"Home… at Last?"
The mirror wasn't exactly a mirror, but a window or doorway… to another place… another time. But young Will Robinson didn't know that, when he found it in a far corner of a vast junkyard that he and the Robot were exploring for the first time, on this desolate and mostly arid planet. A planet looking much like Mars, but with a royal purple colored sky after star set, and a lavender-tinted one near noontime.
As usual, Doctor Smith trailed behind, mostly from a genuine paternal type of concern for the youngest member of the Robinson family… but also from his usual case of mild to extreme boredom. And he did enjoy most of the adventures he and the boy 'sooner than later' seemed to wind up in, even though many of those experiences – with odd aliens or strange technology – had him white as a ghost… while they were having them. But later on, he found he relished the memory of every encounter they had.
"Well, well, well… have we found anything even remotely interesting, in this gigantic field of old, rusted and broken down… treasures?" asked Dr. Zachary Smith, sounded out in his practiced and lightly boorish tone.
"Not much Doctor Smith… but this mirror with the odd symbols on the frame is nice. I was thinking that my mom or Judy might like it. It's not too big, and would look nice hanging on a wall," replied Will.
"Certainly it would, my boy… and that is so very generous of you, to think of giving it as a gift to your wonderful mother, or sweet charming sister. A good heart you posses young William. And a curious mind as well. And a good eye for the… Whaaaaat! It's… It's Alive?" spoke/wailed Smith, his measured tenor having turned ever so swiftly into a squeamish soprano.
The surface of the 'mirror', upon its silvery surface being touched lightly by Will a minute ago, had quickly started to vibrate like a small flowing sea of quicksilver mercury. Then after, instead of his own reflection, Will now saw a boy that looked just like himself – except that the boy had on a shirt and other clothing of a kind that were popular and common in a previous century… back on Earth!
It seemed that the other Will Robinson stared at Will and Doctor Smith – from his side of the mirror. A second later, there came a loud bang and puff of smoke… and then this carbon copy was soon standing, in the full and third dimension – in the 'Here & Now' – before Will, the Robot, and Doctor Smith.
"Is there a piano around here? Some happy music would be nice…" said the 'other' Will Robinson, in a tone that was less friendly than the original Will, and much more demanding, sounding like a request – or an order.
Suddenly, as was his occasional, 'Now & Then' habit… Dr. Smith fainted.
While the Robot slowly revived Smith with the hi-tech equivalent of smelling salts, Will Smith and his 'double' went exploring around the odds and ends of the large field of scattered junk bits. There seemed to be little of anything complete and intact, but there was much interesting looking 'stuff' just the same.
"So, may I ask, where you came from… I'm really curious to know," queried Will Robinson, of 'Will 2.0', as Will soon came to think of his twin from 'who knew where'… and Will was determined to learn just 'who' - and 'where'.
"Sure, you can ask… anyone looking just like me can ask anything… anything at all!" answered Will 2.0 easily, while examining a shiny metal thing-a-ma-bob object carefully. Will 2.0 was fascinated, beyond words, with all this junk, that his mind could later possibly change into something useful… just maybe.
"Well, as far as I can tell you… I came from a small family farm, in the Heartland of America… and as this can't be any desert that I ever read about, in my family's Encyclopedia Brittanica, and the sky looks all purple colors, well, I guess that this can't be Earth? – I reckon," said Will 2.0, as effortlessly as if he was answering 'What's 2 + 2?', from the last teacher that he had… before they annoyed him too much.
Will looked at his newfound 'twin', and then said: "No… this is definitely not Earth. We're on a planet a dozen light-years from Earth, as near as my father and Major Don can tell. We came in a spaceship."
"You have a spaceship?! Can I see it, right away?" said Will 2.0, excitedly. "I've never, ever seen a real-life spaceship, of any kind… One of my uncles once 'thinks' he saw a UFO, flying by our place late one night, but he used to drink a lot of whiskey – or so my dad had told me, long time ago."
The now wide awake Doctor Smith, accompanied by the faithful Robot, slowly… carefully… approached Will – and Will's exact looking 'double'.
The Robot, having much built-in sensing ability technology… for energy force fields, cosmic and X-rays, and much, much more… suddenly began flailing his powerful accordion arms, and clicking his precise red-clawed hands. "Danger – Danger, Will Robinson… the other you is…"
The Robot's speech center was then suddenly cut off. "Don't you be talking about me!" said Will 2.0, who then simply gazed at the Robot, blinked once… and thusly transformed the brave and trusty Robot immediately into the biggest 'Jack-In-The-Box' toy that the universe likely ever had seen. But a toy with 'No Power', as the Robot was seemingly, now dead… Out of order!
"Why, you delinquent Doppelganger, of our sweet, young William… you're just an ill-tempered child, with no self-control!" yelled Smith, horrified at what had become of the Robot… now 'disabled'.
