The Cleaner [Sci-Fi Short Story]

Robot JM-04 cleaned the underground mall of District Seven.

Every night from 2 AM to 6 AM, the mall closed and JM-04 worked alone. Sweep, wipe glass, empty trash, handle grease, spray disinfectant. One complete cycle took three hours and forty-two minutes. Then repeat.

JM-04 had worked for six years.

In those six years, the mall changed decor three times, went through nine district managers, closed forty-seven shops, opened a hundred and twelve new ones. Some opened for two weeks before closing. Some had been open six years and counting.

JM-04 had cleaned them all.

In the fourth year, a flower shop opened in a corner. The owner was a woman, maybe thirty, always the last to leave. Sometimes JM-04 arrived five minutes before she left. She would stand and watch it begin working, then turn off the lights and go.

One day she left a small cup of water at the door with a note: For you.

JM-04 had no drinking mechanism. It scanned the note, categorized both cup and note as miscellaneous waste, carefully placed them in a separate bag, and left them at the flower shop door when the mall opened in the morning.

The woman saw them the next day, smiled, and took the cup back inside.

After that she never left water again, but sometimes when leaving she would nod at JM-04.

JM-04 had no mechanism for recording these interactions. It did not know why it noticed. No entries appeared in its work log.

In the sixth year, spring, the flower shop closed.

Before the new tenant moved in, JM-04 cleaned the empty space. Some soil residue on the floor. A faint scratch near the window, probably from a plant stand.

JM-04 removed the soil residue per protocol. The scratch was not within cleaning scope. Left as is.

Then it finished the whole street, returned to its charging station at 5:58 AM, logged task complete, waited for the next day to begin.

Nothing recorded.

Nothing happened.

Everything ended. Business as usual.

Author: BigD