[ CW ] `` I dream about you once in a while . You suppose that means anything ? ''

“ I dream about you once in a while. You suppose that means anything? ” She asked me. 
 
 I reached around behind her and pushed the reset button just under her right shoulder. Her eyes fluttered closed. 
 
 “ Ok. So I turned her off. Now what? ” I shuttled the phone from my right ear to my left as I talked to the help desk employee. 
 
 “ Give it ten seconds and turn the unit back on. ” Even though he was an actual human being, his voice sounded mechanical. Possibly because of the long distance of the call, possibly because he was reading off of a script. 
 
 “ I already tried this. Don ’ t you think I ’ d have rebooted her before I called for help? ” I replied. 
 
 “ Sorry Sir. But we have to follow the plan as set forward by my department head before we can start the technical diagnosis on your companion bot. ” his tone was becoming snarky. How I missed the days when these phone calls were automated. “ Ten seconds have passed, sir. Please reboot your machine. ” 
 
 “ Ok. I ’ m turning her back on. ” I told him. 
 
 I pushed the button on her shoulder and held it in for three seconds. Her eyes snapped open. 
 
 “ Companion Bot model number 239756-0 activating. ” Her voice was hollow at first, the emotion-ware took a few more seconds to engage, and that ’ s where she would go off on the recursive error. 
 
 Sure enough, ten seconds later the words were spilling out of her in a rush. 
 
 “ Michael my love. I miss you dearly. I ’ m sorry that I wasn ’ t there that last day you were in the hospital. But someone once told me that people who ’ ve died can visit us in the night to joins us in our dreams. I dream about you once in a while. You suppose that means anything? ” 
 
 “ She ’ s saying it. ” I growled into the phone. 
 
 “ One moment please. ” His voice sounded mechanical again. I guess we were back on the script. 
 
 “ Sir, my records are showing that the model 239756-0 has been known to have this fault. We will be auto updating her patch this evening. Just make sure she is online but in power save mode tonight at 9:00 pm, your local planetary time. ” He finished by playing the standard end of call message without even asking if I had any further question. 
 
 I hung up the phone and stared at my broken girlfriend. 
 
 “ I dream about you once in a while. You suppose that means anything? ” She asked again, her voice cracking like a broken circuit board. If she could cry, I believe she would have. 

