Moving Closer

[Authors note : Dear Readers, thank you so so much for encouraging me this far and for showing your love and support. And I am so grateful to my fellow authors who have mentored me so far. Cheers to all the readers and Authors.

Looking forward for your continued support ]

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"That sounds interesting and mysterious. What's that ?" she questioned

"Well you see,

^ The Robot works with a remote control which can be considered as version 1

^ And then we did upgrade it to work with tablet which can be called as upgrade to version 2

^ And finally we have upgraded it to version 3 where the Robot has been programmed to stop functioning just with our thought in situations where it violates Asimov's laws of Robot.

And this third upgrade is the mysterious feature I was talking about. And this feature can be used only by our family" said Ray beamingly.

"That's so cool but I don't recall what these laws state. I must have mostly seen them being used in movies something like they can't harm humans etc." said Rachael trying to see if she could recall from her memory.

Rachael did have a very good memory but "Robot laws" this was not some significant information that she had to store in her memory.

Tell her about some fashion icon or some new fashion product in the market, she will be the first one to research on the net, make notes, memorise it and try to get her hands on that product. She did miss all this on Zon and that was one reason she wanted to stay back here.

"Robot Laws? " someone just questioned.

Both the brother and sister were so engrossed in their conversation that they had forgotten that there was a third person in the room.

Rachael as usual showed no emotions while Ray felt embarrassed that they had ignored Ethan all this while who was the main person behind creating the new features for the Robot.

He quickly turned to faced Ethan and started narrating the Robot laws to Ethan

"• A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm

• A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law

• A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws

While not all robots may be built to follow this law, may be the dude which was reprogrammed today may follow some of it at least"

"Hmmm, that sounds interesting" said Ethan seeming to have lost in thoughts.

"Is everything okay? " asked Ray with concern when he found Ethan silent to which Ethan responded with just a smile.

"Hey Ray, if not for all, can you demo at least few of the features which is required for the party. It's getting late and we may have to check out of the room soon" Rachael tried to change the topic as she did not want them to open up a discussion around Robotics.

"Sure, Rache, it shouldn't take long. We will show it in a jiffy" with that both Ray and Ethan demonstrated all the features that they had built into the Robot.

"What do you think?" it was Ethan who spoke this time. He was trying really hard to impress his wife and this time around he was hoping that as Ray was around things would not go that bad. He had taken a calculated risk by asking Rachael. And he knew Ray would disperse any intense situation if it would arise.

Rachael was in a fix now. She had managed concealing lot of things from her parents and Ray about her relation with Ethan. She had to be careful with her thoughts and words now. She did not want to let out anything in the heat of the moment

No matter how unhappy she was with Ethan, she had seen how close her family had gotten to Ethan. They had accepted him as their son more than son-in-law. So she did not want them to feel upset due to her actions.

She finally spoke up holding back all her emotions trying to be as natural as possible "The features have come out real well, but I guess some bit of fine tuning will be required as the Robot still has some light jerky movements although it's not noticeable until you notice it carefully. I guess we shouldn't be taking any chance"

She then turned towards Ray and said "Ray, I think we may have to reveal the plan at least a day or two earlier to Mom and Dad. They are quite old now and let's not give them a hard time with the last minute surprises"

She took a pause before she continued

"And we may have to get them used to the Robot, as we will not be around to help them out just in case they need help. We no longer can cancel the party even if we want to, as the guests are already invited"

"Agreed" said Ethan again.

Why is he trying to trigger me? "Oops" she concealed her thought. She just didn't want Ethan to talk to her nor she wanted to talk to him. She just wanted to run away this minute before Ethan would force any further thoughts from her, especially with Ray around.

"Ray, it time to leave now. I'll go ahead and you both can wind up things out here and come home" with that she got up to leave.

As the days got closer to New Year, Rachael realised that she had lot of pending work to be completed in the next day or two. And she so hoped it did not spill over to the third day as she had planned to take a day long rest just before the New Year Eve. It's been crazy the last few days.

