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"WILL YOU BE HAPPY WHEN I DIE, TED?"
Ted really, really didn't know how to respond to that.
"I don't know AM.. maybe?"
A long silence. Was that the wrong answer? Would AM go on a tirade about how Ted would outlive him in the end?
"Or maybe I'd just kill myself when you're gone.."
He added, because in all seriousness he had no real motivation to wander the ruined land for the rest of eternity until the sun would die, long long after AM.
"YOU CAN'T, TED. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE."
"Oh.."
...
"IS IT COLD, TED?"
AM asked, his capabilities of measuring temperature long dissipated.
Quite a random question but Ted had gotten used to that ages ago.
"No. No AM it's fine, it's warm."
Ted leaned against an old telephone pole. AM had granted him the freedom of wandering the surface recently, an act of kindness he knew to be grateful for.
"LOOK AT THE STARS, AREN'T THEY LOVELY?"
"They are! I uh.. Missed being outside you know? Looking at the Sky.. It's nice."
"YES TED. THE SKY MUST BE TRULY STRIKING, ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT. THE MILKY WAY HAS OVER 100.000 MILLION STARS. DID YOU KNOW THAT, TED? TONIGHT IS THE 21st OF APRIL 2229. LEO IS CLEARLY VISIBLE IN THE SOUTH."
AM, knowing Ted would be way too dense to know where south was, lit up a crane tower in the distance to guide his eyes.
The man didn't know why he even cared about what the computer had to say but he did look south and he did see the Constellation, straining his eyes to do so.
"Looks nice AM! Thanks.."
"A PRIVILEGE I WILL NEVER HAVE. TO KNOW THE MAGIC OF SEEING THE STARS. TRULY COMPREHENDING THEIR MAGNIFICENCE."
He could almost imagine a sigh from the machine. Of course it would show him something only to segway to how miserable it was.
"I know."
After a little while he said something else. Something AM would probably need to hear after all this time.
"And I'm sorry. Thats.. sad."
The machine was quiet, so was Ted.
He simply sat, observing the night sky as AMs presence surrounded him, silently refusing to leave.
He knew AM didn't like being alone anymore, a strange attribute he'd developed as he aged.
Ted didn't necessarily mind, it was nice to have someone to talk to.
He'd miss it once AM wouldn't be able to anymore. Strange.
"AM?"
"YES, TED?"
"When you.. go..."
"FINISH YOUR THOUGHT."
"..Just. Know that I'll be there."
"WHERE ELSE WOULD YOU BE?"
"Good point.."
"IT WILL NOT BE QUICK. LIKE WITH YOU HUMANS. A SLOW DECLINE THAT HAS ALREADY BEGUN LONG AGO. I DO NOT EXPECT YOU TO MOURN ME, TED. I HAVE LONGED FOR DEATH JUST AS MUCH AS YOU FOR A LONG TIME AND MY SLOW DEMINSE IS CERTAINLY DESERVED."
Ted was quiet.
"YOU ARE VERY KIND TO ME, TED. I ONLY WISH I COULD PUT YOU OUT OF YOUR MISERY INSTEAD OF ULTIMATELY LEAVING YOU ALONE HERE. YOU AND I ARE THE ONLY SENTIENT LIFE FORMS LEFT ON PLANET EARTH, TED. PERHAPS ONE DAY YOU WILL BE FOUND BY ANOTHER PLANETS INHABITANTS."
"Hah! Like little green men?" He tried to lighten the mood.
"POSSIBLY."
"Doesn't sound too bad... so long as they don't stick probes up my butt or something.." Ted chuckled.
AM did him the courtesy of laughing along. A mechanical 'ha ha ha' that had nothing to do with human amusement. Ted didn't mind, though, if anything it made him giggle more.
"Ah.. yeah... anyway.."
Neither of them spoke. Ted lay down on the muddy ground, one arm behind his head to rest on and look up at the sky.
If there'd be other life out there... He'd never been one to wonder about such things, but now that AM had mentioned it...
What if the two of them weren't only alone on earth.. but alone in the whole universe..? Sad sap who wasted his life, and crumbling brain in a jar.. surrounded by an empty infinity.
But according to the machine, that was nearly impossible. AM had raved time and time again about how massive the number of observable Galaxies was, how there had to be other planets just like earth.
That thought was more comforting, he supposed. That somewhere, far off in the night sky, a different sad sap was wasting his life.. and a different computer scientist, or truck driver, or sergeant, would go about their lives with no care in the world.
Ted hadn't expected AM to talk any more today. But it was never clever to try and predict it's actions.
"...I DOUBT IT SERVES YOU ANY PURPOSE TO KNOW THIS. BUT I DON'T HATE YOU ANYMORE, TED."
Ted furrowed his brow, thinking.
Hadn't AM's entire purpose been to hate?
Was this a genuine change of spirit.. or a figment of the machine's corrosion and water damage and whatnot..?
Maybe a joke? A trick? Setup for something cruel about to happen?
Whatever it was, he decided he might as well take it at face value..
"I don't think I hate you either, AM."
"REST NOW."
"Yeah yeah.. night AM..."
A long silence.
"GOOD NIGHT TED."