[September 4, 2024]

The first thing Cal felt when he opened the door was a wave of heat, so thick and sudden that thin beads of sweat appeared on the back of his neck, and he immediately felt like removing his dark coat. There was also a peculiar smell in the air: burnt dust, mixed with faint artificial polymers, like inhaling the faint scent of epoxy. Cal turned his head and immediately detected the source of this odd olfactory combination.

In the place where he had his desk and wardrobe in room 01, was instead an enormous computer like nothing Cal had ever seen in his life. It was a thick black rectangle that took up the greater part of the wall and nearly a quarter of the room, with large wires of all colors sprouting from its back and sides. The wires were numerous and tangled — all over the floor in such tightness and quantity that Cal quickly realized it would be pointless to try and avoid stepping on them as he ventured further into the room. On the front end of the rectangle, which faced the bed (the space between the computer and the bed being small enough to be described as a “corridor”) there were several screens, or perhaps separate monitors, all paper-thin and holographic like the sort that modern computers would have. There were also several other strange technological machines in the room that Cal had never seen before, themselves hooked up with wires, which made the already cramped and hot room even more difficult to navigate without tripping over a cord or knocking something over.

“Told you it would be weird.” Mel whispered in Cal’s ear. She was hovering slightly above him, stretched out horizontally in the air. “And she’s even weirder. You’ll miss having conversations with this gentle and bewitching spirit before too long.”

Cal peered deeper into the room, trying to discern details. The blinds were shut tight, so the only light in the room was the neon and blue luminescence coming off of the computer screen. It took him a moment to discern that there was actually a person huddled among the wires. But there was something odd…

“Um, Ram,” Cal said, a little uncertain, “you can take the blanket off your head. It’s Cal.”

“I know…” squeaked the blanket. “Um… I’m a little scared.”

“You invited me in.” Cal reminded her. “You said you wanted to talk face to face, since you completed your course. But we can’t talk face to face like this.”

“I know…” the blanket said again. “But when you knocked, I suddenly wondered if you would think I’m ugly, so I sought shelter.”

“Under the blanket.”

“Yes.”

“Ram,” Cal said, trying to keep a slight tinge of annoyance from his voice. “I’m going to lift the blanket off of your head now. Is that okay with you?”

The blanket nodded.

Carefully stepping over wires and discarded pieces of electronics, Cal reached the center of the room and gently pulled the blanket off the head of the person he had been speaking to.

Poofy, was his first thought, like a sheep.

Cal’s first impression was this: Ram’s hair went everywhere. It was a thick mass of blond curls that sprouted upward and away from her skull; hair so big that it seemed far larger and solid than her head. This was a fact made even more distinguishable by the smallness of Ram’s body. She was short like Mel, but with a completely different body-type: large-chested with a wide torso, almost stocky in physique. Because of the heat of the room, she was wearing only a tank-top and a pair of pajama pants. Her eyes were deep brown, like wet earth, and despite Ram’s timidity, there was a strange strength in them Cal couldn’t quite discern.

“As I thought,” said Cal, “you let your anxiety get the better of you. It doesn’t make a difference, but you’re the opposite of ugly.”

Ram blushed a deep shade of red, and briefly covered her mouth with the discarded blanket. Mel rolled her eyes and exclaimed “ugh!” with disgust, leaning into Cal’s ear.

“I wasn't expecting this set-up,” said Cal, gesturing at the room, “but it’s really impressive. Are you a computer science major?”

Ramed nodded shyly. “I-in a m-matter of speaking,” she stuttered quietly, “but this computer here is a gift from my dad. H-he makes and invents stuff.”

Cal nodded interestedly, ignoring Mel, who was repeating “the opposite of ugly” to herself in a mocking tone.

“It’s nice to finally meet you in-person,” said Cal to Ram, “as fun as communicating through notes was, it’s much easier to get to know someone by having a conversation like this.”

“What notes?” Mel’s suddenly hostile voice came from above.

Ram nodded, uncovering the blanket from her mouth. “Y-yes. It’s nice to meet you, too.” Then more quietly. “I saw you before… from out the window on the lawn. And in the hallways… though I hid.”

“Oh, I see. From now on, if you see me in the hallways, feel free to say hello.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Ram bit her lip nervously. “I’m sorry that I haven’t come down to have breakfast. I would, because your food is delicious. Really, if it was just you… but since Ellie is there, too…” Ram then realized what she said, and stuck out her palms in front of herself, as if defending from an upcoming attack. “”Oh! Not that Ellie isn’t nice… she is, just…”

“Energetic?” Cal offered.

Ram’s eyes flickered to the screen’s of the enormous computer, then back again to the ground. “Y-yes. I don’t mean to imply that’s a bad thing… but it’s hard for me to be comfortable around those sorts of people.”

“Are you uncomfortable now?” asked Cal.

Ram shook her head, and her enormous blond curls waved in the air. “No. I also got this impression from reading your notes, but you’re sort of…” She thought carefully about her next word. “Mellow. I like mellow people. They can be silent and not talk for a while, and they don’t make you feel under pressure.”

