Robert and Bessie the Robots

By: Angela Li

Once deep in the woods, in a hidden cottage surrounded by trees lived an inventor with one of his most fabulous inventions. This invention was a robot that was the height of a short adult. His name was Robert and he was the inventor’s best friend. The inventor’s name was Don Sanders and he lived there with nobody but Robert. He didn’t even have a wife or children because he had ridden a boat to USA and left them alone in Italy.

At least Don had pictures of this family. He wrote to them once a week and he always got letters back. He even got a letter announcing to him that they had moved to Paris, France so that the children could learn more about the Eiffel Tower. The children’s names were Danny, Dana, Danielle, and Donald Sanders. They also had one teenage son called Jacob who was their first child and only child that they had adopted. Danny and Danielle were not going to Paris with the others. They were going to fly to America to visit Don.

Danny and Danielle were going to be accompanied by their old grandfather Sanders. He had taken them on trips with him and he always brought his camera. His motto was: “Can’t travel without an ole camera.” His suitcases were covered in little pockets to carry his camera film and chargers. I can’t even count them myself, there are so many. Grandfather Sanders even gave Donald a little fake camera that squirted water at you when you pressed the right button for Christmas. Donald was four years old and he loved tricking people. His favorite part was seeing their expressions after they had been fooled. He sometimes even said “FOOLED YA!” so his target would be extra mad. For Dana he had gotten a wind-up camera that made sounds like it was snapping pictures when you wound it up the whole way. Danny got a pocket-sized digital camera that already had film and batteries in it. For Danielle and Jacob he had gotten two video cameras, one for each of them. Danielle’s was purple and Jacob’s was a mix of navy blue and black.  Jacob brought his everywhere just in case. Danielle kept hers in a pouch in the back of her closet for safe-keeping. She was much more careful than Jacob.

Okay, back to Robert and Don. When Don came to America, he was pretty lonely, so he decided to make a robot that would be his new best friend. In Italy, Bob Farrington had been his best friend. Unfortunately, his wife had taken him to Germany with her to visit her sick and old mother. That was the last time Don saw Bob and his daughter Felicia who was Dana’s best and only friend. Dana never did visit her because before Felicia left, they had gotten in a big fight. Dana thought that Felicia was going there, just to leave her. Felicia thought that Dana’s father had asked her dad to go to Germany and bring Felicia. Dana might think Felicia was a bit bossy and probably did not like her anymore. Also Felicia’s full name was Felicia Fern Farrington and Dana thought that name was funny and other people did too, so she didn’t want Felicia to embarrass her in public.

Now I think I should tell you more about Robert. Robert is nice to everyone he met. Don thinks that he should tell him not to or else disguise him as a child and send him to school to learn about it. Don also thought he should even change Robert’s robotic voice into a voice like Danielle’s “mature-child voice” as she liked to call it. I’d rather call it a regular voice even though it does sound a bit like a mature-childish kind of voice. Robert would probably like that sort of voice. He said that he wants to see how it feels like to be a girl. I went over to Don’s and he told me that in private. He also said that he at least wants to change his name to a girlish name like Stephanie or Geraldine or Penelope or something long like that. Don told me that he was going to make Robert a girl and name him Jennifer, but he got mixed up so he turned out to be a boy. Since he was a boy, Don named him Robert. Right now Don is working on a girl robot for Robert. He said that Robert wants a new friend and he wants it to be a girl. Don let Robert choose the name and he said Bessie. Robert thinks that Bessie is the name that his mom had. Don didn’t tell him that he was the one who built Robert and he truly did not have either a mom or a dad or any other parts of a family. Don actually just made Robert think that by putting it in one of his memory chips. Don also told Robert that Bessie was going to be his little sister and not his friend because Bessie was being made by Don and Don was the same person who made Robert.

Today is Bessie’s real birthday! Don is just going to put a finishing touch on her and it will only take about ten minutes. It’s almost time! Here she comes. Oh, she’s the size of Danny! She looks so small compared to Robert. And she has hair! Long red curls streaming down, over her metal cheeks. To tell you the truth, Robert is actually bald. I’ll bet that he’s jealous that Don gave Bessie hair and not him. He’s probably thinking: “Oh the nerve of that kid. I’m going to kick Don in the shin if I have to!” Oh, and she’s wearing a dress! It’s a lavender sundress with a gold sash. It looks so pretty! There’s even a straw hat on her head.

6 YEARS LATER…

Hi again! Bessie is 6 now. Robert is 13. I think Don taught Robert to be nice to Bessie because he doesn’t have that jealous look on his face and he’s playing with her right now. Bessie got a new nickname from Robert last month. He calls her Bitten Bess because she looks like she was bitten on her arm. Also Don gave Bessie a haircut. It used to be down to her hips. Now it comes to her shoulders. When Don built her, he gave her hair that actually grows, even though the hair is not real. That’s why Don’s inventions are so great. Tomorrow, I’m going on a trip with the robots to New York City, so they could see what city life is like.

Today is the big day! We are going to New York all by ourselves. I’m so excited, we are almost there! Great, we are finally there. I’m going to wait while Robert pays the taxi driver. He’s never been here but he has ridden in several taxi cabs when we go to other places. Phew! We are running and we almost miss the tour bus. This is going to be so fun! It’s a good thing this tour is free. We want to save our money for souvenirs. It’s time to go home. We had so much fun! We went to this gift shop in a national history museum and we all got glow in the dark USA flag key chains and a leather bag with Abraham Lincoln’s head on the front. We went to McDonald’s for dinner and ordered Big Macs. Right now, we are riding another taxi home. The whole time we were here, Bessie was writing in her travel-diary and taking pictures with her camera. I think she wants to be a newspaper reporter when she grows up. I don’t think that is a very interesting job, but Bessie sure does. I wonder what goes on in that head of hers.

This is Robert.

THE END