[dhitchco]

A cross-divisional short story for rookie teams

The Musical Rookies; a tag-team adventure
By Doug Hitchcock, team 1511

It was a hot, muggy afternoon in Atlanta. So hot that the roof of the Georgia Dome appeared to sag under the oppressive humidity. Owen (1713) stood on the street corner, fiddling with the thumbwheel on his IPod, cranking up the volume on the latest song he had downloaded from DaNazBot (1730). His fingers were sweaty and couldn’t make good contact with the Ipod’s controls. “Man”, he muttered to himself, “I’m gonna get my hands on the engineer that designed this thing and fix it for good.” Owen was somewhat of a tinkerer and had a hugely creative mind. At the age of eight he had had already figured out a way to reprogram his sister’s Elmo (1846) stuffed toy so that it would play quotes from Dean Kaymen.

His creativity actually probably got its start much earlier in life at the age of three. Owen, as a small toddler couldn’t read the label that read ”110 to ground only” (1743), and proceeded to stick his mother’s hairpin into the wall socket. From that point forward, Owen knew he wanted to be an electrical engineer.

His older brother, Luke, served the country in the armed forces and died in an overseas war. But Owen know that the the spirit of Luke (1747) lived within him. It was that spirit that brought him to Atlanta.

Now standing at the corner of Burbank (1887) and Rex (1727) in the highly-affluent suburb of Dulaney, Owen looked down again at his Ipod. The shining metal casing of his new IPod caught the full effect of the sun’s rays and reflected directly across the intersection into the windshield of an oncoming car. The driver, temporarily blinded by the light swerved, but then caught control of his new 2006 Phoenix (1719), the first car on the market with crab-steering Omniwheel nano-controllers. Owen always appreciated the latest in technology. The driver rolled down the window and yelled ”Roboshizzle” (1784) to Owen, who simply shrugged it off as another person who had yet to be schooled by Woodie Flowers in the world of gracious professionalism. The Jumpin Juke Box (1977) in the car complete with its 24” sub-woofers and Agent X (1723) power amplifier was pumping out the very same tune by DaNazBot that Owen himself had been listening to.

As the driver got out of the car, Owen could only mutter ”Holy Roller” (1714) under his breath. The guy was the size of the Tin Man (1922) in the Wizard of Oz movie. On the car’s dashboard was a photo of the governor of New Hampshire. “Hey man”, the driver said, still shading his eyes from the sun, “my name is Woody (1803) and your IPod was so shiny that I got all herky (1778) and almost lost control of my new Phoenix. They both stood there long enough to assess that there was no real damage, and both of them suddenly realized that they were listening to the music blaring from that Agent X amp in the car. Owen spoke next and said “man, I’m truly sorry if the shininess of my IPod caused you to get all herky with your new car. I was just heading over to the Zorgatron (1816) and since we seem to like the same music, maybe we can get down to some Siriuz Biznes (1761) and I’ll buy you a bowl of Red Hot Chile (1897) as a gracious offer.”

Over lunch the two chatted about their common tastes in music. But now out of the heat, the restaurant’s air conditioning was kicking into overdrive, cold enough to chill-off a Penguinbot (1717). The Megamaid (1726) took their order, but they couldn’t help but notice the holes in her apron. This diner was like the Phoenix (1719), having become popular again after many years of neglect after the famous air raids (1745) of Atlanta.

Owen then started to think about the reconstruction of the restaurant and his mind, still hot from the hazy afternoon, switched off and began to think about the day’s news from the Gulf Coast. The latest hurricane (1941) had formed offshore in the EVO (1834), but had come ashore right in the middle of the town of Jackie (1880). He wanted to help, but he didn’t have a way to get down to the Gulf Coast to help all those people. This presented a real Dawgma (1712) to Owen, but then he got a brilliant idea. It came to him just as fast as that 8 jigawatt blast that hit him as a very young boy from his mother’s hairpin. He turned to Woody and said, “Do you know the lyrics in that tune by DaNazBot you were listening to? You know the words that go “I’m aiming high in the sky, and I’m crossing the ocean in my ROWbot” (11906)?........... Well, my sister Sinderella (11942) and myself were thinking of going down to the Gulf Coast and helping out all the people who lost their homes due to that last hurricane. It’s a real battlefield down there, but they need more robocats (1885) like us to really help out. The media and all the TV crews pulled out of there, but those folks still need our help. So, it would be the really gracious thing for us to get in your new Phoenix and drive down there for a few weeks. Just then there was a loud bang as the exploding bacon (11902) on the stove in the back of the restaurant lept into flames.

Woody turned to Owen and said “That Jumpin Juke Box is calling me right now; we're soooo outa here!…..and I like your gracious idea of driving together in my Phoenix down to the Gulf Coast to help out all those people. Maybe we can develop a robot to hammer some nails automatically?”…..Owen jumped into the passenger seat and just grinned…..”Now why didn’t I think of that” he chuckled…….Somewhere in the distance, they heard the sound of Rolling Thunder (1511). But Owen knew that it was just that mid-day Atlanta heat lightning. The Georgia Dome roof faded into the distance in the rearview mirror.