The Perfect Day

"Mankind has always endeavored to advance themselves in technological achievements, but it has also been the error of advancement that causes the greatest sorrow. Man entered a new age with the creation of the thinking machine. The glory of the thinking machine was as bright as a nova before its impact. Praised were the scientists, but careful they also were. The Law of Robots was the foundation for all thinking computers; laws built into them making them obey and never kill. But as the benefits grew, others sought different applications.”

Herbert Stein, Machine Historian - 

It was the afternoon already and he was going to be late. In fact, he was already late. The morning was late with no alarm to wake him and the water out, again. The super said it was just a technical problem, but five technical problems in two weeks was hardly a coincidence anymore. It was a bad morning, if that wasn’t apparent already. Now it was made even worse by being late to a meeting, one that he especially despised as well.

He had to meet with the military, his or rather the company's contractor. The military always gave him a sour taste knowing what they would be using the things that he made. He knew full well what he was making and that they would be tools, instruments of death. However, it did pay the bills and having too much of a conscience in this day and age didn’t pay, literally. A bad taste indeed.

Here it was before him now standing tall and proud among the numerous gleaming towers around, the Kamihara Building. It looked innocent, shining like a jewel, but it was a cloak to hide the darker secrets. The military had covered its appearances these days, wolf in sheep clothes, perhaps. Nonetheless it was what it was and couldn’t change itself. It was a small branch with most of it being heavily commercialized. Paid the bills.

He walked up the steps feeling the sun beating down on his suit. The tie choked around his neck and the heavily starched shirt did little for his skin. Another sheepskin, he had to play the part, came with the territory being head of the project. He could make the things that he wanted, but he still had to polish the boots of others. It wasn’t the glamour that he had imagined in his naïve younger days. Innocence lost, how long ago had he sold his soul. It felt like it at least.

The inside of the building gave him his first welcome sight, cool air on this hot summer day. It wasn’t enough to cool his head though; there was nothing for that. He didn’t feel like waiting, but there was a line of people being scanned in. For being so commercial it was still military and everyone had to be checked. It was taking forever though, purposely making him wait and delay his already late meeting. 'I'm going to be getting a mouthful from him today.'

The guards finally got to him and he sighed in relief. He withheld his annoyance, preferring not to make things even worse. "Step through now please," the security guard said plainly.

He somehow managed to keep himself quiet and calm, even though his hand was shaking. They let him pass and he was free to enter the main hall now. "Finally," he said under his breath. He made his way to the front desk of the lobby to announce his arrival.

The receptionist at the front desk was busy working at her computer not paying attention to him standing near to her. It was obvious that there was someone in front of her, but she didn’t acknowledge him. He placed his hand on the faux wood counter letting the metal of his watch make quiet noise. It diverted her attention towards him. "May I help you, sir?" the receptionist said, acting as though she didn’t notice him before.

"Yes, I have a meeting with Lieutenant Colonel Takamoto for 1:00."

"And you are?"

"Kuromura Satoru." He pulled his hand back, having achieved what he wanted from the effect. It was a small release of his frustration, but there weren’t enough things for him to hit at the moment to relieve it all. Even in the cool air his back was warming up again, perspiring as his stress increased.

"Mr. Kuromura, let me check." The receptionist turned to her monitor screen looking up the appointment. A minute of long waiting later she turned back to Satoru looking directly at him. "Yes, here it is for 1:00. But I'm sorry he has not come back from lunch. Could you wait in the lobby till he comes?"

'The lobby! Hasn't come back yet…from lunch! I came here running all the way late to the meeting…and he…' There was almost a visible redness in his face that could be seen. There was a vein in his forehead starting to make itself visible as the redness began to calm down. He clenched his fists together trying to ease himself back down. 'This is not me… it's just the day… it's just the day…' Talking himself down was barely possible after the day he already had. He could barely catch himself to slow down from rolling over the cliff.

“Sir?”

"I don't have much choice in the matter do I? Fine…" Satoru said annoyed, but managed to cut off the rest of his thoughts from being verbalized. It was a natural reaction to being stood up. Satoru kept trying to tell himself it was the day and being late, but it was difficult to calm the tensed muscles in his body. He was poorly keeping his emotions hidden from the receptionist who's job was to be kind and courteous to everyone regardless of their demeanor.

"I am really sorry, sir."

