Chapter 13:

A Sad Feeling

The next time Daddy picked me up from school, he seemed lost in his own thoughts. As I was buckling myself in, he turned around and looked at me with a serious expression that I wasn’t used to seeing on his face.

“Maya,” he said. “Today we’re going to do something sort of different. I’m going to take you to Mom’s house to do your homework for a while. Then we’re going to go to Mr. Mac’s store.”

No adventure? No Pancake Dinner?! And the store? That was weird. “Mr. Mac’s? How come?”

Daddy’s face became even more serious, and his eyes looked sad. He hesitated before speaking. “We’re going to a special event that Mr. Mac is holding. If it’s all right with you, I’ll explain it to you later, okay? When we get to your mom’s house. And I’ll take you to Pancake Dinner tomorrow.”

Normally I would have argued, but Daddy looked so serious that I only nodded.

I had almost forgotten that Ralph would be waiting for us when we got back to the house. It was the first time Daddy had actually met Ralph, since usually he dropped me off and didn’t come inside. When Daddy saw him, his face brightened. He walked in a circle around Ralph, examining him as though he were a new car. He whistled. “Maya, you have outdone yourself!”

I smiled. Showing off Ralph lifted me out of my grumpiness. “Ralph, this is Daddy. Say hello.”

Ralph extended his metal fist.

HELLO. VERY NICE TO MEET YOU.

Daddy laughed and dapped him back. “Ralph, how are you? What did you do today while Maya was at school?”

I AM DOING WELL. TODAY I FOLDED THE LAUNDRY WHILE MAYA WAS AT SCHOOL.

He pointed at my open bedroom door, and inside we could see a pile of perfectly folded clothes, sorted by color. The clothes looked so nice that they could have been on display at the store. They were crisp and free of lint or wrinkles or anything.

“My goodness,” said Daddy. “You’re really something. Let’s see what else you got. Ralph, what’s the capital of France?”

THE CAPITAL OF FRANCE IS PARIS.

“What’s eight times four?”

Ralph was silent. “Daddy, you have to say his name first,” I explained. “Ralph, what’s eight times four?”

EIGHT TIMES FOUR IS THIRTY-TWO, MAYA.

“Right on. Now, Ralph . . . most importantly, can you get me a glass of water?” Daddy pulled out a chair from the kitchen table, sat, and leaned back with his hands behind his head in an exaggerated relaxed pose.

HERE IS A GLASS OF WATER.

“Very good.” Daddy looked at his watch. “Okay, Maya. You two hang out, and we’re leaving here at five forty-five. And do your homework, please. Actually do it. That means don’t ask Ralph for the answers.”

“Yes, Daddy.” Ralph and I went into my room, and I asked him to start putting the folded clothes in the drawer. I tried to start my homework, but I felt . . . off. I searched my feelings, looking for the right word.

“Ralph,” I said. “I’m lonely. Do you know what lonely is?”

I KNOW WHAT LONELY IS, MAYA. LONELY—ADJECTIVE. BEING WITHOUT COMPANY.

“Well, Ralph, that’s part of it,” I said. “But it’s, like, the way you feel inside when you feel separated from the people you care about. It’s a very sad feeling.”

A SAD FEELING?

“Yes.”

The LED panel that made up Ralph’s mouth turned blue.

INITIATING SADNESS COMPANIONSHIP SEQUENCE.

Suddenly, soft music began to play out of Ralph’s head! And he began to sing in the most ridiculous robot singing voice I had ever heard. Well, it was the only robot singing voice I had ever heard, but still.

THE SUN WILL COME OUT! TOMORROW! BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR! THAT TOMORROW! THERE’LL BE SUN!

As he sang, Ralph rotated slowly on his rover treads and then kicked his legs out from side to side. He put his arms up over his head and waved them back and forth, and then he put one arm out in front of him and—

“Ralph,” I said. “Is that . . . Are you dancing? Did you just nae-nae?” I fell over on the bed, laughing. “Oh my gosh. Did you do a robot nae-nae? Did that really happen? I’m embarrassed for you.”

SADNESS COMPANIONSHIP SEQUENCE COMPLETED. ARE YOU SAD, MAYA?

I smiled. I was surprised at the answer. “No. I’m not, actually. I feel okay. I might feel sad again later, and that’s okay, too. But right now, I do feel better.”

SADNESS COMPANIONSHIP SEQUENCE SUCCESSFUL.

His mouth turned back to green, and he smiled his silly smile.

“Ralph, you know what?” I reached out and patted him on his robot back. “You’re a pretty good friend.”

THANK YOU, MAYA. YOU’RE A PRETTY GOOD FRIEND.

He patted me on my back, too. I shook my head, chuckling to myself. Sadness companionship sequence. That must have been something Christopher programmed. Was that something I could do, too? What if I . . .

