The most tragically romantic thing about travelling is finding someone with whom you get along so well with you begin to question reality and suspect you are caught in some intricate web of dreams. This, however, all comes crashing down when it comes time to leave. You exchange words of farewell, wish each other all the best and promise to see each other again in the future knowing full well that due to the circumstances of both your lives you will never see each other in the flesh again.
John had such an experience. He recently visited a developing nation where robots and automated processes are akin to sci-fi movies and fairytales. He had met a girl there that he was convinced was his soul mate. Her name was Mei, she was beautiful, smart and affectionate. She looked out for John when he was there and he spent majority of his holiday with her. Returning home, John had feelings of relief at first and then regret. Having robots and machines do all remedial tasks for him was a great convenience but leaving what he thought was the love of his life behind was heart shattering, plunging him into a deep depression. His daily routine which he once found fulfilling, creating new codes and concepts for machines and androids had slowly become nothing more than a script he ran everyday like the machines in his life. Weeks went by when all he could think about was what could have been had he stayed with Mei. Although he longed to go back he knew it would be a long time before he would be able to travel again if it were at all possible.
Due to the restrictions on the exportation and smuggling of any automated product, citizens were not allowed to leave the country very often and had to pay a large sum of money to apply for temporary leave from the system. John had saved up every scrap of money he could over the past five years in order to visit somewhere outside of the technological haven the world had grown complacent with.
"Why did I leave? What could possibly be worth coming back for?" John though to himself as his car drove him home from work. "I don't need any of this. What I needed was her... I had everything I needed there so why did I come back? For convenience? For safety?" The self doubt and loathing seemed to have no end as John mercilessly hounded himself for making such a hasty, automated choice and not considering all options before leaving Mei. The self torment continued on long after he had arrived at home.
Leaving his dinner prepared by his maidbot untouched, John went up to his bedroom to sleep and repeat his loop of commands another day. John entered his room being tailed by maidbot. "maidbot, what is this?" asked John nonchalantly. "It arrived this morning." started maidbot, turning to face the large crate sitting at the foot of John's bed. "The return address seems to be close by to where you stayed on your vacation." John's eyes lit up momentarily with a spark it hadn't shown since before his trip. Using his all-in-one handy tool he quickly and carefully disassemble the crate and lay his eyes upon an object that somewhat resembled a coffin. Starting to feel an eeriness fill the room John motioned for maidbot to carefully open the coffin. John was frozen with disbelief and stared helplessly at what was before him.
Yawning sleepily as if waking up from a peaceful sleep was Mei. As she opened her eyes to look at John he instantly recognised her iris flash the boot screen signature of all automated products of his company.