After months of cold and gloom, life had returned to the garden outside the house as the lawn turned green and the flowers bloomed under the warmer light of the sun. The trees that weren’t evergreens were quickly producing their leaves to provide shade while the grass had kicked into high gear, quickly overgrowing any brown patches.
For a few moments the yard would be still and then it would burst with motion from the local animals.
Birds flitted from branch to ground and back again. They danced through the air at an astonishing pace. Their songs filled the air with sweet tunes and helped drown out the faint traces of freeway noise that could be heard in the distance. Their colorful feathers flashed through the air, adding more splashes of color to the yard.
Rabbits wandered across the yard in a comfortable manner. They didn’t have to worry about predators here. This was a safe haven for them. They could stay and eat as much as they wanted without fear of predation, as long as they kept the garden in good condition. And they did. The rabbits hopped along at their leisurely pace, munching here and there, never taking too much to kill the plant, and making sure they all looked perfect and beautiful.
Even the occasional lizard would dart beneath the plants, stirring up the dead leaves in their hunt for insects. Their speckled gray and brown scales helped them blend into their surroundings. I always heard them before I spotted them.
All of this, I watched from my own branch on a grapevine growing along the patio railing. I compared myself to the songbirds. They were a bit bigger than me by a small margin. Their feathers were much brighter than my own black and blue coloring, but I didn’t mind. I liked the way I looked.
They were slower than me though. Maybe I could give them a lesson in flying faster. What that would look like, a robotic hummingbird teaching songbirds to fly faster.
Reckoned the rabbits would get a kick out of it.
For many reasons, I decided against doing so. Namely, I just wanted to enjoy the moment. I savored the warmth of the light on my face and the ever-growing scent of flowers in the air. In these fleeting moments, it was possible to forget all my past troubles and just relax.
As the air warmed, old painful memories melted away and work was easily ignored for a time. It didn’t even matter that I was a robot. I could just sit here and enjoy myself.
Sometimes when I was by myself like this, I wondered what it was like to be human. I had been once, but I couldn’t remember it anymore. A part of me knew I shouldn’t be okay with it, but it was hard to miss something I couldn’t remember.
The sound of the front door caught my attention and broke me from my wondering of things beyond my control. Kyle walked out of the house and on impulse I took to the sky before landing on his shoulder.
He smiled at me. “Hey Cliq, ready to go to work?”