Made to Serve (2017)

            Roboserve #12, or RS12 for short, hummed quietly behind the old lady.  He didn’t have emotions, of course, so you couldn’t say he either happy or sad.  When he was helping people though, certain pathways in his circuits glowed and he was warm inside.

            The old lady shuffled along, inspecting the vegetables.  The bright green lettuce would make a wonderful salad.  RS12 held up the basket for the old lady and then suggested with his warm electronic voice, “…The Tomatoes Would Go Well With Your Lettuce.  They Are On Sale Today.”

            She patted the robot’s cold metal head and they moved to look at the tomatoes.  RS12 had been created to serve, and again, he glowed warmly inside as he helped the old lady.

            Up and down the aisles they went, the old woman choosing items off the shelf, the silver and black helper humming close behind.  Finally, they were done and they walked to the register.  RS12 helped bag the groceries as the old woman paid the cashier.  As he finished, he looked out the glass doors of the store.

            Wild plants had taken over the streets by now.  Mankind had died off years ago.  What the service robot did not know was how disease had killed off all the people on the planet.  The only thing that the little robot knew was that he was made to serve.

            RS12 turned back to watch the old lady return to her recharging station to reset for another day.  The robot turned to go back into the store.  The little boy robot that RS12 had built several years ago was acting up, and RS12 needed to fix that.  Humans had died off long ago, but he was built to serve.  So, with no real humans around, RS12 had built his own.

            He was a robot after all, and did not have emotions.  But when he served, his circuits glowed, and he was warm inside.

Tomodachi (2015)

            “I hope you find our work interesting,” Mr. Suzuki said, as he guided the car through the mid-day traffic.  As the head of Tokyo Robotics, Mr. Suzuki had invited me to see some of his company’s products in action.  I was going to see Tomodachi, the latest “companion” robot at work.  We were going to a neighborhood grocery store to meet Mrs. Yamata, an older woman who was testing some of Tokyo Robotics’ devices.

            When we arrived at the store, Mr. Suzuki suggested that we just stand back and observe first, so that I could see the natural interaction between Mrs. Yamata and the companion robot.  Mr. Suzuki pointed out an older, gray haired woman, dressed comfortably in a plaid jacket and brown slacks.  A young girl, her grand-daughter I imagined, was dashing back and forth, bringing things and showing them to Mrs. Yamata.  Meanwhile, a black and silver robot was waiting patiently beside her, holding the plastic shopping basket.  They moved up and down the aisles; Mrs. Yamata shuffling along, the robot whirring quietly beside her, the grand-daughter laughing and skipping back and forth.

            After a few minutes, Mr. Suzuki and I walked up to Mrs. Yamata so that I could be introduced.  We bowed, and Mr. Suzuki spoke.  “Yamata-san, this is Mr. Sanders from the United States.  He is studying our products and wanted to see Tomodachi in action.”

            Mrs. Yamata smiled and asked, “What do you think?”

            I reached over and patted the cool smooth head of the robot.  “I think the robot did a fine job.  It is very helpful and I can see how it would make a great companion.”

            Mrs. Yamata looked puzzled and glanced at Mr. Suzuki.  He smiled and shook his head.  “Mr. Sanders, that is an ordinary service robot for the grocery store.”  Now it was my turn to be confused.

            At that moment, the young girl ran up and threw her arms around Mrs. Yamata.  A smile flashed across the young face as the older woman put her arms around the girl.  “Sanders-san, this is Tomodachi.  She is the companion robot.”  The little girl robot giggled and dashed off again.  Mrs. Yamata smiled as she watched, “My own children are all grown and have moved away.  I had no one else to love.”  Tomodachi skipped back for another hug from Mrs. Yamata.  “Don’t you think she is the most perfect companion?”

I Dreamed a Dream of Days Gone By

            I remembered when the cars disappeared.

            No one knew where the cars went.  It just happened.  One summer morning, the entire city woke up and the cars were gone.  In the beginning, it hit the people of New York City especially hard.

            Some people were so used to riding in cars that they seemed lost and confused.  They brought chairs down to the street and sat down as if they were in cars that were stuck in traffic.  The traffic jam of unmoving chairs was just one of the ways that the New Yorkers tried to cope.

            By the third week, however, most people had gotten used to the idea of a car-less society and people were beginning to change, mostly for the better.  People were becoming much nicer!  They were less stressed because there were no traffic jams, they didn’t have to worry about parking, people weren’t honking their horns!

            Not only that, but crime rates began to go down too.  There were no more car chases, although there were some high-speed bicycle chases that made the news.  Road rage practically disappeared and drive-by shootings became non-existent.

            Because there were no cars, people’s health got better too.  Since people had to walk, they got more exercise.  The air pollution went up in smoke.  Fresh air and sunshine made everyone happy.  The world was becoming a much friendlier, nicer place.

            It was not as nice however, when three months after the cars disappeared, they just as mysteriously returned.  Life returned to its previous life, and at night, the honking of car horns would make me weep.

Turning Things Around

            “Umm…What is going on?”

            One moment, I was walking down a busy nighttime street in downtown Tokyo, my eyes taking in the bright flashing lights, and the next moment, I was staring at someone’s shoes.  My gaze traveled downward until I met the smiling face of a young man.  At least, I think he was smiling; he was upside down so it was hard to tell.

