My Short Short for the Day

“So…whatcha doin?”  Ally leaned over Buddy.  He was hunched forward with his head down.  He had been like that for hours and Ally wanted to know why.

“Wait a minute.  I’m almost done.”  Buddy’s body barely moved but Ally knew he was tinkering with something. 

She leaned further, then moved to peek around him, then huffed and stood back.  “Done yet?”

“Alllmmost…”  There was a little zap and then Buddy sat up beaming.  “Done!”

Ally looked at his hands and saw a small robot-like thing.  “What is it?”

“Ally, meet Ralph.”  Buddy held out his hands towards Ally. 

As she watched, the robot thing stuck its hand out towards her.  “Did that just move?”  Ally instinctively shook its little hand staring in fascination.  For once, she wasn’t bouncing around the room with a million questions and ideas.

“Ralph, this is Ally.”

Ralph bowed.  “Nice to meet you, Ally.”  Ralph’s voice was a little hesitant but sounded more like a cartoon character than a robot.

“Nice to meet you, too, Ralph.”  Ally couldn’t believe it.  A talking robot.  Her friend made a talking robot.  “How did you do it Buddy?”

“Well, it’s an idea I’ve been working on for a long time but last night, in my dreams, it came to me.  The missing piece finally came to me.  It’s so weird.  I was almost ready to give up but then, it was there.”  Buddy smiled down at Ralph.

“Like in the movies.”  Ally said.

“Yeah.  Something like that.”  Buddy gently set Ralph on the desk.  “Ok, Ralph, let’s see what you can do.”

Ralph smiled.  “I think you might be surprised.”