ROBOT BABY WAS MADE in someone’s garage. Robot baby was made with pieces of someone’s little sister’s old precious things that had been stored in a cardboard box. Smell of old batteries and synthetic doll hair. Robot baby was made with Dad’s old tools and Mom’s rusted gardening shears. Someone spent hours in the garage putting Robot baby together. Someone spent days. Robot baby can say things like wah and mama and kick its little robot legs up and down. Robot baby responds to certain vocal cues and has a vibrating mechanism in the pit of its robot belly that is almost like a cat’s purr. Robot baby glows in the dark. Robot baby has an on/off switch on the small of its back. Robot baby is sticky with spilled beer and sweat. Some drops of blood that someone didn’t completely wipe off. Robot baby is leaving the garage now, for the first time, being carried into the room with the crib. With the dark-empty crib that bows under Robot baby’s weight. Someone is covering Robot baby with a blanket. Someone is calling for their spouse. Someone is saying please, you have to see. I just need you to see. •





Cathy Ulrich will sometimes find random things in boxes and wonder if she could make something out of them. Her work has been published in various journals, including Flash Frog, Wigleaf and Crow Name.

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