While on her way home, she mentally made notes in her mind as she drove her dad's car. She had been borrowing his car every now and then. When her parents moved to NY they had sold Rachael's old car as she would no longer be staying here.

Rachael planned to make a final checklist before the New Year party for both her parents and the one they had planned to attend in the dance bar.

She also had to find a way to talk to Ray in private and ask him about the mysterious events which had occurred recently. The mysterious shop, the colour changing hallow she had seen in Church and the heirloom ring which her dad had given to Ethan.

What surprised her the most was, her Dad and Mum never spoke about the ring to both her brother and her till now. And when her dad had gifted the ring to Ethan, he had not put forth any conditions which came along with the ring. She found it rather weird that if the ring had no conditions which spoke about it being kept a secret, why had they concealed it from their very own children.

Her intuition was telling her that all of these were connected and was pointing to something which may occur on New Year eve but she couldn't figure out how. She had to get some details around these before she could face any unknown mystery on the new year eve. Everything couldn't be a coincidence. She also planned to call Jason again if required.

For now she was thinking hard on how to get Ray's attention and then, she recalled something which could help her to get his attention. She smiled to herself thinking how she had forgotten the easiest way to achieve this.

She set aside her thoughts for now and called her mum to check if she had cooked anything for the three of them.

When her mum said, since no one had called to inform about their plans, she hadn't cooked for the three of them. However she mentioned that she could put together something quickly for dinner.

"Mum, don't bother to cook, I'll get something packed on my way" said Rachael before she hung up

She stopped at the first take away outlet and packed food for the three of them. She made sure that she did not miss packing Ray's favourite "Mac and Cheese."

Once she reached home, she placed the food in the kitchen Island and went to her room to freshen up and change into night wear. She asked her parents not to wait for them as it was quite late for them. Except for any special occasions her parents were not into staying late up in the night.

Rachael was hungry but she wanted to have dinner along with Ray and Ethan. She couldn't avoid Ethan but she planned to wait for them as she had to get her message across to Ray.

She turned on the tv and just casually browsed through the popular Netflix series as she waited for them to get back home. She was not really concentrating on what she was watching as she was lost in her own thoughts. She was silently praying that her intuitions should turn out to be false.

In about 30 mins she heard the car outside and knew they were back. She patiently waited for them to come in while she continued watching the series.

Once the door bell rang, she got up to open the door. Luckily she faced Ray as soon as she opened the door and Ethan was standing behind him. Both of them were carrying the cases which contained the dismantled Robot.

She smiled at Ray and gave them way into the house. Both of the men walked towards Ray's room to place the cases and after few minutes Rachael saw Ethan walking out of Ray's room towards their room.

Rachael couldn't understand how could Ethan continue to hang around while she had ignored him so much. She sighed knowing that Ethan would never give up anything he wanted so easily.

After a while she heard both of them going towards the kitchen. She too got up and walked towards the kitchen.

"Hey sis, did you buy the food?"

"I sure did, and was waiting for you guys so that we could have dinner together. "

"Thanks Rache, we almost forgot about the food and missed informing mum"

"Of course" said Rachael in response

Ray knew his parents routine and did not bother to ask about them. Rachael helped to get the cutlery on to the dining table while Ray carried the food.

When Ray opened the packed food and started emptying the contents into the bowls, he was surprised to see his favourite food from his childhood and teenage days- "The Mac and Cheese"

He let out a whistle before looking at his sister and winking at his sister.

"I love you Sis, you are the best" he said and Rachael smiled at him.

He recalled the last time he had his favourite and he couldn't remember his parents buying this for him while he was a kid or teenager. It was always him who would buy it for himself with his monthly allowance or it would be his sister would treat him with it, when she needed a favour from him.

Suddenly it occurred to him as to why his sister had got him his favourite and he looked at her but she had not speak to him. He knew that she would not open up anything in front of Ethan but she needed something.

[To be continued...]

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Authors note: I am not sure if the title of this chapter made sense.

Dear users, if you feel I could have named it with a better title do drop in your suggestion in the comments.