This is the continued story of Simon’s Journal.
I would highly recommend you read the first volume of this story, Thirteen Days before you begin this novel.

The following narrative is nearly a complete work of fiction.
Any similarity to actual individuals living or dead is completely unintentional.
If reading a coming of age story about boys wearing diapers and exploring their awakening sexuality is offensive or illegal in your area, then might I suggest you go read War and Peace or something equally stimulating.

Simon's Journal

Volume II

Thirteen Nights – After the Crusade

Written by

Danny
Author of Thirteen Days

Chapter - 2

PART 3 – Runt, Tobor, Pen and Paper

My doctor came back in as she was helping me put my shirt back on.

“Oh yes, that looks very nice in dead!” he too gave my chest a thump with his knuckle!

“I think you will find that you will be a lot more comfortable wearing this instead of that tape! You can take it off to bathe but I’d like you to wear it when you sleep for now.” He instructed.

It took about another ten minutes or so before we were done and ready to leave. The first nurse had returned with a handful of things for dad along with written instructions.

“See you on Friday?” I asked seeing my doctor at the end of the hall.

“Yes! On Friday! Now go get some Ice-cream, Doctor’s orders!” he announced back and I looked up at dad.

“You heard him! I got to go have ice-cream!!!” I nearly shouted.

Dad laughed and we both walked out of the doctor’s off and headed for the car.

After we pulled out of the parking lot dad drove straight to Dairy Queen, which was less then a block from the doctor’s office and where I made a serious pig of myself. I had a Foot long Coney Dog with all the fixings, a large root beer and . . . by the way, whoever it was that said that food can’t fix anything, never had a three topping banana split with extra cherries, nuts and whipped cream. Trust me, it made everything better!

Dad however, was absolutely flabbergasted that I was able to put all that food away. “Where are you putting all that stuff? He asked.

“Gee-whiz dad! I have had a very hard day and I needed to refuel!” I said with chocolate syrup dripping down my chin and onto the table.

After we ate, dad asked if I wanted to go to the hospital for a quick visit with my friends and of course, I jumped at that idea. Okay, that was a bit of an understatement. I’d just had the equivalent of about ten pounds of sugar! I didn’t just jump; I sprang from my seat and began to bounce around madly, “Yes! Yes! Yes! Come on!”

Dad was smiling as he cropped his one hotdog rapper and half drank cup of coffee along with my empty cup, empty ice-cream bowl and wadded up Coney wrapper into the trash. I nearly ran out the door and to the car while dad gingerly strolled behind me while rubbing his tummy as if he’d just ate a large horse. He drove us to the hospital, walked me up to the room where I’d stayed just a few days ago and allowed me to visit for a while with my hospital-imprisoned friends.

As I walked into the room, and before I could say anything Bruce, Harry, Scotty, Kyle and Mark all spotted me and shouted my name all at once. “SIMON!”

“Hi guys!” I greeted back with a hearty bellow of my own. “Uh, where’s Cole?” I asked.

“Ah they sent him home!” Harry said kneeling and bouncing excitedly on his bed.

Right then, in walked Nurse Gabby. Sounding slightly angrily she started to say, “What is all the ruckus in here?” but when she saw me the corners of her mouth curled up and she said, “Oh I see, I should have know it was you!” You know, the way she said it made it sound as if I was some sort of troublemaker – so I took it as a complement and smiled back up at her!

She got a funny look in her eyes and then added, “Come here and give me a hug before I kick you out of here for disturbing these boys!” and then she smiled really wide.

She bent down and I wrapped my arms around her neck and hugged her tightly.

“What’s this?” she asked feeling my new body armor beneath my shirt.

I lifted the front of my shirt up to my chin to showed her my new breastplate and not realizing until it was too late that my diaper was sticking out of my pants several inches all the way around. For maybe half a second I started to get embarrassed but then I remembered that she and all the boys had not only seen me in diapers but the boys were all in diapers themselves and she’d not only seen me in diapers but had changed me and even seen me totally naked. The boys all bounded out of their beds on their own, even Mark surprised me by getting out of his bed and coming over to get a gander at me. It had been Cole, the one boy that was missing now who’d been in the room when I had. He’d had a nasty accident and nearly lost his arm but the doctors were not only able to save his arm, but he also was able to use it too. Cole had told me only days before that Mark was not doing so well and that he didn’t have much time left. To see Mark just then, I would never think he was even slightly sick, let alone on the edge of life and death!

