Wilma was awakened Wednesday morning by the sun creeping into her bedroom. She looked around the room, trying to figure out why her robot didn’t wake her, and then she remembered: it was a WALL-E-free day. She went to see what time it was, but without her robot, she had no clock. Wilma tore apart her room looking for a watch, but had no luck. She finally found an old one stuffed in a storage closet. It was 8:30am, and she was late for school. Expecting her breakfast to be ready as she entered the kitchen, she was shocked to find it empty. She was hungry, but had no idea how to cook. Wilma stared hopelessly at the fridge, racking her brain for some concoction she could quickly pull together, but gave up after thirty seconds. She double checked that she was still alone, and a feeling of abandonment settled in; there was no WALL-E or human in sight.
On her way to school, Wilma walked alone. For the first time, she was alone in her head with just her thoughts. She didn’t know what to think, except that she missed her WALL-E. Upon arriving at school, Wilma realized that her whole class was late, as they all relied on their WALL-Es to wake them up. Everyone was agitated, looking aimlessly around the room as they had no idea what to do with themselves. Ms. Rubble came in and delivered her normal lesson plan. For the first hour, students just stared at her. She finally had to ask them to write notes. Wilma gasped; she’d never taken notes herself.
As Wilma sat in the cafeteria, surrounded by her fellow students, she realized she didn’t know many of their names. In fact, she had never spoken to a majority of her class. She told herself that there was never a need to, because she always had her WALL-E right by her side. Wide-eyed and glum, she observed her fellow classmates attempt small talk and fail miserably at it.
Wilma headed back to class where she was to research Newton’s Laws. Out of habit, she asked her WALL-E to run a search for the laws. Silence filled the air and she remembered that she was alone. She glanced hopelessly around the room, unsure of how she was supposed to obtain information since WALL-E-NET was the only information network and it was only accessible through a WALL-E. An overwhelming sense of inability flooded over her, and she decided to give up and continue looking aimlessly around the room until it was time to go home. While walking home, Wilma kept her head lowered. A couple of brave students waved and said hello to her. She looked like a deer in headlights, frightened and frozen. She didn’t wave back.
Wilma then found herself at the dinner table without a meal and anything to contribute to her family’s conversation. She later lay in bed, realizing how lonely and incapable she was without her WALL-E. The next morning when Wilma’s WALL-E woke her up, she smiled. She had her old, utopic life back, where she was in power and had a constant companion. And she couldn’t have been happier.
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