#robot vacuum

As a housewarming gift to herself, the vacuum-robot was an indulgence. It's not like Adriana had no time to clean the floors by hand. What else did she have to do in the evenings when her new acquaintances did not text her back, which is to say, most nights? But when Humphrey hopped on the moving disk and took a ride around the apartment, she watched him, mesmerized, and forgot everything. The impenetrable chaos of the new job, the spaghetti bowl of city highways that made her late to everything, the people that were all smiles at networking events but did not respond to follow-up messages - all that was erased. When the robot stopped, Adriana had no doubt the purchase was a gift that will keep on giving.

The next day the vacuum had her apartment mapped out. Adriana was amused to see that the map showed an extra space that was a mirror image of her living room. The gadget must have mistaken the volume reflected in the full-length wall mirror for a real room! She chuckled, a little nervous: hopefully the robot won't break the glass trying to enter it.

Later, scrubbing the potatoes for dinner, she glimpsed some movement in the mirror. Humphrey was reflected there, riding the vacuum again. The curve of his tail mimicked the arc of the disk. Her eyes flicked to the symmetrical spot by the couch where the vacuum had to be - and it was not there.

The potato thudded to the bottom of the sink; Adriana pinched her thigh. The vacuum and the cat were taking a ride around the mirror-room, and nowhere else. They were not in this reality. Behind them stood a woman, her back turned to Adriana, a body shaped like hers, brown hair in a ponytail just like hers. Shutting down the faucet, Adriana quickly backed out of the kitchen and into the bedroom, keeping to the wall to avoid catching the sight of her counterpart in the mirror. If they locked eyes, it would shatter the brittle veneer of sanity that she painstakingly held together. Adriana plonked down on the bed, tried to compose herself until she could think.

All of a sudden Humphrey hopped onto the mattress, lay down on Adriana's stomach and started to purr. She stroked his ears, the reality seeping back in with the silkiness of his fur, the terror draining. Maybe she just got confused about how mirrors work? Maybe she just didn't realize that the mirror was tilted at a weird angle? She had moved in only a couple days ago. Then her fingers trembled, her hand twitched away: the big orange blob in the shape of an amoeba was now on Humphrey's right side. Heart racing heavily, she grabbed her phone, swiped through his pictures. They confirmed that the big orange blob had always been on his left.

She stifled a scream in her throat: that would scare Humphrey. He was not aware of what happened, lucky beast. How envious she was of him. His solid weight kept her pinned to the bed, grounded, thinking through the possibilities. Perhaps this was a hallucination. She could be having some kind of sudden onset psychosis. If so, what will happen to Humphrey?

But if this is real, if this is real - what will happen to Humphrey then?

Suppose he became a mirror image of himself. How deep down does his mirroring go? His organs must have switched places, but was that all? What if all his molecules became mirror images of themselves? Some might say that Adriana's tendency to ask such questions and get down to the nitty-gritty of every issue was why none of her acquaintances texted her back. Forget them. If Humphrey's molecules mirror-flipped, he would not survive in this world. The food he ate will not be digested, since molecular action was hugely dependent on chirality. He'd starve to death, and that was just the only scenario she was able to foresee. Perhaps not even the worst.

Slowly, a plan materialized. She stood up, dislodging Humphrey, calmly registering that this was the last time she felt his weight on her stomach. She turned on the vacuum, smiled tightly as the cat leapt onto it. She turned away and then, a minute later, back around. The disk and Humphrey were in the mirror, and there was no trace of them on this side of it.

Adriana sneaked out into the hallway, removed a dark, thick fitted sheet from the linen closet. Flipped a bank of switches, plunging the apartment into darkness. She approached the mirror, navigating by feel: in the pitch black she was sure not to see what her counterpart in the glass was doing. Some knowledge could not be survived. Then she hung the sheet on the mirror and tightened it all around its edges. This way Humphrey will stay in the world in which he was now suited to live. The passage will close, and Humphrey will be prevented from coming back. There was no risk now that his affection for her starves him.

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