When she was 7, her parents eventually had a divorce. The usual scenes weren't pleasant when they were together, but when her mother was alone, it was even more pitiful. Still an alcoholic, she started to hit Lisa often almost as soon as she had a divorce, and constantly blamed her daughter for it.
Thankfully for Lisa, she was born a strong girl, much stronger than her mother. Even though she had no choice but to accept what life was giving her, she managed to find ways of escapism, though most of them were done unconsciously. Like many children at her age, Lisa liked to draw. She was not particularly skilled, but she was enjoying it a lot.
One day, Lisa's mother was in a very bad mood and threw her daughter out of her house for a reason so petty than the next day, neither Lisa nor her mother remembered what it was. Lisa felt bad about it and cried a little, and seeing how her mom didn't let her get back into the house, she wandered away to a nearby park.
After some time, she passed near an old man, sitting on a bench. The old man noticed Lisa, and was immediately worried for the little girl.
"Hey, what are you doing here alone ?" he asked.
Lisa turned to face the old gentleman, and she simply spoke what was on her mind.
"My mom doesn't like me."
"Don't say that, I am sure that she wants you to get back home."
"No she doesn't. She told me to leave her alone forever."
The old man felt the sadness in Lisa, and decided it would be for the best if she could open up about her problems. He pointed at the empty spot besides him, and Lisa came to sit next to him.
"What's your name ?" asked the old man.
"Lisa."
"Hello Lisa, I am Arthur." he said, with a comforting voice. "Do you have friends at school ?"
"Yes, I have Jenny and Marie, but mom doesn't want me to bring them home or see them."
"Do you have any friends at home ?"
Lisa was confused by the question and just looked at Arthur trying to figure what he meant.
"I mean, do you have a pet, like a cat or a dog ?"
Lisa shook her head. "Mom doesn't want to have a dog, but I want to."
"Have you ever thought about making your own friends ?"
"You mean a robot friend ?"
"Oh, I mean… sure ! A robot friend works too. But do you have imaginary friends ?"
"No."
As Lisa was starting to enjoy the conversation with her newfound old friend, she saw a woman walking angrily towards her location. It was her mom, she seemed furious. "COME BACK HERE, LISA !" she shouted while closing in.
Lisa hesitated to get up from the bench, but she did anyway, because she knew she couldn't resist her mom. She didn't even have time to go back to her mom on her own, because her mother immediately grabbed her wrist to pull Lisa away from the old man.
"You pervert old man, next time I'll call the cops on you, you hear me ?" her mother said to Arthur before leaving angrily.
The old man didn't worry too much about it. He simply waved at Lisa with a smile, and she reciprocated.
That very evening when Lisa was back home, she reflected on what Arthur told her. He adviced her to 'make' a friend, right ? With ideas flowing inside her head like never before, the little girl took her best colored pencils, some sheets of paper, and began to work. After thirty minutes, her masterpiece was done. She made the perfect friend. It could play music, watch the house for burglars, and even play table tennis with Lisa. Immediately, she started imagining some amazing adventures with her new friend. After daydreaming for a while, she eventually signed her drawing with her name, then she realized it didn't have a name for itself. She had no idea about what name to give to a robot. After thinking for a couple seconds, she found a suitable name for a robot : 'Bleepy'
During the 7 years that followed, as she went to many stages of her childhood and teenagehood, Bleepy became a good friend whenever she felt alone. After a while she gave up imagining adventures with her robot friend, and almost exclusively thought about inventing new features for it. What if it was able to fly ? Or do a rocket punch ? And what if it was able to talk ? She wanted Bleepy to be awesome, to be the best robot in the world.
At school, they had this little experience where students were able to meet professionnals in the field they desired. There were not so many students who wanted to see the robotics presentation, and Lisa was one of them. At the time, she was 14.
The person who animated the presentation of robotics was a researcher called Sebastian. He always insisted on doing this presentation every year, because he loved to see the looks of fascination in children's eyes. Well, in some of them, anyway. Most students who participated in this presentation were intrigued by robots themselves because it was cool, but didn't want to pursue a career in robotics, as that's 'too much trouble'. But after the researcher was finished, a girl raised her hand in the audience.
"Can you make your robot fly ?"
Most of the audience, populated by 14-15 year old students, was laughing. Sebastian was also laughing, but it was mainly in compassion. He finally found, among the students, the spark he wanted to transform into a flame someday.
"Not yet, but if you help me with it, I'm sure we can make this work !"
After the presentation, everyone left except Lisa. Sebastian was still packing up the equipment he brought with him, and he saw the girl, standing there waiting for him.
"Will you really help me learn how to make a robot ?" she asked the researcher, her eyes filled with stars.
"Sure, just come find me after you finished your studies."
"Why not start now ?"
Sebastian became embarassed. He felt like he digged himself into a hole there. Sure, he really meant it when he said they could work together, but he also felt like Lisa didn't understand what was really needed to 'make a robot'. Seeing how hesitant he was, the girl opened her bag and pulled out a stack of documents, probably fourty sheets in total. These were all the documents she made and kept when designing Bleepy.
"I'm ready to make it for real now." she said, displaying a lot of confidence and determination.
"Okay, let me see what your project is."
When he went through the first documents, it confirmed his impression that she was just a dreaming kid with a lot of misconceptions about robots. The documents started from her oldest works, starting by her very first drawing of Bleepy. Those first documents made him smile, but he was a bit discouraged.
