The Rise of the Symbots (micro fiction)

 It occurred to me yesterday. My housework gadgets are robots. Not the kind I imagined when I was a kid, scary humanoids all hellbent on controlling humanity. No, these are different. Benign. Unaware of me except to avoid bumping into me. We clean the apartment, sweep, vacuum, wash the floors. As I perform intricate tasks, clearing and dusting, the floor vacuum follows me, followed by the floor polisher and the small indoor insect-catching drone. Outside the lawn mower, the weed-picker and the window cleaning drone are busy. My favourite has to be the insect catcher watching it carefully trap spiders and flies and transport them to the window hatch for release. As we work, the patterns of our efficiencies become clear, a waltz of time and motion management through the apartment.

Somewhere, hidden from view, crawling through the building’s pipework, unblocking, collecting and recycling grease, hair and food waste is a small army of robotic moles. Same with the nanobots for the cabling. Every week, throughout the apartment building, people like me dance this dance. Orchestrating an army of efficiency. I sometimes imagine us all cleaning at the same time, a giant three-dimensional building symphony. I imagine it citywide, across the country, the continent, the planet itself. All of us dancing to the same tune. These robots are not our enemies or our friends, they do not need to look like us, or communicate with us; they are our simply our lifestyle choices leading us to this point of symbiosis. 

Returning Home to Turnfrith

I am delighted to announce my latest short story is available as a Kindle Unlimted Edition on Amazon.

'They are gone. Please arrange a time to collect your share. The estate will be sold if you don’t want to buy us out. The funeral is next Thursday.’
Cary is returning to her childhood home, Turnfrith Manor Farm, now the aunt and uncle who raised have died but the curt email from her twin sister has left her reeling... Cary and her twin Jenette have one thing in common, Lucas, Jenette's husband. Long ago Cary and Lucas were teenagers in love, or so she thought. Now she's returned to face her family again, but shocking events quickly take over on her arrival and nothing is as it seems.

Please click on the link below to go to the Amazon page or click on image in sidebar for a preview.

Returning Home to Turnfrith