“Listen. Listen.” A young man laughs and through his laughter says, “Four.”

“Four.” A male voice imitates the sound.

“Four.” The young man repeats.

“Four.” The male voice repeats.

“Let me try.” The taller of the two young men taps the shorter one with fun. “Four.”

“Four.” The male voice repeats.

“Is that it?” The taller young man asks.

“Yes.” The shorter one answers.

“What if you say something else?”

“He goes mute.”

“Nothing?”

“Complete silence.”

“The kick is, he gets excited when you say forty-four, forty-four, because…”

“Forty-four, forty-four.” The male voice imitates with slightly higher pitch before the shorter young man has the chance to finish his sentence.

“Because it represents four fours in a row.” The shorter young man completes his thought.

“Four fours.” The male voice says.

“That’s all he says?” The taller one asks.

“Yes. Everything related to the number four.”

“Four.” The male voice echoes.

“Who would design such a thing?” The taller one asks.

“Someone who had a joke but no one else was in on the joke.” The shorter one answers.

“Sad… What else does it do besides act like a parrot?”

“Well, it does have pretty high processing capacity. Not sure how to utilize it yet. I might have to reprogram the whole thing. It’s gonna be a touch and go. A sensible and sensitive matter. Not sure how he will adapt.”

Both young men look at the specimen in front of them. A machine in a form of a man with a male voice but one who requires a tender approach, recoding, and training.

“Let’s start with small formulas, simple snippets of code.” The taller young man advises.

The shorter one nods. “Yeah.”

© Jacob Greb — 2019

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