“Wow! What is that?” Harry asked leaning on Scotty for a little support.

“It’s to keep my ribs in place and protected while they heal.” I said knocking on the front to show them how sturdy it was.

“Well I’ll be!” Nurse Gabby said stroking the plastic in an almost passionate sort of manner. “I’ve never seen anything like it!” she added while spinning me around and lifting my shirt up in the back to get the full picture. “And it fits so very snugly! I imagine it would get hot in there?” she asked as she patted the plastic and Velcro on my shoulders.

“No, not yet anyway!” I said sneaking a glance across the room to where Cole’s bed had been, there was now another much smaller boy lying there asleep, at least he looked smaller from the size of the lump he made from under the covers. I could only see the very top of the back of his head from where I was standing. My bed, or at least the one that had been mine was once again empty and that surprised me a little.

“I only just got it today! Do you know Doctor Zuligram?” I asked her.

“No, I’ve never heard of him.” She said while lifting my shirt even higher to inspect the Velcro straps that held the front and back so snuggly together.

“That’s really cool!” Mark said.

“Can I try it on?” Scotty asked.

“No you cannot try it on Scotty! Don’t be silly!” Nurse Gabby said pulling my shirt back down.

“And how are you?” She finally said to my dad.

“Oh I’m doing great, all things considered!” dad said and had I not been listening to Scotty more then the two of them, I might have caught that dad was saying a lot more with those words then I realized.

We boys moved away from the two adults who continued to chat while we talked by ourselves. We had been yammering on for no more then two-minutes when the hospital loud speaker began to blare, “CODE BLUE ROOM 713! CODE BLUE ROOM 713!”

Nurse Gabby fled from the room in an instant. Dad looked over at me, pointed and said very sternly, “Stay in here and don’t even think of leaving this room!”

I felt a little hurt by his tone and the way he said it, as if I was being punished or something. Dad too left the room and turned the same direction as Nurse Gabby had gone.

“What do you think that’s all about?” I asked the guys.

“Someone’s dieing!” Harry said.

“Yea, that’s what Code Blue means.” Scotty added.

“No, not that!” I jokingly took a slow swing at Scotty’s head with my fist and in turn, as if in slow motion, reacted to the blow while adding his own sound effects. “I was meaning my dad!” I said looking over my shoulder toward the door.

After a few seconds, we forgot about the sudden emergency and began chatting again. I found out that the reason Mark was feeling so well, was that the doctors had given him some new medication that had only just come out. It had totally turned his health around and in less than a day, he said he had felt no more pain and felt better then he could ever remember feeling.

“Man, that’s like a miracle!” I said.

To which Mark laughed and said, “That is what everyone keeps saying.”

“Yea that one guy, he was funny!” Harry said.

“What guy?” I asked but I never did find out whom Harry meant because just then Scotty cut the loudest and juiciest sounding fart.

“Oh gawd Scotty!” I gagged as the scent hit me.

“Gee-whiz! What you been eating?” Mark said covering his face with a pillow.

Scotty smiled and said, “Greetings from the diaper gravy factory!”

That sent us all into fits of laughter and telling jokes that were too racy for boys of our ages to know, but we did anyway. Time went by fast and before I knew it, dad had returned looking odd - I mean he didn’t look like his normal self. A few short minutes later, I discovered why.

“You about ready to go?” he asked while pulling a hanky from his pocket and dabbing at his upper lip.

“Can I stay just a little longer?” I whined.

“Normally I’d say yes, but I we have somewhere to be in just under a half-hour.” Dad said looking at watch and stuffing his hanky back into this pocket.

“Where?” I asked.

“Now if I told you that, it would not be a surprise!” dad said with an evil grin.

“Okay!” I lamented and turned back to the guys, “I will be back soon! I promised.”

“See ya, Simon!” Scotty said.

“See ya, stinky!” I joked back and laughed.

