"First - Chapter 3" by Laura Soret

On my way to the bedroom, something called my attention and I halted. Inside the bathroom, First was standing still in front of the sink, apparently occupied on his reflection in the mirror.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“How do you say? I´m looking at me” he replied, still looking at the mirror.

“You´re looking at yourself.”

“I´m looking at myself.”

“And what do you think?”

“I look a little like you, but we are not alike.”

“That´s because you´re not a human. You´re a robot.”

“I knew that.”

“Oh.”

First raised his hand and watched as the mirror imitated his moves.

“Hadn´t you ever seen yourself in a mirror before?”

“I never thought about it” said the robot, not removing his eyes from the reflection of his opening and closing fingers. He then took them to his chest and gently grabbed one of the hanging wires, pulled on it a little and then let it go.

I watched as he did so and a thought occurred. First did not have a case yet. I figured I could find one for him sometime. I made the robot know about this idea.

“The person in the grocery shop” said First after a few seconds “is a robot too.”

“Yes, it is.”

“He has a case, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Are there more?”

“Robots? Of course there are. They´re not common in this neighborhood, though. Are you curious about them?”

“He behaves strangely.”

“What do you mean?”

First finally took his eyes off the mirror.

“He is a robot like me, but he behaves differently.”

“You noticed, huh?” I smiled. “Have you talked to it?”

“Not much. He doesn´t say a lot.”

“You´re right, it´s not a very bright robot. You´re the smartest I´ve seen, First.”

The robot stared at me as he seemed to think of what I had just said.

“Well” I broke it up and kept walking towards the bedroom to get my coat. First came out of the bathroom remembering to turn the light off. “I have to go to work. Remember to pick Collin up at four. He has basketball training today.”

“Ok, Tanya” he acknowledged as he walked towards the living room.

While I was finishing up, I heard the TV being turned on. When I was done, I headed to the drawer to get my keys, but they weren´t there. I went over to the kitchen and started looking all over for them, becoming desperate. I was already late.

First lowered the volume of the TV and turned his head to me.

“Tanya?”

“Yes, First, what is it?” I said while going crazy trying to find the darned keys.

“What is a flaw?”

“It´s what people like me have surplus.”

First looked inquiringly at me.

“I don´t understand.”

“I know, First, I´m sorry. I don´t have time now.”

First redirected his attention to the TV.

I paused my search for a moment.

“You could use a dictionary, if you were able to read.”

First turned the TV back down.

“Where is the dictionary?”

I laughed. Just when I thought it couldn´t surprise me more.

“Over there, in that shelf.”

First stood up right away and walked to the shelf, where he started looking for the dictionary.

“To the right” I directed him, suddenly forgetting about why I was in such a hurry.

The robot found it. He raised his finger and laid it over the top border of the book´s ribs to pull it out a bit, then grabbed it entirely and took it over to the table.

“Have you done this a lot, First?”

“A number of times.”

“You like to read?”

“Yes.”

“Don´t you ever read, then?”

“May I?”

“Sure, anytime you want. You don´t need to ask, you can read all the books you want.”

“I will.”

I stood there as his eyes flashed left and right throughout the pages, unable to believe what I saw. Did that mean he really used to have a home before being abandoned? If that was so, who were his owners? Why did they abandon him?

First must had noticed the silence, because he turned his head to me and said:

“Weren´t you in a hurry, Tanya? You´ll be late for work.”

“Uh… Yeah, I should get going.

I decided to ask him later.

“But where are the friggin´ keys?”

“Aren´t you holding them in your hand?”

I opened my left hand. There they were. It wasn´t the first time this happened, but I still haven´t figured out how it can be possible.

“Yes, I am… Thank you, First.”

Before I got out through the entrance door, I got one last peek at First to see the way he was gently turning the pages with the tip of his finger and holding them with the other hand.

“Bye, Tanya.”

“See you later.”

I closed the door.



I was just done putting on my boots in my room when the phone rang.

“Should I get that, Tanya?” said First speaking from the living room.

“That´s Ok, I´ll get it.”

In the living room, Collin and First were playing some old video game on the TV, highly concentrated. I walked past them and headed for the phone.

“Hello?”

I recognized my boss´s voice at the other side.

“Tanya, this is Henry. Don´t come to work today, this really irritating thing happened.”

“What?”

“Some vandal tore down the windows last night. It´s a mess over here.”

“Whoa!”

“Yeah, and it´s a miracle that there´s not a dollar missing.”

“Phew.”

“Anyway, we might have to close for several days, even. I´ll let you know, alright?”

“Alright, Henry. I´ll see you around.”

“Bye.”

I hung up, then turned to the couch.

“Collin, guess what?”

“What?” he said, still not taking his eyes off the screen.

“Someone broke down the pub´s windows and I don´t have to go to work today. I can take you to school!”

“You don´t have to, Tanya. First can take me.”

“Oh” I wasn´t really expecting that answer, but it didn´t surprise me either. After all, it´s so much more interesting to be accompanied by a robot than by your mother. “Oh, well, then you´d better hurry, it´s gonna be late.”

“Wait, five more minutes.”

“First” I called in a significant way.

