Short Story
Tec-No Help?
It is a bright early morning, and Josh is just starting to wake up. He rubs his eyes and springs forward to sit up, seeing that he is going to be late. ”Shit, not again!” Josh mumbles under his breath as he struggles to put on his pants. He throws some Eggos into the toaster while he freshens up. Running out the door, he grabs his plate of Eggos and his keys off the counter and says, “Time for work,” in a sarcastic manner. Josh luckily makes it to work right on time.
Josh is a doctor at the newly constructed hospital, built to celebrate the old hospital’s 100 years of service. Josh, walking down one of the halls, still sees an old sign up from the opening that reads, “1950 to 2050.” Josh thinks to himself, “2050 already. Man, I’m getting old.” He makes his way down the hall to the department where he works. “Crey,” Josh yells as he runs up to say hi.
“What’s up, man?” Crey says in response. Crey and Josh are doctors but also have been working partners for the past 10 years. They talk for the next couple minutes, catching up on things, until Josh hears his name on the intercom to help a patient on floor 3. Josh doesn’t stop moving until his shift is over. “Five o’clock, at last!” Josh says with a sigh.
Josh is very excited today to leave because he has been waiting for this new technology, a friend/helper robot thing. It was said that it could do anything, but you had to train it! Josh knew what he was getting into but still decided to follow through with it.
Josh spends the next three days working on his Robot friend; Josh ends up naming it Tec-No. “The name doesn’t mean anything, but it sounds cool,” Josh says while setting it up. Tec-No is a great help to Josh as it cleans, plays music, talks to Josh, and cooks for him. Josh goes to work the fourth day and asks Crey if he would want to go rock climbing, and Crey says yes. The plan is to meet on Saturday, which is two days from now, but Crey also asks for Josh to bring his Robot for the hike to test its flying mode. Josh is very excited that Crey would even take an interest in his hobbies.
The sun is breaking through the darkness of the Saturday morning sky. Josh wakes up feeling the crisp morning air as he closes his window. He picked his outfit out the night before. Josh continues his morning routine, making his Eggos as usual. Before Josh leaves he collects all his gear, not seeing if it was all there or all in good shape. He grabs his robot and runs out the door. “I can’t ever be on time,” Josh says in a joking way under his breath.
Meeting at the bottom of the mountain, Crey waits for Josh until he sees Josh’s car appear down the road. Crey helps Josh unload his car, pulling out the gear for their ascent up the mountain. They begin with a small hike to the wall, feeling the crisp morning air on their faces. Meeting the wall, Josh sets his hand on the cold morning rock, feeling every grain and groove. They both strap up, leaving the robot next to the base of the wall. Leading the climb, Josh clips in, beginning the ascent. Ten minutes pass when the rope starts to fray. He realizes very quickly that his rope was fraying from all the weight relying on it and that this could have been avoided if he just hadn’t rushed this morning. Josh points it out to Crey, and just before they can make their decisionto either keep climbing or go down, the rope snaps. The Robot notices them falling and begins to prepare to catch them, understanding that if he does he will be crushed but if he doesn’t they will fall to their death. He looks up and makes his decision eagerly.