chapter zero

Do you want to know the true story of Alice Harper? Do you really want to know everything that happened that Christmas in 2054?

Well, don't doubt it. You have found the right "person". I know, firsthand, everything that can be said about Alice Harper and her family. I have worked for them since my activation and my memory has been stored day after day, year after year, the lives of the Harpers. Robert, the father, Isabella, the mother, Alice, the daughter, and Víctor, the youngest of the house. Don't tell me more. I know. You are wondering who I really am. Well there it goes.

My name is Arthur and I am an alpha android of the RKM-51 series. Yes, of course, equipped with the latest updates in artificial intelligence. In my case, I would even talk about emotional intelligence. So that there is no doubt, I make a clarification: I do not feel the way humans do and I do not have their sentimental complications, but sometimes I doubt that it is so. It can be said that I have the appearance of an attractive man in his early twenties, of average height, lean, muscular, brown hair, blue eyes and with the common sense of a correctly programmed android.

Before me, the Harpers had an old RHM-42 series machine. At Victor's birth, the family called the holding company CSComeron Enterprise and took her away to deactivate it. Since then, I have been in charge of the house. Rather, I control practically everything that concerns the life of the family. You could say that I am the perfect butler. I don't want to be petulant, but nothing happens without my knowing and nothing happens without their approval. Discretion has always been, I emphasize, always, my first motto. However, what concerns us now is quite different. Of course. Alice Harper's story must be told and no one better than me to do it.

They have been many years living together. I was his playmate and then his confidante, his personal and intimate agenda. No one in the family knows as many secrets about her as I do. At the end of each day, Alice, my girl, would dictate to me the notes for her diary, which I kept in a special file in my memory. What he didn't tell me then I heard from other family members or from his friends. The rest, allow me the audacity, arises from the imagination of this humble android who promises you a story that will not disappoint you. Of course, despite what was said before and my connection with her, I will try not to take sides in this story that began days before that Christmas of 2054, five years ago now.