Anticipation Day

Dr. Joshua Lee rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. It was impossible to go back to sleep. He sighed and asked his virtual assistant, Sylvia, what time it was. Her response didn’t help: “Good morning, Joshua. It is 4:33 a.m. local time, 6:33 p.m. Sydney time. Would you like me to summarize your upcoming day?”

“God no,” Joshua mumbled.

“Alright, Joshua. Please let me know if you need anything,” Sylvia replied.

At least he had gotten four hours of sleep. Drinking coffee past 8 p.m. was never a good idea, and having a cup at 9:30 p.m. to help calm his nerves was, in hindsight, an awful decision. With the biggest day of his life staring him in the face, Joshua should have popped some edibles, put on a movie, and gone to bed at a reasonable hour. Oh well, there was nothing he could do about it now.

He pulled off the blanket slowly and stumbled to the bathroom to relieve his bladder. Maybe that would help him relax.

After what felt like a record-breaking piss, he returned to the bedroom and opened the drapes of his suite on the top floor of the St. Regis hotel, staring at the bright lights of Washington, D.C.

He couldn’t help but wonder what this day, three and a half long years in the making, would bring for him. Joshua had poured his heart and soul into this project, missing first steps, first words and one anniversary with his wife Julie, all for the goal of getting legislation onto President Randolph’s desk for signature.

If that happened, and it was still a big if, Julie and Joshua could confidently say it had all been worth it.

As a result of this goal, he had been in Washington, D.C. for the past three painstaking weeks, which were filled with meetings, late-night sessions, and sleepless nights, all to prepare for his speech today to the Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence, a subset of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law.

His colleague, Neil Jergenson, was more than happy to let Joshua handle the speech and was hopefully sleeping in his suite on the second floor. Given his fear of heights, Neil had suggested Joshua take the suite on the higher floor, which was ironic given how high Neil was all the time.

At the relatively young age of 35, even Joshua found himself physically and mentally exhausted by the end of this three-week stretch. As such, everyone on his team agreed that he should take it easy the day before the speech. So, he had done just that by working out in the morning, eating a lean, healthy breakfast, and reading some books he had packed before his trip from Sydney. After a nap, he ordered a late lunch from room service, watched TV, and practiced his speech.

Julie, their seven-year-old son Owen, and two-year-old daughter Olivia had returned to Sydney weeks ago. The kids needed to get back to school, and Joshua and Julie didn’t want the kids around the media chaos that could follow his speech.

Joshua already missed his family dearly. And his home city of Sydney. He hadn’t spent much time there since they moved to the United States a few years earlier to allow him to perform his research. He eagerly looked forward to returning home after this exhausting process was over.

Julie had been an absolute angel, supporting him through each failure, redesign, subsequent failure, subsequent redesign, and eventual breakthrough. She was the rock of their family, never complaining about the long nights and weekends required of him and always understanding why it was necessary.

He was grateful she was by his side when he received the call that Neil and he were to present their findings to the panel after the huge success of human trials performed earlier in the year.

As he gazed out at the lit-up buildings of downtown Washington, D.C., tears welled in his eyes. He sighed, turned away from the window, and searched for the remote control to turn on the television so he didn’t feel so alone. The local station popped on, with the “really early morning” crew reporting protests in London, which had broken out as a rebuttal to the Church of England’s statement that Artificial Intelligence was against the teachings of the Bible and society should eliminate it in lieu of reverence for God.

“Ah, London,” he thought, sighing deeper than before.