Cal crouched down onto the ground next to where Ram sat on the floor, so that he wouldn’t have to continue standing over her. “I didn’t get to speak to a lot of people growing up, so I guess that’s in my nature. Sometimes days would pass between me speaking aloud. So yeah, I don’t mind the quiet.”

Ram smiled. “I’m glad. You’re a nice person.” Then the smile faded. “ I’m sorry that it’s a little cramped. I hope it doesn’t smell. I took a shower.”

“I mean, it’s a little cramped and hot,” admitted Cal, “and I can smell perspiration, but I suppose it’s hard for the air not to be a little stuffy when you’ve got such a large computer emitting so much heat. And I’m certainly not claustrophobic. I suppose you could open a window, if you want.”

Ram blushed again, but before she could answer, a woman’s voice said: “Your battery is low, Ram. Please connect to your charging port.”

Ram squeaked, and covered the back of her neck with her hands.

Cal looked around sharply. “What was that? Was that your computer?”

“Yes!” Ram said, much more loudly than she had been speaking before. “It was my computer! Yes! I could have sworn I charged my computer. Um… in order to charge my computer, um… could you leave? Not that I don’t want to keep talking to you, but could you leave… So can I charge my computer?”

Cal narrowed his eyes. “I don’t mind, but why do I need to leave so you can charge your computer?” He looked at the huge black rectangle, whose thick wires were definitely plugged into the room’s outlets through a complex network of adapters, and then back at Ram. “Um, Ram… there’s a red light flashing on your forehead.”

“Aah!” Ram flailed her arms in panic trying to cover the back of her neck and the small red light that had begun to pulse underneath her forehead at the same time. “Don’t look! I like to take my clothes off when I charge my computer! So you can’t be here!”

“Your battery is low, Ram. Please connect to your charging port.” The woman’s voice repeated. “Seriously, stop messing around. I can see the port underneath your bed sheets.”

Cal looked at the large cylindrical shape covered by bed sheets that stood in the corner of the room, and then looked back to Ram. “Well, I don’t mind.” he said, and handed her a piece of paper from his pocket. “That’s my number. Add me on FoxChat. It’ll be easier than writing notes back and forth.”

“Yes! Yes!” Ram was holding her palms out in front of herself again, looking from side-to-side as if looking for something as she spoke in an alarmed tone of voice. “We’ll talk! Talk lots! But right now, please leave!”

“Okay, okay.” Cal got to his feet. “I’ll see you later.”

“Yes! See you, goodbye!”

“Your battery is low, Ram. I swear to god-”

Cal closed the door behind himself. In the hallway, it was cool and much quieter. He didn’t move for a moment. He stared at the wall, and then, with a resigned sigh, glanced over to his left to look at the ghost girl who had just emerged from the wall that divided the hallway from room 02. She had an exceedingly smug expression on her face.

“So?” Mel said, annoyingly. “Huh? Hmm? What did I say earlier?”

Cal walked back to room 01. “It’s funny, I can’t recall at the moment.”

“I said the girl’s next door is a robot, and you said — like an idiot — that robots aren’t like that. Maybe next time you should believe in the invisible ghost who can go through walls.”

Cal looked at Mel, who was now grinning and self-satisfyingly pushing her dark hair back, and remembered how genuine and apologetic she had seemed about her “haunting” only a short time ago.

“And I stand by what I said,” Cal remarked, sitting back down on his bed and watching Mel glide arrogantly back and forth in front of him. “Robots are like the waiters at restaurants or the street cleaners. They are not built to resemble real humans and they certainly aren’t that life-like. You’re talking about something completely beyond our current level of technology.”

Mel puffed out her cheeks in frustration. “Why can you so readily accept ghosts are real but suddenly when there’s a robot talking to you, you shut your eyes and ears? That girl has lived in this building for a month, and I’ve seen plenty of robot stuff. I’ve seen her plug herself into that weird cylinder and detach her limbs to clean them. She has a disk tray in her forehead!”

Cal rolled his eyes. “Nothing I saw today proves to me that Ram is a robot. Sure, she’s obviously hiding something, but it doesn’t mean what you’re telling me. Again, the smartest scientists in the world couldn’t build a robot like that. Didn’t you smell the perspiration in there? You’re saying someone made a robot that sweats?”

“You’re just being difficult because you like her better than me.”

“Correct.”

“Hey! Don’t agree with that!”

Cal lay down on his back, swinging his feet around off the end of the bed so the dust on his shoes wouldn’t touch the sheets. He stared up at the ceiling, thinking.

Besides, he thought to himself, what are the chances that there would be a ghost haunting my room and an impossibly life-accurate robot in the same building? In rooms directly next to one another? It would be silly. There’s some other explanation.

Cal looked at Mel. She seemed tired of trying to convince him about the robot next-door, and instead was floating in the middle of the room, reclining in the air. Mel’s arms were behind her head, and she was whistling a tune he didn’t recognize. Her white sundress was moving as if being stirred by a wind, though the window of room 01 was shut.

But remember, impossibilities are practically inevitabilities for someone like you, he remembered. In the end, it doesn’t matter. No matter what happens in the future, nothing can disturb your normal life. Make sure of it.