Hello again! I know, it’s been almost a week since I last wrote in this. Not that anyone’s been waiting! In any case, I really hope to keep this up, once every week at least—or maybe every fortnight. It’s so much fun already! If you don’t keep a diary—trust me, you should try it.

Where did I leave off last time? Ah yes, I was writing about Grandfather. He’s the best! I mean, I don’t really know where to start. I’ve been staying with him for as long as I can remember, as my parents are—well, they’re away, you see—and he’s been the coolest Grandfather ever! We talk a lot, and he always has time for my questions, ever since I was new to this world and I had the silliest, simplest questions to ask. He explained to me why the sky is grey, and why melon-fruits fall to the ground—and
it’s all so interesting when he explains it! And he’s been telling me the most wonderful tales ever since I was much younger, about the days of his youth and about life in the Before-times, the lives of his ancestors…you wouldn’t believe some of the stuff he tells me.
My earliest memories of Grandfather are of him teaching me to speak, to read, to write, and introducing me to all the books which I would use to teach myself about all the things in the world. Back in those days, the domes were down on the ground—they had not been raised into the clouds yet as the world was still quite peaceful and I would often play among the plexigrass fields, studying the trees or picking wild strawberries. I even vaguely remember meeting other human-children, as the

Engineers did not live in such isolation back then. Perhaps I even had friends! Unfortunately, my memory of these times is very foggy, and I’ve never had a good memory, really, for as long as I can remember.

We’ve had Fritz since the very beginning, of course. He’s probably my best friend. He’s so charming, really! It’s a pity I can’t introduce him to others. You should hear some of his jokes! He has a real good sense of humour.

Fritz didn’t always look this way, though. He’s a modular bot, you see, and he keeps getting upgrades over the years. Right now he’s quite streamlined, actually, he’s a boxy, tabletop bot with an emoti-face and an extendable arm—more than enough for playing chess! Oh, and I recently helped Grandfather install a text-display screen, which I’m very, very proud of (it was one of my own tinkerings).

Oh yes, I forgot to mention, they play a lot of chess—Grandfather and Fritz, that is. I can’t for the life of me figure out what’s so interesting about that game, I mean, it’s just a bunch of pieces on squares, isn’t it? And you’ve got a bunch of rules telling you what they can do, I guess. I mean, what’s the fun in that?

Also, I hear bots love playing chess, which is of course just another reason not to play that game.