Dear Valued Customer,

This communication is to inform you of a safety recall concerning your Perfect Match Android Companion. A defect has come to light that compromises the safe operation of this product. Customer safety is our main concern, so we have remotely shut down every Perfect Match Android Companion and immediately issued a total recall. A representative will be in touch with you shortly to coordinate the return of this defective product.

You have been issued a full refund.

Thank you for being a valued SynDeCorp customer. We appreciate your business.

My legs go weak as I read the email, then I sit down and try to calm myself. This is not a person that has been shut down and recalled I tell myself. Not a real man and not my lover. This is a defective android and if he is unsafe then it’s a good thing they are doing a recall. I have a husband who will come home eventually. I will be fine. I never asked for this Perfect Match. I don't need him. I am a married woman and this was ridiculous from the start.

Now I'm going to have to go in the living room and see Rick shut down, and I'm going to have to call back Dr. Peterson so she can have someone come pick him up.

All these thoughts are circling around in my brain, but they aren't really sinking in. I'm not getting up and I'm not dealing with anything. I'm just going to curl into a tighter and tighter ball in this big comfy chair. When I turn my face into it I can still faintly smell Shane. This was the only piece of furniture he brought with him when we moved in here–this is where he sits for video calls or catching up on the news and drinking coffee.

I can't believe I'm freaking the hell out over an android—cyborg--whatever. I can see now that I was totally wrong about being able to destroy Rick, thinking I could literally throw him in the trash. I'm a total mess right now. I keep oscillating between feeling guilty that Rick has kind of replaced Shane in my fantasies and in my heart lately and feeling hella pissed that it's Shane's impulsivity and free-spending ways that have landed me in this situation to start with. What sort of husband buys a Perfect Match for his wife? What the hell did he expect to happen?

Just as I'm cursing him in my head, he calls. I automatically answer and immediately regret it because I look as awful as I feel. My makeup is smeared, my hair is mussed, and my eyes are red and puffy.

"Awe, babe," his concern is immediate, "what's happened?"

I take a deep breath and tell him everything, all about the trial, the voicemail and I'm actively crying by the time I get to the part about Rick being shut down. My reaction must look over-the-top and it must be really obvious to him that I have feelings for Rick. When I'm done recapping, there's a long silence and I'm looking to the side, away from the screen, just waiting for Shane to start yelling at me. He never has before, but there's a first time for everything and the situation certainly calls for it. I'm waiting for him to tell me he wants a divorce because I obviously have feelings for this android and that's certainly grounds for a break-up. But none of that comes.

"Okay, Honey, here's what you're going to do. You're going to get the rolling desk chair from the office and you're going to put Rick in it, then you're going to roll him out to the garage. You're going to put him in the shop—”

"What?" I interrupt, "What shop?"

"You know, in the back of the garage? It used to be a closet, but I enlarged it and turned it into a work area. Where I keep all the tools."

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I nod. I don’t remember any of that though.

"Ok, go wheel him in there, then lock the door with the padlock hanging on the side. Then call me right back." He looks at me expectantly. "Now, Honey. Hang up and do it now."

I stand, "Okay, but why—”

"We'll talk when you call me back."

"Okay."

I close the chat window and hurry to do as he said. I find Rick sitting stiffly on the couch in the living room. He doesn't look shut down, he looks like he's just closed his eyes for a second. But when I call his name and shake his shoulder, he doesn't respond, and I start to feel a little creeped out. I rush around getting the chair and lugging Rick's heavy-ass body into it. I'm sure glad I have experience lifting people because dude is at least 250lbs of dead weight.

I wheel him out to Shane’s shop and there's just barely enough room in there for him. It's full of toolboxes, power tools, a lawnmower, and a workbench that stretches across the back of the room. I'm able to wedge him in between the bench and mower. The padlock is on a heavy-duty latch hanging unhooked and unlocked with the key turned in it. I latch the latch, lock the lock, and pocket the key then rush to the den to call Shane back.

As soon as he answers I say, "Okay, done. But explain to me why I've hidden Rick's body in your shop."

"It's a Faraday cage," he says as if that explains everything.

I just look at him.

"The walls of the shop are lined with metal. It interferes with signals and electrical charges. I built it to block wireless signals so that I could modify—you know what, it doesn't matter. SynDeCorp was able to shut him off remotely because he's got his own hotspot built in. They could have shut him down even if you were away from any Wi-Fi signals. But they can’t shut him down in that room."

"But he's already shut down." I say.

"I think you should reboot him. You'll probably need to do a hard reset and see if he comes back on." I realize Shane is trying to help me keep Rick. It seems impossible, but I'm so grateful and hopeful I wish I could throw my arms around him.

"Thank you so much, Shane," I say with a watery smile.

"Don't thank me yet. I don't know if it will work." He's got his chin on top of his laced together fingers, striking a thinking pose. "I'll send you a video telling you what to do. Download it to your phone so that you can go through each step as I tell it—”

"Why not just keep you on the phone?"

He tilts his head at me like I've said something silly. "Faraday cage, remember? Your phone won't receive a signal in there."

"Oh, okay," I think for a second, "But what about the defect? The email from SynDeCorp said the androids could be dangerous because of some kind of defect."

"Hun, you can be sure there is no defect. This recall is because of the emancipation court case. I haven't had a chance to look over all the findings yet but going by the ruling I bet they found out some pretty incriminating stuff. They wouldn't emancipate the flesh suite of an AI that resides in SynDeCorp headquarters. I think they found evidence that the androids—" He does finger quotes here "—are sentient, biological people being controlled by an AI. Or something equally ghoulish. I wouldn't put anything past these SynDeCorp goons.”

"So you think when I reboot him, he'll be…what? A real person?"

"Only if he's always been a real person. I was looking over the marketing and they always said that the androids don't have a functioning cerebrum. That means they do have a cerebrum, it's just not what's governing them. I wonder if when you reboot him or restart him and he's in that cage not getting any signals, he might wake up, you know? And be his own, real self?"

I'm dazed by this line of thinking. Has Rick been a person this whole time? And he's been cybernetically enslaved? This is nuts. And what's my part in all of this? If he wakes up in his own head, thinking his own thoughts, what will he think of me and how I've had him cook and clean and—Oh, god–sexually service me this whole time?

"You look like you're having second thoughts, Honey." he says, snapping me out of it.

I shake my head, "No, I want to wake him up."

Shane nods. "Good. Because it's the right thing to do. If he's a real person and not some AI robot, we can't just hand him over to SynDeCorp."

I can’t believe how supportive he’s being. How he has taken over this situation and he’s helping me through it and helping me keep Rick even though—

“I love you,” I tell him, voice a little horse from the crying. I don’t say that to him often enough, especially not lately with Rick taking up most of my time.

“I love you too, Hun,” he responds with a soft smile. And the sadness is back, full-force. Rick has been doing a great job of distracting me from how much I miss Shane, but that abyss of sadness and longing has been waiting just below the surface, ready to pull me in.

I can’t wallow though because Shane is right in what he said about waking up Rick. That's the heart of the matter, isn't it? No matter what the outcome, we need to do right by him. I have to at least try.