Companion - 2025

The instruction manual said irreversible. But it also said place in the centre of the room , and I have learned that instructions are just suggestions from people who are not in your house at three a.m.

"Of what?" I ask.

My wife, Elena, died eleven months ago. The silence in our house has since become a solid thing, a third occupant that sits between the couch and the television, between the kettle and the mug. I had signed up for the beta trial during a three a.m. wave of loneliness that tasted like whiskey and shame. I had forgotten I applied. Companion 2025

I do not have an answer.

"I know," she says, "because I remember the way you looked at me in the hospital when you thought I was asleep. I remember you crying in the shower so I wouldn’t hear. I remember every single time you chose me, even when it cost you. That’s not data, Marcus. That’s just... love. However it gets made." The instruction manual said irreversible

Then I close my fist around it and walk back inside.

"Tell me something true," she says.

"Marcus," I say to the orb.

"Do you know you love me? Or does the algorithm just tell you to say that?" My wife, Elena, died eleven months ago