The Android who Loved to Smile

'James' stood in front of the mirror, contemplating how to smile. He awkwardly twitched the corners of his mouth, and then broke out in a grin. He still was not. satisfied with his result, as he still did not look human enough. 'Try 13', he recorded in his mind.

James, was actually, an android. He was created in a lab in a warehouse, but was soon discarded as he was not "perfect enough". Then too, his only imperfections were his body proportions, which again, were not that noticeable.

He named himself, James. The reason he did that, was because the name James, was the most common name in all of the world, and he needed every reason to fit in. Although it was a bit cliché, it still was better than 'XE-8ABF'.

People say that androids do not have feelings, they are just mundane talking piece of metal and plastic. They are true to an extent, but androids have excellent comprehending abilities. They can know what goes on around them, how the world works, and they can't help want to get accepted in the society.

Now James here, was a slender 5 feet 10 male. A long torso and shorter legs, a pale face, big blue eyes, dark brown hair, and full lips. He had big wide eyes, almost perfect and symmetrical eyebrows, and an aquiline nose. His face was neither too long, nor too small. He has the 'ideal' face, as people would like to call it.

About his appearance, he was wearing what a normal office goer would wear on any official occasion. James wore dark brown well-ironed pants, with a plain white shirt. He wore a dark beige cashmere wool coat. He looked extremely well groomed and also quite rich. One would say he is a human in his early 20s! Well, only if they did not notice his smile. His smile was what you would call a 'psychopath' smile. he smiled without his eyes. But he was trying his best to smile, no matter how long it took, since he never got tired.

"I am getting good at it", he thought to himself. He smiled, blinked in front of the mirror, which was his body's way of taking a screenshot. He compared his smile with a random photo of a man smiling, and was pretty satisfied with himself.

James lived in an old laboratory in the warehouse, with just one scientist assigned to him, who hadn't visited him since days. James had gone out once or twice, and had just looked at the people and the environment outside from his car, when the scientist actually used to spend time on him.

It was night-time, there were little yellow lights adorned over the streets. There were some small humans, who were followed by larger humans. They all wore different colourful clothes. Some looked happy, some looked solemn, some were talking, some were quiet, some were walking, some were sitting.

James could not feel, so he felt nothing when he saw them. But something inside of his system clicked, and he decided to gel well with these humans next time.

It was 8:09 pm in the evening. James looked at himself one last time in the mirror, smiled once again, and left for outside.

He walked up to a restaurant, as he saw many people gathered there. His steps were sharp and calculated. You could almost say he was marching!

He finally entered the restaurant and saw a group of men sitting around a table. They were loud and cheery, something with James found interesting. He saw a chair empty next to them, so he went there, pulled it back, and sat on it.

The crowd suddenly went silent. No one expected a stranger to come sit with them while they were eating.

Breaking the silence, James said, "Hello there, my name is James, nice to meet you." He then flashed his well practiced smile at them.

"Uh hey there James. Do you want us to help you?" said one of the men.

"Yes, would you mind if I join your gentlemen's conversation?"

"Uhh not really mate."

"Hey what do you want?" said another.

The first man elbowed the second man, and said, "It is fine James, you can join us, as long as you share in paying the bill." This erupted a laugh from the others.

"So waddup James?"

"I am sorry I don't understand."

A few awkward glances were shared. The man asked again.

"How have you been?"

"I have been fairly well, thank you."

"What do you do as a profession?"

"I try to fit in as a human as much as possible"

This also erupted a laugh from the others.

"You are witty James, you know that?"

"Why, thank you."

"Where are you from?"

"Manhattan, 40.7831° N, 73.9712° W to be precise."

a scurry of eyebrow raises

In no time, the conversation got better and more fun. James was the centre of attraction for everyone. Time and again, he kept on flashing his hard practiced smile.

"How do you like your girls James?"

"I am sorry I don't understand."

The men were laughing hard at James genuine attempts to answer, and took it as a way of his being funny.

Although an android couldn't feel, but in that moment, James felt something. Was it happiness, was it satisfaction, or was it a feeling of belongingness, he didn't know.

It was almost 1 am by then.

The first man said, "It has been an entertaining night. Thank you James."

The others agreed.

"There is no need to pay the bill my guy, we will see you some other day. Adios."

"Goodbye" said James in a monotone, but with a smile.

He waited for the men to leave the restaurant. After observing the people in the restaurant for a few more minutes, James decided to finally head out to his lab.

After a short while, James found himself marching down the street towards his laboratory.

He flashed his smile and all he could think of at that moment was, "I will come here again."

-Gauri Awasthi