Once there was a small town far up in the hills that had a busy factory making parts for almost anything you could imagine. And inside were many different robots that would help the workers make and assemble the parts. The robots were very happy because this is what they loved doing. There was one robot in particular who loved this. Move-a-Matic model RG12, who had one really big arm, painted a dull white, with three rusty steel fingers that could swivel around and move things from one side to the other. It was a simple task, one that used to be very important to the factory, but as the years passed, the RG could barely handle doing the many different jobs that the newer, bigger robots could do.
One morning a worker left a tag on him. Robots as old as RG can’t read, so he had no idea what this was for, he’d never seen it happen before. Looking around, he saw a few more tags, but all of them were on the robots that had been moved to the corner, ones that were never turned on or used.
“Maybe...” he thought “this means we’re all getting cleaned and getting new wires to look really nice, like the new robots!” This made RG very happy, and he worked harder and faster than he had in years. When he woke the next morning, feeling very sore from the work he’d done the day before, he saw that most of the robots with the tags were gone, and in their places was one great big fancy robot with a really long name and painted many different colors. RG tried talking to the new machine, but they didn’t seem to speak the same language. The new one understood RG, but RG had no idea what all of the bleeps and beeps coming from the new one meant. When RG asked where the old dusty machines went, the new one just huffed and pointed outside.
Then RG turned and saw it… a big pile of twisted metal and wires! RG was terrified. He had to get out of there fast. It was almost closing time, and he would have to leave that night. It was toodangerous to stay any longer. He loosened his bolts that kept him tight to the floor, and waited until the factory went dark. Now, RG is a big robot, so he moves kind of slowly and it took him most of the night to get outside. A thing about robots is that they can usually only think one, maybe two steps ahead, but only if they wereprogrammed really well with all the latest Japanese algorithms, which RG surely was not. Once he was outside the front door, he didn’t have a clue what to do next.But he needed a clue fast. He looked out over the hills and saw the sun almost breaking the ridge. The workers would be there any minute and he moved too slowly to make a run for it. What could he do??
RG was very good at picking things up and holding them, maybe the best there ever was. Looking around, he saw a bunch of fallen branches from a storm that passed through during the night. Quickly picking up as many as he could hold, he pretended to be a tree. He’d never seen one before that morning (he’d never ever been outside before) but he looked across the parking lot and saw something that sort of resembled himself, but with a lot more arms. Smaller arms to be sure, but so many of them!RG stood there perfectly still, hoping that nobody would notice him. Hope and wait. That’s all he could do. The sleepy workers shuffled past him, looking up only to open the door or to avoid bumping into the person in front of them. It was working!
But as the crowd of workers thinned out, RG saw something. Something that filled his hollow steel frame with dread. A little boy, probably the son of one of the workers, was standing in front of him not 20 feet away…. staring.
The boy would come to work every day with father, finding ways to occupy his time while waiting for his father to finish his shift. He knew every square inch of the factory grounds, and he knew something today wasn’t quite right. He stared super intently at RG, his eyes squinting and his face distorted as he tried to concentrate on thisstrange tree in front of him. He glanced at the trees behind RG and saw them gently swaying in the breeze. He looked back at RG, with even more intensity this time, and saw him standing perfectly still. It didn’t make sense! Slowly, the little boy inched toward RG, tightening his focus with each step… RG had to do something or he was sure to be found out. He looked around in a panic, making sure not to move, trying to figure out what to do.
That’s when he noticed - he was the only thing outside that wasn’t moving! In an instant he started to twitch back and forth, desperately trying to pretend that he was blowing in the wind. The boy stopped. But he never looked away.Hours passed, and RG was getting tired of twitching. He was a lot better at it now than before, and the boy was starting to doubt whathe’d seen earlier. But still, he never looked away. After what seemed like a lifetime, a whistle blew and the workers once again started filing past RG and the boy. Reluctantly, the little boy leftwith his father, but still, didn’t look away until they turned the corner to go home.
RG was safe – for now. He knew the boy would be back. He had to keep running.Another thing about robots is they don’t have legs, unless they come from Japan and then only sometimes. Walking can be difficult without legs and even though RG figured out how to shimmy and slide, it wasn’t very efficient on the sandy ground outside and he made very slow progress during the night. In fact, when the sun rose and he picked up his branches to hide, he looked back and saw that he’d only made it a few feet. This escape was going to take forever.Just as he picked up the last of the branches, he saw the first worker come over around the corner. Right behind him was that kid again. And he did exactly the same thing as he did the day before. He walked around and played from time to time, but he always had his eye on RG, trying to make sense of what was out of place.
Every day was like this. The boy would be first there in the morning with his dad, and the last to leave at night. And every night RG made it a little farther down the access road toward the hill that overlooked the city. The good thing about moving so slowly is that the boy didn’t notice that RG was moving down the road until it was too late. RG had made it!
He was at the very top of the hill, around the bend and out of view of the factory, in a perfect spot overlooking the valley. He was so happy he didn’t know what to do. He was also sad because he didn’t know what to do. His whole life he’d done things asked of him by others, he wasn’t sure what he actually liked or if he liked anything at all.
But almost before he could think on this, he heard rustling coming from nearby. RG wasn’t alone...
Another thing about robots is they are really, really heavy. Some even way a ton or more and RG was definitely on the heavy side. So when you walk on soft gravelly ground, you tend to leave a fairly noticeable trail, which RG did.
The next morning when the boy arrived and saw the strange tree had disappeared, it wasn’t too difficult to track him to the top of the hill. There was just no escaping this boy.Almost before RG could panic, the boy reached out his hand, introducing himself. This was not what RG had expected, and he wasn’t sure how to respond. The boy asked RG his name and to be honest, he didn’t know his name.
The boy looked at RG’s badge and said “Your name tag says RG12. I think I’ll call you Reggy. Or Roger? Argy? ...”RG just nodded yes. He liked having a name and didn’t mind what it was. And the two of them spent the rest of the day and every day after building forts out of the rocks and branches they found on the hill.
THE END