Manabeth

By A. Kuhar

The Chan family thought all their financial troubles were solved when Mrs. Chan invented a walking, talking robot. However, shortly before Mrs. Chan could sell the robot (dubbed "Manabeth" by the youngest child) Nara Chan went and messed everything up. Nara, the middle child in the Chan family, got sick of Manabeth stealing all the attention, and decided to send the robot off on an impossible task. However, when she realized her mistake and went to go get it back, she didn't realize it was the start of a long adventure that would take her to new places both great and small, and that she would meet people both strange and wonderful.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781304260970

Book preview

Manabeth

Manabeth

Written by A. Kuhar

Illustrations by Ricardo Solis

Manabeth

First Edition

Copyright 2013

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-304-26097-0

Chapter 1: The Chan Family's Robot

The robot's eyes clicked open, and focused on five pairs of human eyes staring back at it.

Oh, Ma! It's working! It's awake! a little girl exclaimed.

She jumped forward and thrust her face inches away from the robot's own metallic face. The robot silently took in her features, and checked its database for a visual reference:

Name: Araya

Age: 5 (youngest daughter of the family)

Likes: dressing like a princess, talking to animals

Dislikes: dirt, chores, insects of any kind except butterflies

Yes, my dear! Prototype Z.1.2 appears to be functioning as planned! gasped a woman, who had stepped forward as well to hug the little girl while getting a closer look at the robot. Prototype Z.1.2's database identified the woman.

Name: Mrs. Georgina Chan

Age: 40 (mother of the family)

Likes: scientific experiments, playing with her children, star gazing

Dislikes: distractions from work,  unnecessary complaints

The robot's eyes clicked shut and open again, mimicking a human blinking. Mrs. Chan had designed this robot to be able to do all the things a human could do in order to make it fit in more easily with its future family. This robot was the Chan family's big break. The family had never been rich, but times were hard, and the family sometimes struggled to afford basic necessities. Although Mrs. Chan was a genius, and had many inventions, none had been very marketable. In other words, no one had wanted to buy her flash-cook oven (which cooked food within seconds, but always fried it to a crisp), her water-walking shoes (which worked in theory, but in practice were nearly impossible to use without getting dumped in the water on which you were trying to walk), and her self-chopping knives set (which chopped food very effectively but was so terrifying no one wanted it in their homes). However, the Chan family was happy together, and Mrs. Chan was sure that rich folks would be clamoring and banging down her door to get the very first robot with human-level intelligence.

The robot quickly identified within its database the remaining three humans. There was a man, who was giving a young boy a high five. There was also one last human, who had yet to react to the robot. These three were respectively identified as the following:

Name: Julius Chan

Age: 40 (father of the family)

Likes: experimenting with the family meals/cooking in general, playing with his children, trying to market his wife's inventions

Dislikes: the messes the children (and his wife) left around the house, loud repetitive noises

Name: Osiris

Age: 12 (the oldest of the three children)

Likes: building booby traps, teasing his sisters, creating his own obstacle courses

Dislikes: chores, sitting still, thinking before acting

Name: Nara

Age: 11 (the middle child)

Likes: exploring the woods around the house, avoiding the booby traps set by her older brother, helping her dad with the cooking

Dislikes: chores, playing with her little sister, vegetables

Well, say something! chirped Araya to the robot. Tell us your name!

My name is Prototype Z.1.2, said the robot, with no inflection in its voice whatsoever.

Wonderful! It knows its name, Julius! cried Mrs. Chan, smiling over her shoulder at Mr. Chan.

That's great, Georgie, just great! Mr. Chan enthusiastically agreed.

What are you talking about? Araya argued, with her typical pout. That's not wonderful OR great! In fact, that's the stupidest name I've ever heard!

Mrs. Chan frowned in mock offense, and looked to Nara to defend her, Can you believe that? It's a perfect name!

Sorry, Mom, but she's right. It's a really bad name. Nara spoke up for the first time as she folded her arms and leaned back. It's not really a name at all.

Don't worry, Mom, we can name it. Osiris grinned and assumed a thinking position with his finger on his chin.

Manabeth, Araya said. It's name is Manabeth.

The family erupted in chords of disagreement.

What kind of name is Manabeth?

That's even worse than Prototype Z.1.2!

Is it a boy's name or a girl's name?

I don't know about that name darling, it is quite odd.

Aaaarrrrgh! groaned Araya, as she stomped a foot wearing a once-plain shoe that had been painted pink and had little shiny rocks inexpertly glued onto it. It's the perfect name, so there!

