We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Howard

February 2218

Vulcan

“You should leave my mother alone.”

I’d been casually examining a store-front display at the mall, so the comment, coming out of nowhere, made me jump. I turned around to find Rosie, Bridget’s eldest daughter, glaring at me.

“What?” Oh, great comeback, Howard. Brilliant.

“You’re a machine. You’re not even human. My mother needs to get over the death of my father, and move on. But not with a machine.”

Here we go. My fertile and somewhat anxiety-ridden imagination had pictured something like this. I wasn’t particularly happy about the validation. “Rosie, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. I, the real me, am human. I—”

“Spare me all the scientific double-talk. You’re a recording of a human. I’m not interested in debating the issue. I’m—”