The boy who was different

Astor tried turning on the robot that was in the box he had been waiting to open ever since his dad's had died in a car crash 7 years earlier. The box had a card on it that said to not open it until his 15th birthday. To Astor's luck the robot turned on! But he almost screamed when it said,   "Hello, Astor. My name is 311270, but you can call me whatever you want."

"Um, hi. You talk?"  Astor said a little in disbelief.

"Is it not talking I am doing?"

"Yes, sorry. I'm just a little shocked right now."

"Oh, I see. Do you need a second?"

"Yes. I think that would help."

As Astor took a "second" he studied 311270 to try to figure out a easier name to remember because let's face it, 311270 was not the ideal name. 311270 was 23 inches tall and 12 inches wide and was all metal. Astor took a deep breath and said, "Do you mind if I call you Xavier?"

"Oh, no not at all!"

"Okay, great. By the way, why did I need to wait so long to open you?"

"Well, I think Cormic and Thomas wanted you to be ready to take on the responsibility of having all your family files and of course taking care of me." Astor had never really thought about where he came from and who his bio parents where. But now that Astor thought about it he was kind of curious.

"That makes sense.By the way, where are these files?"

"Oh, I have them right here." Xavier said as a compartment opened up from where his stomach would be. Astor looked down at all these files in awe. This was all of his life inside of a robot. All of this information would change his life forever. Astor could forget about all the bad things that had happened to him; both of his dad's dying in a car crash, having to had lived with his drug addicted aunt, not having any friends because he was a "freak", having to work after school everyday so that he had food. This was a new beginning in a way for him. Astor looked at Xavier and said,

"Thank you. This is amazing! I'm kind of speechless."

"I understand, do you need a second?"

"No, I think I'm okay."

"Alright." They both sat in silence for a minute and then Astor said,

"What other things can you do?"

"Well I'm programed to do whatever you want me to do."

"Can you make food appear?"

"Yes, if that's what you desire."

"Yes, I desire food."

"What type of food?"

"Um, ice cream sounds really good right now."

"Alright then, one ice cream coming right up!"

Astor watched in amaze as Xavier spun around in a circle and then projected onto the wall of Astor's room a picture of a ice cream. Then out of nowhere a huge bowl of ice cream appeared in front of Astor. As he took a bite of the ice cream he could not remember when it had ever tasted so good.

"This is amazing," He said as he scooped a huge spoon full into his mouth.

"Can I have your recapyyyy? Ahh, brain freeze!" Astor said as he clenched his head in pain.

"Oh, goodness! Can I do anything to help?" Xavier said in a concerned tone.

"Oh, no, it's fine. I just got really excited. I have not had ice cream since I was 8. I had it with my dad's just before they left for their road trip."

"I see." Xavier said.

"Yeah." Said Astor with tears in his eyes.

"What else can you do other then make food magically appeared before my eyes?"

"Well, I do have a video that your dad's made just before the um, incident."

"May I see it?" Astor asked with excitement.

"Yes." Xavier spun around in a circle just like he had done before for the ice cream, except this time the thing that was projected onto the wall was Astor's parents. Astor had not seen a picture or anything since the car crash, so as he looked up at them it brought tears to his eyes. He got up and touched both of their faces on the wall. Astor knew he could not actually feel them but just the feeling of it seemed right. The thought of them kicked him in the heart and as he saw them on the wall he started to cry. He cried and cried and cried until he could cry no more. Xavier asked him, "Are you ready?" Astor replied,

"Yes." Astor looked up at the screen as the picture of the two started to move. The picture of the two said, "Checking, checking, 1,2,3."

"Was that really necessary?" Cormic said to Thomas. Thomas said with a smile, "No, but I have always wanted to say that." The three of them laughed until Cormic said, "Alright, back to business. Hello Astor if you are watching this then you have met 311270. Hopefully you are 15, because if not then turn this off now."

"Oh, Cormic. If he has already started this then he's not going to stop."

"I guess you're right",  said Cormic with a huff, "Well, oh well. We are making this video to tell you a few things because we want you to know at this time when you're changing a lot. First off, I know your body is changing a lot right now and..."

"Woh , woh , woh," Interrupted Thomas, "I'm pretty sure the boy does not want to hear all this right now. Well, it also might be that I don't want to hear about it..." All three of them laughed again.

"All right, I will spare him this time." Cormic said winking at the Astor.

"Um, well another reason we are making this video is because, well, I will start here. So I know you know that everyone dies eventually and people dye different ways and because of different reasons also people dye at different ages. Um, I don't really know how to put this other then that the president does not like homosexual couples and there is one team of people who work for him and there job is to track down and kill any homosexual couples. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Cormic and I are being hunted down and we will probably get killed. That is one of the reasons we are making this video, one to say that we both love you very much and that we could never had hoped for a better son and two we wanted to tell you that love is one of the greatest thing in the world and sometimes it is worth dying for. Three you need to always be yourself because if you're not yourself then your not happy and finally, we want you to be happy so we have put all of the money we have,( except for the money for the road trip we are going on) in 311270. If you are wondering the road trip is to a robot convention and we are sad not to be able to bring you, we can't because it is humans only, funny right a robot convention yet robots are not allowed." Astor was very confused at this point, what did they mean, only humans allowed? Wasn't he human?

"That brings us to another topic we would like to discuss," Cormic looked at Thomas and then said, "You're a robot."When Astor heard this he screamed,  that scream was the loudest thing that had ever come out of him. His head started to race. A robot? A robot? No way, no way. He did not believe it.

"We know it is shocking, but it is true", said Thomas, "You are the best thing we have ever created."

"No one knows about this except for the three of us, everyone thinks that we adopted you."

"You are the greatest robot ever invented",said Cormic. Thomas said right after him, "And we are not just saying that because we love you, you really are the greatest robot ever invented." Astor took 3 deep breaths. Ok he was a robot, a robot.  

"Hey, Astor. I know this is all a lot to take in and we really wish we could be there with you, we even might be. We are not sure, but you should be proud of it! But don't go around on the street saying ,'I'm a robot! Gee, look at me I'm a robot!' because it is very dangerous and the last thing we want is you to get hurt!"

"We love you! And hope to see you in the future!"

"Yeah, love you!" And then the screen turned off. Astor sat in the dark of his room thinking to himself, I'm a robot. I'm a robot.