Vanilla Dusk ✓

Half Part 4

Shane used to cook the best scrambled eggs and bacon in the world. Sometimes, when time allowed, he would prepare a whole set of English breakfast for Emir, who never got enough of the crispy toast coated with excessive butter and grilled tomatoes. He would serve Emir milk tea instead of coffee and when Emir requested for a change, he would nag him about the undesirable health effects of relying on coffee to keep one awake. Emir would simply retort claiming that the sugar level in the tea was just as disastrous. Shane had a British father and a Chinese mother, making him an excellent master of both Western and Eastern dishes. He was obsessed with milk tea and would always add excessive spoons of milk and sometimes together with tapioca pearls into his black tea. Emir simply couldn't cook to save his life and when Shane disappeared, all he ever ate were instant noodles and Chinese take-away. Nothing tasted like Shane's food.

When Shane 2.0 served him the very same set of English breakfast and brewed the same black tea, Emir was stunned, but soon he found himself devouring everything on the plate as if he had been stranded in the desert starving for two weeks. The android had cleared the rubbish in the sitting room, dusted all the furniture, polished all the decors and paintings in the hallways.

'How do you know to cook these?' asked Emir, as he took a sip of the tea and scooped up some baked beans with his spoon.

'It's an android's inherent ability,' answered Shane 2.0 plainly. Emir had asked him to take a seat across the table and the android was sitting straight, admiring the way Emir feasted on the food hungrily.

'No, I mean why would you choose to cook these?'

'Oh,' said Shane 2.0 with a sudden realisation. 'I've been told that these are your favourites. Pardon me if I have made a mistake. Is the breakfast not to your liking?'

'No,' said Emir, his mouth full with food. 'No – I mean, I love them. They're good. Thank you.'

'I'm glad to hear that,' said the android, grinning. 'It's not healthy to skip breakfast, Emir. I will cook you breakfast every day from now on.'

Emir didn't say anything. A day before he was still desperate for ways to purge himself of the android and today he was beginning to find his presence appeasing. Shane 2.0 had drawn all the curtains to let the sunlight in, which Emir surprisingly didn't oppose. Everything was suddenly back in order. The furniture was all glistening and clean. The place that used to reek of liquor and leftovers was now sprayed with lavender freshener.

After his meal, Emir took a nap on the sofa. After washing the plates, Shane 2.0 headed out to shop and returned with bags of groceries. When Emir woke up again, lunch was ready on the dining table. The android had made him steamed dumplings with minced pork, diced shrimps and cabbage.

'Here,' said Shane 2.0 as he handed Emir his phone with a fixed screen. Emir swiped it and the message box popped out.

'You're –' paused Emir before he could exclaim the word 'amazing'. When he glanced up at Shane 2.0 again, he was smiling and that winsome smile was too familiar. The dumplings tasted of memories. It was no doubt the android was replicating Shane's recipes but Emir, lost so much in nostalgia, could barely resist them.

Emir spent the afternoon reading in his study. Reading has become a hobby so rare people hardly sell printed books anymore. Children have cyborgs to read them tales and they don't frolic in the parks when they can do sports with interactive androids or take a day trip to the Moon. Emir kept a vast book shelf in his study storing copies of classic literature. Shane was into gothic romance and science-fiction. He wrote at times and showed Emir his stories. Emir was a loyal fan of Jane Austen and Shakespeare; stuff people don't even touch anymore. Emir was engrossed in his book when a sudden faint thud from the storage room alerted him. He immediately chucked away his book and dashed towards the storage room, where Shane 2.0 was standing in front of a painting which was initially veiled by a piece of white cloth. Dust had coated the half-finished portrait.