Written by Brian Aldiss.

Published in 1969.

This short story features a three year-old android named David who cannot understand why it is so difficult to tell his mother that he loves her. While David’s difficulty stems from a glitch in his verbal communication center, his mother, who is human, cannot love David, because she knows he is an android and waits for the day when she will receive permission from the government of her over-populated country to conceive and raise a real child. Aldiss portrays the mother and son as both lonely and frustrated at their inability to express love. This story does not address directly whether David actually possesses the ability to love, but he wants to be able to love, which is more than can be said for his mother.