, and Joshua took it, smiling at him.

"I'm Beau." Joshua tilted his head to the right. "Your master, but please, call me Beau."

"But master is your name."

"No." Beau said. "My name is Beau. Beau Homem-Christo."

"Beau." Joshua sounded out his name, smiling when Beau praised him. "Beau!"

"Yes." Beau nodded. "Do you like those clothes, Joshua?" Beau asked deliberately. While Joshua was still just a young robot, he had to learn how to make choices without others influencing it. Beau wanted to know how well he was at making choices.

Joshua looked down at his clothes, taking a few awkward glances at Beau. "Yes?" He said in a question. Beau's expression didn't change. "No?" Joshua was trying to see if Beau would approve of either of them. "I don't know, master."

"Exactly." Beau said. "But you must make your own choices! You are just as human as I am." Beau said with a bit of a lie. "And I think you deserve your own mind to make choices. So decide." Joshua looked down at his clothes. For some reason, Joshua had this feeling that he really didn't like them.

"No." Joshua said firmly. "I.... I do not like these clothes."

"Good!" Beau said. "Let's get you new ones then, shall we?" Beau looked down at the boy who was unsure of what to say. Then Joshua nodded.

"Yes, master."

"Beau." He corrected Joshua before telling Dahlia, Leslie and Kiyah to get dressed. Beau quickly finished off his coffee, slipping on the clothes he wore yesterday, along with a worn pair of sneakers. Beau decided they would go shopping for Joshua and then pay a visit to Drew. Beau had to show off his shiny new toy now.