2nd place in Derby #464: Robots with 115 votes!

And somewhere, the robot it left behind lived happily ever after. And the balloon soared alone, like a spirit to the heavens. Until it found someone else who needed a ride.

Of course, if you asked the boy or the robot, they’d just wave it off. They’d say they met on some far-off colony completely by chance. They’d say the robot was programmed to catch the tow-ropes from the flying drones as they hovered, and that it was just a simple mistake. They’d say the boy didn’t mean to activate the climbing drones, he was just looking for something to do because he was lonely.

They’d swear to you the robot was looking for a way down while the boy was looking for a way up, and then they’d tell you how happy it made them to have met in the middle, just when the boy and the robot both needed each other the most. And they’d be telling the truth, as they know it. But would anyone ever think to ask about the balloon agenda?

After all, in a world where little girls and robots can make a life together, would they trust a child to just ANY balloon? Is it so hard to imagine that a tiny robot and a balloon could be… family?

Maybe somewhere out there, a big robot found his forever home, while a tiny red balloon floats on. And maybe that balloon found the forever family it always deserved. Who knows, maybe it is just like they say. Maybe the end of one story is always the beginning of another.

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