:: Marvin, The Manically Depressed Robot

When the night comes, Mom always tells me not to go outside.

She tells me that before she kisses my forehead.

Good night, Dear, sleep tight...

Good night, Mommy...

I close my eyes. I still can feel Mommy sitting right beside me. But when Mommy has already gone downstairs, I jump down from the bed. She left the lights on because I don't want any monsters come out from under the bed when it's dark already. They like to steal my toys. That's why I hate them. *

I don't want to sleep now, I'm not sleepy already. But Mommy said it's not good for a five years old boy like me to stay awake at time like this, so I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep until she left me alone in my room. Now, I sit kneeling on a chair that I put in front of the window, watching the world outside. There's nothing interesting tonight; I don't even hear the strange sounds like monster howling or the conversation between the owls and the talking trees. Breeze, the nocturne, isn't here either. Usually when I sit in front of my window at night, like this time, she always greets me by making a very little tornado from the falling leaves under the old willow tree nearby my house on the top of this hill. I never get bored with it, she always comes with other performances I have never seen before.

But she isn't here today, so I look up up to the sky and look at the stars. Many many stars up there, maybe I just try to count them. At the count of one-hundred-thirty-five-thousands-and-seven-hundred-forty-nine stars. I stop and remember the star I am going to count. It's planet PluPlu. The place where I've met the girl who lived with BuBu.

Marvin, will you come here?

There's no sound from Marvin, the manically depressed robot**. He is a nice robot actually, it's only he's been installed with this real people's personality. Unfortunately, he's got a depressed person.

Marvin, will you wake up and come here?

...did you say the password?

Oh, the password, I forgot. Please?
Almost soundless, Marvin finally came to me.

Oh, kids these days, they don't even put a little respect even on a piece of big-headed-robotic-junk like me...

Oh, please don't say it Marv. I feel bad about it and I apologize, really. You know I tend to forget things.

Oh yeah, and we robot supposed to remember anything and not make mistakes?
What kind of world is this...

Meanwhile Marvin keeps talking, I try to remember the day I went to Planet PluPlu and met the girl who lived with BuBu on Planet PluPlu.

Shhh, lower your voice, Marvin, or Mommy would hear us.

...and by the time she comes my head will be already exploded...

(shhhh-ing) Marvin...

...and then my body will be collected by junk-collector at the garbage dump...

(shhhh-ing) MARVIN...

Okay okay, I will be in silence as long as I could take living in this unfairly world we live in...

Do you know Planet PluPlu? I cut his talk.

He's in a complete silence for a second before he say,
Yes, I do.

Let's go there! We have our spaceship buried under that old willow tree, right?

And what do you mean by let's go there? Having a headshot from your mother by the time we come back? Oh please, I can't stand the garbage dump. Just kiil me now instead...

Aww, come on Marvin, please give me a hand? I want to visit my friend there.

We can talk about any trip tomorrow and certainly not tonight. And please do not talk about giving a hand anymore. Thirty years ago, your uncle said it and I ended up navigating a plane with only one hand***.

Pleaseeee, just this time. I promise I won't ask anymore again next time.

No, not a single your seducing attempt will change my mind.

Oh, you're so not cool! I get angry at him.

Ah, so human, keep on blaming others. So now I'm the guilty one, huh? Be my guess...

He keeps standing there beside me. I don't want to look at him because I still angry. Why he doesn't want to go there anyway? I think it will be quite adventure to have.
But he's right, I blamed him for nothing. It makes you really awful for blaming others for the mistakes that they didn't do. And he keeps standing there looking at me, while I don't know what to say to make an apology.

Marvin?

Now what? I'm stealing all the pancakes in the refrigerator?

I know I'm wrong. I’m sorry...

If you feel guilty, apology must be accepted then...

We're still friend, right?

Yes, a friend or humanic-robotic relationship or anything you like to call will do...

I get down from my chair, smile and give him a big hug.
Thanks Marvin...

And then he said, It's okay but I don't really like this melancholy situation. It even makes me feel really pathetic and I don't know why.

Haha, you're such a funny robot...

And you should go back to bed before Mommy comes here to turn the lights off and find you still awake this late. We'll think about journey tomorrow. Don't do that and I'll call you Kiddo.

Yikes! I don't like being called "Kiddo".
Okay. You should go back to sleep too. Goodnight Marvin.

Goodnight to you too. I hope I don't get that terrible nightmares when I go back to sleep...

I go back to bed again and try to make myself sleep. But it a hard thing to do because I’m thrilled with Marvin's plan of going on a journey tomorrow. Marvin always says depressed thingies, but he never tells lies. So I close both of my eyes to cast me to sleep and I wake up tomorrow.

And then I fall asleep again...








Footnotes:
* Read :: The Ballads of Mr. Reindeer. It's the previous story, which is the first story of this anthology thing I wanted to make. It's about a character of "me", a five years old boy who is playing with his own twisted mind between fantasy and reality. I wanted to make a separate blog for the stories, but haven't done a thing until now...
** Marvin-The-Manically-Depressed-Robot is character
from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, film by Garth Jennings, who also directed Blur's "Coffee and TV" video.
*** One of the scene which Arthur came to Vogon-Land to rescue Trillian, from the same film I mentioned before.