“I won't take lots of your time, children.” Mrs. Piper Delphinium hobbled into the classroom. She stooped to the OFF button of the huge TVs, turning off the “Humans are Misfits” program. Mrs. Delphinium sat in an old rocking chair. At a word from the teacher, every single robot child trained their ears on Mrs. Delphinium. She cleared her throat and started to speak,
“I'm here to share a story of the time when I was a child. Yes, I was a child once. It was a time when robot children, such as y'all, were not very common. This is my story.”
“It started out as a normal day, I promise. My big brother, Phoenix, and I were watching that old cartoon Robo-rot with our little sister, Penthesilea. In the cartoon, Robo-rot started falling apart. Springs shot out of his ears, his legs wobbled and dropped from their sockets. Even his eyes shot out from his tin head. Phoenix and I just cracked up! He started crying because of laughing, quickly swiping at the tears of laughter running down his handsome face, and I had to turn away and put my hand over my mouth to keep a huge snort from coming out of my mouth! Penthesilea, who had been sitting quietly, turned her head slowly like a lightbulb being turned into its socket and glared at us eyes unblinking. She said in a monotone voice,
“How dare you! Don’t laugh at Robo-rot! He’s not dumb! You are imbeciles. I’m telling Mother.” Noting the monotone voice she used, I looked at Phoenix, weirded out. His pale, handsome face was contorted into a confused and bewildered expression. HIs blue eyes shined with confusion and betrayal. I tried to communicate with my eyes, asking him What is going on? He answered back, I have no idea. He ran his rough hand through his short, platinum blond hair, making it all ruffled up, and jerked with his head toward our rooms, Let’s get out of here and talk. I said,
“Penny, umm, I need to work on my physics project.” Which wasn’t a lie because I did. It’s just that it was an in-school project so I didn’t get to bring it home. She glared and ran into the kitchen to Mom. I quickly scampered away and into my room as Mom came in and started yelling at Phoenix, who didn’t get out of there fast enough. I flopped down on my bed and listened to mom screaming at Phoenix. I knew my lecture was coming soon. Sure enough, the loud noises ended and Phoenix stormed through my room, to his. I have to explain: my room is not really a room… it’s really a hallway. And so in my room I can get into any other family member’s room. But… they also have to go through my room to get to their rooms. So… pros and cons. Mom followed in soon afterward.
“And don’t move until you’ve finished it, boy!” she yelled. I’ve never seen her so mad! Then she turned to me and said, “I’m very disappointed that you would insult your sister like that. I need you to write a letter to her of apology. Phoenix is doing the same.” After that, she stormed out into the living room. Through the doorway, I saw her sit on the couch with Penny on her lap. I sighed and then walked away from the door. I walked into Phoenix’s room, where he was sitting at his desk. He turned around to face me and looked at me with a worried expression.
“I don’t know what to do.” I walked over to his bed. What can we do? I thought to myself.
“What should we do?” I asked. “I mean, I don’t know what really is happening.”Phoenix nodded. We sat a while in silence, and then Phoenix opened his mouth to speak, but at that moment, we heard mom’s footsteps. She comes from through Phoenix’s door from my room. She walked over to us, and then says,
“I’m sorry I got so mad at you early. I guess you’ve figured out now that Penny is a robot. We kept it a secret because we didn’t want you two to tell everyone at school. When your father died, I was devastated. I didn't know how I was supposed to raise two kids! And then our neighbor approached me, and asked if I would take in a robot child. I said yes, and staged it so that it looked like I had become pregnant. Y’all didn’t ask any questions, which made it easier. And at first, I thought I wouldn’t really love Penny, because she’s really not a person. I mean, come on, who loves a hunk of metal with an AI inside? When she got here, it was hard not to think of her as a toy. She kind of acted like one. And so I didn’t love her at first. I ignored her for a while, let her roam free. But I grew to love her just as much as y’all. That’s why I got mad. She’s just as much your sibling as you two are to each other, even though she may not be human. Her metal body doesn’t change the fact that she’s part of our family. She changed my life… and she changed your lives, too… I think it’s time y’all learned that. Do you understand?”
“I do,” I boldly said. Phoenix nodded in agreement. Mom smiled. She patted down Phoenix’s messy hair and then opened Phoenix’s door and walked out. I turned and looked at Phoenix. He smiled at me and then, much to my surprise, came over and hugged me! He hasn’t done that in ages!
“I guess Mom’s right, huh, Squeak?”
“Yeah…”
I can’t respond any better because I’m still amazed at the fact that he hugged me! Also, he used that childish nickname… and then I turned to him and it’s my turn to hug him! I tackled him and he fell onto the bed. My long, dirty blond hair fell into his face. He burst out with a huge guffaw and that made me snort. Both of us just fell apart after that… I started gasping for breath as silent tears streamed out of Phoenix’s blue, blue eyes. We kept laughing and rolling around on Phoenix’s bed until he rolled off with a loud thump and Mom came in and asked us to be quieter. I’m so glad I found out Penny was a robot. It didn’t break our family, like I thought at first, it brought us closer together in every way. So now we’re a happy family, and that’s how I hope it will stay. We can continue to roll off beds together… we can roll off cliffs together for all I care as long as we’re together. Because that’s what matters.
“Squeak, I was wondering… do you want to come to the movies with me and my friends?” I looked at Phoenix in amazement.
“You’re asking some friend behind me, right? Because you wouldn't ask me. I’m your annoying little sister, remember?”
“You’re not annoying, Squeak. I am. This year I started acting too high and mighty for you and Penny. I thought that now that I’m in high school, having little sisters was uncool. But you girls are cool, and I was an idiot to think otherwise. My friends and I are going to see the new Electrolers movie. Will you come with?”
“I… I… yes!” I spat out. A huge grin broke out on my face. I then hugged him again and he hugged me back. We stayed that way for a while, brother and sister holding onto each other until Phoenix cleared his throat and says,
“Well, Squeak, we should probably go. You okay with me driving you?” I groaned and said,
“Your driving is awful!” but a big smile lit up my face. Phoenix and I both know that I would rather have him drive me than mom, who would gush about this great opportunity all the way to the theater.
“Well, that’s settled then. You’ll come with me,” Phoenix said with a grin. It reminded me of old times. He started walking out of the room and I followed. But before we are totally out of the room, he said,
“Squeak, let’s bring Penny, get to know her more.”
I nodded in agreement, but just then we heard,
“I don’t want to go with you to see Electrolers. I want to see Princess Pinkypoof Strikes Again!” We turned around and saw Penny standing next to us. I blinked, and then slowly shook my head.
“We are not going to Princess Pinkypoof Strikes Again!” I said. She stared at me for a while, and then,
“Ok. Have fun.” She walked away and me and Phoenix shrugged at each other and then walked out. We both know in our hearts, though, that that was a test. She wanted to know if we would treat her like we used to, as a sister. And we passed the test. Our family was whole again.
“That is my story, children. Phoenix, Penny, and I became very best friends. We were friends till Phoenix died in service in World War Ten and Penny was rendered unusable by Frenzy Plague. And now all I can do is wait for the day when I will join my Phoenix in heaven. I hope that one thing you took away from my story was that differences are good. We should embrace the differences of others. Someday, you will be old, like me, but I hope you will carry that message in your hearts. Now go, children, bring good to the world!”