Mobile phone

Mobile phone(Sree Harini) As any other day, with a bright sunshine, Dickie got up seeing the clock ticking 5 past 8 and the date showing 29/4/2156. He put down his legs but touched something unusual, something which was shiny and rough at the same time. He decided to get down to the floor by putting all his weight on it, but halfway through he realised it was the robot vacuum. With a sudden relief he took aback his legs, letting go of the robot vacuum.
He got up, showered then wore his usual pyjamas to school. He then went down though the air vacuum to eat his breakfast, which was being prepared by the kitchen robot. Last year his parents installed a new function to his bed, which would go off once he got of the bed and give messages for every robot to start its work. The robot prepared vegetable salad as per the instructions of its owner. Dickie gave a big sigh and sat in the 360 comfortable rotating chairs. The second he sat a voice message came of nowhere telling “Sweetheart unfortunately mommy and daddy had to leave to work earlier, so take care of yourself and get to school on time”. Out of the blue Dickie suddenly said “Alexa, tell me the count?” and the machine answered “247” and then Dickie said, “add one more to it!”. Then the machine replied, “Added as per your order it is now 248”. He touched the carpet and felt it’s warmth and halfway pressing the weight on it, an alarm went off with a buzz, he rolled his eyes and was looking for the disturbance, after a state of confusion, he realised that it was because he left a piece of cabbage on his plate, he ate it then went to the garage with “Frindle”. It was invented by a group of scientists in 2050 who calls themselves, “The Gear Gurus”. Basically, you just stand on this machine (which have the blueprint of the house) and if you tell where to go, it will take you to that destination.
Frindle is installed all along the streets, so no need to worry about transportation. As usual he took his moving through the streets where he saw people going by automatic car. The problem is when you travel through the automatic car you should be above 18 years and should know driving cause government thinks the car gonna go nuts and make accidents at times (which had never happened since 2090). So, Dickie’s got no chance of going to school in car every morning. All cars have one-way window film installed by their owners, so he could only see cars moving in motion with no sound. Sadly, teleportation was still not possible.
As Dickie reached the school, nearer and nearer he saw people getting down from cars with white reflective lights on their dark circled eyes. No one looked up to see their way, as if they knew what was in front of them. Last week, when students and staffs were getting inside school facing the entrance, a boy came in the opposite direction by which many people fell to the Earth, but still the light didn’t get out of their face, they just got up and went as if nothing had happened.
His first session was Science, he walked through the aisle when suddenly everything went dark and at the front of the bench a white light came up, then on the left side a red light came up, different coloured lights started to come up and everything made sense then. He didn’t see or speak anything, but just quietly went to his seat and sat in there with shiny sparkles, light coming from the left and black on the right. The teacher thought as usual as any other class he had.
His second session was Math, he went hustling towards the class because it was 10 past 11 already (he is supposed to be there by 11). But was a little disappointed to see he was the first one in the class. He wished he took Alexa to the class, so he could make a count of this number too. The teacher came making a tortoise walk to the class. Slowly arranging things as each student came inside the class banging the door, not because they were energetic but just the doors were too tight to be opened normally.
Sat down with white lights on their face. Perhaps, not all face was having a white light, some were having black, some had their lights in a landscape way only casting in their nose and mouth. The teacher shouldn’t bother much but should pretending students are listening and learning. The math teacher was just spinning her wheels. She uploaded all the task for the sem and just told to do it. Students really don’t mind it much. They just ask their Al tutor for help, sometimes bribe to do their task.
Dickie could tell the third session was supposed to be his favourite one. It was break. In primary school, everyone would run with joy to have some fun time and would play PHYSICAL games. But here in second year of high school they were sitting or standing somewhere with their phones in their hands (which could run up to 10 hours straight without any break). At first, he felt it kind of weird but got used to it. Government made a rule telling students could only have phones once they are 13 years old. With a sigh Dickie told “If they want students not to get addicted to it, they shouldn’t have allowed having phones in school”. Dickie remember everything fresh in his mind as if it happened yesterday. Every single of his friends and classmates telling, “I wouldn’t accept taking phone as a gift for my 12th birthday” or other telling, “Even if we get phones we should stay together and be just like this”. But now expect the words everything has vanished in the air.
Dickie have always asked for a phone, but he would only get the same reply every time, “Sweetheart you are not old enough to have a smartphone”. Even though he tried to speak to his friends nothing had ever worked out for him, with everyone’s nose just 2 inches away from their phones.
Everyday kicked the same for Dickie until 2nd of December. He was going through the air vacuum, making up his mind to tell Alexa to add one more count to its number but was surprised and shocked at the same time, to see his parents waiting for him with a cake. Alexa started with a tune which was familiar, after a minute of confusion he understood it was his birthday. He was happy and kind of sad to turn to a teenager. After all the cake eating, his parents suddenly told to close his eyes without asking any doubt. As he did, he heard both shouting ‘SURPRISE’. And when he opened his eyes, he saw a phone in their hand. With hesitation he asked, “Is it for me?”. A chorus reply came, “Yes!”.
He took the day off from school to make an investigation out of the device at his hand, which was all for himself. In 24 hours, he understood why everyone was so interested at this piece of device and why everyone took aback their words. The next day with a dim light he started his day, felt like he was on the same boat as everyone, as his face shone with black light casting over his dark circled eyes.