The little boy watched as the clouds poured into the sky again. Covering what little light the sun had allowed himself to burn.

“Darn.” He thought.

He just knew the storm was over. What eactly was that thing watching from the distance. It looked almost like one of his toys. Almost. Somehow it was more lifelike. Maybe he should say, more like life.

The little one knew there was more behind those red eyes than just circuits and wires. He had seen the way it moved. It actually thought. Like a person. Maybe it was one of those “smart toys.” The ones that had been all over the place lately.

He thought he’d heard someone say China made them. AI. Though he didn’t quite get the expression, “artificial intelligence.” How could intelligence be artificial?

Flowers could be artificial, some people even had artificial limbs. But people still controlled their actions. Intelligence could not be controlled. Anything that grew and expanded could not be artificial.

That was something real.