And I would strongly recommend this story not just for personal leisure but for teachers looking to bring new modern short stories to their students nottesilhouette I read this story years ago and I still think about the use of syntax and how three dimensional all the characters in this story are I m waiting for the super exclusive special edition bonus chapter when the adoptive father and little girl go back to steal the robot and they become a little family nottesilhouette It destroyed my heart over and over again Would read again. Manages to convey so much emotion and complexity from the point of view of a toddler nottesilhouette

Unattended baby in the bagging area The voice that rings out around Rory is cold and metallic almost stilted in speech as though the word baby was inserted awkwardly into a fill in the blank sentence It s entirely horrifying to Rory the idea that even to this mechanical voice she s nothing than an afterthought to be dropped into a context she doesn t belong in She s not even sure where the voice is coming from it s nothing like she s heard before but it sounds grown up and patronizing and far too dismissive She knows exactly how to deal with a grown up like that even if she has no idea who it is or where she is or what s happening Rory crosses her arms then crosses her legs and plops down criss cross applesauce on the chilled metal surface beneath her I m not un tended Unattended Baby in the Bagging AreaThis short story is a brilliant piece of speculative fiction perfectly designed to tug at your heartstrings I m generally rather cynical about media that humanizes robots or AI but this story builds itself up in such a way that it s impossible not to grow invested by the end The author s use of rhetorical devices builds a story so much powerful than a surface level summary of the events would ever hint at.