It was late and Isaac had been up 48 hours straight trying to work out the kinks of his latest invention. His hot chocolate had grown cold - not that he noticed as he took another slurp from his mug. It wasn’t uncommon for him to get completely engrossed in a project so as to be completely unaware of his surroundings. He barely even heard the movie, Casablanca, playing on the tiny television that he kept in the studio.
Isaac was working on a computerized robot that could do many things humans could do. It could climb. It could talk. It could carry things. It could even play a game of checkers with him. It had been able to learn from past mistakes and was eventually able to beat Isaac at his own game. As a result, Isaac began calling him ‘Checkers.’
The science lab was cluttered and chaotic as Isaac was trying to tweak out what he thought was the final adjustments to Checkers being able to interact with his cat, Newton. Thus far, the jerky movements and whirring sound of the mechanical process only frightened Newton. Isaac had placed Checkers on the ground so as to be closer to Newton.
Isaac put his mug back onto the counter, but misjudged the distance. The cup with all the cold sugary liquid crashed to the floor and splattered all over Checkers.
“Oh no! Oh no! What have I done?!” Isaac panicked. He grabbed some old paper towels that had been left from another experiment and began sopping up the liquid. Too late, he realized the paper towels had also been used to clean up an old chemical spill. As this thought crept into his consciousness, Isaac stopped. He thought he saw Checkers move one of his mechanical arms and was wondering if the robot was shorting out.
“Meow,” Newton purred rubbing alongside Isaac. He often had the perfect timing of showing up just after disaster struck.
“I really messed up, Newton.” Isaac mourned. He got up to get some clean paper towels and vowed to be more organized with his workshop in the future. Upon returning he imagined he heard talking. He slowed down his pace and furrowed his eyebrows. He knew he was tired, but not that tired.
He glanced cautiously around the counter and thought he must be hallucinating for there sat Checkers - talking and petting Newton!
“That’s a good kitty, kitty, kitty,” Checkers crooned. “You like your ears scratched don’t you?” Newton was purring and rubbing his head into the palm of Checker’s hand.
“I don’t believe it,” cried Isaac. “There must be a mechanical failure.” He walked around to Checker’s control panel and attempted to shut it off. The power light stayed on. Isaac tried again, and again the power light stayed on. “I don’t understand it,” Isaac whispered, barely daring to hope.
“I don’t either,” replied Checkers as he tilted his head to look up at Isaac, “But I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”