Beep Beep Boop

Beep beep boo…….

The little robot trailed off into a descending scale that quickly turned to static. Maggie started crying. I scooped her up, all 40 pounds of her and pulled her close. I hated seeing her cry, that’s why I got her the robot in the first place. But the technology by now is old and outdated – it was a relic when I gave it to her. She never went anywhere without it though, not since she was 9 months old. Her mother said it raised her. As she got older, I started to make jokes about how the robot was like me – we both had clockwork hearts. So I think, maybe, she began to see us as kin, as the same.

And so as that little robot sputtered to a final halt, she thought it was me. I tried to reassure her that it was okay and everything would be good again. She’s just too smart for a 4 year old. That little robot seemed to introduce her to a concept I had thought she was far too young to grasp. I held her closer. I knew, just as she did, that one day my little clockwork heart would fall apart as well.