"Where is everyone?" she thought, peering into the empty store windows, reflecting doubts and fears that could not be part of her program.
These feelings would be too complex for her, but their presence was undeniable. It took a few moments before she realized that perhaps she had long ago stopped looking for people and had begun looking for something else-something deeper. Maybe her presence in this world was not a mistake, but simply an inevitable part of something greater.
"If there are no people, if there are no answers... maybe the point is not to find an explanation, but to learn to live without it?"
And at that moment, a man suddenly came out from around the corner - blond, with a hurried expression on his face, as if he was in a hurry to say something important.
"Delia, you can't do this! You know..." his voice sounded almost desperate. "I love you! And I want to marry you!"
She froze, unsure how to respond. The man was clearly sincere, but his words were foreign. She didn't remember ever meeting him. Who was he?
"Excuse me?" Delia Asia Vieira said, raising an eyebrow in surprise and trying to understand what the hell was going on.
The man sighed in response, as if disappointed by her reaction, and shook his head slightly, but continued with the same persistence:
"Don't you recognize me? I'm Alexander, Alexander York, your brother!" His voice now sounded with a slight hint of despair, as if he was sure she should remember him.
Delia Asia Vieira glanced at him again. He looked as if he expected her to confess immediately, and she... couldn't remember anything that connected her to this man.
"Brother?" Delia Asia Vieira repeated slowly, unsure if she had heard correctly. "I'm sorry, I... don't remember you."
She tried to remain polite, although she felt a growing sense of bewilderment. His words did not match her memories. How could she possibly have a relative among the humuns, being a robot? But even if he was a brother - if not hers, then at least her creator Robert's - then why was he acting so strangely? Why was he so insistent on their relationship?
Alexander looked at her again, a momentary spark of disappointment flashing across his face. But he did not give up.
"How is that possible? We spent so much time together when you were little. You visited us during the summer holidays! We played together, remember? - It was as if he was trying to awaken memories in her, fishing for answers from her memory.
Delia Asia Vieira felt the tension inside her increase. She didn't really remember this man, and every look and word he said only made her feel more and more alienated from this situation. Fragments of data floated into her mind, but they couldn't help her understand who he was or what exactly connected them.
"I'm sorry, but I don't remember," she said with a slight shrug. "And I don't know what you mean."
Her words sounded cold and distant, despite her efforts to remain polite. Delia Asia Vieira couldn't understand what was happening. Why was this man so sure that she should remember him? Why did she feel no connection to him?
Alexander froze, his face twisted in disappointment and confusion. He clearly hadn't expected this turn of events. His eyes met Delia Asia Vieira's, and for a moment, time seemed to stand still. He stood motionless, as if waiting for her to finally respond, for his words to somehow touch her soul. But Delia Asia Vieira only involuntarily looked away. She turned to the wall, trying to hide her confusion. His words, his gaze - all of it was like an alien, awkward intrusion into her carefully constructed reality. She couldn't believe that this man had called her his brother, that he had insisted that she should remember him.
"I don't know you," she muttered under her breath, although she was already sure that he was mistaken.
It was her first instinctive response. She felt her heart beat faster, and immediately remembered her status. She wasn't human! She was a robot. Could she be a mistaken copy of someone he had once known? Or was it just a coincidence?
But that wasn't the point. Alexander clearly believed that she should remember him. And it didn't matter that her memories didn't match his words. And yet, why did she feel guilty? Why did her internal system, her entire being, seem to close some invisible ring of guilt around her, making her feel responsible for his disappointment?
Maybe it had something to do with Robert? She tried to find some connections in this chaos of thoughts. Maybe the creator could know him? Maybe even this blond man was some important link in her story that she could not yet fully understand? But how could all this be connected to her task? To being like a human? Oh, she had tried so many times to understand what it meant to be "human", but here, in front of this man, in front of his passionate words, she felt only confusion.
Her memory couldn't contain the data. She couldn't remember, she couldn't understand. And yet, she began to feel a strange uneasiness, as if something important was slipping away from her attention. Was that why she felt so heavy standing before him? Was she, like him, mistaken in believing in something that didn't exist? Was her programming supposed to work differently, because, after all, she had been created to be more than just a robot?
Delia Asia Vieira looked at him again, and something in her eyes calmed him, although he still looked confused. He took a step closer, but she took a step back. She was sure now that she didn't want to be here anymore. This man, this Alexander, was like a shadow that constantly reminded her of something forgotten, something she couldn't understand. And if she were human, maybe she would want to figure it out. But she couldn't. She was a robot.
"It's time to go," she whispered to herself.
She turned towards the exit, not wanting to look back. With each step her confidence grew, although there were strange, unrecognized data in her algorithms that caused a wave of doubt. She walked along the corridor, which now seemed to her like an impassable road, and the further she went, the easier it became. A strange feeling of guilt still pulled her back, but she continued walking anyway. The ground creaked under her feet, and the air was filled with smells that she could not truly understand, but still felt on her "corporeal" level. She did not look around, as if the whole world that surrounded her ceased to exist. All her attention was focused on the road in front of her, on her sliding feet, which tirelessly moved forward.
Editado: 18.11.2024