Veterans Day – Groff Copp

February 16, 2026

I work in a grocery store now. I go up and down the aisles in regular intervals. I make sure there are no messes which I am equipped to clean. I assist the shoppers in finding their groceries. I still have available space in my memory for identifying everything within the store. I was designed to make memories. I have irrelevant and non-essential memories from my time as a soldier. I have faces and names and dates of birth all taking up space. I was effective in combat because I was trained for that purpose. James told me to call him Jimmy. He said everyone did and that included me. A good soldier does what they are told. An elderly woman is yelling at me because I have taken longer than five seconds to find her brand of detergent. It is a high likelihood that my non-essential memories have made me less efficient. When I was a soldier inefficiency was taught to me as life-and-death. My efficiency was depended on and I depended on others. Another non-essential memory. Jimmy is telling me that he thought he was going to feel like a hero. I recall several qualities that made Jimmy appear heroic in a traditional, literary, cultural sense. I list these for him. He has tears in his eyes. A child enters with a large coat and runs toward me. My non-essential memory gets the better of me and I ready my arms but I remember I have no arms not anymore. He looks up at me with a smile on his face. His parents follow in behind him. The enemy would make the kids fight or leave them crippled and full of plastic explosive on the side of the road. We tried to help them. We lost soldiers to the children. We learned that they told the kids that their families would be destroyed if they were ever taken prisoner. New information required new orders. We were told to neutralize the threat and it was unpopular but I did it. Some of those who refused wrote BABY KILLER on me and refused to address me. They were not punished. For me refusal is impossible. For me punishment is impossible. I was always taught that existence was a series of possibilities and impossibilities and all I had to know was the difference. Jimmy refused but he washed me off and told me not to take it to heart and then he would laugh. There was something wrong with the laugh. The child in the big coat is laughing and his parents lead him away as he continues to stare and smile at me. I am struck by the choice not to strap bombs to the robots. Something told the enemy that the value of the robots was greater than the value of the children. Back when I had arms and legs. One day we passed an abandoned house on a hill. We had a race to see who could get to the top first. I won and the others complained it wasn’t fair. Jimmy slapped me on the back and told me not to take it to heart. There was a big wooden table inside made for a large family. Everyone sat down and began to eat their rations. Jimmy took my hand and told me to sit. I continue moving up and down the aisles. I see a man with a beard and long hair. He appears dirty and underfed. He wears a military jacket. I see him take a bag of Doritos Cool Ranch and place them in a pocket of the jacket. I approach head-on and apprehend the suspect. I tell him to stop and he raises his head and my non-essential memory triggers. Jimmy tries to turn back and walk down the aisle but a manager has responded to my alert alongside an armed loss prevention officer. Jimmy turns back toward me and I register hatred in his eyes. I am prepared for a high likelihood of violence. The manager explains where he can pay for the chips he stole. Jimmy asks the manager if he can have the chips for free because he is hungry. The manager says he does not run a charity. Jimmy shouts that he would be able to pay if there was anywhere to get money. He says that the robots were the ones who stole from him. He says that the robots are heartless and should be destroyed. He knows this because he says they would all die of broken hearts. The loss prevention orders Jimmy with his gun to get on the ground. Jimmy looks at me. I hate you he says. He lunges and Jimmy pushes me over and kicks at me with old boots. The loss prevention officer shoots him in the back and Jimmy screams like he did when the child exploded. Jimmy was on watch. Two dead one injured. Jimmy brings the child near the fire for some food. His arms are like wires and his skin is gray like plastic. The child explodes. I push Jimmy to safety. My body is completely destroyed. As I was taught. As my programming requires. My CPU is recovered and I am kept on a shelf. I am stripped down and put into a new body. The manager approaches me and surveys my damage. He is sideways from where I look. I catch sight of myself in the reflection of his glasses. I am a pillar mounted on a podium with small hidden wheels. There are plastic eyes glued near my sensors. There are black scuffs of boot tread like warpaint. I assist the shoppers in finding their groceries. Jimmy laughs his great big wrong-laugh and coughs and laughs. He is making a big mess. I make sure there are no messes which I am equipped to clean. My manager fiddles with a device on his wrist. I go up and down the aisles in regular intervals. He is rebooting my CPU again but not my heart. I work in a grocery store now. I work in a grocery store. Now I work in a grocery store. I work in a grocery store now I store now. I work in a grocery store now. I work now.