The rest of the guys said their good-byes as well and as we left I glanced back one more time to see each of the boys sitting on Scotty’s bed looking longingly at me. I suddenly felt as if I were abandoning them or something.

Dad and I walked back down the hall and as we neared the elevators I looked up at dad and asked, “What happened?”

“What do you mean?” dad asked and I wasn’t sure if he was trying to avoid my question or was just not paying attention to me.

I stopped dead and he stopped too, turned and looked down at me with a very puzzled expression. I thumbed over my shoulder, “Back there, what was the emergency?”

Dad’s face sort of dropped and he took a deep breath like he was going to say something but he didn’t.

“You’re not going to tell me are you?” I asked still looking up at him.

He still just looked at me as if he was trying to find something to say but couldn’t come up with anything.

“Is Runt dead?” I asked right out of the blue.

I thought dad’s eyes were going to fall out of his head and roll right back down the hallway. “No!” he said quickly. “Alright, I’ll tell you but you have to promise not to get upset?”

“What?” I nearly shouted.

“It was Runt, but he was okay! He woke up from his comma and had pulled out the wires, tubes and needles they had him hooked up with.” Dad said kneeling down so that he was at my eye level. He’d also taken hold of both of my arms and I felt like he was trying to keep me from running away. But honestly I didn’t know why he thought I would get upset or go running. If anything I felt like shouting and cheering that Runt had woke up and was so strong that he could pull all those things off him!

“He’s okay, he really is okay!” Dad said twice and I thought back to a movie I’d seen a while back where this guy told this other guy that if someone says something two times you could be sure he was lying. However, I was sure dad was not lying.

“The doctors and nurses are with him and are checking him out,” dad said and added for the third time, “but he’s okay!”

“Then that’s good news, right?” I asked.

Dad thought a second before answering, “Yes, I think it is good news.”

“You’re not scared?” dad asked.

“Why would I be scared?” I asked back but before dad could answer I figured it out and said, “Oh, you think I’m scared Runt will come after me?”

Dad smiled, “You don’t have to worry about that!” he said.

“But dad? I’m not worried about that!” and adopting a bit of an accusatorial tone I said, “You sound like you are worried about it but really I’m not!” As I said that last part I’d placed my hands on his arms.

He wrapped his arms around my head and hugged me, “You really are a good kid! You know that?”

“Yea, ‘sept I’m not a kid!” I said back partly joking but more serious.

“Come on! Let’s blow this two-bit popsicle stand!” dad said standing up and taking my hand in his.

Being the smart-mouth that I am, I could just let things go, I had to add as we were walking for the elevators, “Popsicles? I want a Popsicle!”

“How about just a pop in the mouth?” dad asked.

“Only if it’s grape flavored!” I continued.

He put my head in a loose headlock that I could have easily slipped out of if I’d wanted too, but I didn’t. We got on the elevator and rode it all the way down like that and when the door opened again this fat lady was standing there nearly blocking the entire door. She looked just plan assaulted to see my dad holding my head in a vise-like headlock.

“Hiya Lady!” I said with a dismissive wave of my left hand as dad and I walked out of the elevator and all the way out of the hospital that same way. We both laughed all the way out to the car.

“You know, I think that lady thought we were nuts!” I said to dad as I was climbing into the front seat and pulling my door closed.

“I don’t know about you, but I can say with complete confidence, that I am not nuts!” dad joked.

“I’m not so sure about that!” I countered.

Dad started the car, “So where we going now?” I asked hoping to catch him off guard and trick him into telling me.

“It’s a surprise!” dad said again.

“Is it far?” I asked.

“That depends?” he said.

“On what?” I asked.

“On what you are comparing it too.” He said.

“Okay, is it about as close as home is from here?” I asked as he pulled out of the parking space.

“Oh, about.” He said as if he had to think about it.

“Is it closer?” I asked.

“No, it’s just about as far as the house.” He declared.

He turned the car in the opposite direction of home, which further added in confusing me about our possible destination.

“I got no idea!” I said.

“Good, then you will be that much more surprised.” He said.

I sat quiet for several minutes while we drove on down the road. However when he turned toward the Riverside Mall I nearly shouted, “Are we going to the Mall?”

