“The robots are coming!” Henry shouted.
The old coot had run up and down Seneca Street shouting about robots for nearly three weeks. The police tried to pick him up for public drunkenness, but Henry was sober as a judge.
“The robots are coming!”
Understandably, no one in Oil City believed Henry.
“The robots are coming!”
“He lives over near Oil Creek. He’s got an old radio and cheap telescope and he says some crazy things,” the manager of the liquor store explained to a new employee. “Needless to say, we don’t allow him inside this store.”
“The robots are coming!”
“I guess the robots must want our oil?” the mayor joked with a reporter from The Derrick. “I have to give Henry credit. He is having some fun with us but that does make sense. Robots need a good oiling of course!”
“The robots are coming!”
There was even some discussion about adding a few comical robots to the lobby mural in the National Transit Building.
As Henry became more and more haggard, some people even tried to give him money. Teenagers frequently stomached his odor to pose for selfies. Henry was readily found on Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook.
“The robots are coming!”
Henry started launching himself into traffic, and the police did issue a few warnings to him. Motorists on Seneca Street were not especially happy with this development, but most tolerated his behavior.
“I really love the way our city has embraced him,” a councilwoman explained on local radio. “Only in our city will you find the love and compassion necessary to accept this situation.”
“The robots are coming!”
When Henry jumped off Veterans Memorial Bridge into the Allegheny River, a local man rescued him.
“I was just doing my part,” he later told the paramedics. “The guy is a legend. He was just having a bad day. We all have bad days once in a while.”
The man was rewarded with gift certificates to Famoore’s Family Restaurant and Rocko’s Pizzeria.
“The robots are coming!”
Students at Oil City Middle School designed and constructed robot costumes in their art classes. The public library set up displays that prominently featured published robot exploits. Passing railroad cars were graffitied with colorful robots. The Oil City Civic Center explored the possibility of hosting a science fiction convention that focused on robots. Clarion University of Pennsylvania, located just downriver, launched a promotion featuring robotics coursework.
“The robots! The robots are coming!”
After months of this especially eccentric behavior, Henry coolly sat down in a local diner for breakfast. He usually had only coffee and a few eggs, but he never tipped. So, the waitstaff frequently sought a good laugh at his expense.
“So, where are all those robots?” a waitress asked sarcastically.
“Beep, boop, beep,” Henry replied.
The waitress wanted to find this odd, but the cook had said the same earlier.
A Visit to the Idea Factory 
Well that’s a silly, fun read.
Keep writing my friend.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for reading! I really, really enjoyed writing that one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
….Ummm, whatever got in to ol’Henry, I def don’t want any xD
or perhaps…i’m already one?
beep…
….beep
LikeLiked by 1 person
haha! I wouldn’t either! But I do think that if something like that happened in today’s world, we would have a very, very, very hard time identifying such until it was too late.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Everyone is basically a robot already if you think about it…lol
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree. There are plenty of examples of human “programming”. Too many. And maybe more than ever before. Our routines alone can be robotic. I know my can/are unfortunately too often.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I heard a theory that since we are all programmed, that if you act outside of what you usual habits–your usual “programming,” weird shit will start to occur…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wonder if you know when/if you act outside your normal programming? I mean – I can’t juggle – but is that because I wasn’t programmed too and therefore it doesn’t come naturally or because I haven’t really tried to learn? That can actually get pretty deep if you really think about it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Do the opposite of what you would actually do I think.
Dress completely different, talk different, watch different shows, move, quit your job, go vegan, change into a different person, become unrecognizable and do it spontaneously~
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good point. And I think that lists perfectly demonstrates the challenge of acting against our programming!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right? Like who would do that? haha I did hear an audio story of that situation though. It was pretty creepy
LikeLike
I really need to try out the audio end of this – for as long as I’ve had/used WordPress, I feel like I know nothing haha
LikeLiked by 1 person