Satoru turned and walked away from the desk. Aside from not being able to stand around to wait, he couldn’t continue to look at her. The anger and stress was rising again as his mind rolled over the fact that he was late. 'The Lt. Colonel is going to yell at me for being late even though he was later than me. Then I'm going to try to defend myself and he'll just yell at me for being a whiny civilian. He ends up on a tirade that I'll be forced to listen to. And then he won't be pleased with what I have to present.' He tried to stop the snowball effect that was happening, but his mind was moving too fast. All of the stress was returning and his body warmed up again. None of the cold air was enough to break his sweating.

Satoru sat down in the lobby that was lightly packed with people waiting on someone as well. He was just another one of them forced to wait on someone else to be ready. From the lobby he could see the elevators and the security area. It was the only place that gave such a view and he would be able to see if the Lt. Colonel arrived. 'Doesn't matter how late he ends up being, I still have to go through it. I wish I could get out of this somehow.' It was a bad taste.

After an hour of waiting his anger had finally slowed to a calm boil that bubbled up sporadically, but it was no longer the raging mass that had a grip over his body. Satoru was about to approach the receptionist when a man sat himself down next to him. It was a distraction that changed his focus slightly. He was a strange individual with his hand shaking constantly as though there was no control, but pausing at specific intervals. When the man took a breath it all stopped, but resumed after he exhaled. After the momentary diversion it brought, Satoru looked elsewhere again.

'I wish that he would hurry up.'

"Good Morning, sir," the strange man said nervously.

"It is Afternoon," Satoru said quickly pointing over to the clock that was on the wall, "See 2:20. It's 2:20." It boiled again.

"I am sorry, sir," the man said, taken aback. Satoru's voice wasn’t loud, but he left a distinct emotion wrapped around the words. It made the man quiet while thinking about what he should say next. "Just a little nervous." A meager response that wouldn’t earn any remorse at the moment.

"Yeah," Satoru said, ignoring him. He looked around trying to keep an eye out for the Lt. Colonel. The time was running long and the seat was quickly becoming uncomfortable. His legs vibrated softly as he hoped against himself that the Lt. Colonel would appear and wouldn’t so he could leave.

"This is just my first time here, I hope everything goes well."

"Yeah…sure," Satoru said. 'Whatever…'

"You okay, sir?"

"Yeah…" Satoru said, pausing to think about what he was going to do next. 'Screw this! Already an hour late…one last chance.' His patience was up and if he wasn’t going to get anywhere here he could just head to work instead, at least he could calm down there. Satoru stood up leaving the man behind heading to the receptionist to end it.

"Thank you, sir," the strange man said, sighing.

Satoru stood before the receptionist with his leg shaking in anger now rather than stress. "Excuse me…when is the Lt. Colonel coming back?"

"Oh, you were wanting to see Lieutenant Colonel Takamoto, right?"

"Yes, I was…" Satoru said holding back his annoyance that the receptionist was acting like an airhead. The room waited in pause for the response.

"I am sorry, but he called me saying to cancel all his meetings for today. He said that his lunch made him feel a little sick and he was going home."

"What?!" Satoru said laughing out loud nearly crazed making others stop in confusion. He couldn’t hold it back anymore. After all of his worrying, the stress and tension running through his body. He wasn’t even able to have breakfast, just some fruit that he ate on the way. Satoru slammed his hands down on the wood counter staring down the receptionist. That vein was appearing again as well as the sweat to warm up his body. "I came all the way down here to meet with him for not to show?"

"I am sorry, sir."

"Oh, I bet you are…" Satoru walked away from the receptionist storming out of the building. He didn’t wait to leave the building wanting to leave it all behind him. It was the perfect conclusion to his day; there was nothing that could have made it any better. 'I'd like to see you try to make this day any better!' Satoru turned around looking up at the building, now outside. It seemed to be mocking him now rather than the proud glare it was before. He exhaled a rough sigh of annoyance and started to turn.

At that moment as his eyes turned away the entire ground floor exploded sending glass and cement debris into the air outward. The ground leapt up through his knees, shattering his balance and destroying glass on passing cars. A veil of glass shards ripped across his face and body as the shockwave quickly followed up knocking him off his feet before he had even a moment to react. The force of the explosion sent him to the ground clawing him against the pavement. It saved his life as a chunk of metal flew over him impaling a speeding car bringing further disruption to traffic.

The force slammed his head against the cement and his vision immediately blurred. All he could feel was pain everywhere. His mouth wanted to scream, but his mind was losing itself. All of the tension in his body had been blown away in the blast now he didn’t even have the will to stand. Blood dripped down his face and from the back of his head across the sidewalk. He heard more sounds, but they were distant as though he was drowning. His thoughts disappeared and he couldn’t see any longer.