Robo Buddy

Once upon a time, in a small town in England, there lived a cute, little girl named Polly. She was seven years old. She was fair and had blue sparkling eyes, filled with dreams, all the time! Her hair was soft, light brown with natural curls. She used to tie them in two ponies. Her favorite colors were pink, golden and orange. She liked to wear a full sleeved pink shirt with a shining yellow skirt. She was good at academics and drawing. She had a really big imagination. She was a cute, sweet and kind kid. Polly was a sensitive girl and was very close to her family; her mom, dad and elder sister, Betty.

Her father was a merchant and travelled around the world. Her mother was a nice, generous house wife. Betty was a fourteen-year-old fair, teen girl with blonde hair. She took after her mother, while Polly took after her dad. Though Betty was seven years older than Polly, they spent most of their time together.

Polly loved UNICORNS! Unicorns were her favourite. She spent most of her spare time day-dreaming about UNICORNS, “Hmmm… What would it be like if I had a real, live baby unicorn? What would I feed him? Of course, something of rainbow!!! I have seen every episode of ‘My little pony’ so I know exactly what a unicorn likes because after all, a unicorn is a pony!” She thought.

Polly’s house was like a small castle, painted with brick red colour and with yellow roofs. Polly’s room was on the first floor. When entering in her room, it seemed as if entering in a princess’s world. Her room was decorated with unicorn’s pictures, fairy lights, and family photo frames. Her closet was decorated with all sorts of rhinestones. It contained beautifully arranged dresses and matching accessories and shoes.

One evening, Polly and Betty were playing hide and seek after their dinner. They decided that Polly was seeking and Betty was to hide. Even after a long time, Polly was not able to find Betty. She then started imagining that something happened to Betty. Polly started screaming and ran to her mother. She said “Mom!! Moomm!!!!! Mum!!!!! Betty has vanished into thin air!! I think she got abducted by…um.... ALIENS! And now she is in the lab having experiments done on her by…um….uh.. What were they called again?” Her mom was annoyed, “Polly, Polly, Polly,” she said rubbing her temples, “Listen! Betty is hiding under the couch and now please don’t disturb me!!” Polly then quipped,” Oh, okay!” and ran off. She found Betty and quickly went to hide. She dove into her room and giggled. When she heard Betty’s heavy footsteps approaching, she panicked! She didn’t want to seek again, not after what just happened. Poor Polly! She sneaked down to the balcony. She then realised that if she kept moving from room to room, she would be hard to find.

When she went to the balcony, she noticed a big, grey, metallic EGG behind the chair. It was almost of her height and did not have any movement. Since she had her heart set on getting a UNICORN, she thought that there was a unicorn inside it! She thought to herself, “Oh wow! Now I’ll have a pretty UNICORN! Thank you God!” Suddenly Betty came in the balcony and interrupted her thoughts. “Polly! I am going to my friend’s house to stay over tonight. Sorry, but we have to stop the game.” Polly said, “Oh, that’s fine. I am tired already. I think I’m going to bed now.”

Polly then took a torch, went to her room, locked the room and sat with the EGG. She said, “Oh UNICORN! you’ve finally come to me. I’ll do everything for you.” She then yawned and in a few minutes, she was fast asleep, dreaming about her favourite, little UNICORN!

After some time, Polly woke up by a cracking sound. The EGG was hatching! Polly was excited and watched in amusement. But when she saw the creature, she backed off. Startled she said, “Who are you? This is so weird! You are not an UNICORN! You are like a ROBOT!” The creature said, “Of course I’m a robot! And my name is Tony. I’m sent here from the 22nd century by your friend, to help you in your lifestyle.” Polly replied, “Huh, who is this mysterious friend? And why are you here to help me? I’ve my mom, dad and Betty doing that stuff for me.” Tony said, “I don’t have permissions to answer your questions. And you look tired, too. It’s time for you to go back to sleep.” Polly realised that she was really tired and thought that it was a good idea to go back to sleep. She tried hard but Tony’s presence in her room made her uncomfortable and she could not sleep. She asked him to go back in the EGG, so she could sleep comfortably. Tony refused to this saying, “I’m not allowed to go back in the EGG, but I can do one thing. I will charge myself by shutting down. When I am charging, it’s as if I am sleeping. You can now go to sleep peacefully.” Still anxious, Polly tried to close her eyes and go back to sleep. Soon in a few seconds, she was fast asleep in her comfy, little bed; little anxious, little worried and very surprised. Tony kept him charging by her bed.

The next morning, Polly woke up and was wondering to herself if she had a dream of the EGG and Tony, or it was a reality. But she found Tony right by her bed, charging himself. She looked out of the window. It was raining heavily. She groaned to herself, “Ah, Sunday morning is ruined!!!” Tony also finished charging by then. He looked at her with a dazed look and said, “Polly, it’s a school day. A school day! Come on, get ready.” Polly got confused. She tried to explain Tony that it was a Sunday and the school was closed, but it was of no use. She had to obey Tony. Polly got herself ready, wore her uniform, and had light snacks. She was afraid if mother or father saw Tony and raised a lot of questions, to which she had no answers. So, she decided to sneak Tony out of the back door.

