The Red Robot
When Julie came back into the room she noticed something was different. She couldn’t put her finger on it at first. Then, as she slowly scanned the room with her eyes, her OCD twitching at the back of her brain, she landed on it.
But surely it can’t be.
She walked up to her bureau, inspecting it closely. The it in question was the small red robot toy her boyfriend had put on the bureau, ‘a rare collector’s item,’ he had said. And yes, she was certain that it had moved in the last few minutes. Even saying it to herself sounded absurd.
How is that even possible?
Julie peered closely at the robot, looking it up and down for buttons or switches or a battery compartment. Anything that could have been turned on or wound up, proving it had the mechanical capability to move on its own.
Nothing.
She was careful not to pick it up at first. After all, that was her only proof that it had moved or been moved.
She thought back to the night before, when Sam, her boyfriend, had placed it on her bureau, right next to her perfume. For weeks, Julie had been trying to get him to feel more at home in her apartment. He really was there every night and maybe having his stuff around would help soothe her anxiety about the next step of their relationship — living together.
What do they call that— immersion therapy?
Julie even cleared out a drawer for him and some space in the bathroom cabinet. So, finally, last night, when he arrived with a small bag, she was elated. She assumed he would bring the usual things, toiletries, some changes of clothes.
However, after filling up the bureau drawer and bathroom with his things, Sam had brought out a small box. In it was the small red robot staring back at her from behind its plastic window. He eagerly began telling her how his father had given it to him when he was five years old, how it was one of his most cherished possessions, even brought him luck.
“You don’t think I’m weird or anything for bringing it, do you?”
Julie had watched his sweet excited face watching her. And in that pause between his question and her answer, she thought she had caught something in the robot’s beady eyes, a glint of judgment towards her.
She had replied that she loved that he was sharing it with her, that if it meant something to him then it meant something to her. And she had sealed it with a kiss. Then Sam had taken the robot out of his box and carefully placed it on her bureau.
Fuck, not there.
But Julie had said nothing and let him put it there.
That night, she could have sworn that she saw the robot’s eyes glowing red and following her as they had prepared for bed, as they had sex, and as she had gotten up in the middle of the night for a glass of water. She even made a joke about it to Sam that morning.
And he had joked back, “Of course, it’s secretly filming your every move, making sure you behave when I’m not around.”
That morning, after Sam had left for work, Julie had been doing yoga in the bedroom when she realized the sunlight from the windows landed directly on the red robot. It had caused a bright glare to bounce off of it and hit her right in the face. That’s when she had moved the robot to the other corner of the bureau, out of the sunlight.
Now, an hour later, as she returned from the kitchen with a fresh cup of coffee, Julie found that damn little robot back on the other side of the bureau, in the original spot where Sam had placed it. She sat down at her desk, thinking she must have moved it back after doing yoga, being so zenned out after Shavansana that she had forgotten she’d done it. But as she sat there staring at her computer screen, she mentally began retracing her steps. She was sure she hadn’t touched it again.
She got back up and walked around her bureau, jostling against it at first, then walking heavily across the floor in front of the bureau. However, nothing on the bureau budged, let alone moved.
Dammit, what is going on?!
Julie paced back and forth in front of the robot for a good two minutes before convincing herself to sit back down and ignore it. She had to get this article to her editor by noon. Occasionally, over the next hour, she would pause from her writing and glance over at the robot. Its beady little eyes appeared to be staring back at her with defiance, almost as if they were saying, ‘How dare you move me without my permission.’
She shook her head at how much she was overreacting. Meanwhile her coffee cup was empty and her imagination was full of everything BUT the article she needed to finish. So, Julie took her laptop and her cup and went into the kitchen to work.
A little later, riding high on the buzz of her submission and too much caffeine, she came back into the bedroom to change before heading out to run some errands. However, her eyes were once again drawn to the robot.
What the hell!
The red robot had up and moved again. And this time Julie was 100% sure because it was now standing on her desk, staring at her. Her legs gave away and she plopped down on the bed.
Am I losing my mind?
No! She had to put an end to this. She got up, grabbed the robot, and threw it in the top drawer of the bureau, shutting it abruptly.
