Missing Wit

4: Fight

  After finishing the interview, the journalist thanked Kurt and Lina and left the office. However, it was raining outside. It was because of the rain the journalist did not come out of the building. He took the elevator to the ground floor, then walked in front of the building. He found a place to protect himself from the rain near the front of the building and lit a cigarette. He was obviously thoughtful as he smoked his cigarette. As if he was trying to reconstruct what was told to him above in his head. He was moving his head slowly from side to side, doing some calculations in his head. He paused for a moment and looked at one of the windows of the building opposite. He dropped his half-burned cigarette on the ground and stepped on it. Then he just looked at the raindrops.

Kurt was in his office looking at the rain. He had a cup of coffee in his hand. Lina stepped into the office:

"We need to get the kids," she said.

"Kids?" Kurt replied.

"Need to get Sophie. Marcus will come himself," said Lina. There was a sign of concern in her voice.

Kurt scratched his chin. According to him, there was nothing that needed to be done for Marcus. At his age these movements were normal; Marcus wanted to find his own personality now. Kurt turned his face towards Lina and, "Let's go then. You know our princess doesn't like to wait much," she said.

Lina smiled. Then she took Kurt's arm. The two of them got on the elevator on the floor together. They went down to the lowest floor – the floor where the parking lot is located.

The parking lot was almost empty, there weren't many cars. There weren't many cars at this hours usually. They got into the car together; they were both seated in the front compartment.

"You talked to Marcus this morning, didn't you?" she asked. He looked into Kurt's eyes. It was a mother who asked this question, not Kurt's sister.

"Yes. I think it's normal at this age," Kurt replied calmly.

"Do you know anything else? I mean... about Marcus," said Lina hurriedly.

Kurt remained silent for a while. "I don't think so," he said, then squinting his left eye slightly. "I think he is on a search for himself. That's why we have to leave it alone and follow it."

Lina couldn't stay in her seat. She sighed deeply as the vehicle started to move, then said, "I'm worried Kurt," and rubbed his forehead in circles with his hand. "I don't remember him like that at all. It's like I can't reach him at all."

"Calm down, you're exaggerating. I'm not saying let him do whatever he does, but it wouldn't be right to direct either." Throughout the rest of the journey, Kurt tried to calm Lina down.

...

The vehicle arrived in front of Sophie's kindergarten. The intensity of the rain had ceased. When Sophie saw the car, she ran to the car and got into the back of the car. She shook her head quickly to dry her shoulder-length hair as soon as she entered. Then she looked at her mother with her wet hair and wide-open eyes.

"Hello," Sophie said and waved.

The vehicle started moving. Kurt turned to look at Sophie. Noticing Kurt's gaze, Sophie started laughing and covered her mouth with her hand. Then he turned to face his mother.

"How was your day?" Kurt asked.

Without moving her head, Sophie turned her eyes to Kurt. Then he took a paper from his backpack and showed it to Kurt. He painted as promised. It was one of the children's drawings of five people holding hands. Sophie pictured her mother in the middle of the sheet, Kurt guessed that the person to Lina's right was herself. Because that was the only man with glasses. The little girl on Lina's left should be Sophie. To his right were David and Marcus, respectively. Kurt noticed that he was looking to the right in the picture.

"Why am I looking to the right?" asked.

"Because there's something about robots in there," Sophie replied.

"Hmmm," Kurt simply replied. Lina covered her mouth to hide her laughter. Then he handed the picture to Lina. Lina studied the picture for a while, then began to laugh.

"Do I look like this?" she asked Sophie.

Sophie shrugged and said, "It's just a picture." Then, Kurt turned back to Sophie. Sophie winked at him. Lina handed the painting back to Sophie. They didn't talk much for the rest of the trip.

"There's nothing wrong with what you've told so far," Eric said. It was clear from his tone that he was reproaching Paul. I wonder if Paul was getting off-topic again?

"You interrupted it just in time," Paul said. They came out of the kitchen. They went back to the living room. Eric met the housemaid in the hallway, but the maid went into a back room without speaking.

"Can I ask something off-topic?" Eric asked as the two of them entered the room.

"An unexpected move from you," Paul gave a wise gesture. He pointed to one of the armchairs in the living room. They both took their seats. This time their seat was the opposite of last time; It was Eric sitting in the chair by the window. Paul "What is your off-topic question?" Paul continued.

"Why do you have a maid?"

"Because I can't keep up with everything," Paul replied.

"I didn't ask that," Eric said. "Why 'human' servant?"

"Oh,that!" said Paul. At the same time, he nodded in agreement. Then he brought his hand to his chin. "It really has nothing to do with the topic," he said, leaning back. "I have nothing to talk with robots. What am I going to talk about, the Five Principles?"

"You were there when the Five Principles were programmed, weren't you?" asked Eric. Then, he paused for a moment. He realized what he was asking. "Am I starting to look like you?" he asked, but his goal was not to get answers, rather to criticize himself.

"Should I answer or get back on topic?" said Paul.

"Back to the topic, please. I'm not too concerned with what principles robots use to make decisions."

Kurt and Lina had arrived at their house. But outside the door, they noticed that Marcus was talking to someone. As the car got a little closer, Lina realized it was David. Knowing Kurt's state, Lina turned to Kurt and:

"Please, calm down! I take care of everything," she said. Sophie was looking at Kurt curiously. Kurt had managed to keep himself calm until now. Probably, because of Sophie being in the car. The car stopped in front of the garden gate. The passengers got out of the car. Sophie grabbed Kurt's hand and held it. First Lina, then Kurt and Sophie holding hands, stepped into the garden. Upon entering, Sophie let go of Kurt's hand and ran to her father. David took his daughter Sophie in his arms and hugged her.

Paul reached for the glass on the right from his seat. There was water in it. At this time, he had begun to cough. After taking a few sips, he leaned back in the chair and just stood there without saying anything.

"Well?" asked Eric. "What happened then?"

"I don't know," Paul replied, pursing his lips. "Kurt didn't tell."

"So we don't know what's next,"

Again, Paul pointed to the painting on the right, then, "But since he didn't tell, it was a pretty nasty fight," he said.

"Yes," said Eric, looking at the ground. "It became so much funnier," he mocked.

Paul just smiled at that answer. He enjoyed talking to Eric. Because for him, chatting with smart people was the best activity to do. But Paul wasn't the type of person who liked to put the story straight into words. For him, a good conversation should be like a game of chess. Speakers had to anticipate each other's movements; they should not have said openly what they wanted directly. In Paul's opinion, Eric hadn't played this game very well until now. But Paul was hopeful, according to him, Eric was just on the 'get used to the rules' part.