General strikes -- Fiction; Robots -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories; Telepathy -- Fiction
Jack's unspoken question had been bothering me too. Why not humor
them? Promise them whatever they wanted, give them a few dollars every
week to keep them happy? But I knew that it wouldn't work. Not for
long. With their telepathic ability they would have the upper hand
forever. Within a little while it wouldn't be equality any more--only
next time we would be the slaves.
"Wait until morning," I said, "before we try anything."
He looked at me--curious. "What are you going to do?"
"Right now I'm going home."
I meant it too. I left him staring after me and went out to the
Copter. The sun was just sinking down behind the towers of Carron
City--how long it seemed since I'd flown in there this morning. The
roads around the factory were deserted. No one moved in the fields. I
flew along through the dusk, idling, enjoying the illusion of having a
peaceful countryside all to myself. It had been a pleasant way of life
indeed, until now.
When I dropped down on my own roof and rolled into the garage, my
sense of being really at home was complete. For there, standing at the
head of the stairs that led down to the living room, was Rob O.
"Well," I said: "What are you doing here?"
He looked sheepish. "I just wondered how you were getting along
without me," he said.
I felt like grinning triumphantly, but I didn't. "Why, just fine,
Rob," I told him, "though you really should have given me notice that
you were leaving. I was worried about you."
He seemed perplexed. Apparently I wasn't acting like the bullying
creature the radio had told him to expect. When I went downstairs he
followed me, quietly, and I could feel his wide photoelectric
eye-cells upon my back.
I went over to the kitchen and lifted a bottle down off the shelf.
"Care for a drink, Rob?" I asked, and then added, "I guess not. It
would corrode you."
He nodded. Then, as I reached for a glass, his hand darted out, picked
it up and set it down in front of me. He was already reaching for the
bottle when he remembered.
"You're not supposed to wait on me any more," I said sternly.
"No," he said. "I'm not." He sounded regretful.
"There's one thing, though, that I wish you'd do. Tell me where you
used to keep my socks."
He gazed at me sadly. "I made a list," he said. "Everything is down. I
wrote your dentist appointment in also. You always forget those, you
know."
"Thanks, Rob." I lifted my glass. "Here's to your new duties, whatever
they are. I suppose you have to go back to the city now?"
Once again he nodded. "I'm an aide to one of the best androids in the
country," he told me, half proudly and half regretfully. "Jerry."
"Well, wish him luck from me," I said, and stood up. "Goodbye, Rob."
"Goodbye, Mr. Morrison."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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