He covered his right ear with his hand, “No we’re not going to the Mall!” he chuckled.

“But it’s close to the Mall?” I asked.

“It is,” Was all he said.

When we reached the street the Mall was on, I knew he’d have to turn left to go to it and when he did turn left I shouted, “YOU LIED! WE ARE GOING TO THE MALL!”

He recovered his ear again, “Don’t shout and I did not lie! We are not going to the Mall!” he said with an air of smugness.

And that is when I saw the sign . . .

Riverside Arena

Open to the Public

March 2, 3 & 4

Electronics Show and Sale

And for about thirty seconds I got super excited and then I remembered, “But today is only the first day of March?” I said as I spin in my seat to face him, or as much as I could given that I had on a seatbelt.

“Yep, but someone happen to get special tickets to the Vendor’s Show today.” Dad said pointing up at the sign.

As he pulling into the parking lot for the arena I looked back up and saw that in smaller letters, just below where it said ‘Electronics Show and Sale’ it also said,

March 1 – Vendors Day by Invitation Only

“We’re going in? TODAY?” I shouted.

Dad grinned from ear-to-ear, “Yep!” he said and from the sun-visor in front of me he produced two VIP tickets to the Vendors Day Electronics Show and Sale.

“But don’t we have to be?” I started to ask.

“A buddy of mine wasn’t able to make it today and asked if I’d go for him to check everything out. He also thought you might like to go with me.” Dad said handing the two tickets to me to look at.

I took the tickets and looked them over. All around the four edges were the names of what I guessed were computer companies that would be at the show.

I looked up at dad with a puzzled look on my face and he looked over at me for only a second. “What’s that look about?” he asked.

“You aren’t teasing me are you?” I asked.

He laughed, “Would I tease you about something like this?” he asked.

“YES!” I accused him.

He laughed harder, “No I’m not teasing you son!” And he pulled the car into a parking space not too far from the front doors to the Arena.

I continued to look at him unable to believe that this could be real. Dad put the car into park and looked at me, “Well, come on!”

“Oh my gawd!” I nearly had a fix right then and there, “You aren’t kidding? We’re really going in? OH MY GAWD!!!” I screamed with more excitement then I could possible contain in my little body.

Dad laughed as he climbed from the car. I nearly exploded out of my side of the car and slammed the door behind me. I was both in shock and about to burst with excitement, “Oh my gawd! Oh my gawd! Oh my gawd!” I kept repeating and rubbing my hands together like a worried and expectant father.

Dad was getting quite a bit of enjoyment out of the way I was acting but I just couldn’t help myself. We reached the front door and dad stopped, looked down at me and said, “Just kidding!” and turned back for the car.

“Oh you are so going to die!” I said very flatly and dad nearly fell over laughing. He turned back around and pulled open one of the doors and held it open for me to enter.

“You are so not funny!” I said trying not to laugh myself as we entered.

“Welcome to Vendor’s Day!” a bubbly red-headed lady said to us. “What company are you with?” she asked.

“Volqure Enterprises.” Dad said and I looked up at him about to ask who or what Volqure Enterprises was but I thought better of it.

The bubbly lady looked on a clipboard, ran her finger down a long list of names and then said, “Oh here you are!” and made a mark with a pen.

Dad nudged me, “Give her the tickets.”

“Oh, sorry!” I said handing them to her.

She smiled at me and I could see her gum in her mouth that she’d been chewing while she talked, “Thank you so very much!” she bubbled. “And here are your passes!” she said handing both dad and I a clip on sort of ID. I pinned mine to my shirt and as I did the sharp pin poked my chest plate. I giggled.

“What you giggling at?” dad asked.

“It just saved me from getting stabbed!” I said knocking on my chest.

“Then it’s worth every penny!” dad joked as he pinned his own badge in place on his shirt.

We walked on into the enormous arena that was literally packed with every sort of computer or electronics’ company I could think of and maybe a few others that I couldn’t. The place was swarming with activity but it wasn’t crowded the way I’d expected it to be. I’d been on the computer show last year with dad but we went as regular people and the place had been insanely packed. Dad had to hold on to the back of my shirt most of the time we were at that show so that I didn’t get lost in the sea of people. I know that wouldn’t be a problem today.

