The two of them had always loved cooking. They even had one of those robotic kitchens at home, where you put on gloves and a jumpsuit covered in sensors and recorded all your movement while cooking – so that the robot arms of the kitchen could later perfectly repeat your recipe. Not only the different ingredients, but also the exact amounts, the timing, the stirring – everything. When they cooked together it was like a dance. Perfect harmony in each movement. It was their main way of celebrating their deep connection.
Now they were stuck in this hospital, which – in the best intentions – sacrificed all sensoric pleasures for the benefit of “health”. It was starving their souls. So, they decided to start their own little revolution. Two rebels without a sauce.
They would create a culinary time travel across their marriage. Seven of their favourite dishes to celebrate the seven most significant moments in their journey through seventy years. One of them couldn’t see. The other couldn’t hear. Which made smell, taste and touch even more important senses for their shared experiences.
Okay. First task: Find an accomplice. The criminal couple needed someone to buy the ingredients and then go around to their house and have their robotic kitchen prepare the meal. Then this accomplice needed to enter the hospital and their room to deliver the contraband – without raising suspicion.
“Better not ask the nurses. They are so nice. I don’t want to put them into a conflict of interests,” Karl shouted.
They couldn’t ask the cleaning people as well – because there were none. Haven’t been for ages. Cleaning robots kept every surface clean and sterile. Reliable, flawless and without spreading germs across the patients during their trip from room to room.
Luckily, Robots still struggle with non-standard issues. Everything that’s irregular is really hard to automate. When stuff breaks, for example. Then you needed a human to come around and repair it. They looked at each other: Accidents happen, what can you do?