Neighbours

When Harry showed the rake to Robert Morgenstern he suggested visiting the neighbours down the road, whose children had sometimes visited his father in-law.

When Elanor and Harry arrived at the Martin farm, it was lying hidden in the fog. Meanwhile, somewhere behind the clouds the sun must have set. A dark afternoon slowly got visibly darker. A dog barked somewhere and there was a metal clonking sound coming from somewhere else. They decided to follow the sound and soon arrived at a large hall. The large, heavy metal door creaked as they entered, which made the man, who was standing under a light a few meters away from them turn around. He was obviously working on repariting a large farming robot, purple glowing batteries, tools and various metal parts were scattered on the ground around him. He was tall with short brown hair and beard and wearing dungarees and a blue jacket with the logo of a local hardware store. The hall was filled with further robots of various shapes and sizes as well as other farming equipment.

Elanor and Harry introduced themselves and explained why they were there.

'Mr Martin, have you noticed anything unusual last night?', Harry asked.

The man shook his head , 'I am sorry, I didn't. But you could ask my wife, she is over at the house with the kids.'

Elanor turned to leave, but Harry stopped and went back to have a look at what Mr Martin was working on.

'You're having troubles with that robot, Mr Martin?'

The man sighed 'This one went rogue last night and destroyed part of our harvest of blue cabbage. I couldn't stop it without using an iron rod. Now I have to repair it. Was told there was some kind of glitch and they'd upload a software update when the robot is back at the docking station. Until then I still have some work to do.'

Elanor rolled her eyes and went to open the door.

'Now come on Harry, I'm sure Mr Martin will appreciate you leaving him alone and finish his work. We also got things to do.'

Harry hurried to join her. They went across the foggy yard to the farmhouse.

Warm light was illuminating the fog around the windows. The door was opened by a woman with long brown hair tied up at the back. She whiped flour from her hands into an apron with colourful flower pattern. Next to her a large brown dog with floppy ears was looking out of the door, tentatively wagging its tail.

After presenting their warrant cards, Elanor and Harry were invited inside and made to sit down at the kitchen table with a cup of tea, while Mrs Martin and her Robo Flux housekeeper were baking bread for the next farmer's market. The dog lay down under the table, hoping that there would also be food. As they talked about the late Mr Morgenstern and people he knew, Harry watched the robot kneading dough. It's shiny silver body was scratched in places and other spots looked like they had been cleaned with unsuitable substances.

'An older model', Harry whispered to Elanor,' I've read the newer models have an uninvited-guest-function as well as a house-party-setting.'

'Uh-huh,' Elanor answered and took a sip from her tea. She listened to Mrs Martin conetmplating how anyone could mean any harm to the late Mr Morgenstern. She took notes about all the nice people who lived in the area and all certainly only thought the best of their neighbour.

After a while a small blonde girl stuck her head in the door.

'Who are you?', she asked.

Harry looked at her, 'we are the police. We just want to talk to your mom for a while,' He took the rake, which was leaning on his chair, ' is this yours? Why were you at the Morgenster house earlier today?'

The little girl darted forward and snatched it from his hands, then quickly retreated to the door again. She eyed Harry critically.

'You do not have a uniform. Do you have a siren on your car? Can you turn it on?', she asked.

From upstairs another child shouted downstairs ,'What's going on?!'

The little girl answered, 'it's the police! At least that's what they say! They brought my spear!'

There were steps running down the stairs and a few seconds later a slightly larger girl appeared next to her sister, 'so you also search for the golden boar? Did you find it?', she seemed excited.

'Shush, don't waste these people's time with your games. Now go upstairs and play, please, we'll have dinner when dad has finished repairing that robot,' their mother told them.

A few minutes later Elanor and Harry put on their coats and soon were on their way through fog and darkness.

Tavaron