The Robot Bird And The Other

On one fine antiquing day things unfold

People are not smart or so it seems according to little Jim, who seems to have evidence to that effect and to support that thesis. This is where it all began. He and his grand dad John rarely go to town even though it is only a stones throw away from the farm. It is a few minutes, a mere one mile away from their door steps by car.

They like to visit the old antiques & novelty shop in the center square when they can. One fine summer day on a recent drive, Jim, a bright lad of only seven and his grand dad made their way over to the ancient store. It is more like a warehouse which was filled to capacity with fantastic mysteries called curiosities. There were shelves starting at the ground floor then stretching up as high as a three story building, maybe as many as 15 layers of shelving per surface area, reachable mostly by sliding ladders on rails and with a certain dexterity and skill by the climber.

After only a few moments of browsing, the boy came upon an interesting artifact. It was a solid metallic bird standing about 3 inches tall and perhaps an inch or inch and a half wide. It was extremely heavy for its size. He took it promptly over to the proprietor and laid the item on the counter in front of him with a sudden thud. The owner of the place was a short, well groomed gentleman with piercing black eyes, with long salt and pepper wiry hair and a beard that went on forever. The boy said, “How much mister?” The man said, “How much do you have?” The boy replied, “fifty cents and a bottle cap.” The ancient man said, “Fifty cents it is but you can keep the bottle cap.” “We deal in old things.” “Bring it back in the future when you and it are ancient and then we'll talk business.”

The boy continued inquiring about the bird. “Where did it come from mister and what exactly is it?”

The old man said, “It is a robot bird.” “That is all I know.” “I can't remember anything else about it because I got it many years ago off the continent when I was a hunter.” “That was probably over five hundred years ago.” Memory fades as you get older.” Jim responded, “I might only be a little boy but I didn't just fall off the turnip truck with a matching IQ of the product.” “There is no way you are over five hundred years old.” The old man said, “You are right.” “I am over five thousand years old.” The boy figured he was getting nowhere with this conversation so he simply left.

The young lad earned the money from feeding the pigs. It was his job to make them plump and happy for someones dinner some day. His grand pop was his immediate supervisor around the barn while his dad worked the corn fields every day.

When they got home the boy decided to put his new robot bird on display in the living room right over the fireplace ledge. He wanted everyone to see and enjoy it.

About a week later his parents invited their close friends and neighbors Lou and Alice Jones over for a Sunday lunch with their daughter Mary. Mary was about the same age as Jim, maybe a year older. He did not have a good history with the little girl. Last year she and her parents were visiting over the holidays when little Jim got angry. He came running downstairs with a proclamation, “That little...B.....(he used an awful word beginning with 'B”) stole my belt!” The mother went into a frenzy, into rapid action immediately, swinging wildly like a hysterical scare crow on fire, upon hearing the utterance of such a nasty word, stumbling over herself and her own feet to beat him and send him off to bed without dinner. She yelled, “How dare you use such fowl language you little b.... (she used another “B” word, a longer and more demonstrative word than his bad “B” word,) while beating him into his room. She would win the spelling Bee contest as well hands down.

Now that he was out of the way, the little monster Mary could go into action. She had those large round angel blue eyes and a charming smile to sooth the soul. She diverted everyone's attention away from her and the missing belt by gazing at a spectacular apple pie sitting all alone on the table and making polite conversation about it.

If it was murder she would have gotten away with that too. Apple pie overrides everything. That was ancient history. This is now. The boy would watch her every move and be suspicious of all her actions. Jim's mother asked him to help her with the dishes. She invited Mary along as well to him company. She refused the kind invitation due to a case of the sniffles she picked up recently, probably from the church. There are always so many sick people at church.

It was the perfect opportunity fro her to do something evil.

She had no pockets so she when over to her mother's purse hanging on a chair. She walked over to the fireplace mantle piece and placed the robot bird gently and quietly inside snapping it shut with a quick feminine touch.

Things, including luck seemed to be going her way. Her father was a weak and humble man by nature. Her mother was a dominatrix. When they finished the visit Alice asked Lou to grab her purse. All he could do was say,”Yes dear.” He did make an obvious comment going out the door, “What do you have in here?” “It feels like a dead body.” Mary's mother did not respond. She didn't have to. She was in charge. She just ordered him to move along.

When little Jim returned to the living room the first thing he notice was the absence of the robot bird. “Where is my bird?” He started...... “Where is my toy?” It was the first time he ever used the word “toy”, referring to his prize possession. He used it to garner more sympathy to his cause. In a stressed out voice he proclaimed, “It was right here and now it is gone.” He wanted desperately to say that the little girl stole it but he learned from history that might not work. He let them reason the situation out.