Dad reached out and grabbed a small hold on the back of my hair to stop me from wandering off in a daze.

“Sorry.” I said realizing I was falling into a hypnotic trance with all the lights, signs and electronic gadgetry.

“I don’t want you to go wandering off okay?” dad said letting go of my hair.

“Yea!” I said nearly bouncing with excitement.

“As long as you stay where I can see you, you can walk around and look at everything,” he instructed, “but don’t touch anything!”

I didn’t wait for him to dismiss me. I sped away at a fast walk, still making sure I kept him within sight the whole time.

We’d wandered around for over an hour and only saw maybe about a third of the booths. And then we came to this one booth that had this huge blue and red banner with bright yellow letters stretched overhead. The banner read, “Tomorrow’s Technology Today”.

Dad had caught up to me a few minutes earlier and we entered the booth together. They had some of the coolest looking computers I’d ever seen in my life. One of them looked like something right out of a Star Trek movie. Just beside this one really humongous server computer there was this regular looking I-Mac computer, almost like the one I have at home in my room.

“Hey dad?” I nudged him with my elbow, “Look at this one!” I said pointing the I-Mac. “It’s almost like mine!” I said.

Though my I-Mac was nothing to be scoffed at, here amongst all these state of the art computers this I-Mac looked kind of shamefully plane and lacking.

“Huh, that looks like yours!” dad said while giving me a slight nudge in the butt with his knee, though I hardly felt it through my diaper but I did hear my diaper crinkle a bit. For maybe a half a second I felt self conscious the others might have heard it, too, but my fascination with all the computers and wondering why there was an I-Mac among them ran the though right out of my head before it could even coagulate and take root.

“Ah! But can yours do this?” a young salesman looking guy said pressing the spacebar.

The scream lit up with a single neon green colored line cutting horizontally across the middle of the screen.

“Simon!” the sales man said.

“Yea?” I asked just as the computer said, “Yes boss?” in a very electronic sounding voice.

“Holy cow!” I shouted, “Did that computer just talk to you?”

“Meet Simon Says!” the salesman said pointing at the screen.

“It’s named Simon too?” I asked. “That’s my name!”

“It is?” the man asked. And then he looked at the computer, “Simon, say hello to Simon.” And the horizontal neon green light bounced as the computer began to speak, “Hello Simon Boss!”

I smiled open mouth up at dad who looked to be as impressed as I was. “That is so cool!”

“Simon Says is a completely voice operated and interactive personal assistance program.” The salesman said placing his hand on the computer and stroking it as if it were alive.

“Simon Says is about the coolest thing I think I have ever seen!” I said taking a step closer to it.

“Thank you!” the computer said.

“Wow!” dad said.

“We’re actually debuting its release to the public this week for the first time.” The salesman said and then like clockwork he slid into his sales speech which lasted about ten minutes. I caught only bits and pieces of what he was saying, but the one thing I did catch was when he said it was retailing for $199 dollars.

“Two-hundred-dollars for a computer game?” I heard dad say.

“Not a computer game dad!” I said before the salesman could counter dad’s comment, “He’s a voice operated and interactive personal assist!”

“Oh no!” dad said when I finished.

“What?” I said looking up at him.

“The last time you talked about something like that I ended up having to buy you two gerbils that you ended up letting loose in the house!” dad said with his hands on his hips just he way mom always does.

“Hey! That wasn’t my fault! They escaped by themselves!” I said to the salesman as if I had to defend myself to him.

“You won’t forget to feed me will you?” the computer spoke up.

“Oh that’s too funny!” dad said with a laugh.

“What do you eat?” I asked Simon Says.

“Aside from the occasional planet, not too much!” the computer said in response.

“That is amazing!” I said again.

“Ask it anything you want!” the salesman said.

“Okay!” I said with an evil grin and dad said to the salesman, “Oh no, you’ve done it now!”

I look a deep breath and asked, “What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?”

The horizontal neon green line stayed motionless for several seconds before the computer spoke up, “Forty-Two!”

“NO WAY!” I shouted.

“Was that wrong?” the sales guy asked.

