She looked a picture: bouncy curls, gauzy pink dress.
The afternoon was a phenomenal success – the garden resounded with children’s laughter and Suzy played the hostess like an expert, welcoming guests, exclaiming at her presents, charming the parents. She excelled in the games, but was gracious to those little ones who lacked her skill.
Then the storm hit. You could feel the air change, hear the hum, but Suzy just stood there, entranced. It took only a moment to short her out, turning her curls to frizzled wisps, her frilly dress to a charred rag.
Back to the drawing board.
*****
Thanks once again to Rochelle for hosting Friday Fictioneers. This is my contribution to this week’s link-up.
Poor Suzy. Not sure if she was a robot or a real child. Everyone can realte to this, when the weather ruins a party – and the children are disappointed.
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I think everyone would have been a bit disappointed by this outcome but Suzy’s designers are a tenacious lot. They’ll come up with a more storm resistant design next time, I’m sure.
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I’d thought about a lot of issues involved in integrating AIs into society, but lightning strikes on children’s parties wasn’t one of them, Fun idea
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True. The party experiment was demanding enough for Suzy, without the storm variable. Thanks, Neil.
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A good story and well written, Margaret. I thought about it and decided this birthday child was too perfect to be real. A lightning strike would really mess up an AI creation. In the future, only the wealthy would be able to afford one and could just replace it if that happened. Thus “Back to the drawing board”. I wonder if the other children realized what happened. If they didn’t know, it would be traumatic for them. —- Suzanne
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She was a bit too good to be true, wasn’t she. Thanks for commenting, Suzanne.
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I really wasn’t sure what happened until I read the other comments that confirmed my idea. Good job! This was so true to life that finding she was a robot was —ummm—shocking 🙂
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Haha. I usually don’t aim for shock value, but in this case it worked, I think. Thanks, Linda.
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Maybe Suzy Mk 2 could have some sort of lightning rod attachment… 🙂
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Good idea. And also something to filter out her fascination with electrical storms. She needs to learn to take shelter.
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And things were going so well…
Fun stuff, Margaret.
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Yes, they thought they’d nailed it with this model. Thanks, Dale.
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Dear Margaret,
Hopefully the next Suzy model will have the bugs worked out. Better than a Chatty Cathy doll. 😉 Imaginative and fun story.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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I never had a talking doll – at least I can’t remember having one. The ones I remember are two ordinary, probably cheap, little plastic ones that I played with all the time, and made clothes for. Chatty Cathy sounds rather scary. Thanks for your comment, Rochelle.
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I enjoyed your imaginative story with its surprise ending. Nicely done!
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
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Thanks, Susan. I was considering making Suzy an alien but she turned out to be a robot. I’m still thinking she’d have made a great alien. Maybe another story ….
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Wonder what would be the shape of children’s parties in the near future. Good story, Margaret.
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I guess it would depend on how many of the guests are human and how many are just disguised as such. Thanks for reading, Neel.
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You’ve put a lot of imagination into this robot, especially her graciousness to younger children with less skill. I wonder if real robot designers would have that as a priority?. Your story fizzes, Margaret!
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I like the idea of a fizzing story. Thank you, Penny.
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I wonder if you need such a perfect little robot… i feel that real kids with flaws are better.
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I think so too. I wouldn’t trade my two daughters for robots – although there have been some moments when they were teenagers that I might have believed differently 🤔.
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And I thought they were just going to make wives. You know, the one’s who never nag or pester their husbands about home improvement projects?
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Russell, haven’t you heard? Robot wives are not the going thing any more. These days they build husbands. They take out the garbage on time, never complain about home maintenance and bring their wives a nice hot cup of tea in bed every morning. A much better arrangement.
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oh! I love this idea ~ sort of ~ in a good way. I fear robot people may become all too common. Hopefully, after I’m gone.
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Glad you like it – sort of. I do agree that the idea of robots and AI in general is scary. How far will it all go? However I really love reading good novels about such things. I haven’t found any good ones for such a long time – I might have to go searching. Thanks for commenting Alicia.
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A definite design flaw!
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Oh yes. They’ll have to fix that in the next model. Thanks Iain.
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Maybe they can dip the next prototype in latex so the lightning will bounce off of her 😉
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Now there’s a good idea. Especially if she’s going to be as mesmerised by electrical storms as this one is.
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🙂
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Never let the weather ruin a good party 😀.
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Definitely not. Just keep the robots away from the lightning.
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i never thought she was a robot. then, i looked at the picture again and realized she was for real. 🙂
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Sometimes it’s hard to tell. Thanks for reading.
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Oh my…
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