            The man sprang to his feet and stuck out his hand.  “Sorry about that,” he said smiling.  “The name’s Thomas.  Thanks for not kicking me in the face.”

            I shook his hand, and then shook my head.  “Yeah, that’s probably not the safest place to be doing a headstand.”

            “Oh!” he quickly replied, “That wasn’t a headstand.”  My confused stare made him laugh, and he gestured to a nearby sushi restaurant.  We sat at one of the streetside tables, and he began to tell me a story.

            Thomas was a traveler.  He loved to see new places and his feet took him to the four corners of the earth.  There was not one continent that had not been walked upon, not one spot that had not felt the step of this young man.

            One day, however, Thomas noticed that as he walked, he would always watch his feet.  Now, this was not a bad thing really, because when he walked, he would see the ground, and the ground, of course, was all the places that he had been.

            After many years, he discovered that his feet had taken him over the entire planet.  And when he realized this, his feet refused to take him any farther; they had seen the world and would not budge.

            Thomas sank to the ground to think.  “What am I going to do now?” he wondered.  “What have my feet not seen?”  Since he didn’t need to watch his feet because they weren’t going anywhere, his eyes began to wander.  He saw the ground that his feet had just walked on, then his gaze followed the path that he had just traveled.  His walk had just crossed over a plain, and the plain stretched to the mountains.  And the mountains…

            …touched the sky.

            He slowly realized that his feet had walked all across the world and touched the seven continents, but his feet had never touched the sky.

            Thomas smiled at me then and said, “So that’s why I decided to go back to all those places that I had been before, but this time, I let my feet walk across the sky!”

            I nodded my head.  It kinda made sense…

            I walked away, thinking about what Thomas had said, and while I was thinking, I started to watch my feet. My feet eventually took me to a park, and I decided to take Thomas’s advice.  I bent down, and then slowly leaned over into a headstand.  Very carefully, I straightened up and my feet were walking across the sky…

            …and then I fell on my face.

The Wading Pool

            “Mr. Scott?  What’s going on with the new kid?  He’s weird!”

            Students were gathered at the classroom windows, looking out at the green space behind the school.  Charlie, the “new kid,” as Roger had called him, was sitting in a blue, blow-up wading pool, staring off into the distance.

            “Boys and girls, take your seats.”  Mr. Scott was one of those teachers whose calm, quiet voice made you sit up and listen.  The curious students reluctantly sat down, and Mr. Scott continued speaking.  “Mr. Johnson,” he said to Roger, “you never raise your hand to speak.  Does that make you weird?”  Roger started to say something, but then quietly closed his mouth.  “Miss Harris, you almost always begin your sentences with the word ‘like.’  I do not think any of your classmates would call you ‘weird’ for that reason.”  Mr. Scott looked at each student in the room.  “We are all ‘different,’ and we are who we are because of those things that have shaped us.”

            He looked out the window.  “Mr. Winters has experienced some things in his life that make him what he is.  Instead of ridicule and fear, we should try to understand and accept.”

            Roger said, “Mr. Scott? What-“  He quickly closed his mouth and then raised his hand.

            Mr. Scott smiled.  “Yes Mr. Johnson?”

            Roger cleared his throat and asked, “What happened to him?”

            “I think,” Mr. Scott replied, “that’s not my business to answer.  Now class, pull out your homework.”

==

            Sarah put her chin in her hand and sighed.  “Hannah, I know Mr. Scott said to try to understand, but honestly, I don’t get it.”

            Hannah put down her book.  “Sarah,” she said thoughtfully, “maybe we need to walk in his shoes.”

            “Huh?”  Sarah looked questioningly at her friend.

            “Don’t judge a man until you walk two moons in his moccasins!”  Hannah waved the book.  “Walk Two Moons!”

==

            The next day, Sarah and Hannah nodded bravely to each other and dragged their own blue wading pools under the trees.

            “I feel silly” whispered Sarah.

            “It’s not silly to him,” Hannah whispered back.

            The two girls sat down quietly and waited.  After a few minutes, Sarah said quietly, “I feel lonely.”

            Hannah glanced at Charlie and nodded.  “I feel sad.”

            Charlie turned to look at them and spoke softly, “Are you making fun of me?”

            Sarah’s eyes grew wide.  “No! Never!”

            Hannah spoke quickly, quietly.  “We’re just trying to understand.”  She looked down and then back up.  “Charlie?  Why do you sit in the wading pool?”

            He looked thoughtful.  “No one ever asked me before.”  His hands rubbed the side of the pool.  “I sit in here so that I don’t forget.”

            “Forget what?” asked Sarah.

            Charlie spoke sadly.  “My sister… I was supposed to be watching her…She was just a baby.”  Tears welled up in his eyes, and he quickly wiped them away.

            “Oh, Charlie...”  Hannah reached over and hugged him.  “Let’s find a better way to remember.”

==

            That weekend, all the students from Mr. Scott’s class dragged their own wading pools to the park and sat under the trees.  Mr. Scott looked at each person seriously and said, “Are we ready?”  The students nodded and for the rest of the day, every person that walked by a student were told about pool safely, and how to do CPR. 

            At the end of the day, Charlie stood in front of all the students and spoke quietly.  “Thanks everybody.  I think my sister would be very happy.”  He looked over at Sarah and Hannah.  “I know that I am.”