The Epilogue
The Epilogue
I am nowhere or somewhere or someplace in between.
I see a room vaguely. It’s both clean, modern, but earthy and wild. Sadie is lying in bed, resting comfortably. Her “HospiceBot with Extra Pathos” listed in an explosion next to it has been painted over by Sadie. She’s named him Claude for a reason nobody knows. The screen in its chest is still clear and the emotional indicator says “Attending/Concerned” next to the date where the year shows 21 at the start but the rest is unclear.
The room is filled with Sadie’s favorite things. A miniature, replica Zoltar machine sits inside a vacuum case to keep it from aging. There’s her Siri6000, painted as Button Brite with an unchanging expression of satisfaction. It’s in the corner, bumping into things, turning them over, and at each collision happily says: “Don’t know. Don’t know” in a gentle consistent beat.
There’s a book there or not there or very well preserved of a strange book her father wrote to them all.
There’s her prized possession. It’s an early draft of Zoe’s famous book TikTok: Tyrant of Oz. In the margins you can see Sadie and Zoe discussing the book. The book naturally opens to a page where Sadie’s argument is starting “TikTok would never feed a fat baby to…” but the rest is illegible and replaced with Zoe’s writing: “HE’S A ROBOT, SADIE!!!” and you can see she’s written a smiley face over that.
The time has come and Sadie passes gently. She drops something on the floor as she goes.
The HospiceBot picks up the photo. It’s different than the other photos and Claude is confused. This picture is clear of a middle-aged man and he’s in perfect focus. It looks like a person in the other photos, but the other photos are strange. He’s always half out of the frame or unfocused. This is the first time Claude sees this person clearly. The emotional indicator says “Curious” and it calls the single human being taking care of 200 patients.
The person walks in.
CLAUDE: ::Question: name of person in this photo, please?:: The voice of the HospiceBot is robotic but soothing.
PERSON: “Oh, that’s Sadie’s father.”
She takes a beat and decides to say this.
PERSON: “She told me he liked to eat dogs.”
As Claude’s emotional indicator turns to “Disgust,” the person swears she just heard a foot stomp from somewhere both far and close.
— Bill Berger, 2026