His mom said, “Let me call Alice.” His dad said no. “It is better to drive right over there and ask them about it.”....so they did.... They all jumped in the car including grandpa John. When they got there the car was gone. The house was gone. Even the white fence went missing. The Jones family simply vanished into thin air. No more Alice, Lou or Mary. The only thing they found was the robot bird sitting where once there was an entrance way to the home.

This event was shocking to everyone there. The boy too was puzzled. He even sad but mostly he was happy to be reunited with his bird. The Jones family would never be heard from again. The local police and many outside government agencies looked into the matter over the years with no success.

One day in the dead of Winter several years down the line from the first strange incident something peculiar happened. The robot bird was still in its usual place above the fireplace when the two eye lids on the structure opened at the same time and emitted blue laser like beams of light. The two cylindrical

lights shot out without a sound. They were harmless. You could place your hands or any object in front of them with no effect. It was just ordinary light but very bright blue light.

This event was short lived. After about an hour both eyes of the bird closed again and the light was completely gone. Grand pop was the first to come up with the idea of dismantling the thing. He loved taking things apart and building things. He had an impressive tool and machine shop set up in the basement. Little Jim hated the idea. His mom and dad gave grandpa permission to solve the mystery.

Little kids normally respect the decisions of the older ones. They think that because a person is bigger they must be smarter. They a re big so they must have big brains to make big decisions.

In the end all of their efforts, all of their friends and their sophisticated electronic tools and equipment had no effect on the robot bird. It must be made from some unknown alloy or substance unknown to them or science.

Months later the boy and his grandfather found themselves back at the mysterious antiques shop just killing some time waiting for the parents to finish up food shopping. A box made up of several cube shapes caught Jim's eye. It stood about three inches high and two inches wide. It had similar or the same symbols on it as the robot bird and appeared to be made out of the same metal or alloy as the bird.

Little Jim approached the shop keeper; the same old man who claimed to be older than the hills. He and the boy began negotiations. The boy asked, “How much for the box?” The old man replied, “How much do you want to pay?” The young man is older and wiser now and did not want to insult the man with a too low figure so he said, :I can afford $5.00 at this time.” The old man responded, “I need $10.00 for that particular piece.” “I'll take your $5.00 now and you can pay me the other 5 when you get it.” The boy said, “Deal.” He also wanted to know a little more about it. The old man said that it was called,“The Other” or “The Companion.” “The Other”was the preferred name according to the shop keeper.

Later that day the boy placed the new item next to the robot bird. The cube like object began to vibrate and move directly alongside the bird. A thin wire or rod came out from the side of the cube like object, penetrating the bird effortlessly. It had attached itself to it. Now they were permanently joined.

Though it was a very thin connection strand holding the objects together, grandfather and the dad felt confident that they could break the connection. They were wrong. They and others tried every trick in the book, everything from laser beams to acids and nothing worked.

Jim's mother was filled with fear of the two things. His dad and granddad were frustrated and angry. The lad understood from the beginning that the robot bird would never fly even though it was anatomically correct and had the proper proportioned wing span for flight. It was simply a heavy paper weight made of metal with strange symbols and markings, a sculpture made to look at and admire and not much more.

A little more time passed and then strange things started in again. They had always been suspicious of how and why the Jones family and their property disappeared while the bird robot remained behind. It was quite the coincidence how they went missing and it did not.

Grandfather woke up early one day. As he walked downstairs as usual to work on destroying the two objects in his work shop he noticed the work shop and everything in it went missing. Benches, vices, tools, stools, everything. The robot bird and The Other were the only things still there intact.

A couple of days after that the robot bird opened its eyes again. This time the radiated light emanating from it was a bright green. The light was harmless but it stayed on for longer time periods. In fact a pattern started to emerge. It would come on for exactly three hours, then shut off for 3 hours and then start up again for 3 more hours at a time with perfect precision and predictability. The grandfather started to think of it as a time piece. The mother thought it was becoming more demonic and wanted it thrown away and out of her house immediately. She did not get her way. The men of the house simply hide it from her. Out of sight out of mind was their motto.

One night, very late, very dark and very cold, the strangeness began. Outside the open window by the boys bed it was a blanket of blackness. There were no stars or moon and curiously, there were no clouds. The sky was simply pitch black.

