Fixing Pip.

• Kaelyn Carter, Grade 7, St Ignatius College
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'Write As Rain 2014' competition

Headquarters was filled with a whirring, grinding noise. Somewhere behind the screens we could hear the computers clunking along, talking to one another, trying desperately to find and spit out an answer that would satisfy us. Behind me on the platform, there was even more tinkering, and then a slamming noise as Lydia threw the wrench onto the metallic floor.
“What’s wrong now?” Thought I could hear her rising to her feet, I did not turn to look at her or to acknowledge her sigh of anger.
“I can’t fix him, Kaelyn!”
“You’ll fix him.” I said, brushing a length of bright red hair off of my shoulder, one of the glittery strands catching my eye. “You’ll fix him and everything will be fine.” Though I wanted to cross the platform and comfort her, I knew I had to keep watching the screen, the computer spitting out line after line of green, glowing code across the black screen.
HQ was shiny and new, only a few months old, completely remolded as a present from my parents. We were in the depths of it, standing on a massive, round platform suspended before a huge computer screen. Even through the feet of metal that surrounded us, even over the sound of the computer and Lydia fighting with Pip’s wiring, we could hear the storm rattling outside.
“No, I’m serious, Kaelyn, I really can’t fix him.”
I wrinkled my nose as a particular pungent wave of flatulence crept over me. “Can you keep it under control over there?”
“Can you come over here and help me for one minute?” Lydia snapped back, finally drawing my gaze away from the numbers rolling across the screen.
Lydia was crouched beside Pip, his chest plat opened up, a mess of wires and tubing inside. “He’s your robot sidekick. I don’t know anything about him. How am I supposed to help?”
“Just…” She motioned for me to join her on the floor, and I crossed the length of the platform to kneel beside her. “Just hold here. How much longer until the Big Thinker is done with Pip’s hard drive?”
The Big Thinker is what Lydia always called HQ’s big computer, even though she knew full well he didn’t like that nickname.
She motioned with her gold-tinged fingers toward a pair of frayed wires deep in the robot’s core. He let off another loud, long fart, filling the chamber with echoes and his particular, noxious stink. “Pip!” I cried, covering my mouth and nose with a hand. Whatever had happened to Pip, it was producing a stench far worse than anything else in Farttopia.