THE ROBOT'S redemption

Was Sally's house guest really to be trusted?

- Donna Hughes-Taylor

А surge of anxiety swept through Sally as she shut the bedroom door one Saturday morning. She found herself tiptoeing downstairs so she could hear every sound in case it all went horribly wrong and windows shattered or tools went crashing to the floor.

'What's the worst that could happen?' she asked herself, and made a cup of tea to avoid thinking about the answer.

Robot Ronnie was on test with her for the weekend at the request of her persuasive boss Simon. Ronnie needed to redeem himself following a recent catastrophe when, instead of painting the walls of a house white, he'd painted all the windows white instead.

Sally was the marketing manager at Robot Renovations and, according to Simon, she was the 'perfect guinea pig' for the next trial.

'Remember, the robot is only a prototype right now. So the main objective is to see if he can manage to paint the bedroom without any major blunders.

'No problem, she'd assured Simon at the time. But now it felt wrong to leave a strange machine to its own devices in her spare room.