Freedom

Jimmy was climbing down his high chair trying to scramble out of reach of his carers arms. He fell onto the floor on his hands and knees, stood up and took off in a run, his arms flailing. He stopped when he heard a whirring of machines. He turned to see his carer bent in a position ready to pick him up, and she was smoking, literally! There was smoke coming out between her metal shoulders and her metallic eyes no longer had an eerie glow to them, they were just, dark. 

Jimmy, being unsure what was happening, moved around the room and tapped the robot. He was delighted when she made no response, Jimmy, relieved that the robot was no longer following his every move, ran to his parents' office. He banged on the door yelling, "Mummy, Daddy, can you come play ball with me?"

The only response was a muffled, "We're busy! Go and play with the Robot, and stop annoying us!"

Dejected, Jimmy started to wail and when his parents screamed for him to go away, he did. He sulked through the house picking and dropping random things. Feeling bored and not being able to reach many things, like toys, on the shelves that the robot kept out of his reach Jimmy went down the hall towards the front door.

Meanwhile, his father was saying, "Why does he have to annoy us? We have a perfectly good, updated robot- a guaranteed improvement over human nannies, they haven't been around for years – this robot is supposed to look and follow that kids every move! Why can't it do its job?! Why does Jimmy annoy us while we are working?" Jimmy's mother vigorously agreed.

Streching up on his toes and leaning against the front door, Jimmy reached for the door handle, he managed to turn the handle and fall onto the landing outside with an 'oomph'. He scrambled to his feet cautiously, with his knees bent like a little baby's when walking, he turned around only to reach out with his foot to climb down the steps. Jimmy sat down to take a small break staring at nothing. He didn't notice the dark clouds that were coming towards his house, or the faint rumbles of thunder. For none of it mattered, he was outside, alone.

Then almost as suddenly as Jimmy had stopped, he started to walk down the front garden path. His hand trailed along the flower heads and the small bushes as he made the long journey up the path to explore all the possibilities outside the house, without his robot. Jimmy reached the white picket fence and unable to figure out how to undo the lock he explored the fence pushing and pulling on every picket. He came across a loose one which he pushed and pulled at with his small arms, and after a while it came loose. Grinning triumphantly Jimmy crawled through the fence and onto the foot path. He ran down the path around the corner but upon seeing another child's carer, ran back the way he came. So frightened by being caught he wasn't looking where he was going, not even when he tripped over the curb on the side of the road, tumbling onto the black hard ground.

Inside the house stood the carer, still bent in the same position, ready to pick Jimmy up from the floor. Jimmy's parent remained engrossed in their work, not even knowing the carer was broken. Not caring were Jimmy was. Thinking that the nanny would take care of any problems and that Jimmy was with her. They didn't even come out of their office when they heard a loud screech of car tyres and screams.