Bill hadn't seen Rose for some months. At a fund raising dinner they bumped into each other. He hardly recognised her. She looked as attractive as ever, and gave him a big smile.
"Hello, sir," she demurely said.
"Err, hello. How are you?" he asked. She looked well and had a contended look about her.
"I'm fine, very good in fact. I have often thought about that day we spent together," she quietly spoke.
"I'm sorry, I really am," he began.
"No! Don't be sorry. That moment led me to become, I mean, it made me discover something wonderful. I'm with Randal now," she told him, while nodding in the direction of her master. "I persuaded him to bring me here," she said, looking distant for a moment.
Bill noticed she spoke with a feminine, doll like voice. He saw that she was dressed like an exquisite doll, and became worried that the programming had permanently altered her thinking.
"I'm his special doll," she beamed at Bill. "I really am! I'm his dolly to play with, all the time. He looks after me so well. We play a delightful game at home. He really knows how to master me," she giggled.
"I wanted to thank you for liberating me. After you pretended to make into a doll, well, it made me think deeply about what I needed in life. I've got what I want now! I just wanted to thank you so much," she gushed, and grabbed him for a warm hug.
"Don't look like that! It isn't something you did wrong it's what I really want. I have never been so happy in my life. I wasn't suited to that job it made me mean and angry all the time. Now I am perfectly happy, really I am. Please, be happy for me, Bill," she implored him.
He smiled and hugged her back. What could he say? She was the most beautiful woman in the room. Unlike most of them she looked radiant, and so contented, she beamed a powerful light of happiness all around her.
"Randall is going to donate a huge amount to your fund. He is a very loving man and thinks the world of me. He's doing it out of respect of what you do, as well as a special thank you for giving me to him," she smiled.
Randall's contribution inspired others to give larger amounts than they intended. The experimental stage shifted gear into production, and Bill accepted she was right. He had nothing to regret over that moment of madness in the laboratory.
***
Reminiscing in his golden years, while recounting the story of how it all started, Bill unintentionally mentioned the episode with Rose. His grandson hadn't heard this story before, and quizzed him until the sordid story was revealed.
They chuckled over it, but he made David promise not to tell anyone.
"Little does anyone know this business is founded on a quick," he started to say.
"Hey! Enough of that young man. She was a fine lady and a generous patron," the old man fired at his young grandson.
"One day you will inherit all this," he murmured.
"What, that old easy chair and cushions?" David quipped.
Bill chuckled at the young man's irreverence. He was only eighteen and would soon learn that running a business brought heavy responsibilities. He just hoped the light heartedness wasn't swamped by problems and worry.
David was sitting on the sofa thinking deeply. The business, according to his father, was growing, though not making a huge profit. He sat there thinking about dolls and androids. A new branch of the business seemed a good way to put their good works on a sound footing.
***
"I know the arguments in favour of your product, so there is no need to reiterate them. I am here to see your factory for myself," Linda stated. As leader of the Moral Right party she was used to getting her own way. She had the habit of brow beat everyone into accepting her decisions.
"You haven't given us a chance to put our case forward. You simply brought your negative opinion along with you," David sighed. He was feeling old at fifty-four. He had seen off takeover bids, world recessions, countless other problems, and now this.
"What you are doing is wrong. It is as simple as that," Linda fiercely said, with a finger poking his chest, directly at his heart.
It might as well have been a knife. She was an important politician, with a predetermined opinion that couldn't be turned. She wouldn't even countenance a compromise.
"Since distributing these dolls a lot of good has been engendered, just look at the crime statistics," he implored.
"We are not going to agree on this point. Time is pressing, so I must go," Linda said, rising from the chair.
"Not so fast. Won't you at least listen to our arguments for continuing production," he sighed.
Linda was annoyed. She wanted him to accept the decision, and show her out. Even if he didn't accept it, she was ready to go. She watched him handling a remote control stick. She cringed at the thought of another boring film show. She had fallen asleep during the last one, the only time not wasted while there.
"Sit down please," David softly spoke.
"I am ready to go," Linda repeated, and was annoyed to have automatically sat back down. It was politeness that had her reluctantly sitting, when she wanted to leave.
"There is no point going over old ground, the decision has been made. It's final, and there is nothing you can say, or do, to change my mind," Linda firmly stated.
"You want to close the factory. I want to keep it open. Simple as you said. Well, desperate times call for desperate measures," he sighed. "They are a good way of teaching men how to treat a real woman," he again explained, while fiddling with the control stick.
He could see the look of boredom clearly expressed from the way she sat. She wasn't about to see reason, so he had to press on with the drastic plan. His grandfather, Bill had saved the very first project by using such a ruse. He made a business consultant think she had become a doll.
It was his grandfather's guilty confession that gave him this idea.
Bill's original factory was still manufacturing limbs and robotic body parts. They were used for accident and disease victims, to get them back to normal life. It was these doll's that kept it in production, as the factory wasn't self sustaining financially. If this one closed, there would be thousands of people unable to function normally, or worse.
David owed it to the memory of Bill to keep his inventions alive and kicking!