I grabbed my notebook and started jotting down ideas.

Visitor welcome sequence? “Hi, my name is Ralph. How can I help you?”

Different languages? Say hello, then the person chooses a language to continue???

Child care sequence—read aloud? Patterns for block towers?

There were so many things I could think of programming Ralph to do. So many ways to be helpful. I opened his panel and looked over a few things, then I decided to try some new voice commands. Ralph stood by patiently as I tinkered for a few minutes.

Then, my eyes fell on my math textbook. Oops. As much as I wanted to just come up with new Ralph ideas, I still needed to pass fifth-grade math.

I worked on my math homework for a while. It was really tempting to have Ralph do it for me, but I knew that my dad would check it and I had to show my work. Plus, I figured, if Ralph did everything for me, how would I ever learn what I needed to know? How would I ever grow up to be a scientist and win awards like—

Oh my gosh, Dr. Yazzie. Had she written me back? I pulled up my email.

From: Jacqueline Yazzie

Subject: Re: Robot

She responded! Already?! I let out a squeal and Ralph looked over at me. “Ralph, it’s an email! About you!”

AN EMAIL? ABOUT ME?

“Uh-huh.” I began to read it.

Dear Ms. Robinson,

Thank you for your email. I was very excited to receive it. Christopher was one of my brightest and most beloved students, and therefore I am not surprised to see that Ralph is extremely impressive. Christopher told me a bit about Ralph, but it is wonderful to see how well he truly operates. You mention in your email that Ralph seems able to improve his vocabulary and knowledge base by interacting with others. This is called natural language processing. It’s a field of artificial intelligence in which Christopher excelled.

I also want to point out something else special about Ralph—his feet. Most robots are only able to roll, which helps them get over rough surfaces, or use legs and feet, which helps them navigate elements in the human environment, such as stairs. From what I can see and what you have told me, Ralph can do both using his, as you call them, “Mars rover feet.” This is truly remarkable and may mean that Ralph could win some prizes and awards for robotics design.

If it’s okay with you, I would love to keep in touch. I can send you some information about experiments you can try with Ralph, ways to test and improve his capabilities. Also, if you are ever in California, I invite you to visit my robotics laboratory. You are clearly a very talented young scientist.

Sincerely,

J. Yazzie

A very talented young scientist. A very talented young scientist. A very—me? Me, Maya? The invisible girl? I wanted to hug my computer. I went over and hugged Ralph instead.

He hugged me right back. “Where’d you learn that? Ralph, I guess Christopher told you about hugs, huh?”

CHRISTOPHER TOLD ME ABOUT HUGS.

Christopher. Where was he? When would I get to meet him? Was he gone from Stanford? Dr. Yazzie had said that he was one of her best and brightest students. Did he graduate? Did he become a professor at another university or something? I needed to know. If I could have a cool young robot scientist from my own neighborhood as a mentor, I wasn’t about to miss out. I had to at least ask. I started to get up and go to the kitchen. “Hey, Daddy?”

But he was already at the door. He had the same sad, serious face as before. “Maya, honey. Did you finish your homework? It’s time to head out.” He looked at Ralph. “And you know what? Bring Ralph with you, please.”

“But where are we going?”

Daddy leaned against the doorway and was quiet for a few moments. He looked at the floor. Finally, he came into the room and sat down on the bed.

“Maya,” he said, breathing a heavy sigh. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

I felt a surge of worry. Was someone in our family sick? Was I in trouble? Did Daddy lose his job?

“It’s something I should have told you before. I wanted to tell you. Your mother did, too. But we didn’t know how, and we didn’t want to . . . Mr. Mac didn’t want us to tell you. He didn’t want to talk about it. Didn’t want you to ask about it. And we didn’t know if you were old enough. . . .” I could see he was struggling.

“Old enough for what? Daddy, is Mr. Mac okay? Is he sick?”

“He’s okay,” Daddy said, and my heart slowed down a little. “But Maya, today we’re going to a memorial service for Mr. Mac’s son, Christopher.”

I frowned. “What’s a memorial service?”

Daddy reached out and drew me in toward him, hugging me tightly. “A memorial service,” he said, “is when you gather to remember someone who has passed away.”

I jumped up from the bed. “What? So Christopher . . . Christopher . . .”

Christopher couldn’t be gone. Christopher was like my friend. He taught me so much through his writing. He gave me the gift of Ralph. Mr. Mac always said we were so much alike. It felt so strange, because in that moment, my heart was aching so bad for someone I had never met in real life.

Daddy reached out his arms, and I crumpled against him, feeling his heart beating as I pressed my ear against his chest and cried.

“It hurts, Daddy,” I said, my voice choked with tears.

“I know, Maya. I know.”