No âmbito da Semana da Leitura 2021, duas alunas do 10º. CTB, escreveram dois contos em língua inglesa e gravaram os respetivos podcast. Publicamos, neste artigo, o conto de Adriana Bento.

Este trabalho foi orientado pela docente Regina Vasques.

She had lost all her robotic functions, something had gone wrong. She was feeling human… but… that wasn’t possible, how could that even be happening… it was completely impossible! Unless… As that simple word started turning into a crazy idea, she knew that was the moment, the moment she was losing herself, but, before she could do anything about it, she felt something coming down her face, it was tiny, basically non-existent, innocent, wet… it was a tear. 

The first confused, lonely tear that came out of her, but… how did we get here? To be able to answer that, we will have to go to the very beginning of her existence.

In 2164, a sorrowful and talented British scientist called Harvey, along with his wife, Freya, decided to design and create a robot, who they later ended up calling Emma, so that she would look and act exactly like their 10-year-old deceased daughter as a way to overpass her tragic and painful death. After approximately 2 years and over 200 attempts they had finally created one and she was absolutely perfect, but… she wasn’t like all the other robots, she was… different.

Besides being, physically, a piece of metal, she has always been treated like a human. Every night her creator, or mother as she got used to calling her, brushed her long straight brown hair, and admired her huge ocean eyes to remember her adored baby girl. Her father, every Sunday, used to take her to a calm sandy beach where his daughter always used to swim in. It was a perfect family, however, she was still a robot… She wasn´t their real daughter, and deep down I believe she could feel it.

Her doubts about her true self were getting bigger and bigger, she was constantly wondering if the called “love” their parents had for her was real or if it was only and simply an illusion of the real’s Emma love. With that question all over her system she decided that she was going to question Harvey on the following day. She was absolutely sure that she was going to obtain answers, thanks to the fact that he couldn’t lie, without her knowing, after all, she had lots of robotic functions, including a lie-detector. 

Which takes her to today, a Sunday, the Sunday she decided to meet her father, at the beach, as usual, and getting the answers she was long waiting for. Except, today, that lively colourful place was much darker… it was quiet, stressing, curious…  For about two hours she had been preparing herself to get the courage needed to ask the big intrigant question, and she finally made it:

• Harvey, do you and mum love me?

The scientist got, immediately, extremely confused and after a whole minute, what seemed like an hour to Emma, looking dumbfounded to her, he answered:

• Of course we love you. Why are you asking me this?
• Well… I know my name is Emma because of your daughter, and you bring me here because you used to bring her here, and mum only stares at me because I look like her, so… Do both of you really love me, this metal thing, or do you only say you like me because you love and miss the flesh and bone Emma?
• Honey… It is obvious that we will always miss and love your sister, however, all the other things you affirmed are completely wrong. I bring you here because it used to make Emma happy and I thought it will also make you happy. Freya doesn’t look at you because you remind her of our first born, she looks at you because she admires you and thinks you are absolutely gorgeous! We will never forget Emma and she will always be in our hearts, nevertheless, we also love you, even though you think you are just a robot, you are not. You are our daughter, so, yes, we truly love you, just the way you are.

Emma took in every single word her father said and tried to use her functions to confirm the truth of all of that, aside from feeling he was being truthful. However, she couldn’t.

This led us to our first moment. Emma didn’t have any abilities, she had lost all her robotic functions. Along with the curiosity she had had about her parents’ true love, including the stress and the pressure, she developed human features. A human being is full of doubts, stress and mainly uncertainties, and now, so is Emma. She was crying. She was becoming human. Running down her face, there was a tear, her first tear. The first of many tears, laughs, smiles and several future feelings.

Adriana Bento