�Whew.� George breathed a sigh of relief. The human did not seem to be irritated by this, in fact it looked as if he would actually be happy to see the High School dorms in the city. Well, as long as they could get safely out of the human�s territory, they could ditch the boy around a corner somewhere. Surely he had a tracking function built in, even the oldest of models had some form of device used to keep them from getting lost if they ever ventured into human territory. It had been the law for hundreds of years. But Billy was a human; maybe the same laws didn�t apply to him. For some reason George didn�t feel quite right about taking the chance of leaving this human boy alone in the city with no way to get home. At that moment he wished he hadn�t purchased that responsibility upgrade last year after almost missing a homework assignment. Well, there was no point in worrying until he found out whether Billy had a tracking device built in or not.
Tom obviously hadn�t forgotten his project and was in the middle of asking Billy about the various intricacies of ancient human economics and how they might translate into modern day trade policies, but judging by the blank look of confusion on Billy�s face, George didn�t think he was interrupting anything important. George wasn�t quite sure how to ask this without revealing what he was planning and taking the risk of making the boy angry, so he decided to start from the beginning and take it slow. �Hey Billy, you�re a human right?�
�Yeah, of course I�m a human,� replied Billy, �What else would I be?�
�Have you lived on Neddibrof Street your whole life?� continued George.
Billy seemed happy to finally have some questions that he could understand and answer. �Yes George, I live with my mommy and daddy in a house.�
George noticed that Tom was looking at him rather strangely. �George, why are you asking him that? You know �� But George thought it best not to let Tom finish and ignored his obvious question.
�Billy, when you wander away from home, like you did today, how do you get back?�
Tom, catching on to George�s motive of questioning, decided to keep quiet. He must have realized too that there was no way either of them was going to return to Neddibrof Street to bring Billy home.
�My mommy comes and finds me. She doesn�t like it when I get lost for too long.�
Now they were getting somewhere. If his mother was able to find him, there must be some primitive form of the robot tracking system used for human beings. Now George was able to relax a little. Once they got into the city and safely away from possible human contact, they could drop off the boy and his mother would just track him down and take him home. No harm done.
Tom saw this pause as an opportunity and continued with his previous line of questions. �So, Billy, what is the human theory on school and what do they hope to gain from requiring the attendance of the student populous for such a large majority of their young lives?�
Billy, apparently too young to comprehend half the words, much less the ideas and concepts presented by Tom in his query, looked helplessly to George for another interruption. George noticed this with a tiny smile, but was satisfied that they were safe, and had no further questions for the boy. He saw no harm in it, so decided to let Tom have his fun. Who knew, maybe he�d finally hit on a subject that Billy was an expert on which he could use for his science project. Unlikely, but not wholly impossible. |