When she opened the door, a big gush of wind flew right at them, taking her a few inches behind. She said, “Hey, you’re a robot, right?!! Then you’ll get damaged if you get into the water.” Polly started to get happy again, by the thought that she wouldn’t have to go out of the house in rain. But Tony said, “I’m of water-proof make! Let’s go.” And they started their journey.

By the time they reached to the school gate, Polly was completely drenched and was feeling very cold. When they reached inside the school premises, Tony was surprised to see the gate closed. He felt guilty and apologised to Polly. Polly was an understandable girl. She took it gently and said, “No problem!” Tony then pulled out a tub of cotton candy from his body and shared it with her.

They then walked along the road to the nearby garden. The rain had almost stopped and the sun was peeping out of the clouds. When they occupied a bench there, Tony started his story. He said to Polly, “Hey Polly, I’ve something to share with you. I don’t know where to start.” Polly replied gently, “You can go ahead Tony. I’m like your best buddy, although we met yesterday, ha ha!” She giggled. Tony smiled too, “heh, heh” and continued’ “You know Polly, actually, I lied to you last night. None of your friends sent me here.” Polly looked stunned. “Then how come you came to us?” Tony said, “I was waiting for the correct time to tell you that I’m here by mistake. I am just a ROBO KID of three years. I live with my ROBO FAMILY and go to a ROBOT PUBLIC SCHOOL. We all live in ROBO TOWN. In school, I was given a project to visit the stone age humans and study their lifestyle to know more about their culture and heritage.” Polly looked at him suspiciously and said, “Go on, I’m listening.” Tony started again, “While transmitting here through TIME EGG, I got fascinated by a creature in the time tunnel. I was so engrossed looking at it, that I did not realised that I pressed wrong settings. Suddenly, a hologram was opened and my TIME EGG fell in it.” Polly exclaimed with excitement, “O my god! This is so incredible and unbelievable. Please go on, I’m dying to hear the rest of your story.” Tony smiled and continued, “I don’t remember everything after that, as all went pitch dark. But I just remember that my TIME EGG’s speed crossed that of the light. And I got so scared that I switched off myself. When I restarted, I was in your room and the TIME EGG has opened. This is how I reached to you.”

Polly was in mixed emotions. She was fascinated, confused and excited, all at the same time. She was not sure if to believe Tony or not, as this was unthinkable for her. “So now that you’ve realised that you are landed in wrong time, why didn’t you go back to ROBO TOWN or in stone age to complete your project?” Polly questioned Tony.

He said softly, “When the TIME EGG hatched, I saw you, the first human I’ve ever met. Looking at you, I felt friendship coming my way. I thought you can be my best human friend ever. So, I decided to stay here and learn more about you and your time.” Polly agreed to him but questioned, “Why do feel that I’m better than your ROBO friends?” There was a silence of few seconds. Tony seemed uncomfortable with Polly’s direct question. He kept fidgeting.

He then sighed and said, “Well, there runs a secret in my family.” Polly asked impatiently, “What is it? Come on, tell me. Quick!” Tony replied, “We are the first ROBO FAMILY with feelings, programmed by humans. The scientists who made us, had inserted emotions in us. We are different and superior than other ROBO families that live in ROBO TOWN. So, hanging out with those ROBO FRIENDS is boring and lifeless. They do not understand the feelings.” “Humm, I can relate.” Polly nodded her head. She asked Tony, “So will you be staying here and do your project now?” Tony took out ROBOSCOPE from his arm and started recording all the things around them. Polly looked at him inquisitively, but kept quite so that not to disturb him.

Soon Tony finished his recording and said to Polly, “I’m done. I now have all the information of this time and era recorded in my ROBOSCOPE. With this, I can complete my project.” Polly looked sad and asked him, “So… you…are leaving now?” Tony too, sadly replied, “Yes!”

“Wait…I have a ROBOGRAM! I will give this to you. We can talk, write and see each other through this device.” Polly was excited to see this new gadget. She said, “This is great! Thanks.” “I will try to visit you with my family in near future, if ROBO TOWN rules allow it.” Polly seemed happy and her eyes sparkled again.

They returned to home and Tony got into TIME EGG. While he was setting up his travel back home, Polly looked sad again and her eyes filled with tears. “Take care and keep in touch, buddy!” she said to Tony. “Sure, my human friend!! You too, take care and talk to me on the ROBOGRAM regularly. It was very nice meeting you and spending some time with you. I will cherish these memories of our meeting forever. Good-bye!!” The TIME EGG vanished into thin air leaving Tony’s memories behind.

Tears rolled down Polly’s cheeks. She felt emptiness of leaving a good friend, but she was also happy for Tony that he gathered information for his project and returned to his home safely.

She thought, “How strange this Sunday morning was! Yesterday started as a nightmare when I found the EGG. But today ended as a dream when Tony left. Oh, how I’ll miss him! But I’ve got one thing that no one in the entire world has. And that thing is much better than a Unicorn, my ROBO BUDDY!!”

“Good-bye, Tony!”