“No! That was exactly the right answer!” I said.

“Of course!” the computer added.

“Dad you have got to buy me one of these!” I said pulling on his arms.

“No I don’t!” he countered.

“PLEASE!” I begged.

“Yea dad please!” the computer begged which made dad laugh.

“That’s not fair!” dad complained with a big smile when the computer came to my aid.

The sales guy started laughing; I guessed from the idea that he felt he had the sale in the bag. But then I realized he was laughing too hard and then it hit me that I was being had. I looked up at dad who now had one hand over his mouth trying to stifle his laughter. He pulled his other hand free from my grip and pointed to a guy sitting at the far side of the booth with a microphone in his hand.

“Awe man!” I said and stomped my foot.

Everyone around us started laughing and after a minute or so I started laughing too. “That was just mean!” I said to the sales guy!

“Yea but it was funny and we got it all on camera!” he said pointing to a web camera sitting beside one of the other computers.

“I really thought Simon Says was real!” I grumbled and then dad said, “Simon, this is my friend Jerry Altero. He’s the one that gave me the tickets!”

“Awe dad!” I gowned at realizing just how much I’d been fooled.

We hung out at Jerry’s booth for quite a while. Jerry showed me some really cool things on some of the computers but nothing was a cool as Simon Says was. Just before we left Jerry’s booth I felt the need to go pee but just as had happened earlier today, when I felt the need to go it was too late and I was already flooding my diaper. I knew if I told dad how much I had wet he’d want to leave the show to keep from risking me having a leak so I kept it to myself for the time being and I found myself regretting drinking so much at lunch time.

Eventually we continued to peruse the other booths. Dad ended up buying several things for his home office and also bought me an accessory kit for my new electronic journal that Aunt Catharine had given me for my birthday. It had all kinds of cool stuff in it that would help me with my homework, writing reports and things like that.

By the time we left, we had been at the show for about three hours and I was starting to wear out pretty quickly. Actually leaving was my idea. I’d taken hold dad’s hand and said, “Dad? I’m not feeling so good.”

“Yea, I imagine you are getting tired. We might have overdone it a little today.” He said.

“Can we go home?” I asked.

“You want me to put you on my shoulders?” Dad asked and I wasn’t sure if he was serious or teasing me again.

On the chance he was serious I said, “Um, I think I might be too big for that?”

“Humm, maybe so.” He replied.

So we started to head for the front of the arena toward the doors we’d come in though. However, just as we were about to reach the doors we both heard someone calling my name. I turned in the direction I thought the voice had come from, it was hard to tell because it was pretty loud and the arena was so big. I was both shocked and happy to see Lowell sort of half walking and half jogging toward dad and me.

“Oh hello there Lowell!” dad said when he realized who it was. Dad had got to meet Lowell at my birthday party so it didn’t surprise me that he remembered Lowell.

“Hi Mr. Leonard!” Lowell said as he reached us.

“Hey Lowell! What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I’m here with my uncle!” Lowell said pointing to a booth way down in the direction he came but there were so many people and so many booths that I had no idea to who or where he was pointing too.

“Didn’t you have school today?” dad asked.

“Na, I got to come here instead today but I got to go to school tomorrow.” He sounded disappointed about that fact.

“You been here all day?” I asked.

“Yea, all day!” Lowell said pulling up his pants as they were sliding down his hips. As he yanked up on the waistband of his pants I got a fast glimpse of his Pull-Up when his shirt came up just a bit.

“Does your uncle have a booth here?” dad asked.

“Yea!” Lowell said and again he pointed down the same isle. “It’s down there. See that big yellow sign that says Toshiba?”

“Oh yea!” I said spotting the sign.

“That’s us! We’re selling Plasma Televisions.” Lowell said, “I even sold one about an hour ago, all by myself!” he said proudly.

“Really?” dad said with a hint of surprise.

Lowell puffed out his chest, “Yep! I didn’t have any help at all!”

“Oh hey! I got to show you something!” I suddenly said as I lifted my shirt, once again forgetting the fact that I was wearing a diaper. Sure enough my pants were hanging on my hips allowing several inches of my diaper to be exposed. Lowell didn’t react at seeing my diaper at all but he did react at seeing my new chest guard.

