It was a dark, bitter cold, snowy evening outside of a popular gas station. A man was hurrying to get inside. The snow clung to his coat like barnacles on the bottom of a boat. When he got inside he went straight to the person behind the counter. “Hello Mr. Cruz,” The man acknowledged with a curt nod.
“Welcome Dr. Jimmy, we’ve been expecting you. The entrance is in the back room. Watch your step.”
“Thank you Mr. Cruz.”
Dr. Jimmy walked cautiously down the wet spiral stair case into the room where he and his crew had been working for 10 years. When he got to the bottom of the steps, he was greeted by his most trusted advisor, Mr. Smith.
“It is nice to see you, sir.”
“It is nice to see you as well, Mr. Smith”
Filling up most of the room, was a lot of futuristic technology with flashing buttons and lights. Dr. Jimmy approached the table with their latest creation: a robot with a mind of its own. The crew had programmed it to do everything. You name it; it could do it. It could jump, bring drinks, eat, cook, and play Mario Kart with you - anything. The robot had yet to be activated. The crew had been waiting for Dr. Jimmy to arrive to witness the activation.
“Is everything in place?” Dr. Jimmy asked.
“Yes sir. All of the wires are in the correct position,” confirmed Mr. Smith.
“Excellent. Start the activation phase!”
Many buttons were pressed and levers flipped. An unusual sound started up.
“I don’t think it is supposed to make that sound,” Dr. Jimmy sounded concerned.
He was right. An alarm started going off as a red light started flashing.
“Everyone evacuate!” The speakers started blaring.
Everyone started heading for the stairs except Dr. Jimmy. He started running toward the opposite side of the room. No one knew except Dr. Jimmy that there was a secret room on the other side of the wall. He pulled open the door, jumped inside, and threw the bolts into place a few seconds before an ear-popping explosion. Then everything went completely silent.
Dr. Jimmy slowly pulled open the door and examined the wreckage. Everything was in shambles except the computer. He looked around and found his creation sprawled across the floor.
“What went wrong!?” Dr. Jimmy shouted in grief.
He immediately sprinted over to his computer. It surprisingly booted up. He looked over the equipment and cables. There was a wire, the most important one, that wasn’t connected.
“If you want a job done right, do it yourself.” He muttered under his breath.
As he approached the robot, he stuffed his hands into his lab coat pockets. There was something in one of them. He pulled it out and it was a can of A&W Root Beer. He had brought if for the robot to drink. But the robot was no more. So he popped it open for himself. The content spewed all over the robot. He slapped his hand on his forhead.
“Can this day get any worse!?” He wailed to no one.
Dr. Jimmy headed toward the exit. As he was walking, he slipped on the Root Beer and knocked himself out when his head hit the floor.
Jimmy groaned and rubbed the back of his head as he began to gain consciousness. He looked over to the robot. It wasn’t there! Immediately Jimmy jumped up and stared at where the robot should have been. Then he heard some electronic sound behind him. He spun around on his heels and saw the robot playing Solitaire on the computer! “I have to be seeing things.” Jimmy thought. But the robot turned. The robot saw Jimmy and smiled.
“Hello there Dr. Jimmy! How are you doing today?” The robot said with happiness in his voice.
“Is this a dream? You got blown up, thrown across the room, and I accidentally sprayed you with Root Beer.” Jimmy said while rubbing his eyes.
“This is not at all a dream. In fact, the carbonation and the sugar is what caused me not to die off completely! Oh, by the way, I beat your high score in Solitaire.”
“Well then, shall we go get breakfast or something?” Dr. Jimmy said with a grin.
“That sounds nice! Then we’ll go get a couple of Root Beer Floats!”