Her deft fingers tapped silently in the air. They had been designed to play melodies, despite never having met a piano. From the storage shed’s dusty window, she watched the newer pianist on the gorgeous grand piano in the main parlour, dreaming it was her playing instead. How could they know this other pianist played better, if they’d never even heard her perform?
The shed door creaked open and the butler walked in. His warm hands opened up the battery compartment on her back to swap out her fizzling battery. He turned to walk out, but stopped short when his eyes met her forlorn gaze.
“It’s not your fault — your arrival was delayed due to a shipping disruption, and he got so impatient, he bought a newer model at the local store … Don’t be like that. There’s still hope.” His encouragement was betrayed by a pendulous sigh.
She watched the usurper dance on the keys for what felt like eternity. Androids never got sick or tired, after all. Still, she waited. What else could she do?
When the butler returned, he carried a box. “There’s more to life than piano,” he said, revealing a knowledge module, a glowing orb of circuitry that unlocked something inside her. “Why don’t you try reading?”
Read more science fiction from Nature Futures
He unloaded an assortment of books onto the concrete floor. She cracked one open, cocking her head to glance inside. Words flowed out like musical notes, harmonizing into stories that swelled inside her. She felt characters come to life, taking bold action and seizing control of their lives. Her fingers fluttered as pages flew between them, and when the evening sun’s rays flickered away, she’d exhausted her supply of stories and resorted to reading grubby warranty manuals archived in the shed.
The butler returned regularly to replenish her books. She slowed down to an adagio pace, savouring each word as she listened to the brooding sound of Chopin floating from the house. But however captivating she found books to be, her fingers still twitched with longing for the keys of a piano.
When the entire family left on a rare outing, the butler flung open her door, haloed in the morning light. “The family is out. We’re bringing you to the piano!”
She followed breathlessly, the grassy lawn tickling her feet as she ran. She almost squealed when she emerged through the double doors of the house, greeted by a glittering chandelier and a soaring staircase. Then the radiance of the piano swept away all other thoughts.
But when they stepped into the parlour, the android pianist stood in their way with an accusatory glare. She looked to the butler. He appeared to calculate for a moment, then backpedalled. “We can’t afford to get in trouble. I’ll bring you back another day.” The piano’s delicate keys whispered and coaxed, but she shook free of their spell. She trusted the butler.
Despite failing, energy coursed within her like a supercharged battery. How close the piano had been! Now that the butler, her guiding light, had shown her what was possible, she felt like the protagonists of her books. That evening, her thoughts raced as a storm of Beethoven and Liszt rolled forth from the parlour.
As eager rays of dawn peeked into the shed, she wrapped up her review of the warranty manuals and set her plan in motion. When the owner left for work, she slipped into the house and located a floating terminal, which projected a dazzling jumble of digital programs and utilities onto the wall. Oh, how she wished she had the knowledge module for operating electronic devices instead of those awkward manuals.
She grappled with the menus until she found the android management program and filed a maintenance request. She watched from the shed as a maintenance van glided up the crescent driveway, and beamed when the butler helped the maintenance team whisk the pianist away.
Upon returning to a musicless house, the owner roared with displeasure. He interrogated the butler, “What happened to my pianist?”
“Just maintenance. I thought you —”
“I never authorized a maintenance order.”