But, my dear, why 'Manabeth'? asked Julius Chan.

Because it's a robot, Araya said with an expression of disbelief that she actually had to explain her choice. When she saw this statement had not been enough of an explanation, and her family was still waiting for further details, she sighed and continued. It's not a boy or a girl, so it shouldn't have a boy's or a girl's name. A quick glance at her family was enough to show her they were still unconvinced as to the awesomeness of the name, so she added, And it's easy to remember. It rolls right off the tongue. Araya smiled in triumph, sure no one could disagree with the name Manabeth now.

I don't know about the whole rolling off the tongue part, Nara said slowly, but I don't really care what we call it. It doesn't seem to have any personality at all.

Yes, yes, that's true Nara. None of us should care too much about the name. Anyway, we will probably only have the robot for a month or so, to work out any bugs in its programming. After that Manabeth's new owner will likely want to name the robot something different, Mrs. Chan capitulated.

Of course, Mr. Chan agreed, Call it whatever you like, Araya. And Nara, the robot doesn't have a personality, it's just a robot, built to help out with chores around the house, or for entertainment.

Actually, Julius, Z.1.2 -I mean Manabeth- will develop a personality as it experiences more. I have programmed it to observe human reactions and interactions, and to mimic them accordingly, after it has gathered a sufficient amount of data. Of course, it hasn't been tested yet, but I feel very strongly that my personality chip will work, Mrs. Chan continued. In fact, by the end of this month, Manabeth might just be acting like one of the family. Or, rather, like an amalgamation of everyone in the family!

Mm hmm, Nara intoned skeptically. This was not the first invention of her mother's, and Nara had seen many an invention turn out differently than planned. I'm going on a walk, she declared and left her mother's workroom, which was actually the entire basement of the house.

Mrs. Chan frowned in a distracted way, and Julius let an arm drop across her shoulders, whispering, Don't worry, Georgie, Nara will come around soon. And I believe in you. This robot is going to be perfect. Look! It's already moving around a little bit!

It was true, Manabeth had begun exploring the basement. With no direct orders to follow, Manabeth followed its default command, which was to explore its surroundings in order to gather more data about the world. Mrs. Chan had built in this default order thinking it would be useful for the robot to make self-improvements by continually expanding its database of information, and also useful for spotting lost spectacles and the like. Manabeth walked with a stilted gait around the basement, sometimes pausing to poke or prod an odd object, and once picking up a flower vase to get a closer look. When the robot put the vase back down, without dropping or crushing it, Mrs. Chan gave a little squeal of delight, and said to her family, Yes, I do think this robot will be a success!

Her family smiled back at her, every one of them dreaming about what the money they would get from selling the robot could bring the family. The father dreamed of money to make the many necessary repairs to the house, that was slowly but steadily falling apart due to constant exposure to harsh elements. The mother dreamed of all the new scientific supplies she could buy to make even more inventions. Osiris dreamed of having enough money to afford an apprenticeship with a local architect. And little Araya dreamed of the miniature castle she could build, and the miniature pony she could buy to accompany it. But most importantly the family could soon afford to fill their bellies.

Although the family was not yet starving, they were getting closer and closer to that point every day, with the meager garden they had tried to grow failing, and the specter of having to sell the house becoming more real. This robot was the solution to all their problems. It had taken Mrs. Chan almost 3 years to build this robot, and untold effort. She did not feel like she could easily do it again, especially seeing as the raw materials needed for such a robot were prohibitively expensive. In fact making Manabeth had depleted what little savings the family had. However, this was a moment for joy and not for worry. Mrs. Chan looked happily at her family as they observed the robot.

Araya gave a little jump that ended in a curtsy and a lopsided grin, and said, Welcome to the world, Manabeth!

Chapter 2: The Girl Who Wanted More

'Stupid robot,' Nara thought as she stomped through the woods near her house to her favorite hide away. This was the place she went whenever she wanted to be alone: an old cave, with a shallow entrance and a nice earthy smell. This was one of those times. She wanted to think (or brood, rather) about Manabeth uninterrupted. The robot had been with her and her family for three weeks now, and it was indeed developing a personality.