First put the control down right away, got up and stretched his hand to Collin. Collin grunted, but took the robot´s hand and switched the game off so he could follow him to his bedroom.

“Thank you, First.”

“S’allright.”

I smiled yet once again at a new surprise. First must had learnt that expression from Collin. It still sounded strange coming from a robot.



“Kid! Hey, kid!”

Two men around thirty years of age got up from the floor and walked towards Collin with not very pleasant or trustworthy expressions. First wanted to stop as they had been called by the men, but the boy pulled on his hand and kept walking, trying to ignore the men.

“Hey, the kid with the robot!”

The two men insisted on gaining Collin´s attention and stepped in front to make him stop. Collin was holding his breath. First did not really understand why Collin wouldn´t answer to the two men´s calls when it was clear that he had heard them. As a matter of fact, Collin was acting strangely. The robot watched and tried to make some sense of it.

“How much for the robot, kid?” said one of the men, who smelled like he hadn´t showered in all of his life. Collin was still not answering. “Come on, man, we just want to offer you a bargain. How about a hundred bucks, huh? You can buy the last and coolest videogame and still have left to get yourself a bag of candy.”

But Collin didn´t listen. He started walking again, avoiding the strangers and tightening his grip on First´s hand. This only seemed to angry the men, who placed themselves in front of him once more.

“Ok, kid, then a hundred and fifty. You won´t get any more from anyone.”

“He´s not for sale!” yelled Collin at last.

The other man then took a gun out of his coat pocket and aimed it at the boy. First looked fixedly at the object and knew it wasn´t good news.

“Accept the deal, kid!”

Collin roared as he hit the man with the gun in the stomach and started running.

“Come on, First!” he called at the robot that had stayed on the place, looking at the boy run.

“Let the boy go, we got the… whoa!”

First burst into a spring so suddenly, the man almost fell on his back. The robot ran towards the boy.

“Son of a…!”

“Come here!”

Both men followed the boy and the robot down the alley. There was absolutely no one around. Silence was only broken by the echoes of the footsteps and the yelling on the old brick walls.

First caught up with Collin and braked a little to stay at his pace, but Collin was getting tired and the two men were gaining on them too fast, there was no way out.

Collin´s shirt pulled him back as one of them grabbed him from behind and he fell, leaving First running on his own for a moment.

“Rotten kid!” said one of the men, covering Collin´s mouth with a repulsively smelly hand. “Tell the robot to obey us!”

“Wait, take the kid and the robot will follow.”

“Good idea.”

They held him up and carried him back over their own footsteps.

“First! First!” yelled Collin as the robot stood facing them, not knowing what to do next. Something significant was happening. What was he supposed to do? “First, help me!”

First moved at last. He sped up and kept accelerating until he reached the men hurting Collin. The men saw him coming and all hint of bravery erased from their faces.

“Uh…”

First did not stop. He grabbed the man that was carrying Collin by the shoulder and dragged him down to the floor. The man fell with a loud grunt and Collin was free to keep running. First looked at the boy go.

Then a shot. First´s hand was pushed backwards with tremendous violence. He raised it to his face to have a look at it and realized the damage. He couldn´t move his fingers. Then he looked at the gun the man was pointing at him and understood. He had seen this before through a television screen.

The gun shot again, and this time it hit First in one of the gears that composed its shoulders. First was once again pushed backwards and almost lost balance, but regained it to jump at the man and grab his wrist. The man yelled in pain as First squeezed harder and harder. He started punching the robot’s scrawny arm with no results, although the gun did not fall.

“Do something!” he cried at his mate.

But this one looked petrified and almost like he would flee away any second. The man gave a howl and opened his hand to drop the gun. First then let go of him and the man stepped back holding his wrist in his hand.

The robot did not stop there.

He leaned down and picked up the gun, then placed it in his hand and aimed at the men. When the men saw what the robot was up to, they froze, horrified.

“Whoa!”

First pulled the trigger. One of the men shrieked in pain and grabbed his arm while the other started running away from the place. First aimed at the running man, who yelped like a scared dog until he was out of sight. Then the robot redirected his aim to the one lying on the floor. The man awaited a second shot with his eyes firmly closed. First’s finger trembled, like he had stopped it from pulling the trigger just in time. He seemed to loosen the grasp a little:

“Go away” he said in a way that sounded more like a plea than an order.

The man didn´t need a second opinion. He got up immediately and ran down the alley hysterically.

First did not lower the gun until he couldn´t see the man anymore. When he had turned a corner, the robot leaned down again to gently put the gun back down on the floor, and then stood staring at it.

A hushed whimper broke the stillness and First turned his head to look for the boy.

“Collin.”

“I´m here” moaned the boy.

First walked up to a garbage container and found him sitting against a wall with his arms wrapped around himself.

“They´re gone now” said First.

Collin stretched out his arms towards the robot´s head, but the robot didn´t understand what he wanted. He stretched his own two arms at the boy as well.

“No” said Collin. “Get down.”

First bent forward and Collin wrapped his arms around the robot´s neck.

“Now pick me up.”

The robot stood up straight with the boy in his arms.

“Take me home, ok?”

“Ok.”