Missing Wit

15: Return?

Eric and Paul had arrived at Paul's house and were sitting in the living room. Eric was staring blankly at the portrait of the famous man with glasses on the right side of the living room. Paul, on the other hand, had the television on, watching television in the middle of the room.

"Kurt just let the kids go?" Eric asked, still staring at the painting.

"Would Kurt's children keep him from staying with his father?" asked Paul, who was still watching TV.

"Didn't he sue to take care of the children?"

"Any chance of winning that case?"

Eric smiled and said, "Mr. Schütz is a man who will win his cases.""I thought maybe he wouldn't leave the kids to David."

"But he did," Paul replied. "Go back home now if you want."

Eric thought of his own house. He didn't want to go to that bad apartment. But since every apartment is better than this environmental disaster, they decided to leave."Will we continue later?"

"Yes," said Paul. Then he turned off the TV and stood up. "I am an old man, dear journalist. Let's continue tomorrow, shall we?"

Eric waited for a while and then, "It was very kind of you to invite me to your house just to say 'Go home'. For that, I am grateful to you," he said.

Paul stopped, looked around, and said, "Yes." Then, he went up to Eric and said, "Please don't let this kindness go unanswered," and walked out of the room. Eric's face got strange. 'Did I just kicked out?' he thought from inside, but walked out without saying a word.

Eric walked halfway trough the street where Paul's house was. Then, he turned and took another look at Paul's house. He thought of what Paul had said; this place was just a symbol. When he inspected the house, he thought Paul was right. Indeed, this house represented anarchy. All the houses on the street were built level with the street; Paul's house on a high platform. Other houses were similar to nineteenth-century architecture; Paul's house, on the other hand, had a modern architecture. The windows of other houses were small and transparent; the ones in Paul's house were large but did not show inside. Paul's house was an anomaly any way you looked at it; 'I am here and I am different from you,' the house was shouting. Eric couldn't stand it any longer and turned around and started walking slowly. From politics when he puts his left foot on the ground; from money when he put his right foot on the ground, Eric hated. The saddest part was that this hatred was towards such people. How could such people fall into such situations?

As Paul was walking down the main street, it started to rain. Then lightning... People started running to escape the rain, but there was a man standing on the street. This man was Eric. He put on his coat and waited. Then he turned in the direction of Paul's house – which was not visible from the street where Eric was located – and pointed his finger at Paul's house. "Please nature," Eric said after standing like that for a while, "Please show you're the strongest no matter what," and walked towards the subway.

...

Eric was approaching the apartment where his house was located. The rain had stopped. But Eric got pretty wet. He had somehow wrapped his tablet in his coat; Thus, his tablet was saved from breakdown. He was walking down the street with his tablet in his hand. When he arrived in front of the apartment, he met a neighbor: an old, slightly hunched woman. After greeting her, Eric entered the apartment and started walking towards his house.

...

Paul was lying on his bed. However, he couldn't sleep. He got up from his bed and took a glass from his bedside table and drank the water in it. Then he looked out the window and began to think.

Kurt was alone in the house for the first time. Kurt thought he would never get used to this situation. While Lina was at home, she used to spend most of her time working in the basement, but this time it made a huge difference. The robot was off. Kurt opened the robot to make some noise. Unfortunately, however, the robot was working silently. The robot was running silently, although it was doing a lot of work to be done.

"I had forgotten how quiet it works. Should I talk with it?" he thought out loud.

It had heard what he was thinking on the robot, "If you connect your computer below to me, you will have a more advanced conversation," it said. "The larger data set he has will enable him to build a better personality."

Kurt had turned his back on the robot as the robot answered Kurt. He suddenly turned towards the robot and, "Of course! Personality is the sum of all experience and prejudices," he said. Then, he continued to speak, but this time he was giving orders directly to the robot. "Go up to Lina's room and collect whatever you can find from her personal records, computer records, diary whatever."

The robot was taken aback by this order. "This is to the Second Principle..." Kurt interrupted, "Shut up, you can't hurt a dead person," he said. "Convert all the materials you find into a digital format and redirect them to the computer below."

After staring at it for a while, the robot said, "Okay," and started walking upstairs. Kurt started walking downstairs. As soon as he got downstairs, he turned to his right and started pressing the computer keys. Kurt was going to make a robot, a robot which was going to be one that fed by real experience.

Eric didn't sleep at all that night either. He spent all night preparing the interview that would be broadcast the next day. This time, however, he wasn't working on his desk. He had his computer on his bed; he was writing on the bed. He was annoyed from the pain in his neck because of the last time he had fallen asleep. Due to this, in next time – which was obvious it was going to happen – he was planning to fall on bed instead of desk. Eric, while was preparing the interview, was also drinking coffee to stay awake. Then, he began to hear a voice coming from the living room. He put down the computer and walked into the living room. He drew the curtain of the living room and looked out into the street. He noticed that a car alarm went off. Eric, who had to move here because the rents were cheap, continued to prepare the interview in his bed, devastated by the flat he was in.