• Dr. Doc's Journal Entry #2
    Febraury 19, 2010


    tab Soon after I was "born", I met my counterparts, #2 and #3, in a large, ominous room my master liked to call the "Discussion Room." It would've been empty except for the long table placed smack dab in the middle of it. It was made of oak wood, and it seemed like it hadn't been used in a long time by all the dust piled on top of it. Did my master live alone before we came along? Was that why he created us? As "friends" to ease his loneliness?
    tab I didn't think about it too much then. I sat down in one of the dusty old chairs, and so did the other two. The master stood in a corner, and all he said to us was,
    tab "Talk." We stared at eachother, not sure what to talk about.
    tab "Hello," I finally spoke up. #3 greeted me likewise, but #2 stayed quiet. I watched, from the corner of my eyes, my master smiling with a sense of accomplishment, eyeing us intently.
    tab "You look very pretty, #3," I went on, staring back at the others. #2 was a boy, and #3 was a girl, both looking around two years younger than me. #2 looked far too cynical, even for a high school boy. I was immediately attracted to #3, though. She had that kind of look that no one could possibly resist; that innocent smile, that neatly combed hair, those curved hips...
    tab Robots cannot love though, especially not spontaneously, so I decided to dismiss any further thoughts of it.
    tab "Thank you, #1," she said, in an almost nervous way. The master's smile grew considerably, and then he asked,
    tab "#2, do you have anything to say?"
    tab "No," was his simple and quick reply.
    tab "And why is that?" my master pressed harder.
    tab "I'm not going to simply talk about nothing," #2 explained with bite, "for the simple reason of keeping you entertained. Sitting here, acting like a dog playing tricks, I hope, was not what I was created for."
    tab "Of course not!" my master quickly denied.
    tab "Then why the hell am I sitting in this chair?" He suddenly got up, and walked straight out of the room, towards who knows where.
    tab "Defiant little..." my master muttered, his smile gone. He sighed, and finished, "I suppose it doesn't matter. I needed a change of things anyway. #3, come with me." She nodded, and got up.
    tab "Why don't you go talk some sense into #2?" he said, looking directly at me, as he began walking out of the room with #3, through a different door than the one #2 took. "God knows he needs it." I nodded, and said I would, of course. He shut the other door on me, and I could hear him lock it up. Almost as if, even if I didn't want to, he was forcing me to go the other way and talk to #2.

    tab I found #2 in the back yard, sitting on a bench near a garden of dead flowers. I sat down with him, and asked,
    tab "Why are you acting so insubordinant?"
    tab "And why are you acting so obedient?" he snapped, plucking a flower from the ground and picking off it's lifeless petals, one by one. I didn't say anything to that, so he went on,
    tab "He thinks he can do whatever he wants to us now, because he created us for that."
    tab "We should feel lucky that we've even been created, #2," I pointed out.
    tab "Don't call me that!" he shouted. He crumpled up the dead flower, and threw it to the ground.
    tab "See, that's what I mean. He's taking advantage of us. He didn't even bother to give us real names. From now on, you're going to call me Steven. And you...I'll call you..." He rubbed his chin, and said,
    tab "Dr. Doc." I laughed. It was the first time I did, and I would learn that it also would be the last time I made any sort of genuine laugh.
    tab "That's not a name. And it sounds very silly."
    tab "Fine," he said agreeingly. "Just Doc. You see, anything sounds better than a number."
    tab "I suppose." I swallowed, and asked,
    tab "How about the girl? What should her name be?" He cocked his head, deep in thought.
    tab "How about Lucy? I think that sounds good." I nodded, surprisingly relieved that all three of us now had actual names. We sat there in silence for a couple seconds, and then I said,
    tab "You know, he told me that he'd treat me like a real human."
    tab "If that were really true, he wouldn't keep us trapped like this." Then he looked at me, and told me with a hopeful smile on his face,
    tab "One day, I'm going to get out of here. One day, I'm going to escape, and live my own life." It was a dream that didn't seem real to me. And at that point, I thought he was only joking. Only later did I figure out how serious he really was.