Chapter 5
Thanks to Me

I woke up to Frederick screaming. "My arm! I can't feel it! They chopped my arm off! I just know it!"
 "What are you talking about! Your arm is right here, see?" I said, holding it up.
 "I can't see anything." he said.
 The suns were both down. "Oh yeah, it's pretty damn dark. But don't you feel this?" I asked, and then I spelled out 'I *heart* Frederick' up his arm.
 "Feel what?" he asked.
 "I'm positive this is your arm." I said, then after pondering it for a bit, I whispered "Maybe it's not attached!" I pulled on his arm and he jerked upright.
 "What the!" he exclaimed.
 "Maybe it's numb." I suggested.
 "You mean like I slept on it wrong?" he asked. Then, before I could answer him, he shrieked and jumped out of the tree.
 "What did you do that for!" I yelled.
 He didn't reply. He just screamed and ran around the tree a few times. Then he said "It tingles! It tingles! Oh GOD it tingles!" After about 10 minutes of that, he calmed down. "Alright, I can feel it again. Phew!"
 "So it was numb?"
 "I guess so," he checked his watch. "Hey, it's 6:30 A.M.! Why isn't the sun up?
 "I dunno, you're the orbit expert" Just as I finished my sentence, the sun crept over the wall of the garden.
 "Ha!" he yelled. "I was right!"
 We were interrupted by some beeping noises. "Hey, listen! Something's happening on the other side of the door."
 "What?"
 He pointed to the door. I sat up and watched as it began to rise like a garage door. Which it in fact seemed to be. A robot was on the other side, sitting on a small machine which could have been anything. And frankly, that was what I was ready for. Frederick scrambled up the tree.
 It looked like a lawn mower with a steel box on the back. The robot rode it out into the garden, and drove right over a bed of blueberries! At first I didn't get it, then I noticed that the box was beginning to fill up with berries. It left behind a trail of unharmed berry bushes, stripped clean.
 "Cool. How do you suppose they do that?" I asked.
 "I don't know but it doesn't surprise me. Anyone who can make an apple explode in mid air can surely pick blueberries with a machine."
 I nodded in agreement. We watched it collect more blueberries until the box was full. It drove back to the door then emptied them into a small square hole in the garage. As it came back out and began to collect more berries an apple fell from the other side of the tree. It didn't seem to care.
 "I wonder if that thing is movement activated." I asked aloud.
 "Sure, why wouldn't it be?"
 "I don't know, but I just have this feeling. Why would a gardener need to be aware of things?"
 "I'm not sure but how do you intend to find out?"
 I picked an apple and threw it at the machine. I hit it right on its head. I suppose. You know, the square thing on top. It didn't seem to notice. It continued to drive over the blueberries. "Hmm, just as I suspected."
 "So? What does that mean?"
 "It means," I said, as I jumped from the tree, "that it doesn't know we're here."
 "...and . . . " pressed Frederick.
 "Well," I added, while I walked over to the machine and picked a handful of blueberries from the box. "I think we can use this to our advantage." I said as I stood there eating them.
 "I see!" he said. He picked an apple and threw it at the door and it sailed right in, unharmed. "We can get in!" He jumped out of the tree and walked over to me. Taking one long look at the open door, he turned to me. "Okay," he said, "you first."
 "...No, you first"
 I knew where this was going, so I took one long breath, and jumped.