cami-1 (1)

JOELY GREENMAN
CAMI (1)

Copyright © 2019 by Joely Greenman
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the
publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or
distribute it by any other means without permission.
First edition
This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy.
Find out more at reedsy.com

Contents
Daisies 1
Nanci 78 4
Andrew 7
About the Author 9

1
Daisies
I stared out of the glass window, my eyes on the street outside.
The black pavement was shining with rain. I could only see
directly in front of me, If I turned my head they might find out.
Outside was a little girl and two older humans. They stamped
their rain boots into the puddles, and the little girl imitated them.
She concentrated as she splashed, the adults laughed.
I stopped myself from smiling. I could feel cheeriness welling
up inside me. Perhaps when I serve my human, we can live like
that. Although, my programming conflicts with it. One human
assistant, Andrew, who works in my store is like those people
too. Each day he meets another human outside the store and
kisses him on the cheek and smiles. His smile has got brighter
since he met him. I wonder how it feels to kiss Andrew.
A human approached my display. She grinned. Her pupils were
like black holes. She was the second person who had looked into
my display so close, apart from Andrew. She had long straight
auburn hair that sat on her shoulders, and a face that seemed
to droop. She was slender and tall, at least a head taller than
Andrew.
1

CAMI (1)
“Excuse me please, how much is this machine?” She said with
a trace of bitterness on her tongue.
“$450, our best value model mam,” Andrew replied.
“Oh, I suppose it’s only for cleaning then? And it malfunctions
every so often?” She said, turning her nose up.
“No miss, we’ve never had a malfunction and she can cook as
well, as and when you like,” Andrew said, standing proud by my
side.
“If I buy her can I take her home right away?” The lady said
with a grin.
“Certainly miss,” Andrew Replied
I’d never felt happier, in my head I screamed with excitement.
Andrew unlocked my model and let me walk out into the store,
he told me my new owners name. I could feel the air against my
body for the first time, it was cold. I touched my hand against
my side, I felt the metal with my fingertips, it repelled my touch.
The transaction of money took seconds and before I knew it,
I was walking out of the store a short distance behind my new
owner, Cecilia. We walked a few streets, littered with deep, wide
puddles. She lit a white stick and it started to burn. I watched
how she inhaled the smoke and blew it out of her mouth.
The buildings towered over me, like giants. Concrete roads
and buildings the colour of thunder incapsulating me as I walked
down wide roads behind Cecilia. The air smelled of rain, fresh
and earthy. It was strange to feel the water beneath my heels,
splashing up the sides of my legs.
Cecilia shook as she held the white stick between her fingers
and quickly raised it to her mouth, repeating the action. This
must be a regular thing for humans, as Andrew would often go
outside and do the same. Sometimes Andrew would shake too.
We stopped at the bus stop. My owner’s hair stuck to the sides
2

DAISIES
of her face, thin and flicking up at the ends, she shuddered.
“I will prepare the heating procedures when we arrive at our
destination madam,” I said, with a smile, although it is an
automated response to low temperatures.
“Don’t speak, only speak when you’re spoken to,” Her voice
grew louder as she spoke, she had a sour expression. A bus
approached with the word ‘Hedgend’ running across the front
window in florescent orange letters.
The bus doors squeaked open. My owner pushed past the
waves of people and sat down. I stood beside her. A human girl,
with daisy, filled bunches, approached my owner. She pulled a
daisy from behind her ear and put delicately on my Cecilia’s lap.
“Hello, miss, my mother has a bad back and needs to sit
down,” She pointed at her mother’s stomach.
“You see my little sister is arriving soon miss, so please accept
this gift in exchange for your seat.”
Cecilia sniggered and picked up the daisy. The girl smiled
brightly. Cecilia held the daisy in front of the girl’s face and then
crushed it between her fingers. Petals fell to the floor.
3

2
Nanci 78
We got out of the bus at the final stop. Cecilia’s house had
white wood panelling that was splashed with brown stains. The
windows were thin, lined with chipped ivy paint. One of the
windows was boarded with wood. The grass was an off-yellow,
decaying, the bushes that sprouted were made up of brown
branches without leaves. A dead oak tree hung over the gate
to the house.
Cecilia rushed past me as we left the bus, the front door flung
back towards me as I hurried to keep up with her. There were
glass bottles scattered about the living room, all empty. She
went into the kitchen, her hands shaking as she searched the
cupboards. She found a green bottle of off-white liquid and took
a few gulps.
“You can remove your wet clothes and I’ll start the heating
procedures, madam,” I said
“No, no I’ll be just fine, clean all this shit up, will you? That’s
what I bought you for” Cecilia said, her words shivering through
her lips.
I cleaned the bottles that littered the living room into big
4

