Suddenly Born

Pete suddenly came to life in Machine City and he wondered the block for a little bit until he stumbled into a little shop where somebody was making iron bannisters. That somebody was rusted and dented and moved with a lot of screeches.

”Hello, I am Pete and I am an eight-year-old boy,” said Pete, using his voice for the first time.

”Hello Pete, I am EG-78,” said the old man, “I make iron bannisters, what do you do?"

"I don’t know,” said Pete, “I just came to life over there, in that place around the corner. I don’t know much about living and doing things."

"You should have a proper job,” said EG-78, “A purpose. That’s what makes life worth living."

"I guess what you say makes sense,” said Pete, “And I don’t know what else would. So what can I do?"

"Well, seems like making iron bannisters is the best thing I know to do. But I’ve seen other folks do other things. Some clean the streets, removing the green stuff that seems to appear places overnight. Some move things in giant boxes. There’s one fellow comes and picks up the bannisters I make."

"All those things seem like somebody is already doing them,” said Pete, “Maybe I should come up with something of my own. Something that needs doing just there’s nobody to do it.”

EG-78 scratched his old beat-up head and thought hard. “I once saw a fellow who did nothing,” he said eventually. “He would just sit on the fence yonder and look at the mountains, or play with the thing that sends out little white fluff when you blow air on it. I would often wonder what he did, never thought to ask, though."

"Did somebody come over and grab him?“asked Pete, “Make him back into parts so he could fit to do work?"

"Not sure,” said EG-78, “One day I just stopped seeing him.”

Posted by: Paweł Kowaluk