• Tyler Wood's Journal Entry #2
    March 12, 2010


    tab From the first day, Mr. Woods, my new "father", never seemed to be the greatest role model. Fat, always smoking, blunt attitude. But the truth was, he cared. Sure, he might not have always been verbal about how much he cared, and he might not have been the best example of a caring person, but he really did care.
    tab People like him are unpredictable. Prone to be a jerk one day, and the next day reprimanding you for being a jerk. Like, for instance, when I came home from the first day of school.
    tab I could already hear static buzzing as I opened the door, and carefully closed it. I threw my backpack to the ground, and followed the noise to the living room. A large leather couch facing a small, satellite TV...I peered down on it, and saw Mr. Woods watching intently at a news program.
    tab Robots. Can you imagine?
    tab "Didn't know this house was contemporary enough to even have a TV," I remarked after a couple seconds of silence.
    tab Dr. Doc, the peculiar code name he gives himself, has claimed that he has invented intellectual robots.
    tab "What a greeting," was all Mr. Woods muttered, not even bothering to look back at me. That's the Mr. Woods I knew.
    tab Photos have not been released, as he claims it is "confidential", which only raises our doubts higher... TV was turned off abruptly. Interestingly, I found myself intrigued in the program, but had my own doubts about an intellectual robot's existence.
    tab "I suppose that is the sarcasm I heard about in school?"
    tab "What?"
    tab "Ah, I believe you have mastered the art of it. I see that you have even integrated into daily conversation."
    tab "What I have to put up with...Oh and, by the way, I got a phone call from the school." He finally stood up and faced me, that little cigarette still tucked in the corner of his mouth, bobbing up and down. "Do you know how much of a pain someone is when they get sent to the principal's office on the first day of school?"
    tab "He was going to beat me up. I simply acted in self-defense."
    tab "You stabbed him in the face before he did anything, is what I heard."
    tab "I had no intention of making him bleed," I said in the same monotone voice. "I didn't even know I was capable of such a feat."
    tab "Your intentions. You intended to hurt him, that much is for certain. Whether you thought he would bleed or not, you shouldn't have done it in the first place!" Before I could make any quick response to that, he looked down, and whispered quietly, his cigarette clenched in his trembling hand,
    tab "Look. Go upstairs. Do your homework. This conversation...this conversation is over."
    tab "Something troubling you?" His reply was falling back down on the with a "mmf" sound, and turning back on the TV. Obviously, with that reaction, something was troubling him, but I decided not to press further.
    tab ...So what do you think about Dr. Doc's "intellectual robots"?
    tab I began to walk up the stairs, as asked, the chatter of the TV rumbling in my head.
    tab Absolutely absurd. No evidence to prove it, and seeing we've barely scratched the potential of the internet itself, there is little logic to support the very notion of actual "intellectual robots" even existing.
    tab "Mr. Woods..." I finally said after I had almost heard enough of the probram. "Do you believe in this robot controversy?"
    tab "It's possible," he answered. "Possible because anything is possible, not because any evidence supports it."
    tab "Ha ha, Mr. Woods," I joked. "You really are an odd sort."
    tab "Hrrrm," he grunted, once again. "Well, if it turns out to be true, no one's going to laughing any more. Least of all someone like you." I continued upstairs, pondering over those nonsensical words. "No one's going to be laughing any more. Least of all someone like you."
    tab Had it meant something? Was he trying to get through a message with that sentence?
    tab And what about you? What do you believe?"
    tab I believe, only a few years from now, this conversation will be laughed at, not the idea of robots. Did we ever think we were going to fly? Did we ever think we could make an automobile that could go up to speeds over ten times faster than any human could run? Yes, only because great minds were courageous enough to try it. Mark my words, robots will be born, and the birth will take place sooner than you think. Keep watch. Pay attention.
    tab ...The clues are all around you.

    tab It was a stupid conspiracy to me. Something to rile up the public, to get them excited. That's what I thought as I sat there in my barren room.
    tab Mr. Woods never explained to me why he had a room in the first place for me, fit with it's own bed, dresser, and even a couple dusty, plastic toys. Whether he wanted to make it public knowledge or not, I found it pretty obvious that he used to have a kid. Little one, by the looks of it. Why he was keeping it a secret was a secret in itself. I decided I would think no further of it.
    tab I picked up a teddy bear from the floor. Things neatly stitched on. Everything perfect and symetrical; buttons evenly placed, the nose fittingly placed smack dab in the middle.
    tab I put the bear down, not sure why I even picked it up in the first place, and continued to think about the program on TV.
    tab "'The clues are all around you'?" I muttered to myself. "Where? Where are the clues?" I laughed, and just decided he was a stupid old lunatic.
    tab Shaking all of those thoughts away, I decided to clean off the dusty desk, and start doing my homework.