“That was an interesting encounter,” Lefty proclaimed.
“That’s for sure,” Jack agreed. “He’s certainly an odd duck, as you called him.”
“Yep. Do you suppose he’s been stranded on this island for a really long time, and he just gradually lost his marbles? You mentioned that this place was uninhabited for over one hundred and fifty years, didn’t you, Lefty?” Neil asked, as he began jogging down the beach toward the place where Noodles lay.
“As far as I know,” Lefty said, stroking his chin as he pondered the implications. “That’s what my research of Smuttynose Island had indicated, anyhow. That man - the keeper, he called himself - his appearance was startling, to say the least. His behavior, his attire… it was all quite bizarre and fascinating. I would have loved to have interviewed him at length, to gain an anthropologist’s perspective as to his story, but he was clearly in no mood to entertain questions.”
“Yeah, he was fairly, uh… abrupt,” Jack chuckled. “He was not a fan of questions.”
“Jack!” Neil cried. “Get over here, right now!”
Jack and Lefty looked toward Neil, and they saw that his face had become stricken with horror. He was looking down at Noodles, and his mouth was agape in disbelief, his eyes bulging from his head.
“What is it?” Lefty cried with alarm. “What’s wrong with Noodles?”
“It’s terrible,” Neil said, his voice little more than a whisper, so taken aback was he by what he had witnessed.
Jack sprinted down the beach, racing to reach his friend. Nibbler trotted by his side, and Murphy rode upon the dog’s back, centered between his shoulder blades.
“What’s wrong?” Jack gasped as he caught up to Neil. “What’s going on with-”
As he saw what had startled Neil, Jack stopped speaking. The problem at hand was immediately obvious.
The head of Noodles was gone. It was just gone.
Though the lanky robot otherwise appeared to be perfectly intact, the space above his shoulders was empty. He lay on his stomach, sprawled across an outcrop of slate-colored stone.
“Egads,” Jack muttered, as he looked down at the headless robot. He blinked repeatedly, as if trying to make the horrible sight disappear through sheer will. “This is not good.”
“Boys! Boys, what is it?” Lefty called from down the beach. “Don’t leave me hanging!”
“Noodles has lost his head, Uncle Lefty!” Jack cried. “Literally!”
“What?”
“We’d best show you, sir,” Neil said, his voice filled with a somber tone that was completely out of character for him. His high spirits, perpetually intact, had been dashed by the poor turn of events.
With heavy hearts, Neil and Jack returned to where Lefty lay on the beach. Stooping over, they lifted him with their combined strength and proceeded to carry him to Noodles. They wobbled as they walked through the sand, sharing their odd cargo, slowly making their way.
Lefty was craning his neck forward, desperate to see what had become of his beloved Noodles. Neil and Jack could sense Lefty’s concern, and they felt deep empathy for him. They proceeded in silence. The only sounds were the ocean water breaking upon the beach, the seagulls calling to one another, and the sand shifting beneath their feet.
Nibbler sat calmly beside Noodles, watching over his fallen robotic friend. Murphy also sat near at hand, resting one paw on Noodles’ arm and shaking his tiny head remorsefully.
“Okay, let me take a look, boys,” Lefty said.
Neil and Jack lowered the scientist to the ground, directly beside Noodles. Lefty gasped as his twisted knee bent slightly in the process, but he ignored the pain, directing his attention to the robot.
The boys knelt in the sand, holding their breath as they awaited the diagnosis. Nibbler looked on, softly whimpering. Lefty brushed aside a bunch of small crabs that had gathered on the torso of Noodles, and they scuttled away.
“Those things are everywhere on this island,” Neil muttered.
“Oh, poor Noodles,” Lefty said quietly, as he began his examination, running his hands over the robot’s neck and shoulders. But after a grim moment in which his face seemed very dark indeed, he broke into a smile. To the astonishment of the others, his voice had lightened and was free of worry when next he spoke. “Oh, well, boys. Not to worry - this isn’t very bad at all! We’ve gotten all worked up, for nothing.”
“Uh… we have?” Neil asked. Fearing that Lefty might be in denial or shock, he felt it necessary to point out the obvious: “His head is gone, Lefty! Gone, I tell you! Gone!”
“Indeed it is, but I’m sure Noodles will be just fine, once we reattach it. You see this?” Lefty asked, pointing toward a threaded seal at the neck of Noodles. “Nothing is broken; his head must have simply been bonked so hard that this seal loosened and came undone. His head should screw right back on, no problem… robots have it much easier than humans in many regards, this being one of them. We must have landed awfully hard, for this to happen!”
“He’s not dead, then?” asked Jack, his voice rich with relief.
“Dead? Of course not!” Lefty exclaimed. “Though Noodles is gifted with a marvelous personality, thanks to his revolutionary artificial intelligence, it’s actually impossible for him to die. He’s a robot, after all, so he can always be repaired, no matter how drastic the damage. When you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, Noodles is a machine - a marvelous machine, mind you, but a machine nonetheless. And as I’m sure you boys know, I’m awfully good at fixing machines!”
“Well, this is a huge relief. When I saw his head missing, I… well, I thought he was a goner, to tell you the truth. I would have missed all his beeping and booping. Not to mention the break dancing, which is probably one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen,” Neil chuckled. “We haven’t known him all that long, but we’ve grown really attached to the big guy.”
“Don’t worry about Noodles, boys. He’s much tougher than any of us,” Lefty laughed.
“We still have a big problem,” Jack said, scanning the beach with his eyes. “You may be able to get Noodles up and running once you reattach his head, Uncle Lefty. But we don’t actually have his head… and I don’t see it lying anywhere around here. So the obvious question here is: Where’s Noodles’ noggin?”
Chapter Twelve
Prime Suspect
The Green Beans, Volume 4: Shipwrecked on Smuttynose Island Page 11