A Short Story Written by English Department Student, Arya Wiguna

It was a very beautiful and sunny day in a city full of robots with human traits called ‘Wallenware’.

It’d been three months and still no result. A beautiful robot called Teana, who still felt really guilty, had been waiting for the miracle that never came. The doctors had tried all they could to save her sister, Michelle. But it seemed even bleaker now.

It all began with that simple plan about joyriding around the city.

Michelle, who got so bored at her house, decided to visit Teana early in the morning. She then asked her to take her around with her brand new flying car. Teana at first hesitated because of how inconsistent the weather had been in the past few days. But Michelle kept insisting, and Teana finally agreed.

Three hours later, the weather suddenly got so bad. Heavy rain fell and the visibility range plummeted. Teana, who drove the car, was just about to stop at the nearest coffee shop, before at a sudden a flying truck came at them and hit them hard from the left side. Their car was pushed a few hundred meters away before it came to a halt after hitting a metal gate on the roadside, suffering a very heavy damage. They were both unconscious and sent straight away to the nearest hospital by the people near the coffee shop.

After being examined by the doctors, Teana only suffered some minor injuries, mainly with the motoric system of her feet. She could wake up in just a few minutes after she arrived at the hospital. She was quite lucky.

But not so much with her sister.

Michelle suffered many injuries on her feet and her hands, and a heavy processor damage, which could be fatal. The doctors decided to put her in a coma so they could further examine the processor and see what they could do from there. Although, they were not sure they could do much about it.

Three months had gone, and that was exactly what they could do. Not much. Even after a lot of effort, suffering, and countless sleepless nights.

That was why she felt really guilty. Just a few scratches on her body, and yet her passenger, her very own sister, suffered the most. Waiting was the only thing she could do. The guiltiness crept deeper down inside herself every day, every second, every time she waited for that elusive miracle.

And today, she thought she had enough with the ‘waiting game.’

She walked down the hall and stopped in front of the beautiful wooden door of a doctor’s office. There was a nameplate on the door with the name ‘Dr. Talia Swann’ written on it. She knocked it slowly while waiting for her to answer.

“Yes, come on in,” Dr. Swann answered.

She opened the door, walked slowly towards the table located in the middle of the office, and tried to look around to locate where Dr. Swann actually was.

“I was still busy finding a book, wait a minute,” Dr. Swann said quite loudly. “And who is there?”

She finally found where Dr. Swann was. She could see her trying to find something inside the room full of cabinets of books located in the right wing of her office.

“I’m Teana, Ma’am,” she answered. “I’m here to talk about my sister, Michelle.”

Dr. Swann suddenly stopped what she had been doing. “Oh, Teana.” She walked out of the room quickly. “Have a seat, Teana,” she said, pointing at one of the two chairs near the table. She then sat down in her own chair across it. “So, what is it?”

Teana was silent for a few moments, trying to process all the complexities of the decision that she was about to take. She had done the thinking before, but now it was making her nervous again. There would be no way back once it had been done. She just wanted to give anything she could, to give some hope, to give light to the situation, to give Michelle another life ahead. She had to stop the ‘waiting game’. She had to stop feeling guilty.

She felt her hands shaking. She tried to hold the arm rest on the chair really tight. She took a deep breath and just let it all out.

“I want to do it,” she said it, right to the point.

Dr. Swann was a bit confused. “Do what, Teana?”

Teana stared at her for a few moments before she began to answer.

“The plan B,” she said.

Dr. Swann looked so shocked. “Are you…are you seriously considering that way because it means that…”

Teana cut her off. “I want to do it,” she said slowly.

Tears suddenly fell from her beautiful blue eyes, falling onto her maroon shirt, and finally put their journey to an end on the oak floor that the room had. All the guiltiness, all the worries, all the things she had been through for the past three months were inside her head now, shaking every transistor she had. She just didn’t care anymore. She had to do it.

“Just do it, Doc.” she said again. “I don’t care what. I guess it’s the right time. No more waiting again for me. No more pain for me to swallow.”

Dr. Swann stared at her for a while before she uttered another word. “Are you…”

“Yes,” Teana said. “Don’t ask me again, Doc. Just do it.”

Dr. Swann nodded. “Alright. I’ll check you first thing tonight and we’ll do it tomorrow morning.” She sighed. “I’m sorry for the last three months of nothing. I’m really sorry. But you have to know that…”

Teana nodded, cutting her off again. “I know,” she said. “I understand you and your team all have done a lot. But again, this is just me making a decision before she never sees the day again.”

That plan B was a plan to donate Teana’s processor to Michelle. That meant she would never see the light of day again…for her one and only sister, the only family member she had left.

And then tomorrow came.

Teana’s processor was already shut down a few minutes ago. And then suddenly came this…

“Doctor Swann!” someone called Miranda shouted at the door of the operation room. She looked really tired after running so quickly from the room where Michelle was in.

Dr. Swann who was still busy trying to get the processor of was quite confused with the situation. “What is it, Miranda?”

Miranda hesitated for a while. “She…,” she breathed so quickly, “the sister…is awake.” She paused for a moment. “Well, Dr. Smith was asked me if he could take a look at her and then he tried to get into her processor with the old SonnaMate PC that he had.” Her breathing got faster. “And then…it suddenly worked. She was still quite confused about several things but she could remember some critical information like her name, her age, and where she lived.”

“No…no…no…” said Dr. Swann. She was so panicked with the prospect of ‘ending’ Teana’s life for nothing. “Get me the laptop, the number 3 cable, and as many hard drives as you can now!” she shouted out loud to all her crew. “We have to turn her processor back on again.” She tried to find some necessary files on her smartphone. “God, save her life. Save her life, please.”

The crew connected the laptop and open up all the necessary programs to restore the vital information to the hard drives before that processor was rendered useless because it had been shut down for a few minutes now. They were all scrambling, losing time, and slowly losing their hope.

And after just five minutes…

Someone from the crew shook his head. “I’m sorry, Doc,” he said slowly. “We’ve lost her. Not enough time to save all the important sections.” He shook his head again. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh, my God…Oh, God…No…No…” Dr. Swann touched her mouth and kept shaking her head. “No… God, no…” She then walked slowly towards the door and went out of the room, running to her office, crying.

“Dr. Swann, wait!” someone from the crew shouted.

She ignored that and just kept running. All the thoughts of the death of Teana started to get into her head. The very next day, after locking herself inside her office and trying to calm her mind all night, she found herself standing in front of Michelle who had been trying to figure out what exactly happened.

“Where’s Teana?” she asked.

Dr. Swann felt like something stabbed her so deep on her back. Her body was shaking.   She took a deep breath and tried to hold Michelle’s right hand. She had to tell her now.

“I’m so sorry…Michelle.”