The Obedient Servant

John Gardner has wealth, power, and a talent for driving everyone close to him away. After a bitter quarrel with his wife, Dolores, he realizes that she is the last person still at his side—and decides that an extravagant gift is the only way to repair the damage.

His choice is an experimental domestic robot named Raymond, a towering machine with astonishing strength, delicate precision, humanlike intelligence, and a promise of absolute obedience. Gardner expects the unusual present to win back his wife’s affection, but the salesman’s hesitation hints that this servant may not be as simple—or as safe—as it appears.

As Raymond enters the Gardner household, the boundaries between devotion, control, and human companionship begin to blur. This concise science-fiction tale explores the dangers of getting exactly what one demands, with a polished futuristic setting and an unsettling question at its center: what happens when obedience has no limits?