The two units situated over the fireplace were no longer there. They had situated themselves on a night stand, a small utility table by the boys bed. All of a sudden the bird machine opened its eyes but his time the light coming them were a deep yellow orange. The rays where more dispersed. They were widened to encompass the entire head of the unsuspecting sleeping lad. They were penetrating and warm but not enough to disturb the sleeping youth. The boy was being probed and drained of all his knowledge and experiences. It was a simple task for the machine as the boy was not a complicated subject.

By morning the bird had developed movable parts and the ability to communicate with the boy. fortunately for little Jim his mind and body were still intact but he became frightened when he saw his toy and The Other by his bedside. He jumped from his bed and ran to the door. It was locked. In fact the entire room, windows and all had been totally sealed and secured by a force field. When the lad yelled for his parents they could not hear him. His room had become sound proof and impenetrable from the outside world. The bird began to sing. Minutes later it began to talk in perfect English. It said, “I am Sontag.” Jim had never thought to give his bird a name. It was good to have a reference point.

Now what? The creature closed its eyes again as if taking a nap. It was all very disconcerting and perplexing. Sooner or later the parents would surely come to his rescue....or would they?.... It became a mystery and a waiting game. All of a sudden the force field came down. The door opened on its own. The boy ran from his prison in terror into the arms of his mother who had surprise and perplexity written all over her face. The parents entered the room cautiously. The dad holding a trembling rifle in his arms. The bird and The Other were sitting on the night stand motionless. The boy swore that he did not touch the objects and he did not know how they got in his room. His parents did not know what to believe but they knew instinctively that something was not right. Clearly their son did not possess the ability to seal up the windows and door to his room on his own.

They tried to settle in to a normal life again. Breakfast and simple chores of the day were the order of the day. The dad would try to place the mysterious objects in a wooden box and take them to the authorities in town. Maybe someone there would know what to do. The mother wanted to run from the house screaming and step on the gas to their old run down car and flee into the desert but she kept her thoughts to herself. It was no time to panic. Meanwhile, Grandpa John was still fast asleep in his room oblivious to the events unfolding in the real world.

When the dad tried to place the alien objects in the box he failed. They had become too heavy to budge. The family decided to leave. Grandpa finally woke up and wanted to blast the bird and its companion into oblivion with some nitroglycerin. Cooler minds prevailed. The parents of the boy convinced him that they had to live somewhere and there is no place like home. After the experience they had with the Jones family losing their property and most likely their lives, it would be foolish to demolish their place of residence with the chance that the objectionable objects might still remain intact.

They quietly departed holding their breaths. When dad got on the road he floored it into town. The Hitchcock family were respected in the community but it might be difficult to convince the people there of the events that had just unfolded under their roof and about the strange new occupants now taking up residency there.

The sheriff interviewed the Hitchcock boy and all family members for details. He was troubled by their tall tales but it was his duty to investigate. A scientist and swat team were employed to visit the farm to make some sense of it all. It was true. None of them could move the two objects from the boys bedroom. Heavy equipment and tools were brought in from the big city. They had more resources and qualified experts to deal with difficult projects.

After several months they were as frustrated as when they first started. The Hitchcock family stayed in the towns hotel while the problem was being resolved. Their farm and house were quarantined by the government.

Naturally the owner of the antiques shop was interviewed extensively. He could shed no more light on this dark perplexing problem.

One fine morning weeks later, little Jim woke up in his hotel room to find the robot bird and The Other face to face with him on a counter next to his bed. He stood up cautiously. The bird had come to life once again. This time it glared directly at the boy with piercing glowing yellow lite eyes. As the boy maneuvered about the room slowly, the bird and its eyes followed him with an intensity that was unspeakable. The boy closed his eyes hoping it would go away, praying that it was his imagination, wanting to scream but did not in fear that something bad would happen.

The bird Sontag began a more lucid conversation. It told the boy it and The Other had been sleeping for centuries trying to rejuvenate themselves for a long trip. The strange thing is; they could not remember who they were or where they came from or where they were going. They could only relate to their current circumstances and environment with the most primitive perspective. They could only remember that they were on a mission from somewhere to somewhere. Everything else was a blur.

They excused themselves from further communications with the humans. They expressed that they had no interest in us or any of our species or our societies in any way shape or form. The robot bird was convinced at this point that it and The Companion would not and could not continue on. They requested to be left alone. Robot dreams, robot sleep was and is their only desire. The bird told the boy that they would be shutting down for two hundred years. If the boy was still around at that time it would like to continue the conversation. It requested that the boy keep it brief if or when they might meet again in the future because, as you know, they need their sleep. The boy was happy at hearing this. It was unknown what the authorities or his parents might think or do. At this point it does not matter. These visitors were out of his house now so now they could go home.