ROBOT KIDS

In Georgia, while a young boy named Jack---with his younger sister, Julia---was being home schooled, he came up with a very good idea.

After he’d finished his lessons, he told his father that he had a project that he thought would not only be fun, but very helpful to his mom when it came to doing chores around the house.

“What could that be?”  His father said, “Are you and Julia planning to vacuum, wash dishes, dust, pick up clothes, clean your rooms, cook, and sweep the new Playhouse?”

Little Jack thought for a minute and then he said, “Well, kind of!”

“Kind of?”  His mother said having overheard her son’s interest in a project that would be helpful to her when it came to doing all the household chores that a mother has to do.

“So what’s the plan?” his father asked.

“I’m planning to build two robots and I’m going to name them Jack Number Two, and Julia Number Two!”

“You’re going to build what?????”  His mother said.

Jack looked at his mom and then turned to his father and said, “And I think that with DaDa’s help I can make this happen!”

“And just how will these robots work?” his father asked.

Little Jack thought for a minute, and then he said, “Well, they will look just like me and Julia, and I’m going to program them to do all of our chores!”

“Now that sounds like a plan,” their mother said, covering her mouth as she left the room. She loved her son and didn’t want him to see her laughing at the idea of having two kids and two look-alike robots loose in her house. She knew Jack wasn’t serious as this was a recipe for disaster. One little Jack and one little Julia was the perfect number.

That’s when her husband, Jack Dennis spoke up, “Well, I’m not sure we can pull this off, but let’s go to the internet and Google---How to build robots that look like young boys and their little sisters!”

And that’s how it all got started.

They downloaded instructions; Jack read them just loud enough so his wife Liz couldn’t hear him and then he said, “You never know this plane might just fly!”

Big Jack found a website called DOWNLOADING FACES TO MAKE LOOK-- ALIKE ROBOTS!  Little Jack hugged his little sister. His little sister hugged him. Then they both hugged their daddy. They were excited.

Big Jack made a list of things he needed then took off to Home Depot; the place his wife Liz called, “His Home Away from Home!”

And before Jack’s mother knew it, Big Jack, Little Jack, with young Julia looking on, were in the garage with wrenches, hammers, metal, electrical wire, and rubber mallets, building two of the most amazing look-alike Robots you’ve ever seen.

“Hey,” Julia said looking at her face that big Jack had downloaded from his iPhone, “That little one looks just like me!”

Their mother walked out into the garage, shook her head as her husband and little Jack connected the last piece of electrical wiring in the two robots. “Now, all we have to do is program them,” Little Jack’s father said.

“I want to have them obey my voice,” his son said. “Well, I think we can, according to these directions from the internet, do that,” Big Jack answered.  And after a long long time with Big Jack and Little Jack wiring the robots, it was time to test their creations.

Little Jack went first. He leaned over to his look-alike robot and said, “Jack Two, pick up hammer!”

At first all they heard was a whirring sound, then a bell went off, but the robot didn’t move.  Little Jack was worried, “It didn’t work, Dada,” he said.

Then Jack One said, “Julia Two, pick up the wrench!”

Same thing, first a whirring sound, then the little girl robot clanked to a stop. 

Jack and Julia both shouted at once, “Momma, Da Da, the Robots aren’t working!”  Then just as their momma walked down the steps of the garage, little Julia said, “Julia Two, give Momma a high-five.”  Again a long wait and then nothing, no high five!

And for the next few days the family’s house was rather sad, no creaking and clanking with the sound of the two robots following the commands of Jack and Julia. “Pick up the toys!” Jack said. Nothing ! Jack Two just stood there.  “Get me a snack,” Julia said. And Julia Two didn’t even make a clanking sound.

This went on for about a week.  The robots didn’t clean the Playhouse, dust the big house, or vacuum the floors, or help Jack and Julia do the dishes.  When they didn’t follow orders, the kids were upset and so were their mom and dad.  “This isn’t exactly wonderful,” Jack and Julia’s mother said. Big Jack just looked on and shook his head.  He was sad that the programming of the robots had failed and upset the kids.

Both of the Robots slept or stayed by their masters’ beds at night. Jack One was afraid that they’d be jealous of his stuffed toy dogs, the Mulligans. But the robots seemed to like the toy dogs. So Jack and Julia loaded up the Mulligans and took Jack Two and Julia Two, even though they were both quiet as mice, for rides in their little blue battery operated car. They buzzed them around the big back yard.

Then it happened.

During the night, a thunderstorm came moving across the sky.  There was wind and thunder and some lightening. Jack and Julia woke up. They were afraid but their mom and dad said that everyone would be okay.

There was a sudden flash in the sky and a loud boom of thunder, and THEN what Jack and Julia heard was the whirring sound of their robots. Had the storm somehow awakened Jack Two and Julia Two? And before anyone could do anything to stop them, the robots were suddenly up and on the move. They were picking up toys spread across the kids’ rooms. Then Jack Two clanked downstairs and cranked up the vacuum. The kids heard the refrigerator open. The Julia Two robot was arranging and checking the safety codes on the foods and snacks. Jack Two found the candy jar on the kitchen counter and tore into it and delivered it to the kids’ bedrooms.

For two days the robots were out of control---doing everything that Jack One and Julia One commanded. The family never had a cleaner, better organized house.  

Then three days later, again in the middle of the night, another storm came though. Once again, a crack of lightening and before Jack and Julia could say robotics, Jack Two and Julia Two were up and at it.

This time something strange had happened. Maybe it was the electricity in the air from the lightening that messed up the little robots’ programs, but suddenly they were clanking away undoing everything they’d done right. Now they were doing it WRONG!

They spread toys across the bedroom floors, ripped into the fridge and messed up the well organized groceries, moved the out of code food forward. They emptied a dust pan of dirt on the kitchen floor, tossed candy wrappers all over the house. Then they clanked out and Jack Two took what sounded like a metallic pee right on the front steps of the kids’ new playhouse.

What kind of a robot would do something like that?

The lightening storm had reversed the software in the robots.  And then, finally after several days of this, although it was sad, big Jack and Liz went into the kids’ rooms and told them that they were afraid that they would have to deprogram the robots.  It wasn’t their fault, but the lightening had scrambled their software, and they didn’t mean to be bad but they were.

Little Jack and young Julia cried.  But they knew that this bad robotic behavior had to stop. They were tired of cleaning up after or getting blamed for Jack Two’s and Julia Two’s behavior.

They went to sleep that night very sad. But during the night, while Jack and Julia slept another storm came in---thunder, lightening, winds, and more lightening. One bolt cracked so loudly that it woke the kids up. 

And that wasn’t all it woke up. Suddenly Jack Two and Julia Two were moving again. The kids watched them crank down the steps and then, they couldn’t believe their eyes. The robots were picking up toys, dusting, washing dishes, setting the dining room table.  Jack and Julia sat on the steps watching all this and when they turned around, there were their mom and dad. Big Jack and Liz, were shaking their heads in amazement. 

“Oh, Dada, Momma,”  Julia said. “I have an idea.”

“What’s your idea?” her mother said.

“I think we should have two more robots, one for each of our robots. We’ll call them Jack Three and Julia Three. Think of the work we’ll get done around here then!” she said.

Little Jack laughed and looked at his parents. “No, Julia,” he said. “I think these two will be enough!”

His father nodded and smiled, his mother laughed and said, “Two more. I don’t think so; I’d be up every night watching the Weather Channel!”