“Whoa! What’s that?” Lowell asked as he started to reach out to touch it but he stopped himself before he did touch me. I guess he was scared he might hurt me or something.

“It’s to protect my broken ribs!” I said and then the two of us went on talking for several minutes.

I’d not realized it but dad had moved several feet away and was looking at a new cell phone. I only knew he’d gone when a security guard came up to the two of us and looking more then just a little mean and angry said, “No children are allowed to be in here without adult supervision.”

I was just about to yell for dad when the big ape of a man broke into a big yellow-toothed grin and Lowell said to me, “Simon, this here is Bob! He’s the muscle here this year!”

Bob stuck out his hand, which to me looked to be as big as my head and said, “Glad to meet you Simon!” and he shook my hand as if he were trying to pump water from a well.

Lowell reached over to me and pulled my other arm down and that was when I realized I was still holing up my shirt. I must have turned twenty shades of red in as many seconds. Bob only winked at me, leaned down and said, “Not to worry, I won’t tell!” and then walked away.

“Holy Crap that was embarrassing!” I said dropping my face into my hands.

“Don’t worry about it! Bob knows that I wear ‘em too!” Lowell said lifting up one side of his shirt enough to let me see the waistband of his Pull-Up again.

“It was still embarrassing!” I said as dad came walking back over to us with another bag hanging at his side.

“New phone?” I asked.

“Nope, two! One for your mom!” dad said.

“But mom can’t even get the one she has now to work?” I said with a knowing smile.

“She will this one!” he said but I knew she wouldn’t. Mom’s just not technical.

“Lowell, we’re off to the house now!” dad said extending his hand and I suddenly had an idea.

“Um, you want to come home with us?” I asked before thinking.

“Huh?” Lowell said also before thinking.

“Yea you can help me install the new accessory kit dad bought me!” I said and then dad chimed in. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”

“Yea, I’m not supposed to leave my Uncle! My mom gave me strict instructions!” he said, “But maybe after dinner, when I get home?” He added hopefully.

“That sounds a lot better!” dad said patting Lowell on the shoulder.

“Okay, cool! Um call when you get home okay?” I said.

“Yea okay! I better get back to our booth now! Bye!” Lowell said and took off running down the aisle.

I felt dad’s hand on the back of my neck directing me toward the doors but we didn’t get to take but a single step before we were again stopped. This absolutely awesome robot was standing directly in front of us blocking our way to the door.

“Hello I am Tobor.” The robot said.

Now after the practical joke of Simon Says there was no way I was going to fall for it again. I started looking around for the person with the remote control and microphone and I noticed dad was doing the same thing.

All the way over to our left in the corner was a booth with a not so big sign that said, Tobor Robotics.

“Hello I am Tobor.” The robot said again which got dad and me to look at it again.

It was maybe six inches shorter then me and though it looked like a robot, it also looked very much like a humanoid. Most of its external covering was white and looked to be plastic while its joints were all a flat black color. Where its eyes should be was a glowing oval shape that seemed to be changing colors slowly.

“What is your name?” the robot asked.

Dad and I both looked toward the booth for the person or persons operating the robot but the few people at the booth seemed to be busy talking with others and not paying attention to this robot.

“What is your name?” the robot asked again.

“I’m Simon.” I said while still looking at the booth for any evidence of someone messing with dad and me.

“It is nice to meet you Simon. I am Tobor.” The robot said and just as a child might do it looked up toward dad and said, “Hello, I am Tobor. Who are you?”

“I am Simon too.” Dad answered it.

“It is nice to meet you Simon Two.” The robot said which made me snicker.

“I am sorry, did I say something funny?” the robot asked looking at me.

That settled it for me, I was sure someone was operating this humanoid looking machine.

“Can we go over there before we go?” I asked dad while pointing to the booth.

“Sure, if you think you are up to it.” Dad said but I had already started for the Tobor Robotics booth.

As we crossed the front of the arena dad and I both realized we were being followed. We stopped and looked at the robot that was walking . . . yes I said WALKING, right behind us.

As if it sensed that we were again looking at it, it said, “Hello, I am Tobor.”

