Grandpa Benny and the Robots

David, Maya and Grandpa Benny were sitting on the sofa, watching TV. Suddenly there was a strange, buzzing sound that came from the corner of the room. A black, shiny disc with green and red flashing lights slid smoothly to the center of the living room and began moving back and forth along the floor, leaving a wet trail. David and Maya stared at the small machine, fascinated. Grandpa and Grandma had bought this interesting round robot a few weeks ago, and the children enjoyed watching it sliding around and cleaning the living room floor.

All of a sudden, the buzzing stopped and the small robot stood still. 'What happened to the robot, Grandpa? Why did he stop?' asked David.

Yesterday morning, when I was drinking coffee in the kitchen, the phone rang. I was surprised to hear the voice of Mr. Seldon, The head of the post office where I worked in my youth.

- 'Hello, Mr. Seldon! How are you?', I asked.

- 'Thank you, I am well, Benny!', He said, and immediately Got to the point. 'Look, Benny, I really need your help. I have a parcel that urgently needs to be delivered to A Japanese Automobile Factory. But today, we have a big celebration for our workers, and all the postmen are attending. Would you be able to deliver the parcel?

'Of course!’ I immediately agreed. 'I will pick up the package right away!'

'I didn't understand who was singing. The living room was empty. The only thing I saw was a small robot, cleaning the floor.

’Hello? Who's here? Who's singing?’ I called. ‘Clean, clean, clean!...’ continued the happy voice. I looked down: It was the small robot! He was making a strange buzzing sound, but this time I understood the words and sentences he was saying.

The robot stopped. 'Hi, do you understand me?! Do you speak Robotese?' he asked, surprised.

'Umm…yes, I guess so.' I answered, 'I got hit hard on the forehead. Maybe that's why I suddenly understand Robotese.'

'The flight was pleasant. Daneel and I chatted about how much he likes to clean and wash the floor, and how happy he is when the floor is spotless and sparkling.

When we arrived at the Japanese factory, I was surprised to find the reception counter abandoned. 'Hello? I called, 'is anyone here?' No one answered. That's strange, I thought to myself.

'Benny, come and see!' Daneel called excitedly, 'there are lots of robots here, and they're assembling the new cars!'

'Excuse me Mr. Robot,' I turned to the robot standing closest to me, 'why are all of you so gloomy?'

The large robot stopped doing his work and turned to us. 'Quickly. Get out of here!' he whispered to us.

'What did you say? Get out?' asked Daneel, surprised.

'Get out of here, fast. You shouldn't stay here…'

'But…why? What's wrong?' I tried asking, but the large robot turned around and returned to his work.

'Uh oh!', the robot whispered to us, 'he's coming! I told you to get out of here!...'

'I opened my mouth to say something, but I suddenly heard a metallic and cold voice behind us. 'Stop! That's an order!'

'Plan? What plan?' I asked warily.

'To fill the world with black!' Giskard declared. 'To remove all other colors, and switch them with black. Just black!'

'But…why?' I asked, what's wrong with red, blue or green? Why just black?'

'I hate all the other colors.' thundered the large robot, and pointed to himself, 'black is the best color, and the nicest – just like my color. My factory will fill the world with black cars, and when we finish assembling the cars – we will produce black toys, books with black pages, and black bags…the end of all color. Everything will be black!' Giskard laughed a metallic, menacing laugh.

I wriggled and I struggled, but I just couldn't get away from the robots.

Sweat began forming on my forehead. I was very scared. I didn't want to stay at the car factory forever!

'Leave me alone! I shouted, as I tried to free myself again. The robots didn't budge. Suddenly I heard a 'clunk' below me. The package that I had brought with me fell from my mailbag. It hit the hard floor, bounced once and then again, and rolled onto the production line.

'Screech!!' High-pitched squeals sounded from between the gears, and the production line crunched to a halt. A siren began wailing throughout the factory.

'I'm going to see what happened,' said Giskard. 'Don't let him escape!' he ordered the two robots holding me.

Giskard turned towards us, holding my package in his hands. The siren stopped, and the cars on the production line began moving again.

'Ok, so where were we…uh, yes!' he said in his metallic voice. 'Come on, Benny – we're going to the jail cell, and you'll never come out.' Giskard approached us threateningly.

'Benny!...Benny!...' Daneel whispered, 'the carrots…spill the carrots on the floor!'

'The carrots?!' I asked, confused. I suddenly remembered the bag of carrots that I had brought from home. I wiggled between the two robots that were holding me so tightly, until the carrots spilled out of my mailbag and rolled onto the floor.

'Great! Hurray!' called the happy robots around us, 'the evil robot has been defeated!'

The two robots let me go, and the robot we had spoken with shook my hand and patted Daneel. 'Thank-you, Benny and Daneel!' he said, 'Giskard took control over the factory and forced us to make black cars only…we miss the other colors. Thanks to you, our world will go back to being colorful and happy.'

'We should thank Daneel,' I said, 'He wet the floor and made it very slippery…sometimes, a small, smart robot can defeat big and strong robots, with brain power! Or electronic circuits, anyway…' Daneel smiled, and I saw that he was very proud of himself.

'Grandpa, ask him if he wants to clean the floor…' said Maya.

'No problem!' Grandpa responded. He leaned over the robot and said a few words in Robotese:

Daneel?....Bzzzz…Bzzzz….Bzzz….' Grandpa stood up again. Suddenly the small robot came to life, and started energetically rolling around the living room, cleaning and washing the floor.

'You see, Daneel loves cleaning the floor!' Grandpa said with satisfaction. The robot came closer to them, and then stopped, and spoke in a low buzz. 'What Daneel?' Grandpa Benny listened, 'uh huh, sure! Daneel wants us to lift our legs, children!'