Nonskippy Disk shines his teeth in the mirror. Pluffy, the non-organic puppy, shakes his head and waddles his tail. Bark, bark, he says. He’s not a real dog, you know. He’s one of those kind that you put the batteries in behind the tail.

I’m off to work, Nonskippy Disk shouts to his wife, who is plugged in to her hair dryer at the moment.

I’m gonna do it, Nonskippy thinks to himself. I’m gonna make her so miserable that she’ll leave me.

Later that same morning, Nonskippy is shooting electrodes through his veins with Mickle Copper, the carry-out guy.

I tell ya, Mickle says between shots, I’ve been the carry-out guy in this company for so long, I can’t remember what it’s like to carry in. You’re a lucky bastard, Nonskip. Hopefully, one day, you’ll never get to where I am.

Yeah. Too bad about your promotion.

At six past seven, Nonskippy calls it a day, and heads back home where his wife and children lay in steel vats of hydrosolution. Tomorrow’s the day, he thinks to himself, that I’m gonna make her pay. Yes, tomorrow’s the day.

Somebody turned their back on me, so I had to turn my back on someone else. That’s all I was thinking. Honest.

So you’re saying that, pretty much, you had no choice? You were just designed to have an error in that matter of fact?

Well, yes, that’s pretty much what I mean. Are you going to reprogram me now?

Hum, says the thinker to the tinker. Hum, hum, hum. Never seen this one before. It’s hard for me to say. I’m not sure I know the code.

Please don’t destroy me. I’d like another chance at this. I haven’t been failing in any other ways.

There was that time when your fan stopped fanning.

Yes, but that wasn’t my fault.

No. No, you’re right. It wasn’t. But still, I’m not sure. Usually, when we’re not sure about something, we’re real sure what to do.

Destroy?

For times like these, Nonskippy was programmed to automatically shut down. Because he didn’t, he saw this as a kind of reflection of good things to come. Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance that he would survive. After all, dozens of other disks and datas have made similar errors, and yet some of them are still working. In fact, the president of the very same company that Nonskippy works for was once almost a complete system failure.

I’m on the news these days, Nonskippy says to Mickle Copper over electrodes. Have you seen me?

Yes, I thought that was you. Shame about your wife. So what happened?

Thinking, Nonskippy wonders himself, and then spits out a log.

Serious internal error, eh? says Mickle. Gee, some guys have all the luck.