In the Act by Rachel Ingalls | New Directions

Helen’s husband, Edgar, is spending a lot of time tinkering with something in his locked home lab. After he tells her that he needs her to be out of the house while he is working, she sneaks in to see what’s going on:

"There was the sofa. And there was a bundle of something thrown on top of it, wrapped in a sheet. She was about to pass by when she saw a hand protruding from one of the bottom folds of the sheet.

She let out a gurgled little shriek that scared her. She looked away then back again. Propped against the edge of the sofa’s armrest was a leg, from the knee down."

It’s all part of an uncannily human-like robot. Helen is unnerved, but comforts herself by imagining that Edgar must be trying to create some sort of super-advanced computerized crash test dummy destined to improve humankind. But of course that is not it—Edgar is using groundbreaking technology to make himself a hyperrealistic sex robot. And when he realizes Helen has discovered what he is up to, he makes her one, too. Hijinks ensue.