“Yea, you said that already!” I said with a bit of sarcasm in my voice. I was sure that someone was talking through the robot and he was beginning to bug me to no end.

“I am sorry.” The robot said while raising its right arm and clamp style hand to where its mouth would be if it had a mouth. But instead of a mouth, it had only white plastic just like the rest of its body.

“Oh this is just too creepy!” dad said.

“It’s not real dad! Someone’s got to be controlling it.” I said but no sooner had the words come out of my mouth then this short oriental lady walked up to us and almost sounding insulted she said, “Tobor is most certainly a fully independent interactive robotic life form!”

“Excuse me?” dad said with equal distain.

The oriental lady’s face puckers as she says, “Tobor is as real and independent as you and I! The only difference between you and Tobor is that he feeds of electricity. Other then that, he does everything you do, he has feelings, sings, dances, and learns. The older he gets the more he learns.”

“I am real.” Tobor said giving my arm a nudge.

“Are you really real?” I asked Tobor.

“Are you?” Tobor asked.

“Actually no! I am just a wooden puppet that my dad here carved.” I said to Tobor.

Tobor stood silent for a couple seconds and then a sound came out of him that I guess was laughter. “Eep, Eep, Eep, Eep, Eep! That is a good one!” Tobor said while holding the sides of its head.

I noticed that his eye, uh, panel thing had turned a very bright shade of blue when it laughed.

“Why did its eye thing turn colors?” I asked the lady and evidentially I asked the right question because she suddenly brightened up and started to tell us all about Tobor and how he worked.

“Tobor here shows his emotions by the color of his eyes.” I noted that she said eyes despite the fact that I saw only the one oval in the middle of what I guessed was his face.

“Tobor can recognize up to 27 distinct voices and knows which to obey and which not too. Also, as I said before, Tobor can learn just as you and I learn.” She stopped talking to us and began talking to the robot.

“Tobor, how old are you?” She asked.

“In human, dog, or robot years?” Tobor asked and I thought I detected a note of humor in the way Tobor asked it.

“You choose.” She answered.

“In comparison of robot years to human, I am the equivalent age of eleven years, three months, twelve days, thirteen hours, twenty-seven minutes.” Tobor said.

“Wow, you’re nearly the same age as my son here.” Dad said patting me on the head.

Tobor looked at me, then dad and then the lady before asking her, “Why did he do that?”

“Do what?” she asked.

Tobor took two steps toward me and just as dad had done Tobor patted the top of my head only harder.

“Ouch, hey take it easy!” I grumbled.

“Oh my, I am very sorry did I damage you?” Tobor asked.

“Na, I’m okay.” I said rubbing my head.

“Why do you think he did that, Tobor?” the lady asked.

Tobor did not answer right away and for a couple seconds there I thought maybe it had run out of power but just as I was about to say something else Tobor raised both its arms into the air and announced, “To keep him from growing taller?”

I thought dad was going to laugh himself to death over that one! Tobor was laughing along with all of us, “Eep, Eep, Eep, Eep, Eep!”

“As you can see, he’s even able to master humor.” She said though her laugher.

Dad and I spent another good 20 minutes talking with the lady and Tobor. We learned that Tobor was the latest in artificial intelligence and was a prototype. That meant that Tobor was the one and only of his kind. Also something that I thought was cool, Tobor is Robot spelled backwards and Tobor was the one that came up with that name all by itself.

While we continued to talk and hear about Tobor as well as interact with the robot something the lady had said earlier was replaying in my head. “The only difference between you and Tobor is that he feeds of electricity.” And if that was true, did that mean that Tobor peed and pooped too? I know it was something only a twisted and demented person like myself would think about when faced with such an incredible piece of technology but that is what I was thinking. Sadly thought, I didn’t have the guts to ask her or Tobor but I would have had a good time had I been able to talk and play alone with Tobor for a while

The funny thing about our encounter with Tobor was that as dad and I were finally leaving, I felt like I’d made a new friend with Tobor and was going to miss him. It was really weird since I knew he, err I mean it, was just a machine, I think . . .

Next Installment:

Chapter 2 – Part 4 – It may not be first contact, but it is first discovery

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