"I'm sorry, but I can't really do it like this. It's just…"
"Just continue looking." she interrupted, as if giving him an order.
After a sigh, Sebastian resumed looking at the documents. Sure enough, there was a progression in the quality and detail of the robot's concept as he went through the pages. However, he started to realize that this wasn't the progression between a 7 year old and a 14 year old kid. The closer he got to the end, the more he witnessed incredibly precise annotations and descriptions for a teenager. The math was always a bit lacking and approximate, but it clearly looked like the girl did some research on her own, both in the fields of mechanics and electronics. Approaching the last page, he started saying "That is very good, but even then…" and finally, he saw what was on that final document.
It was filled with equations and complex calculations all over the sheet of paper. Some were basic, but some were simply too complex for anyone lower than a top level college student. He was in front of the work of a true child genius.
"This is the equation to determine what materials and mechanisms can be used to support the legs. There's also some calculations about how to move the arms without falling over. And on the bottom right, you can find some basic algorithms about the main program…" she went on for at least 5 minutes, explaining that last document.
"Wow… you really want to make a robot, I take it."
Lisa nodded. Then, Sebastian made the decision to accept her project as a small off-work hobby to him.
On the excuse of studying for exams or going out with friends, Lisa spent a lot of her free time after school on weekdays to go to the University where Sebastian worked as a researcher. Every single time, he would be incredibly impressed with her dedication. But more than an interest in robotics, she had a really particular objective : making her childhood friend Bleepy for real. Sebastian taught her everything that was in her grasp. It didn't take long to realize that she was very good with Math and Physics, so he sometimes tried to improve her knowledge and use her talent even more. As he really wanted her to succeed in high school so she could work on bigger projects in the future, he urged her to do her homework as well, and she did, but a bit reluctant every time. They only managed to make small prototypes at the time, and Lisa wouldn't stop until she made Bleepy just as she designed it.
Many years passed, full of adventures for Lisa. She still had trouble with her mother, who got re-married and re-divorced twice in the meantime, but she payed her less attention the closer she got to adulthood. As everyone expected, she graduated high school with no problems, and joined University. Sadly for her, she couldn't get into the same University that Sebastian worked at. As a result, their cooperation was mostly done at irregular intervals, and most of the time online.
Lisa matured, but her ambition to make Bleepy never changed. At the age of 19, the duo managed to complete a prototype version with many functions in accordance to Lisa's list. It could play music, had a camera for security, but it couldn't play table tennis. She dropped the idea when she was a teenager, anyway. Lisa decided that the key feature of Bleepy was still missing : the ability to have a conversation. As she worked on that final sub-project, she also took the time to grow as a student, travelling abroad and meeting several researchers in that same field. Every time without fail, those researchers would be fascinated by her story and ambition. One of them even asked her if she thought about writing a book in the future.
One night, at the University, past two in the morning, a female student was still working on her new prototype. Everyone else left the lab, and there was only Lisa, a 23 years old PhD student. After finishing some welding and some verifications, Lisa plugged one end of a cable in the robot, and the other end in her computer. The robot switched on. Anxiously, Lisa said "Hello". The robot didn't say anything. On her computer screen, Lisa could see her own face, captured by the robot's front camera. Eventually, the robot replied.
"Nice to see you again, Lisa ! I am Bleepy."
Lisa made a smile so wide so it almost hurt her face. She felt a rush of happiness, satisfaction and relief, all at once. She started crying tears of joy. She managed to respond :
"Bleepy ! How are you ?"
"I am fine today ! You look sad, Lisa. Do you want to me to sing you a song ?"
For a moment, Lisa was crying so much that she couldn't say anything, while Bleepy played her a popular song from the radio. After spending so much time with it in her childhood, she could finally meet her true best friend, face to face. She was still young, yet one of her biggest dreams already came true. She talked a bit more with Bleepy that night. She knew it still wasn't perfect. But it was her dearest friend, Bleepy. It was finally real.
Merely 5 years later, Lisa won an award for her many improvements and new concepts brought to the field of robotics. It wasn't extremely prestigious, and she didn't care about it anyway, but this one award guaranteed her to be considered a very influencial researcher for the years that followed.
She threw a party in her hometown to celebrate this event. Almost all her friends were here. Her family was here. Her mother didn't come, but her father did. They had been in contact still for some years now, but for the first time, he express his pride to see his daughter succeed at life that much, even though 'she wasn't exactly bright when she was little'. At last, a very important person arrived, it was Sebastian. Things weren't looking good for him, as he was going through some serious health issues, but he absolutely insisted on going to see her to congratulate. He brought with him one of the first few prototypes that they made together, which brought Lisa on the verge of tears once again in a rush of nostalgia. Eventually, he had to leave soon, but left Lisa with the prototype, just like a small present to her.
The next day, Lisa had her day off. She still had many plans and projects to come for the future, but none came close to what she just accomplished, so she decided to simply relax for now. Because she was in her hometown for the weekend, she took a stroll in the park that was near her home, and eventually sat on a bench to enjoy the calm and silence. About ten minutes later, a very old man sat next to her. He tried to strike a conversation with Lisa.
"Do you have many friends, young lady ?"
"What do you mean ?" she replied, confused by this sudden question.
"I see that you managed to create a friend after all. Did this bring you lots of friends like I hoped ?"
Lisa finally realized who she was talking to. She chuckled at the realization.
"Yes, it did. I didn't think you would remember me."
The old man laughed. "Oh, Lisa. Trust me, I remember every person to whom I casted a blessing."
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