Patience

Optimus sped down the highway leading out of town. Sam stared out the window trying to see where the Autobot could possibly be taking him. He glanced over at truck dashboard and gasped when he saw how fast the truck was traveling.

"Sam?" Optimus asked.

"Do you know how fast you are going?"

"Yes. Is it not fast enough?"

"You're going twice the speed limit."

"I do not understand what the problem is. There are few cars around."

"Ever heard of cops?" Sam asked. "They give out things called tickets. Tickets are very bad. Get enough tickets and they take away your driver's license. No license means no driving cars. No car means no girl and that's very bad. It's worse than a death sentence for guys."

"I see," Optimus said. He did not truly understand the logic behind Sam's statements but they were obviously important to the boy. He considerably lowered his speed and Sam relaxed in his seat.

"So where are we going?" Sam asked casually.

"Wait and see. Patience-"

"Is a virtue which I don't possess," Sam finished. The Optimus hologram turned its head and looked at him. "All right fine but if you think this is being impatient you should have seen me on every Christmas day when I was little. I would wake at four in the morning to see what Santa Claus brought me. Mon and dad weren't amused."

Optimus was silent as he accessed the worldwide web for information on Santa Claus. "Santa Claus is not real," he said finally. "He could not leave presents."

"Well, it was my parents. They would wait until I eventually fell asleep and then they would put out the presents. I would think that Santa had come in the middle of the night and left them. It's all a diabolical scheme that parents put on to make sure their kids are good during the year. Good kids get presents, bad kids don't."

"When did you figure out the truth?" Optimus asked.

"When I was eleven. Figured it out from kids and school and on my own. It didn't help when dad told me that if you rearrange the letters in Santa you get Satan. You know the devil."

"Odd human custom," Optimus murmured.

"You don't do things like Santa?" Sam asked.

"No. My race has nothing like that." Sam suddenly laughed. "What is it?"

"You don't know how weird it is to being talking about Santa with an alien robot," Sam said, giggling. "It's crazy."

"I certainly never thought I would be having a conversation about a figure that breaks into someone's dwelling to leave presents," Optimus replied. Sam laughed even harder and the Optimus hologram smiled. Optimus exited off the highway and was now traveling down a deserted road that wound its way through barren hills. Optimus drove for another ten miles before pulling over to the side of the road. "This is the end of the road," he announced.

"What do you mean? It keeps going," Sam said, pointing out the windshield.

"I meant from here we walk until we reach our destination."

"Oh, I knew that," Sam replied, blushing slightly. He hopped out of the truck and Optimus transformed. "Um, what if someone sees you?"

"Few humans travel this road. Where we are going no humans travel at all." Optimus knelt down and extended his hand. "Up you get," he said. Sam scrambled onto it and Optimus raised the boy to his shoulder where Sam found a place to sit. "Hold on tight." The Autobot began to run through the hills kicking up dust clouds as he did.

"Please don't trip and fall," Sam yelled, laughing with joy and terror. "If you do I am so totally dead." Optimus ran for twenty minutes before slowing into a walk.

"Our destination is just around this hill," Optimus said. He stopped and lowered Sam back to the ground. Sam hurried around the hill. His mouth fell open when he saw what was there.

"Wow, Optimus!" It was an abandoned mining town. The mine entrance was near a hill a hundred feet away. The buildings were all still in excellent condition, preserved by the dry air. There was an old theater, and an old saloon. Houses and inns were clustered near the edge of the town. It was easy to imagine miners once roaming the town.

"This town was once called Lucky Finds," Optimus said. "In the late nineteenth century miners found gold here. Unfortunately for the hundreds of miners who came here few found more gold. The mine was shut down nearly eighty years ago and the town was abandoned."

"How did you know about this place?" Sam asked, still gazing at the buildings.

"This is one of the places we considered landing when we came to Earth." Optimus wandered into the town and Sam hurried after him. It would have been a strange sight to behold; a young man running from building to building, peering in through the dirty windows to see what lay inside, accompanied by an advanced alien robot who acted as his tour guide. They found old horse saddles, clothes, and old mining equipment. They explored every inch of the town until only the saloon was left.

Sam gently pushed open the doors that led into the saloon. Inside many of the tables still had glasses on top of them. Sam wandered over to the dusty piano in a corner and was delighted to find that it still played. He wandered back outside to Optimus.

"I have one other destination that we can go," Optimus said. "It will take awhile to get there and since you slept so late it will be nighttime once we arrive."

"That's fine. If it's anything like this place I can wait. Patience is a virtue which I have!"

"Let's roll out," Optimus said, his optics shining brightly. Sam scrambled back onto his shoulder and the duo headed out on their next adventure.