4. OLD
When children hit a certain age, they almost always want a pet. A dog, more often than not. So when Wilbur made same the request, his parents took him to the pound to adopt one.
It was a personal choice, not only for Cornelius, considering where he came from, but for Franny, too, who found - rescued, really - all of her frogs.
Wilbur scanned the dogs, dragging his fingers across the bars of the cages.
"See any you like, son?"
"I don't want any of these dogs," Wilbur complained. "They're too old."
That simple sentence suddenly struck a nerve in Cornelius. Something that had been long forgotten. Although most of his adoption interviews had gone awry due to him testing out his faulty inventions on the many couples, there were certain times when it was simply Lewis' age that caused them to turn the other way. They wanted a younger child. He was too old.
Franny didn't seem to notice Cornelius' moment till it had already passed, and he held his head to recover. His wife stepped in then, kneeling so she was at Wilbur's height.
"Now, sweetheart," She said, her hands on each of his shoulders. "That's no reason to not want a dog. There's nothing wrong with old things."
Wilbur, who was well beyond his years, even at the age of 5, seemed to catch onto the tension his previous outburst had caused, and nodded. "Well, I want a little dog, then," He gestured the size with his hands. "Like puppy size."
"Now that I can help with," The pound worker spoke up, guiding the family to a cage down the hall. "What do you think of this little fella?"
The man opened the cage, and the small dog walked out, cautiously, as if observing the world around him with blurry vision. When he reached Wilbur, he sniffed at his shirt, then excitedly covered his face in dog kisses.
The boy laughed. "He's perfect."
"What's his name?" Cornelius asked, when his previous thoughts had finally past.
Wilbur picked up the dog tag between his fingers and read slowly, "His name is...Buster."
5. CRUSH
It was dumb, Carl knew this.
For one thing, he was a robot. No matter how intelligent, or human-like Cornelius made him, he was still just a mess of nuts, bolts, and circuitry on the inside. For another thing, she was family. Not technically, of course. After all, you can't exactly be blood-related to someone when you yourself don't even have blood. But they did live together. And he'd known her since she was about Wilbur's age.
Yet, every time she zipped past him - fast, yet gracefully, on those high-tech skates of her's - Carl felt his insides go haywire. And though he didn't technically have them, he assumed this was the robot equivalency of butterflies in your stomach, or feeling your heart pound right out of your chest.