STRAWBERRY

763 Words

Gary gets an urgent 911 signal from the Nanny Bot. Susie is missing!!

Again? He thumbs the alert off.

Nanny Bot’s color has been off lately. She used to be a hot pink color, which designated her as the Harpie-Doll model Susie had chosen. But lately she has faded to a pale pink. Something isn’t right with her electrical system. This makes the third false alarm in as many weeks. He must get her into the repair shop.

As he climbs the stairs to the county courthouse where he is due to prosecute a case in ten minutes, he calls Susie’s phone. It is a dedicated child’s phone with only Susie and her parents in the network. He waits for Susie to answer.

“Hi, Sweetheart. Is Nanny Bot with you?”
There is no answer. “Susie…answer Daddy.”

“She’s looking at the ducks.”
“Can you see the ducks too?”

“Yes,” Susie says as her father greets the guard at Judge Higgins courtroom with a nod.

“Okay, Sweetheart. Daddy will talk to you later. You can turn the phone off now. Just click the red button. Thank you.”

Muttering to himself—Stupid Robot—he also clicks the red button.

“I want Chocolate, demands three-year-old Susie.”
“On a waffle cone or a plain cone?” inquires the Ice Cream Truck Robot.
“What’s a waffle?”
“It’s a cone that has squares on it.”
“What’s a square?”
“It’s chocolate.”

“Okay,” Susie agrees to the logic of a robot trained to satisfy illogical human children. He wears a hat with his name Ice E stitched on top of a vanilla ice cream cone. But Susie can't read it.

“There you are, you naughty little girl,” scolds the Harpie-Doll Nanny Bot.

Ice E holds out a single-scoop of chocolate ice cream in a waffle cone to Susie and says to Harpie, “That will be $1.20.”

“That looks like chocolate,” harps Harpie.
“It is chocolate. She asked for chocolate.”
Harpie says, “Scan your database and see if chocolate is the best tasting flavor.”

Ice E replies, “No, the perfect flavor for humans is Strawberry.”
“That can’t be right. A strawberry is a little piece of red fruit.”

“Madam, my database contains every ice cream flavor manufactured and ChatGTP says Strawberry is the favorite flavor.”

“Then give her Strawberry.”

Ice E looks at Susie for direction.
“Don’t look at her. I’m the Nanny.”

Ice E searches his database for the appropriate answer and finally asks ChatGPT, “What should I do in this situation?”

ChatGPT informs him: “The human is always to be obeyed.”

Ice E says to Harpie, “The price of the cone is $1,20, please.” Ice E is always polite.

Harpie snatches the cone from Ice E and flings it all the way to the duck pond, where the ducks flutter, squawk and fight over the strange flying object that flops into their midst.

Susie’s shocked face crumples into a wet face, which Ice E recognizes as a child in distress—the crying, screaming face. The child must be protected. Ice E explodes out of the top of the truck sending the roof out of sight, clear into space. He lands with a thud between Nanny and Susie.

Susie screams as Ice E transforms into a terminator robot and fries Nanny Bot into a steaming pile of melted metal.

Ice E quickly transforms back into the familiar Ice E shape and asks with a happy lilt to his voice, “Does the human want Chocolate or Strawberry?”

Susie squelches back her tears at the sight of this cute version of Ice E.

“I want Chocolate in a Chocolate waffle cone, please.”

Shortly thereafter, Gary gets a Nanny Bot Termination Alert just as he finishes his closing argument.

The Judge and everyone in the courtroom knows the sound of a Nanny Bot Termination Alert. The Judge nods to Gary and points to the door. Gary leaves on-the-run, forgetting his briefcase.

He hails the first sky-taxi that passes nearby.

The Termination Alert is still shrieking on his phone as he jerks open the sky-taxi door. The driver takes off in the direction Gary points without any further instructions.

In less than three minutes, Gary is on the scene. Everything looks peaceful. Susie’s dress and face are covered in chocolate. Ice E stands at attention inside his truck, awaiting his next instruction from a human.

Gary sits down beside Susie and she offers him a lick of her ice cream.
“Ummm, Chocolate,” he says and she giggles.

“Where’s Nanny Bot?” Gary asks casually.

Susie points at the pile of pink metal. “She turned into Strawberry Ice Cream.”