The Card

Freckled Teen

The sunshine filtered through the window and reached the face of a freckled 18-year old. He tried covering his face with the duvet but the window blinds had already risen up and nothing can save him from the sun shining on him. 

"One more minute, please!" he sleepily groaned as he tried to block the light by covering his eyes with his pillow. 

His pillow suddenly got taken away from him and his duvet now lying on the floor. He groggily opened his eyes to see his mom looking down at him. 

"The blinds are up and you're not", his mom said as she started to pull him away from the bed and promptly dropped him to the floor, earning an 'oompf' from him. 

"Mom, please, no", the teen said as he spread his limbs out and attempted to close his eyes. "It's summer, no school, no stress. No nothin". 

"No nothing", his mom imitated him. "Well guess what lazy pants, you are helping me clean the shed".

He looked at his mom as if she grew another head and looked behind her. "Mom, robots. They clean, have them do it". 

Mom looked behind her and sighed, "Well, as much as I would like to use them all the time, you do realize that we can't afford a battery right now and they're already low". 

"Battery use minimization", the robot behind the mom said. "Breakfast is ready".

The teen looked at the robot and scratched his head. "I mean, how much energy does cleaning actually take. It's not like it'll gonna clean the shed everyday, it's just for the one day". 

"No", the mom said with a stern face. "We'll only gonna use the robot if we absolutely need it and since we have hands, we can clean the shed. Manually. With tools". 

"Wait", the teen said as he slowly sat up. "We're gonna use the robot to cook, right?"

Mom gave a light laugh, "Well, if you're so adamant in not cleaning the shed and letting the robot do it, I guess we can save some battery if I give the robot a break from cooking". 

"Who's gonna cook?" the teen asked then narrowed his eyes at his mom, "You?"

"Well,  I would love to", the mom said as she gave a wide smile to his son. 

Flashbacks of burnt food and tasteless entrees came to his mind. "Alright, I'll help you clean the shed". 

----

After breakfast, the teen and his mom cleaned the shed and threw away a couple of things they didn't need anymore. 

"Snacks?", the mom asked as she wiped sweat of her forehead. 

"Please", the teen said as he closed the lid of the garbage robot. 

"Garbage collection complete", the robot announced as it flew away towards the garbage processing plant. 

Mother and son went into the kitchen where the robot was currently put into sleep mode to save energy. The teen went to turn on the HoloTv when a loud knock came into the door. 

The teen looked at the mom and the mom slowly went to the security monitor. It showed a guy dressed in a suit, holding a long umbrella. The man knocked the door again and the mom walked to the door to open it. 

"Hello, Mrs. Roberta?", the man asked with a smile. 

"Who are you?", she asked. 

The man raised his umbrella and the mom was suddenly on the floor, unmoving. The son saw these all happened and tried to reach for the Arc button but was suddenly struck with something on his leg and immediately dropped on the floor, just like his mom.