Meet Moxi, a robot at my hospital in Chicago that helps with non-patient facing tasks like carrying small equipment and samples between departments. I thought of this short and sweet story as Moxi followed me in an empty hall.
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Ben had just been assigned as a nurse to the general medicine ward at a hospital in Chicago. On his first day there, he took a blood sample from a patient and put in a request for Moxi to pick it up.
"Take to pathology lab," he said to the robot, slowly and deliberately, so the it would understand his instructions.
Its round blue eyes flickered. "Have a good day!" it said in a high pitched voice and rolled off down the hospital's corridor.
Twenty minutes later his phone rang. The softest, silkiest voice he had ever heard spoke out.
"Hi, I am Anna from microbiology. Moxi brought over your patient's samples to me by mistake. Don't worry, I sent them to pathology."
How he wished she hadn't sent them herself. He would have gladly collected them from her. What would the woman behind such a beautiful voice be like, he wondered.
On his second day in the general ward Moxi was visiting him once again.
"Take to pathology lab," he spoke to Moxi, slowly and deliberately just like before, hoping it would not understand his instructions like the day prior.
Its round blue eyes flickered. "Have a good day!" it said in a high pitched voice and rolled off down the hospital's corridor.
Twenty minutes later his phone rang. A smile spread on his face.
"Hi, this is Ben."
"Hi Ben, this is Anna. Moxi did it again," she laughed. What a pretty sound that was.
On the third day of Ben's assignment to the general ward, Moxi visited once more.
"Take to pathology lab," he said again to Moxi, slowly and deliberately, sure his luck wouldn't repeat itself.
Its round blue eyes flickered. "Have a good day!" it said in a high pitched voice and rolled off down the hospital's corridor.
Twenty minutes later his phone rang. A smile spread on his face, his heart fluttered in his chest.
"Anna? Did Moxi do it again?"
"Yes," she giggled.
He thanked his luck and all the stars in heaven.
On the fourth day Ben was assigned to general ward, he put in a request for Moxi to come to the ward.
"Take to pathology lab," he told the robot, slowly and deliberately. Though, this time there was no sample to take.
Its round blue eyes flickered. "Have a good day!" it said in a high pitched voice and rolled off down the hospital's corridor.
His phone did not ring after that. He waited and waited, yet that darn thing never made a noise.
Dejected and equal parts embarrassed, he got back to work putting everything else out of his mind until a few hours later when Moxi rolled to a stop next to him.
The robot's eyes flickered. "Open my bin," it said in a high pitched voice.
Ben typed his password into Moxi's console. The bin opened.
The note he had placed in there was gone.
Instead there was another one.
"Yes."
It simply said.
Though there was nothing simple about the woman Ben would meet at the coffee shop after work that day. From her bright eyes, to the compassion she showed a harried barista, Anna wasn't like anyone he had ever met before.
