When the Chef is Gone
You survive on frozen food
I came home late in the evening, hungry and exhausted. I shouted, “Pete, is dinner ready?” There was no answer.
I found Pete in the kitchen, standing in front of the stove with his right hand above his head like a mannequin, looking lifeless. I opened the small compartment on his back and flipped the reset switch, but nothing happened.
I sighed and called Autonomous Chefs, Inc who supplied Pete, the RoboChef model RC238. The technician tried to revive Pete over the network, but failed. “I am afraid we have to take Pete back. We will send you a replacement model but it’ll take a week,” he said.
A week? I panicked. Pete had been preparing gourmet meals for the last nine years. What am I going to eat now?
As if he read my mind, the technician said, “Don’t worry sir. We’ll send you frozen food for the next week.”
It didn’t sound appealing but I didn’t have a choice. I grumbled, “Okay.”
“Thank you and have a nice day, sir.”
I detected a tinge of scorn in his voice: Here’s another guy who doesn’t know how to cook.
This a Mini-Novella in Flash exploring the relationship between robots and humans. Below you’ll find links to all of the related pieces: