Wonders of the Past

“There should be no worry of the past, but only the future.”
Year 4050, in a city inhabited by only robots. The city has no life in it, there are no trees, nor animals. The only thing the city has to offer is thousands of skyscrapers of every size, shape, and color. Every building having hundreds of shatterproof glass windows, because some robots malfunction and send their parts flying through the air. These windows also have a special mechanism to mimic day and night because the air outside them is so thick with years of pollution build up that there is no way to tell if it is truly day time or the middle of the night. The skyscrapers house every kind of robot: steel robots, tin robots, copper robots, caste iron robots and many more. Each floor with apartments for one kind of robot, heaviest on the bottom, lightest on the top floor. In the smallest building in the city, on floor 47: apartment 12, lives a family, with their teenage daughter, Ava, who has a curiosity like no other robot in the entire world.
Looking at herself in the mirror, noticing everything that makes her different from the other robots in her senior class. Her hair, sheets of purple metal on the top of her head in what is supposed to be the shape of pigtails. Every other girl at school had straight metal strands flowing down to their shoulders. She hated everything about herself, from the black sheet metal dress her mother made for her to wear to school that day, to her pale white colored, cold, tin skin. The only thing she has ever liked is her love for books, and for her curiosity of what the world used to be like before technology had advanced this far.

Every morning after finishing my bowl of screws and washers, was the dreadful walk to school. I hated walking, but I had no other choice because I don’t have enough money to buy a hover car. Walking down the grated sidewalk with everyone staring and pointing at me, laughing their screeching metal laughs to their friends, like I am some kind of clown robot that doesn’t belong in this city. I try to walk faster than everyone else around me, but the city is so congested that it’s hard to even walk at a normal pace. Clashing of metal on metal, paint scrapes and scratches.
I think the other robots dislike me because of my interest in how the world used to be before robots. Wondering if there are still parts of the world with those things called humans. Asking myself what they’d think of the world now. And if they are still here, would they be scared of us or would we be scared of them? I have no one to ask these questions at school, not even the teachers, they all think I am insane. Telling me that: “There should be no worry of the past, but only the future.” Although, now that I think about it, I don’t care about the future or about the advancements we will make in technology. I care about how the humans lived, and why robots took over the world.

