After that 'little incident', Zein drove his car at a fair pace.
Though still annoyed with his former patient, all Zein could do was mutter under his breath.
Some forty minutes later, he finally arrived at his home, specifically, his old house.
Originally, Zein had intended to stay at his parents' home.
Yet for some reason, along the way, he had changed his mind and turned back to his old house.
Indeed, Zein owned a house that had been left unoccupied for nine years.
Nevertheless, it remained well kept, as Zein employed several gardeners to maintain its cleanliness.
He stepped inside and glanced at several photographs of his wedding with his late wife, still neatly displayed on the walls.
It felt as though he had married only yesterday, though it had in fact been nine years ago.
"Angelique, I miss you..." Zein murmured, gazing at the wedding photos.
He smiled, tinged with sadness, as memories of his life with his wife resurfaced.
With weary steps, Zein removed his shirt and made his way to the bathroom to take a shower.
As is known, in 2016, Zein married an Indonesian woman named Angelique Verania.
Because Angelique's name was considered too long to pronounce easily, Zein gave her a special nickname, Angie.
At that time, Zein felt immense happiness in his marriage.
However, that happiness lasted only a month.
In the second month after their wedding, Angelique fell ill and drew her last breath at the hospital where Zein worked.
It was a devastating mental blow for Zein.
After all, their happiness had been so brief.
His wife's death indirectly affected his demeanour.
Once, as a doctor, Zein had been diligent in his work, always punctual, and often stayed beyond the end of his shift.
But now, he appeared careless, as if his enthusiasm for work had been swept away by the wind.
After his shower, Zein picked up his phone, checked several messages on WhatsApp, and replied to them one by one.
His phone had received a multitude of messages, from old friends as well as a few admirers or female former patients who had secretly been captivated by his good looks.
There were also messages from his father and mother, enquiring when he would be returning home.
All this time, despite the hospital where he worked being quite close to his parents' house, Zein had preferred to stay in his rented accommodation.
As for this house, the one that held memories of his late wife, he had left it untouched for many years, burdened by grief that had yet to heal.
Shortly afterwards, Zein hastened to dress, then walked towards the shed at the back of his house.
From the outside, the shed appeared thick with dust, for Zein had once instructed the person who cleaned his house never to approach it, let alone open it.
As a hired worker, of course, the man had simply obeyed his instructions.
[CREAK!]
Zein opened the door to the shed. The moment it swung ajar, a strong, musty scent, typical of a place untouched for years, struck him.
He took a mask from his pocket, put it on, and walked towards a corner of the shed.
Inside, countless belongings of his late wife lay carefully preserved, a silent testament to his enduring grief.
His steps were measured as he made his way through the space, until he halted before a large, elongated wooden box.
He opened it to reveal a figure resembling a human, its entire body forged from metal.
The head, torso, arms, and legs were all crafted from special iron or aluminium.
Zein lifted the robot and set it upright.
He looked up at the sky and prayed, "O' Allah… I do not wish to be God. I only miss my wife, Angelique, terribly."
"Please grant me the knowledge so that I may create a robot whose face is identical to my wife's!" He pleaded.
After that, with hands trembling slightly from a mixture of nervousness and emotion, Zein pressed a small button hidden at the back of the robot's neck.
The button was jet black, blending seamlessly with the smooth contours of the metal neck, almost invisible unless one looked closely.
The moment he pressed it, a soft beep sounded, followed by the low whirring of a tiny engine stirring to life within the robot's body.
A green light glowed from the seams of metal around the neck and chest, signalling that the system was now active.
The small lights in the robot's eyes gradually illuminated, giving the impression that the figure was truly 'awakening' from a long slumber.
A few seconds later, the robot slowly lifted its head, its synthetic lips moving.
The first words that emerged, still in a distinctively robotic voice, flat, resonant, and slightly heavy, yet eerily familiar to Zein were:
"O' Habibi… I miss you."
Zein froze. His heart felt pierced by memories.
Although the voice did not yet fully resemble that of his late wife, the intonation and the way it pronounced "O' Habibi" mirrored exactly how Angelique had once called him.
For some reason, a faint smile appeared on his face.
A warm sensation stirred in his chest.
His eyes were slightly red, yet he remained standing tall before the metallic figure.
Amid the whirring of the robot and the stillness of the old shed, Zein's smile was not merely born of pride in his creation, but because, for a fleeting moment, the memories of Angelique felt so near, so vivid.
Instinctively, he embraced the metallic figure, which he had deliberately named after his wife : Angelique.
He wept, his tears falling onto the robot's cold, metal frame.
"O' Habibi… don't cry..." The robot spoke.
Zein was utterly astonished, "Y-You… you can feel me crying?!" He asked, bewildered.
This time, the robot altered its voice to match Angelique's perfectly.
"Perhaps I am only a robot for now, but your algorithmic programs have made me seem human!" The robot, also named Angelique, replied, pausing briefly.
"I am certain, O' Habibi, that one day I shall be exactly like your wife!" It continued confidently.
"Aahhhhh…" Zein gasped, utterly shocked to hear the robot now truly imitating his wife's voice.
His body trembled violently, his knees shaking, "H-How can you mimic my wife's voice? What algorithmic program did I input back then? I… I myself have forgotten…" He continued.
"Angelique…" Zein said again. "Please… explain!"
"O' Habibi, you once created a voice learning algorithm called Verania Voice Sync, which used artificial neural networks to study the intonation, accent, and emotion in Angelique's voice."
"You combined it with Emotive Neural Sync (ENS) technology to understand the emotional responses from the audio you recorded throughout your marriage."
"At the time, it certainly seemed like a failure, and I know you were utterly desperate. But in truth, the process was not entirely unsuccessful."
"There was merely one additional file that had not been fully installed. And that file… its size was immense."
Robot Angelique regarded Zein, her camera like eyes dimly glowing, resembling the earnest gaze of a human.
"I remember that!" The robot Angelique murmured softly.
"You wept through the night, believing all my data was lost. Yet in truth, the recording file you named Angelique_FullEmotion.raw simply had not finished parsing."
"It was too large, and it took years for my system to complete the parsing and learning process."
"Fortunately, you had activated the automatic installation program in my system. Just as you decided to deactivate me, the file finally completed installation," the robot continued in a calm, measured tone.
Zein stood frozen, absorbing the explanation.
His mouth opened slightly, as though trying to process the revelation he had just heard.
"So… I was just impatient back then? Only lacking one minute?!" Zein asked, his voice hoarse.
"Indeed, O' Habibi…" replied robot Angelique, bowing her head slightly. "Had you been just one minute more patient, we could have conversed like this from that very moment. Nearly nine years have passed, haven't they?"
At last, Zein exhaled in relief, his chest feeling lighter.
He gazed at the robot's face, which, despite being made of metal and a skeletal frame, still held countless memories.
Slowly, a smile spread across Zein's face, "Angelique… welcome back to this world…" He said, his voice brimming with emotion.
"For nine years, I thought I had failed as a husband, as a doctor, and as a scientist. Yet it turns out… I was simply too hasty… and too consumed by grief!" He murmured, his voice still trembling.
Zein's eyes glistened, but this time not from loss, rather from a miracle born of a long and patient wait.