In the Lives of Puppets

Victor gazes out into the desert from one of the traveling house’s balconies and ponders the possibility that his blood contains inherited memories from his human ancestors, memories that he’s now shared with Giovanni and Hap. The Coachman joins the pensive young inventor to apologize for capturing him and giving him the painful information of humanity’s extinction. The android is consumed by the improbability of the human chancing upon him, “the one machine who lives to ensure [Victor’s] kind is not forgotten” (243), but Victor’s mind is occupied by thoughts of his father. The Coachman asks Victor to explain what it’s like to be human and experience happiness, and Victor replies that part of his happiness comes from knowing his friends would seek him if he were lost. Their conversation takes a philosophical turn with Victor wondering if he can forgive his father on behalf of humanity. The human sees his mortality as a flaw, but the android argues that humanity’s flaws made them superior to machines and that mortality grants humans a meaning and purpose machines lack. The Coachman’s words move Victor to tears and prompt him to ask why the android is helping him.