“Run! It’s the history geek!” screamed Jenny, who is only the most popular girl in school, when I walked through the school doors. She always points at me, or yells things like that to get people to laugh at me. I don’t understand why she hates me so much, it’s not like I’ve ever done anything to hurt her or her friends. But this was a daily occurrence with her, which only has gotten worse as the year has gone on. I just try to ignore it, walking passed her as fast as I could to my locker, then to my first class of the day: Literature.
Mr. Caste is the teacher. All he does is hand out a book every Monday, tell us to finish it by Friday, then he sits in his desk the rest of the week not saying a word. The other kids actually read the books he gives us, but I don’t. I read my history books. Since I sit in the very back of the room, he never notices.
The rest of my school day consist of people calling me “insane,” and Calculus. I’ve never been good at math, I dread the thought of even stepping foot in that room. Mrs. Metale is like the devil. She has pointy spear-like sheets for hair, beady eyes that penetrate into your brain, and short little legs that make it hard for her to walk around the room. She always gives us hours of work to do every night. Which is why everyone in the entire school hates her.
After Calculus, I travel the long walk back to my family’s apartment. But today I took a different way home, through the alleyways where there are no robots. I am sick of seeing all of them, I hate being called crazy. I’m not- CRASH! Nearly jumping out of my own shoes, a garbage can suddenly fell in the middle of the alley nearly 50 feet in front of me. How could it be tipped over when there is no one else here? Walking slowly over to the can, scanning the area, I notice what looks like a shoe.
“AHHH!” it screamed, covering its face.
“WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU?!” was the only thing that came out of my mouth. It didn’t respond, it only looked at me through its fingers. My mind is going a mile a minute, and my gears feel like they are grinding out of my chest. I thought I was going to faint. Then it hit me, what if this thing sitting in front of me was actually a real human? I mean, I have never seen anything like this before. Interrupting me from my thoughts, it spoke.
“Please don’t hurt me. I am lost and I have no idea how I got here.”
“Are you – are you a human?” I said stuttering, unable to get the question out.
“Um, yes? What are you?”
After a couple minutes of stunned silence, I noticed it was waiting for an answer.
“I am a robot. Everyone in this city is a robot. What is your name?” I asked hesitantly.
“My name is Zoe, I was told that my name means life,” she explained as she began to stand up, walking toward me. My instant reaction was to run away. But in a way, I felt safe with her here.
“My name is Ava. Where are you from?” I asked.
“I don’t really know. I have been walking for days now.”
“You must be so tired,” I paused for a couple seconds “you know, if you would like to stay at my house to sleep for a few days until you find out what you want to do from here.”
Her face lite up with excitement, like that was the best thing she had ever heard.
“Of course I would! Oh my goodness, thank you so much!”
“But I think I will have to sneak you into my building. No one here has ever seen a human. They all think humans have disappeared. If they see you, they will kill you.”
I explained to her, trying to make her understand the importance of staying hidden from the other robots. Her face fell white when she heard those last four words. My body grew stiff at her reaction. What if she doesn’t want to come with me? I would lose my chance to get to know her, to get to know a real life human. If she doesn’t come with me, no one will believe me that I met one. I’ll be even more of a laughing stock.
“Will you keep me safe?” her voice shaking as she asked.
“I will try my hardest.” I said reassuringly.
“Okay, then I will come with you.”
Taking her arm, we walked the rest of the way through the alleys until we reached my building. I told her she had to stay behind me in order for us to get through to the elevator. Walking through the back doors of the building, we walked slowly, there were no robots in sight. Grabbing her arm, shuddering a little at the coldness of my hand, I pulled her into the elevator as quickly as I could. Selecting my floor after the doors shut, I let out a sigh of relief.
As the doors opened again, I peeked my head out, checking both ways, and ran to my door. Thankfully my parents were at work for a few more hours so no one was home. Slamming the door, I laid my back against it, watching her roam through the apartment. Showing her to my room, she fell onto my bed and closed her eyes. I plugged myself into the wall next to the bed where she lay sleeping, and drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, I awoke to her pushing against my shoulder. She was telling me that my parents were awake and moving about beyond the closed door of my bedroom. Unplugging myself, I told her that everything was going to be fine because my parents left for work in a few minutes so the coast would be clear. She had to stay at my house for the day because she couldn’t come to school with me just yet.
Leaving her in my room, I gave her food to eat and games to play while I was gone. The school day seemed to go much slower than any other. My mind not at all focusing on school. There are so many questions running through my head. Like how did she get here? Where did she even come from? And if she is here, there has to be more like her somewhere. Somewhere out there in the distance she had a family, possibly even brothers or sisters.
Once the school bell rang signaling the end of the day, I ran straight back home, not even stopping to catch my breath, or to hear the insults coming from the other robots around me. Riding the elevator, pushing the apartment door open, I sprinted to my room. Scaring her with how fast I had come in. We sat facing each other on the floor for hours, until my parent came home. I asked her so many questions. She didn’t really have any answers for me because she was so confused about how she got here in the first place. I had one question that was ultimately the most important to me.
“Would you come to school with me, to show the others that I am not, in fact, insane? That I was right the whole time about humans being real. Please do this for me.”
I had to get her to come with me, this is the chance that I have been waiting for my entire life. They will see that humans are real, and that we should not only be curious about the past but also learn from them to put forth for our future. I sat completely still as I watched her contemplate my question. After about five or so minutes she finally answered.
“I will on one condition,”
“Okay, what is it?” I responded.
“You can’t let them hurt me,” she said, tears rolling down her cheek.
“I won’t let them hurt you, I promise!” I yelled, wrapping her in my arms.

…

It’s been five years since I have seen Zoe. She agreed to coming to school with me that very next day. Everyone was in shock when we walked in through those retched school doors which had so many bad memories attached to them. All of the “popular” girls stared in amazement, their mouths dropping to the floor. I told everyone that she was a human, and they didn’t hesitate to believe me. They all wanted to talk to her, to hear her story about how she arrived in this city. That day at school was the best day of my life.
A few days afterwards, Zoe regained her memory. She told me stories of her family, about how they all lived. It was so interesting to hear about her life. I even wished I could have lived during that time with her, to actually live and not just “go with the flow” of everyday like I had been doing my entire life. I learned an immense amount of history from Zoe, she was actually my inspiration to become a History teacher.
I went to one of the best colleges, got my teaching degree, and now I have the best job I could ever imagine. All of my students are fascinated with humans, just like I was during my high school years. I cannot thank Zoe enough for what she has done for me, if it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t be where I am today. I hope to hear from her one day in the future.