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“Oh boy oh boy!” Crow T. Robot’s nasal voice rang out as he raced on his spindly legs toward Joel’s den. “Get the led out, Tommy boy!”
Tom Servo was only a few feet behind him, his hoverskirt working overtime to catch up. “Here I come Croooooooow!” He smacked to a stop against his friend’s basket head.
“OW” Crow complained, “I just fixed it up the way I like it. Why do you have to wreck everything you touch, Tom?”
“Oh, bite me, it’s fun!” Tom said, spinning about in a circle. “Goaskhimgoaskhim!”
“Okay, but only if you do it with me!” Crow insisted.
“All right, my spindly old pal. One…Two…”
“JOEL!” they shouted simultaneously outside of the bedroom door of their creator, Joel Robinson. After a few moments, the sleepy-eyed inventor peered into the hallway and gave his robots a smile. “Morning, fellas. Whatcha doing up so soon?”
“Pfft! Lookit this kidder – he’s such a kidder!” Tom declared. “Joel, you KNOW what today is!”
“Yeah, Joel, EVERYONE knows what today is!” Crow said – then whispered at Tom, “what is today?”
Tom let out a huff of disappointment. “Today’s family day! And you were gonna show us all the neat stuff Doctor Forrester sent you from home!”
“Ahh,” Joel said, hand-combing his hair back before leaning against the doorframe. “Gimmie a second to brush my teeth first?”
“Awww!” chorused two voices. Joel just gave them a little grin and finished getting ready. The next time he emerged it was with a large cardboard box filled with mementos.
The robots hovered over Joel as he headed into the living quarters; he settled down behind the console and then started parceling out the items.
Crow immediately busied himself leafing through the photo album, while Tom sorted through the various buttons, badges and pins that had been thrown into the mess. All three were so distracted that the appearance of Gypsy was enough to make Tom shout in surprise.
“Hi guys! Whatt’re you doing?” Gypsy asked, popping in from the bridge. “Did we pass by the junk star while I was asleep?”
“No, Miss Gypsy,” responded Joel. “These are the things Doctor Forester sent us yesterday,” Joel explained. “See? These are Great Grandma Robinson’s tea spoons!”
“Ohh…so it’s antique junk,” Gypsy observed.
“Priceless heirlooms is more like it,” Joel replied. “Now, take this for instance,” he said, holding up a big button rimmed with a black border. “This was my great grandma Caroline’s Vote For Women pin. Why don’t you take this, Gypsy? There’s a bunch of her pamphlets in here too.”
“Oooh, thank you,” Gypsy beamed, as Joel carefully hooked it onto her body.
“Aww! How come Gypsy gets stuff and we don’t get stuff!” Tom complained.
“Okay, Tom,” Joel said, reaching into the pile and pulling out another pin. “You can have my Great Uncle Lou’s Vigorous Response Tonic For People With Dropsey!”
“Hah, all right!” He hovered by Joel handed him the bottle, then turned to his purple friend and bragged, “look at me, Gypsy! I’m dyspeptic!”
“Boy are you ever!” Crow hopped in place beside Joel. “What about me, huh? GIMMIE GIMMIE GIMMIE!” he bounced.
“Okay, Crow T. Robot,” Joel said. “How would you like….MY GREAT AUNT GRIZELDA’S FRANKLIN MINT PLATES?!”
Crow gasped. “McDonalds AND Emmett Kelly?! Joel, you’re the best dad ever!”
“Dibs on the Elvis ones,” Tom said.
“But Joel,” Gypsy wondered, “why are you giving us all of your family stuff? Don’t you want to save them for your kids?”
“But Gypsy,” he smiled, “you ARE my kids.”
“Aww,” Tom replied.
“That’s sad and creepy, Joel,” Crow replied.
“Maybe to you,” Joel replied. “But I’m still glad to keep them in the family.”