Now let’s see you get out of there!
Julie wasn’t going to wait around for this to turn into some kind of horror movie about a possessed toy. She could already see the robot coming after her weilding a sharp pen.
This is silly. It’s just a little toy. It can’t do anything to me.
She quickly changed and left the apartment. Later that day, after her errands were done, Julie met up with her friend Phoebe for a drink. She comically told her about that morning’s adventure with the red robot. Phoebe laughed, but didn’t believe it was true, thinking it was one of Julie’s clever little stories.
“Speaking of stories,” Phoebe added, “how is your book coming along?”
Julie expertly maneuvered a change of topic away from her book and, before she knew it, they had each had two more glasses of wine and it was already past 6 pm. She playfully joked to Phoebe that it was probably safe now to go back to the apartment, Sam should be there.
Soon after, Julie arrived back at her place, calling out to Sam as she dropped her bags in the hallway. He met her there, carrying his overnight bag.
“Where’ve you been?”, he said, “I tried calling you.”
Taking out her phone she saw the two missed calls from Sam.
“Sorry, I was runing errands and then I met up with Phoebe for a drink. Are you hungry? Want to order in?”
“Uh, I actually need to run home. So, I’m going to just spend the night there.”
Eyeing his bag, Julie suddenly remembered where she had left the red robot.
“Oh? Bringing over more stuff?”
“No. Look, maybe this was a bad idea.”
“Wait, what? Is this about the red robot? Babe, listen, I have to tell you the crazy morning I had. I’m sorry I left it in the drawer but, first off, can that robot move?”
Julie began rattling off what had happened earlier that day in the same nervously comical way she had told Phoebe. However, it didn’t land with Sam the same way. He was not amused, he was annoyed and even a bit hurt.
Sam shook his head, giving her that disappointed look that she hated. “If you don’t like the robot, you could have said something. But to make up this story and then to throw it in a draw like that. It’s a collector’s item! I shouldn’t have even taken it out of its box.”
“I’m not making it up! I swear! I know how ridiculous it sounds, but, look, Sam, I’m sorry for moving it. Did I break it or something?”
“No, but that’s not the point. I brought it here for a reason.”
Fuck! Suddenly Julie realized the red robot had been a test. No, had it been a test? Like a ‘If this woman loves my robot as much as she says she loves me then maybe we have a future together’ kind of test. No, it can’t be! He’s not like that.
“What reason?”
“Jesus, Jules, it’s important to me. I told you that. My Dad gave it to me! The fact that I brought here at all should tell you something.”
“Right but I didn’t harm it. I just moved it. Don’t you think you’re overreacting?”
Sam squinted his eyes at her. “You mean the way you overreacted when I asked if it was cool if I left some stuff here?”
“What? No, I’m the one who encouraged you to bring your stuff over. I even made space for you.”
“Yeah, like more than a month after I first mentioned it.”
No, but yeah…Sam had a point. Maybe he had brought up leaving his stuff there earlier. This conversation was turning against Julie and she needed to get it under control.
“Listen, babe, can we just forget about this? It’s silly. I didn’t mean anything by putting it in the drawer, I swear, it was just kind of creeping me out, distracting me. I didn’t mean anything personal by it, I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t want it to creep you out,” Sam said, clearly injured. “I think it’s best if I bring it back to my place. I don’t know what happened with it this morning or what you imagined, but the robot can’t move on its own. Listen, let’s talk tomorrow, okay?”
An hour later, Julie was alone in her apartment, zoning out in front of an old French movie as she greedily ate a takeout pizza. Things felt familiar again. She realized it was the first time in a while she had been able to order all the toppings she preferred on a pizza, no compromising. And she was watching the type of movie she liked but that Sam always refused to watch. It was the first time she had been alone in several weeks.
That night, she lay in bed staring at the spot where the red robot had been the night before. She knew what she had seen. She wasn’t crazy.
But it would be a really great story for my book.
Before falling off to sleep, Julie wondered if this was just a little disagreement or the beginning of the end of her relationship with Sam. She really did love him.
But, Jesus, that red robot really does give me the creeps. And what kind of grown man is into toys like that?
That damn red robot.