Manabeth had been helping Osiris to build booby traps, and was already showing a certain affinity for the task. The traps were getting more sophisticated and harder to predict, and therefore harder to avoid. In fact, just a few minutes ago as Nara had been walking to this very cave she noticed a sapling bent unnaturally to one side. She almost didn't react, as it looked as if it were trapped by a larger fallen branch. At the last second, Nara had stopped to take a closer look and found a hidden spring, that an unsuspecting hiker could easily trip over while walking along the path. She stepped back and using a large branch, sprang the trap to see what would happen. The sapling had sprung upright and a giant net had come up off the forest floor and raised itself rapidly seven feet off the ground. A large cowbell, previously hidden amongst the leaves snapped up as well and rocked back and forth, sounding an alarm. Nara had enough time to cross her arms and fix a haughty smirk on her face before Osiris had bounded into view, grinning, with Manabeth following close behind. (Manabeth's gait was no longer uncertain, it seemed that the robot had learned agility and grace with practice and from observing the humans in the family.)

When Osiris saw that Nara had avoided the trap, he frowned only briefly before bowing and forewarning, You win this time, little sister....but one of these days I'll get you when you're not expecting anything. Manabeth had bowed in turn, copying Osiris's motions, and said, Touche!

'It could be very frustrating having two Osiris's around here,' Nara had thought, shaking her head as they walked out of sight. Actually, she rather liked avoiding traps. She felt it kept her prepared for anything and heightened her sense of perception. It was the other things that bothered her.

She had continued on until she reached her cave, and checked to see that no one had followed her out there. The entrance was small, and she didn't think anyone else in her family knew about it, and she wanted to keep it that way. She ducked in quickly and then straightened. The inside was large enough for her to stand upright, although if she kept growing at the rate she was now she might be too big by next year. She tromped towards the natural spring which burbled perpetually within. She didn't know it's source, but somehow fish had gotten in there. They were almost gigantic, and very colorful like a rainbow. She liked to watch them while she thought. Usually, their slow, relaxed motions helped her to relax herself.

Nara settled down to think, and her thoughts immediately turned back to Manabeth.

The robot had also learned a lot about cooking from her father, and was already wowing the family with elaborate creations made from just a few cheap materials. In fact, Manabeth had pushed Nara out of what had used to be her and her father's special bonding time. Or at least, that was how Nara interpreted the fact that her dad now insisted that Manabeth be included in the cooking. Her father said that this was in order for the robot to develop cooking skills for its next owner. When Nara had tried to mix something or to prepare the oven, her father had insisted that Manabeth be the one to do it. It's true that her father had offered that it be Nara herself to teach Manabeth how to cook, and reassured her that it was only for this one month, but Nara's feelings were still hurt, and she had refused the offer.

Even worse, even Araya was too enchanted with Manabeth to pay Nara any attention.

'As if I care what Araya thinks,' Nara told herself.

But it still hurt that Araya, who had always begged to play with Nara before, now ignored Nara in order to make new outfits  for Manabeth, or to weave elaborate fairy tales with Manabeth while they sat in the pine tree together, both wearing sparkly pink hats and sitting as far up as possible on the branches that could support Manabeth's metallic weight.

The fish in the pool moved slowly. Their slow swimming wasn't helping to calm Nara today. In fact, their obliviousness of her own frustration was only compounding her agitation. Her thoughts grew darker.

Everyone in the family seemed to love Manabeth even more than they loved Nara, or so it seemed to Nara at that moment. She was glad Manabeth's new owner was coming in a week to take the thing away. This new owner had bid a very high price, certainly enough for the family to finally afford to do everything they needed to do but couldn't have done up until now, and even enough for those things they wanted but didn't need. However, Nara wasn't looking forward to seeing Araya behave even more fantastically with a new miniature castle. She was looking forward to feeling like part of the family again though.

Sitting in her cave watching the fish, she brooded and grumbled for some time, only becoming more and more dissatisfied about her problem which would last one more week: Manabeth.

Chapter 3: A Little Princess

Araya was sitting at the kitchen table trying to fashion a crown of daisies. She was having trouble concentrating because Nara and her father were having a disagreement over who should be helping cook the dinner: Nara, or Manabeth.

But, Dad, I've always wanted you to teach me how to make crème brulee! I don't understand why I can't even watch, she was saying.

You can watch, my dear. Just not right here. Go sit at the table with your sister. The kitchen isn't big enough for all three of us to stand at the counter. I promise I'll let you do this yourself as soon as Manabeth is settled in with its new owner. Then we'll be able to afford all the ingredients to make as many crème brulees as you've ever wanted!

You're lying! Nara was getting angry.

Araya found herself staring at her father and Nara, with the daises lying forgotten in her hands. Nara's arms were crossed and her eyes were brimming with tears. Her father merely looked peeved, and Manabeth stood in the middle wearing the uncertain expression that Mrs. Chan had programmed for it to use whenever it didn't comprehend its current