their rent had gone up, or that the auto shop was under water, or that his customers could barely afford to pay him. He hadn’t told her these things because it was not her burden to bear. It was his. And as he reminded himself of this, his anger fell back upon himself. How could he allow himself to miss so much of their childhood? It was the mark of any good robot not to dwell on anger, but to transform it into something useful, something practical. And as Clank lay awake staring at the ceiling above, an idea began to take shape in his mind. It started as a silly thought, an impossibility. And yet it stuck, like an earworm repeating itself over and over again, until an absurd plan, an embarrassing plan, an immoral plan formed in his head. Something Clank never thought he’d do. Something he wasn’t sure he wasn’t sure he could do. And yet the more he thought of this plan, the more the pieces seemed to fall into place, the more it started to make sense. You see, there was one toy that Benji, the Keeper of the Chest, the Boy King, the Great Imaginator, cherished more than any other. It was a Hot Wheels replica of Evel Knievel’s stunt car given to him by his father. The car more than lived up to its reputation. It could outpace any other Hot Wheel no matter the loops or curves or jumps put before it. The car was legend in Benji’s eyes, and therefore treasured through all of the playland. Even in this time of sickness it was kept under close guard in Benji’s palace, awaiting his return. It was the most valuable thing in their world, but were something to happen to the car … Clank thought. Were something to break … something only he could fix … the palace would have to hire him! They had money, they had buckets and buckets of money. And they’d do anything to liven Benji’s spirits … This was the plan that formed in Clank’s mind. It was a plan born from desperation, from a bot who could not bear the idea of his kids growing up without him there. And the more he thought about it, the more he plotted and schemed, the more the plan took on a life on its own. 19 ERIC JOYNER, DETAINED - ERICJOYNER.COM
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