Today I Am Carey by Martin L. Shoemaker

Author:Martin L. Shoemaker [Shoemaker, Martin L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, Hard Science Fiction, General
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2019-03-05T05:00:00+00:00

28. Today I Take Delivery

It will take time for Nurse Rayburn to persuade her management to let me be a volunteer; so for a few days, I stay home and straighten up the garage. Paul has told me where he wants the building supplies stored while we work, and I need to clear that space out. Bicycles, wagons, garden tools, a rototiller, hoses—so much is piled up in that part of the garage. Susan often jokes with Paul about the garage they can never park in. It seems a shame to me that now they will clear it out only to put something else in it that is not a car.

Susan has ordered construction supplies for the remodeling effort; but she is at the school when the delivery truck arrives, so I greet the driver at the door. “Mrs. Owens?” he asks, and then he looks up from his tablet at me. “Oh, you’re not Mrs. Owens.”

“No, I am Carey Owens, their medical care android.”

“Is Mrs. Owens around? Mr. Owens?”

“No, they are both at work.”

“Now that’s a problem,” the driver answers. “I need one of them to sign for this. I spent a lot of juice getting out here. Delivery’s free, but if I have to take it back, they’re going to get hit with a twenty percent restock fee. And then they’ll get charged for delivery if I bring it back out again.”

“I am sorry. They did not know this.”

“People never read the fine print,” he says, rubbing his chin and looking at his tablet. “Do you know when they’ll be home?”

I check their schedules. “No less than three hours from now, possibly longer.”

“Three hours . . .” Then he looks at me funny. “You said your name is Carey Owens?”

“Yes.”

He holds out his tablet. “Could you sign that right here?”

“Sign?”

“Your name. Right in here.”

“Would that be proper?”

He scratches his head. “Look pal, if you got a signature, I got a load for you. If you don’t tell the bosses that you’re a machine, I won’t tell them. Nobody has to be the wiser.”

“I have never signed for anything before.”

“Well congratulations, this will be your first time. If you just sign right here, we can start unloading.”

I take the tablet and the stylus, but I pause. Is this legal? Is my signature a valid release? But if it is not, the driver will be the only one at risk. He might get in trouble for delivering a load without authorization; but he seems to accept that, and it will save Paul and Susan a restocking and delivery fee.

I know of no law that I am breaking, so I sign the tablet.

“Very neat handwriting,” the driver says. “All right, pal, where do you want it?” I lead him to the garage and open the door. The truck is already backed up close to the garage. The driver pushes a button, and a gate slowly folds down.

“So we go into the truck?” I ask.

“Nah,” he says, “this is a modern operation. We got robots for that.

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