"That's Doctor Smith… who gets easily excited about almost anything," said Will to Will 2.0, trying not to show any trace of fear… to his double, who had powerful, strange abilities, that could only be guessed at now, at this new and very sad turn of events – for Will's longtime friend and companion… the Robot.
Will 2.0 looked very upset, gazing now at Dr. Smith, and said: "Yes – I have what you call 'self control'… and I worked on it so long and so hard, so much, that I don't think about it anymore…" In other words, Will 2.0 had 'total control'!
Sensing more danger coming, as Robot had tried to warn him a short minute ago, Will talked very fast: "Hey, don't let our rude and grumpy Dr. Smith annoy you… He often annoys my family, and especially Major Don – but we all learned to live with that… and Him." Will hoped he had delayed any further… (?)
Will 2.0, still with an unhappy look on his face, replied: "Well, OK – maybe you have to live with Him, but I certainly don't… and, I won't!" Just then an even stranger look came across Will 2.0's face, and then he snapped the fingers of one hand, while saying: "You're a bad man, Doctor Smith… a Very Bad Man!" Then he snapped his fingers once more, while looking from Smith and then quickly over to the strange, and alien 'mirror'. A split-second later, Smith vanished in a puff of smoke, along with a short 'bang'.
"Where did you send him?" asked a perplexed and now worried Will Robinson. Even after all the trouble Doctor Smith had caused his father and family, ever since leaving Earth, he still felt bad that the Doctor was now missing… or possibly even worse off?
Smith had been sent through the 'mirror', and then through a possible worm-hole… soon finding himself back on Earth? Back on the old terra firma… but, he was buried neck-deep, in what looked to be a typical 1950's American corn field. The old signage he saw on the side of a barn nearby, in English, could only mean that this was Earth… or a near-perfect facsimile, of his long-begotten home world? Stranger still – everything looked to be in black & white… and many shades of gray! He soon fainted again…
"I sent Him where I send everyone that gets me mad… I sent him to the cornfield!" shot back Will 2.0, to Will, in reply of where Smith now was. Will then glanced at the Robot, still an inactive and giant-sized kid's toy, and then back to Will 2.0 – and lightning quick… he had a plan!
"Tell you what… I'll show you my family's space ship, but only after you restore both the Robot, and Doctor Smith. It's a very, very long walk back to the ship, and I won't tell you what direction it is, or take you to it, until Robot and Smith are back to normal…" said Will '1.0', and as calmly as he could manage.
"Normal…? Ha! That doctor, if he really is one… sure is no 'normal' person," said Will 2.0, smiling now.
"Yes, Dr. Smith is no regular kind of doctor… but he's my friend, just as well… and I want him back!"
"OK – You win…" Then Will 2.0 snapped his fingers and blinked… and in two big puffs of smoke, both the Robot and Doctor Zachary Smith were as they always were, and standing a few feet from Will Robinson. A very relieved but still worried Will Robinson. And, there still was much danger here… from Will 2.0!
Will made good on his promise… the 'Deal'… and escorted Will 2.0 to see the Jupiter 2. Luckily, as they got to it, all of the family had been off and away. Will's father and Don had taken the Space Pod out to examine some rare mineral deposits located far away, to turn possibly into some fuel for the ship… and Will's mother, and sisters Judy and Penny, had taken the Chariot, and were now gathering some vegetable-like plants and fresh water out at some nearby hills and next to a very deep spring.
Will showed Will 2.0 most of the non-essential equipment on the ship… explaining everything in pseudo space jargon talk… and it worked. And when Will 2.0 learned that the ship was presently non-flyable, and stranded here on this dry and unforgiving planet for a long while, likely… he soon got bored with it all.
Will had brought the 'mirror' along, when they had left the junk field for the ship, and had stroked it once again, just when Will 2.0 was not looking, while aiming its silvery surface at Will 2.0… and Will shouted fast, with all his 'Will-Power': "Return this unwelcome and unwanted guest - now!"… There was a terrific bang! And very large puff of white smoke… and Will 2.0 was gone.
Quickly, Will took a large wrench from a nearby table that Don had left out, and smashed the surface of the 'mirror' with one swift and mighty whack… shattering it into dozens of small pieces. Soon, they never, ever saw Will 2.0, or whoever and whatever 'He' was… again.
Both Will and Smith heaved a heavy and audible sigh of blessed relief. But there was also a look of deep sadness on Dr. Smith's face.
"Doctor Smith, we seem to be safe now. Why do you look so… unhappy?" asked Will.
"Oh, my dear William… Maybe you are much too young to be homesick – for Earth? But I, for one… am. And for one short, if imperfect, 'shining moment', even though I was stuck in the dirt, buried up to my chin, by that changeling interloper look-a-like of yours… for one brief and lovely minute – I was Home. Home – at Last!" spoke Smith. Will shrugged his shoulders a bit, and the Robot 'smiled' (inside)… Amen!
The End