Toyscape

John A. Frochio

Amanda shivered, still very cold, and peeked around the corner. Her long red locks fell across her face. Ooh, look at all the colors.

"Brendan, come look."

Brendan didn't come. However, several other children peeked. They all gasped. A vast landscape of brightly colored objects spread out before them. There were large machines in crates and vehicles of all shapes and sizes. Shelves lining the walls were filled with all kinds of delightful objects, big and small and in-between. There were bikes and trikes and balls and crawlers and bats and hats and gyroscopes and kaleidoscopes and Seussoscopes and Seussophones. There were intraship netlink pads and pods and pens and pins and all kinds of flashing, blinking, blaring and blabbing electronic gadgets. Some machines ran on tracks, some up and down walls, some across the high ceiling and some from one side of the room to the other. There were many objects that moved when you told them to move and many that just sat there and waited for you to figure out what to do with them.

Brendan finally came. He said, "Hey, look at all the toys. From here to there."

"And everywhere," said Amanda.

Ahmed called out, "Hey, mommy and daddy are still frozen like popsicles. What do we do?"

Amanda and Brendan shrugged.

Nobody knew what to do.

More children, still shivering from the cold, poured into the vast room full of toys, past rows upon rows and shelves upon shelves. Soon they were all playing energetically with the toys, their chills quickly forgotten. They found they could make things light up and make all kinds of interesting sounds and move things in all kinds of different ways. There was no end to the fun.

When they got hungry, they found they could make all kinds of different food, which was delivered to them right where they played. So they played until they were hungry and then they ate; and they played until they were tired and then they slept. There really wasn't much else they needed.

While their parents continued the long sleep on their way to a new world, all their children – suddenly, inexplicably awakened – began their new life much earlier, in their own new world.

Later they realized they needed more power to keep their world going.

Ahmed said, "What do we do?"

Brendan shrugged.

Amanda pointed toward the big wall switches. Amanda was smarter than most. She figured out how they could get more power.

So they shut down the cryo chambers to get more power and they continued to play and eat and sleep and play and eat and sleep in their own new world.

© John A. Frochio 2013 All Rights Reserved