This is dispatch calling all cars. Anyone near Route 15 copy me right now?

Copy, Mandy. I’m on 15, headed west. Go ahead.

Oh hi, Stu. How’s it going?

Well, you know. It’s four in the morning.

Anyway, just got a call from the Kaurs. They noticed all the lights on at Jim Rourke’s. Heard, I quote, “a lotta noise from out the barn for the middle of the night.” Wondered if you’d be so kind as to swing by. To see if Jim’s alright.

Hang on. Pulling a U-ie. Did you try calling him?

No answer. He’s probably asleep.

Lucky him, eh?

I’m a little worried, to be honest. He’s getting on. And he’s all alone now. House full of stairs. You know?

I do. Have you talked to him at all, since Mrs. Rourke?

No. You?

Not talked, no. Seen him around. Seen him at the funeral and shook his hand, but didn’t exactly exchange words.

Right.

There were no words, you know? The situation called more for body language. A sympathetic nod. We exchanged a meaningful look. Okay, pulling in now. I see the lights in the barn. I’ll head in there, make sure everything’s okay.

Copy. Thanks, Stu.

***

Dispatch, this is car three headed back towards town.

Stu! You’re back! Was Jim okay?

Yeah, he’s fine.

Oh good. I was worried.

He’s good.

So everything’s fine?

Yeah.

So what took so long, then?

What do you mean?

It’s been an hour. You were gone a long time.

We were just talking.

I was worried, Stu. Procedure says you’re supposed to check in after—

Yeah. Sorry. It’s alright, though. He’s fine. Over.

***

So what did you talk about?

Say again, dispatch?

What were you talking about with Jim Rourke for so long?

Not much.

And what was he doing up, anyway? The man’s in his eighties, Stu. Did you tell him to go to bed?

Not really my business.

Why are you being so evasive, Stu?

Evasive?

Your answers are…I’d call them “suspiciously curt,” Stu.

Mandy, this line is for official communications.

And I’m asking an official question.

Which is?

Why can’t you tell me what you talked about with Jim Rourke?

Dispatch, this is car three. I’m gonna roll over to the highway now.

Come on, Stu.

So I might go in and out of range for a while.

Stu, don’t be a jerk.

Do you copy, dispatch?

I copy.

***

He was building a giant robot in his barn.

Car three? Stu, is that you?

It was really big, Mandy. Never seen anything like it.

Stu…car three, can you say again? Did you say “robot?”

It was all…metallic and everything.

You mean Jim Rourke?

Yeah. I mean, no, he wasn’t metallic. He was—

You said Jim Rourke is building a…a “robot” in his barn?

A giant robot, yes. I guess it’s a…could you call it a hobby? Honestly, it was pretty impressive. It’s probably gonna be taller than the whole barn when it finally stands up and starts walking around.

Walking around?

Well, Jim hasn’t got quite that far yet. He says the power source is going to be the real hurdle. But he’s been ordering some engineering books off of Amazon, and apparently there might be real advances made in the field of fuel cells in the next decade. It’s an exciting time, he says.

Stu, I have some questions.

Yeah, I had some too.

I’m just trying to…does it have a face and eyes and everything?

It has eyes, yes. Big eyes. Real big.

Can it see?

No, it…it doesn’t really do anything yet. It just sits there. It’s still early in the building phase, I think.

Can it talk?

No. I mean, it didn’t talk when I was there.

Huh.

What does “huh” mean?

Well, this is a little strange, Stu. Are you sure Jim’s alright?

Sure, he’s alright. He’s keeping busy, isn’t he?

Sounds like it. But I mean, is he—

Apparently he went to see a movie over in Kelowna with his grandkids a year or two ago, when his daughters were visiting.

After Mrs. Rourke.

After Mrs. Rourke, yes. It was one of those big special effects ones. And in the movie, there was…

Right. In the movie.

And the kids thought it was a real kick, right? So Jim got to thinking, “Well, that would be pretty neat.”

He got to thinking, did he?

Mandy, it’s a free country. He’s a good man, and he’s elderly, and he’s had a rough couple of years, hasn’t he? Why can’t the man have a…I don’t know, an art project?

He’s a retired farmer. How can he—

Or an interest in science, Mandy? This is a very promising time in the…the whole scientific field. That’s what Jim says.

Stu?

It’s his property. He can do what he wants. And who are we to…it’s not against the law to…you know.

Right.

And so, I admit I was a little alarmed when I went in there, Mandy. Its face and…the big size and everything. Right up to the rafters.

That would be alarming, sure.

But I had a talk with Jim, a long talk. And I’ve come to the conclusion that this is just one of those things that people do.

Stu, most people don’t—

And we can sit around and ask questions all we want, but…

But what?

I don’t know how to put it into words, Mandy. This is just one of those things.

Sure.

Do you know what I mean?

I guess.

Okay.

***

Car three, this is dispatch. Do you read?

Go ahead, dispatch.

So, I have one more question.

Sure.

So, when he’s all done with it, and he’s figured out how to make it walk and talk and so on. When he’s figured out the, you know, the cells…

The fuel cells, yeah. Go on.

How is he going to get it out of the barn?