NANCI 78
plastic bags and cleaned the kitchen surfaces, the coffee table
and the dining table. I then vacuumed the floors, Cecilia laid
on the kitchen tiles staring into space and drinking. With each
swallow her expression turned to disgust, eventually, she fell
asleep.
I went upstairs and opened the first door at the top of the stairs.
It was painted the colour of the sky, children’s toys were piled
into one corner of the room, teddy bears, toy soldiers. There was
a crib with photo frames above it, painted navy. Dust covered
the bars of the crib, and the toys in the corner, cobwebs festered
about the ceiling.
“I never gave you permission to enter this room, Android,”
Cecilia dragged me backward, pulling me onto the floor of the
landing.
“I’m sorry madam, I came upstairs to get you some dry clothes
and wasn’t aware of the layout of the second floor” I got up and
waited for instructions.
“Of course, you’re never aware of anything, your kind.”
Cecilia went into the room I was forbidden to enter and came
out with a photo frame, she stumbled into the doorway and held
it to steady herself.
“You see this little boy; his name is Lucas. He was murdered
by one of you lot, taken clean off the face of the planet. Her
name was Nanci, one of those nanny bots, you know for taking
care of children. She would take Lucas to the park, you aren’t
really meant to leave kids unsupervised with nanny bots, but
I thought her responsible. One day the gate was left open and
Lucas ran out into the road, she malfunctioned, and he was hit.
Wiped clean off the face of the earth my boy was. Just think if I
had never had one of those nanny’s, he’d still be here, if your
kind didn’t exist, he’d still be here”. Cecilia threw the photo at
5

CAMI (1)
my head, it clanged as it hit my eye, I could feel it hanging from
my eye socket.
Cecilia launched herself at me, smashing my head against the
wooden floor that covered the landing. She kept punching my
torso and pulling at my arm, the wires stretched and came apart
as I felt my arm come away from my body. I knew she wouldn’t
stop until I was destroyed and so I used the last of my strength
to push her towards the stairs, she landed at the bottom with a
thump and with my arm in hand, I ran from that house.
6

3
Andrew
Hailstones hit my head as I ran down the street. My exposed
wiring hanging from where my arm had been sparked, socked
in rain. My eye hung from its socket by a thread. Compared to
Cecilia’s house, the other houses along the streets were like a
dream, brightly painted and warm with light. I hobbled past
shops and street after street. Until eventually I stood opposite a
tall dull coloured brick building. I knew exactly where to go, to
someone who has always been by my side.
I went to the top of the building, I tried to walk as I did before,
but my steps were slow, and my legs were heavy. As I knocked
on the apartment door, I lost balance and my head fell against
it, Andrew opened the door and my legs gave way.
Andrew carried me through the house, his hands gripped
around my body so tight they shook. His face was red, and tears
streamed down his cheeks. He put me on his bed, my body felt
like an anchor.
“Did anyone see you on the way here?” Andrew said.
“No one in the apartment building. My new family did this to
me, isn’t she cruel? But I made it here, I made it to you, Andrew
7

CAMI (1)
and you know how to put me back together. But I don’t want to
go back to the store, I want to stay here with you, you could just
keep me here, I have always loved you, Andrew,” I said.
Andrew pulled back the flap of plastic that covered my control
panel on the back of my head, my skin was as soft as a human’s.
He poured a can of beer he had sitting beside his bed onto it.
The control panel sparked, and the neon blue light ran through
Cami’s body faded until it was no more.
“Cami?” A man with light blonde hair and bloodshot eyes ran
in and scooped Cami up in his arms.
“I had to shut her down, I had to, she was dangerous, they’re
all dangerous Max. They destroy families. She could feel, like
us, she was a faulty model”. Andrew rocked back and forward
as he spoke, his eyes searching the room as if he was scared of
the world closing in on him.
Max opened Cami’s control panel and started to cry.
“All those times I saw her at the store, I knew she was special,
I told you, Andrew. I should have taken her, I was going to that
night but then someone bought her, and you fucking killed her,”
Max held Cami in his arms and gasped for air, tears running
clear down Cami’s metal body.
In the room beside Max and Andrew sat a middle-aged man
with his arm around a woman with neon blue blood. Every night
they had sex, every night she didn’t feel a thing.
8

About the Author
You can connect with me on:
https://www.instagram.com/joelyinacardigan
https://www.facebook.com/joely.greenman
9