Between the Lanterns(62)
August tried to pick the large, wooden automaton up to take Woodrow with him to West Main Street, but there was no way he could carry him all that way. August’s mind was all mixed up, and he couldn’t think straight. It was incredibly frustrating for him, to say the least.
In his workshop, August once again tore through everything with reckless abandon, not caring what he broke or damaged. He needed to find something… anything… to help him move that robot.
August’s eyes went to the back corner of his small workshop. Leaned against the wall, old but hopefully still working, was his old maglev sled. He had used it years ago to move around heavy equipment or junk that he found lying around or in dumpsters.
He pulled it out from behind some boxes full of now useless tech, and it tipped over, falling towards the floor… and August’s feet. If it didn’t power on, it was all over. That sled weighed more than he did, and it would crush his feet and legs, leaving August incapable of going anywhere.
The maglev sled hummed to life and floated a foot off of the ground. August breathed a heavy sigh of relief. He gently guided it into the bedroom and, as carefully as possible, moved Woodrow’s prone form onto the sled. Once positioned well enough, August didn’t waste any time.
Out the front door, August moved the hovering sled as fast as he could over to his AutoCar. He hated driving one, and preferred to use bicycles, but his knees weren’t up to the challenge much anymore. August shoved, pushed, pulled, and struggled to get the wooden robot into the back seat, and eventually succeeded.
The magnetic levitating sled went into the trunk, and August peeled off faster than he should on this street. He should really slow down. There were children in this neighborhood.
Racing through traffic, he swerved to dodge in between slow-moving AutoCars whose owners weren’t paying any attention to the road. They were too caught up in a good book, a movie, or news vids.
August wanted to run every red light but thought better of it. If he were to be pulled over right now, it would be tragic… absolutely tragic.
As he turned onto West Main Street, his heart raced faster than it should for a man of his age. He drove down to the very end of the downtown strip, all the way down past the bars and restaurants. All the way down past the clinic, the Baptist church, and the new office buildings.
And that’s when he saw them. The two lanterns hung motionless in the air, levitating like all the other ones in New Dothan. There was nothing outwardly unique about them. They gave off the same light, fueled by the Tesla generator outside of town, providing pure, clean, wireless energy.
No poles were holding them in place. The magnetic levitation plates on the bottom kept them at the perfect ten feet above the automated sidewalks. They were just normal, everyday lanterns. And between them is where he and Samantha had met for the very first time.
August’s heart skipped a beat as he saw them and then looked at the spot on the road where he had first met, and then later kissed, the most perfect human ever put on this wretched planet.
There were no parking spaces available, of course, but he didn’t care. August pulled as close to the spot as he could and threw the car in park. He left it running and left his door open as he ran back to the trunk to remove the maglev sled.
He began extracting Woodrow from the back seat of his AutoCar. It was slow -going, and a few people passed by. No one offered the old man any help, of course. Typical.
August eventually got Woodrow out and pushed the sled into the middle of the street, directly in between the lanterns… The lanterns that hovered 10 feet above him.
“How am I going to get them down?” August whispered.
They were far out of his reach. He grabbed at his gray hair and pulled, trying to pry any ideas out of that once razor-sharp mind. His breathing slowed and his pupils dilated as a memory crept back into his mind. He looked up and knew that, although they looked the same as the other street lanterns in New Dothan, they weren’t the same. He had modified these two unique lanterns.
Hoping beyond all hope that they still functioned correctly, he called out to the lanterns. Would they still recognize his voice commands after all these years?
“Lanterns, lower to four feet off the ground, and dim lights to 50% percent, please and thank you.”
For a twisted and torturous second, the lanterns didn’t move. They stayed right where they were, 10 feet above the ground.
But then they made a whirring noise, and their light dimmed to half of what it was. And thankfully, they floated down to four feet off the ground, exactly as August had told them to do.
Again, August wasted no time, as that was a resource he was quickly running out of. Opening both up, and disconnecting the power boards, the lanterns went out but remained floating. The magnetic levitation didn’t run off Tesla power, but the ability to alter the strength or weakness of the levitation was now gone, along with the lights.
Finally, he had the boards he would need to get Woodrow back up and running. They were in fantastic shape, as they had not been subjected to whatever it was that damaged the rest of the boards.
He opened the panel in the newly cleaned and maintained wooden robot’s chest. The two slots were still empty from where he had removed the damaged boards back at the house.
With expert care, scared to break the last remaining boards like this in North America, he placed them into their respective ports inside of Woodrow. August then closed the chest panel and stepped back.