No Feminine Voice Yet

 

    I first noticed it sitting on a very high branch.  Initially, it was its wingspan that had caught my attention.  The bird was quite large.  There were some folks walking towards me along the road, they had their son with them, but he seemed preoccupied with some contraption he was carrying.  I doubt any of them had noticed the bird.

    When they were close enough, I pointed and suggested they look up.  “Just there, on that upper branch.”  None of them looked up.  The husband said, “We’ve seen it.”  The wife didn’t respond at all and the kid, apparently oblivious to everything around him, just kept walking.

    As the parents walked past me, following the child, I was thinking I hadn’t recognized any of them.  They must be new to the neighborhood, but if that were the case, her behavior was rather rude.  No greeting at all, and no response to me whatsoever.  I wanted to turn around and watch to see which house they were going to, but instead I kept my eye on that bird.  I wanted to know what kind it was.

    Now a pick-up truck was coming along and as it got close to me it slowed to a stop.  The driver rolled his window down and asked me if I had seen them.  “Seen who?”  I asked.  The three people walking.  They weren’t too far ahead of me.  “Yes, I saw them, but I don’t know who they are.”

    “Did you notice anything strange about them, anything at all?”

    “I found her to be a little rude, but other than that…”

    “Did you notice the box the boy was playing with?”

    “I didn’t really pay any attention to it or him.  I was watching a rather large bird at the time.”

    “Forget about the bird.  The bird is nothing.  It’s remote controlled.  It’s the parents we’re interested in.  He built them too.  He’s controlling everything from that box."

    I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  Was that true?  Did I just speak to a robot and not know it?

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