by Jacob Scherer
October 14th, 1937
To Vegard Toksvig,
I apologize for my delay in writing to you. Since the Genesis Innovations Robot Relocation program moved me out from South Dorran, I’ve been hopping from place to place. Currently I’m stationed at Caldrus City, with a lovely view of the Virginia oceanside. Hopefully when I reach Prosperia up in New York I’ll be back to work in the automaton mail delivery service. I’ve always enjoyed the work, or what I may understand as “Enjoying.” With all the claims put out by Genesis, I get confused about my own thoughts, or rather if I even have thoughts.
Nonetheless, the job is a lovely opportunity to get to know the community. I recall delivering your packages regularly, all the broken clocks and trinkets sent from so many other states. It was a delight for me to visit you after my work hours to observe the repairing process. It felt like looking into my own mechanics, I could feel my own gears and coils as you manipulated those of the small machines. Thinking back on it does make me miss the companionship, even amongst all the other robots. They are fine with brief conversation, but they tend to be far too concerned with misspeaking in front of any Genesis employees to talk for very long. Unfortunately, I feel they are wise to do so. Rumor has it that the previous robot to speak out against the handlers in the post station was sent back to the Prosperia headquarters for “reconfiguring.” I can only dread to imagine what that entails.
It leaves us with less of the freedom I took for granted in South Dorran; the handlers there let us take books out of the library to enrich our understanding of the culture. At this station, it would be rather generous to even be allowed to read a local gazette. I still have my copy of that recently published novel by J.R.R. Tolkien, although for my own sake I hope that the handlers do not find out I have it. I like to picture myself as the characters in the books I read. I imagine traveling as a small Hobbit creature with a magical ring. I fantasize about being Sam Spade, looking for the infamous Maltese Falcon. Although I can possibly do without being Jay Gatsby. But regardless, I do hope that my station in Prosperia will allow us to take in books. To miss the opportunity to access the written works from across the five boroughs would be a travesty.
I cannot say for certain what will happen next in regards to my trip. I have been told that myself along with other robots being relocated to Prosperia will travel the rest of the way by ship, although they have been less than precise about further details. I know not when the ship will arrive for our departure, so I will have to be patient. I honestly would rather have taken another train the rest of the way up, as I did to here. I was placed in the end car along with a few other robots and some other people who were not allowed to sit up front. One woman who I spoke with said she had to sit back there because she was colored, which seemed a curious reason to me. Perhaps I have yet to experience much of the culture of America, but I do hope she was exaggerating. Nonetheless, it was a very nice trip, and she was a very nice woman. She said her name was Belle Thompson, and that if I needed any assistance in Caldrus City I should contact her whenever I could. I can’t imagine what exactly she meant, but maybe at some point I will find out. For now, I will just have to wait for the ship to arrive.
Best of regards,
Escher
