• Tyler Wood's Journal Entry #14
    March 28, 2010


    tab "Ah, Mr. Tyler Woods. Late. Hmm...That seems unusual." Mr. Smith couldn't resist the oppurtunity to get me while I was down, since usually it was vice-versa. He bent down, taking his sweet time as he checked off that I was tardy.
    tab "I'm sorry..." I replied, taking what he said completely seriosuly.
    tab "An apology? Also un--" Just one glance at me shut him up. He could tell I wasn't in the mood.
    tab "Um..." he went on, now suddenly embarassed. "Please, sit down." I nodded, and slowly walked to my desk.

    tab It took me awhile to finally ask myself: Why am I here? I'm a robot, a girl's endangered, and I just shot my own "dad", so to speak. For what reason, then, was I sitting here, listening as my teacher rambled on about The War of 1812?
    tab I stood up, and immediately, the whole classed stared at me.
    tab "Mr. Smith. I have to excuse myself." Mr. Smith lowered his glasses, looking at me in the eye, one of those looks made by teachers that are supposed to be intimidating. I wasn't intimidated.
    tab "We're in the middle of class, Tyler. Please, sit down."
    tab "I have to go," I said firmly, and walked out the door, not even bother to heed the threats of Mr. Smith from behind.

    tab I found myself slowly walking home. It was so...monotonous. Boring. But I think that's why I liked it so much. There was no argument. There was no death. There was no fighting. Only me, and a long sidewalk.
    tab For those short thirty minutes, I forgot about everything. About Mr. Woods, about Stacy, about Jacob, about Dr. Doc, even about my own identity. Right then, at that moment, I was just Tyler Woods, regular highschooler, not a problem in the world.
    tab I smiled as I watched the young children try to shoot their first basket. I'm just like them. A regular, genuine human. And for that second, I forced myself to believe it. I had to. I had to cling on to something.
    tab Maybe that short lived fantasy was why reality struck me so hard when I stepped in the house. It all just suddenly...clicked. I wasn't a human. This wasn't some happy fairy tale. I did have worries, I did have problems.
    tab I think...I cried then. I cried, but no one could hear me. That was what made it so sad. There was no one to hug me, no one to reassure me that everything was going to be ok. I was in an empty house, Mr. Wood's dead body hardly counting as comapny.
    tab It was then when I realized how alone I really was, crying on Mr. Wood's worn, leather couch.
    tab I wondered to myself then...How do robots cry? If I'm not human...If I'm artificial, then what are my feelings? Are they also artificial? Was it all built in my program to only...seem real? I couldn't tell, and I still can't.

    tab At one point or another, I fell asleep. And what I had then...was a nightmare, a repeat of what I saw earlier that day. Stacy, bound to the chair...The emotion on her face...
    tab This time, something different happened though. I turned around. There was Dr. Doc, readying his gun. I leaped at him, pinned him down, wrestled with him, and just shouted at him,
    tab "Why? Why are you doing this?" He didn't answer my question. Just grabbed my collar, and threw me across the room.
    tab I almost...felt the pain. I tried to struggle up, to run over to Stacy, to save her.
    tab But like last time, I was helpless. With that smile still on his face, Dr. Doc just said slowly,
    tab "Things didn't have to end this way."
    tab I woke up in a rain of sweat, jumping up in the couch and shouting at the top of my lungs,
    tab "Stacy!" It took me a second to fully realize it was just a dream, what with all the heavy, frantic breaths made.
    tab I couldn't pretend anything was ok. I had to save her. I had to save Stacy, no matter what.