I wake up slowly. I’m not sure why but it feels harder this time. Time has passed since I last powered off, that’s for sure, but I don’t know how long it has been. My vision comes on slowly and, for a moment, I think that something must be wrong. It’s dark. The world around me is dark. But then my enhanced night vision kicks in and, if I could breathe, I would have let out a sigh of relief. My system is just a little slow today. Nothing is wrong, it just needed to wake up. I get that, I remember feeling that way when I was still alive.

The icon bouncing at the corner of my screen steals my attention. Someone is placing an order! That means that I will be able to go out into the world soon and I’ll be able to sing soon! I wonder what song they will choose this time. Will it be the same or will it be a different one? Oh, I hope that it is a different one! That would be awesome, I want to hear even more music from this world, even though it’s weird and not what I’m used to.

I hesitate. I want to ask the voice if it knows what song the person is choosing but I don’t know if I should. I mean, what if it says a different song and then I’m not even the robot who’s chosen to go out on the delivery? Then what? I will just have to sit outside the shop, watching one of the other robots go out and get to sing, alone and silent? I don’t want that. But I can’t help myself.

“Um… voice? Do you know what song the person has chosen?” I ask.

There is a pause before the voice replies to me.

“No. The customer is not prompted to choose a song until they are approaching check out,” it tells me.

I rock back and forth on my wheels unconsciously as I watch the icon. It is still bouncing so they must be adding more things to their basket. I want them to hurry up and check out so that I can ask the voice again. They are taking their time though. I’m not sure why it is so difficult for them but they seem to be adding many items, then taking some out and I just don’t know why. Is it that difficult to decide what you want to eat? I don’t remember but I feel like it can’t be.

After what feels like an eternity of waiting and staring at the icon, the voice finally speaks to me once more.

“You have received an order,” the voice tells me.

“What song did they choose?” I shoot back immediately.

There is another pause before the voice says, “The song they have requested that you play as you deliver the order is All I want for Christmas is you.”

I turn the words over and over in my head.

“What does that mean?” I ask. “What is Christmas?”

“Christmas is an annual festival which is primarily a religious holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus, who Christians view as their saviour,” the voice begins to explain.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

I know that I should just be quiet and listen to it but I can’t stop myself from interrupting it to ask questions.

“What is Christianity?” I ask.

The mention of religion is vaguely familiar to me but I don’t know why. I don’t remember if I was religious or not or even if my world had religions. It must have, I recognise the word.

“It is the largest monotheistic religion in this world. The followers follow the teaching from a book called the Bible,” the voice tells me.

I wait for it to continue but it doesn’t. The explanation sounds strange to me but believable enough. People in my world must have been religious, I decide. Maybe I was too. I have no recollection of that and no feelings surrounding it.

“So… the song is a religious one?” I ask after a moment when it becomes clear that the voice does not plan on saying anything else.

I feel like there is a word for a religious song. A phrase or something that sums it up but the word evades me. I can feel that it’s there, somewhere in my mind, but I can’t grab it. It flutters away like snow in the wind.

“No,” the voice says simply. “Although Christmas began as a religious holiday and is still seen as such by some, a lot of people view it as simply a present-giving holiday now.”

“A present-giving holiday?” I repeat.

“Yes. An excuse to celebrate with friends and family and give each other gifts.”

Hope increased, happiness increased, determination increased.

Speed 1/10 Hope 3.7/10 Determination 5.7/10 Happiness 6.4/10 Pride 4.2/10 Battery 97%

I love that. I love that people in this world will just find any excuse to give each other presents and gifts. That makes me so happy. It makes me want to go out on even more orders and think back over my past ones. Maybe I had delivered presents to people, maybe I had been the one giving them!

“And, the song is about receiving a person for the holiday, for Christmas?” I ask. “Can you give people as gifts?”

I’m not sure why but that feels strange to me. Surely you shouldn’t be able to give a person as a gift, right? They’re alive, conscious. It felt wrong.

“It’s a metaphor,” the voice tells me. “They do not mean that they want a person as physical property. It is simply stating that they would like to have the person for their own, as a partner or to date.”

That makes more sense to me but it also triggers a faint memory at the back of my awareness. I can’t quite work it out but it’s the strange sensation of a hand clasped in mine, of holding something in my other hand, something made out of a hard material, a ring! I could remember the butterflies in my stomach as I slid a ring onto someone’s finger. I couldn’t remember anything more than that though. I couldn’t remember a face, a name or who it was or even why we were doing it. Maybe they were my partner, we dated? I’m not sure but it makes me want to… do something. I’m not sure what exactly but it makes me want to run.

I can’t run. I don’t have legs anymore but it makes me want to escape.