Chapter 5: Circus Baby
For the next few months, William hardly went to the restaurant. He did not fully trust Henry to run it by himself, but he was more focused on the 'pet project' of Afton Robotics, and especially with making Circus Baby. As he started development, a few things changed. Because of Elizabeth's input, William changed Circus Baby's hair color from brown to red. Elizabeth told him that that was prettier.
One day William was in his "shop", the house's garage that was not attached to the house. It was a place where he felt he could 'get away' while still being near the house if Clara needed him. William was wearing a purple apron that CC had given him for Christmas one year.
William heard the door open and put down the eyeball he was working on.
"Daddy, I wanted to see her," Elizabeth said. This was something that William heard nearly every day. Elizabeth had become obsessed with Circus Baby. William figured that is a good sign. When he added Circus Baby to the roster of the animatronics that Henry and he had made, he knew that she would be a hit.
"Sweetie, not now. I have told you before. She is not finished. It could be dangerous," William replied, sounding both tired and annoyed. He could not seem to get the eyes to work the way he wanted them to. Henry always made the animatronic construction look so easy. William wondered why he could not get it right the first time like Henry did.
"Daddy, why won't you let me play with her," Elizabeth asked.
"I told you already. It could be dangerous. I need to figure out a few things and then you can play with her all the time," William replied.
"I don't understand. Daddy just once let me go play with her. She's so pretty and shiny. Didn't you make her just for me?" Elizabeth tried to convince her father.
"You will get to play with her. Just now is not a good time," William nearly gritted his teeth as he argued with his daughter.
"Okay, daddy," Elizabeth said as she took a seat near the bench where William was working.
"Elizabeth, go back to the house. I don't want you to get hurt," William said as he walked over to his new Z-89 desktop computer. Elizabeth watched intently as William put in some lines of code.
"You want to see something? Watch this," William said as he took a rubber balloon out of his desk. William put the balloon on Circus Baby's hand and then walked back to his computer. Suddenly, the balloon started to inflate.
""Daddy, she can make balloons! Have you seen her make balloons? Oh Daddy, let me go to her," Elizabeth said as she looked at the red balloon that was now fully inflated.
"No, Elizabeth. Now, go back to house. It is almost time for dinner, I am sure," William said. Elizabeth began to pout but she did walk out of the shop. William let out a sigh. He was not sure if it was a sigh of relief or of fatigue. He knew it was one or the other. He had a little bit of work to do before he was finished for the day.
William had the idea of using Circus Baby as an ice cream dispenser. Okay, not quite a dispenser. He wanted her stomach to open to be able to give ice cream to children as they came up to her. He already figured out how to keep the ice cream frozen inside of Circus Baby without causing her circuit board to freeze with it. That took some time, and, to William's disappointment, he had to talk with Henry about how to make it work. William wanted Afton Robotics to be a place where he could think through difficult problems without needing to rely on Henry's help or advice. Now, William was working on a claw that would eject from Circus Baby's torso and give the ice cream cone to the children. William was working on the strength of the claw when Clara sent CC to get William for dinner.
"Daddy, it's time to eat," CC said. William looked up to see his son looking excited. "It's mac and cheese tonight!"
"Ok, let's go eat," William said as he got up from the desk. He was not quite finished with everything that he wanted to get done but he figured that the work would be there when he was ready to return to it in the morning. The code was unstable now because the grip was still very strong. The claw was still crushing the empty ice cream cones, but William would work on that later. It was time to eat now.
When William walked into his house, Clara, Michael, and Elizabeth were sitting at the kitchen table. There was a very large of steaming macaroni and cheese in the middle of the table.
"Finally done, love," Clara asked.
"I could do more, but I am not sure my brain would be able to handle it," William said. He found that funny. He would never admit that to anyone other than his wife. He sat down and looked around the table. There was a lot that was not too great in William's life right now but he felt like his family was perfect.
Michael also was looking around the table. The pre-teen boy had nothing on his plate.
"Are you not going to eat, Michael," William asked in a kind of accusatory tone of voice.
"This is some kiddy food. I don't want it," Michael replied.
"Fine but you at least should try some of it. It is delicious," William said as he stabbed a macaroni.
The rest of the dinner went by quickly. However, everyone at the table stayed a little longer. Michael shared about how his friends (Mark and Jeremy) and he were planning to go to see the new Star Wars movie after school on Monday. CC talked about his new plush toy, a Fredbear toy. Elizabeth talked about, of course, Circus Baby. That was all that she talked about for the last couple of days.
By the time everyone was done talking, it was time for William and Clara to get the younger two siblings ready for bed. That included baths, books, and bed. By the time CC and Elizabeth were in bed William and Clara went to bed themselves. Michael was watching something on TV but since it was Saturday his parents were okay with that.
Elizabeth woke up around 1 in the morning with one thing on her mind- playing with Circus Baby. She snuck down out of the bed and slowly walked outside of the house. She knew that sometimes the door to the garage was locked but she was lucky this time. When she moved a chair over the door to try to open it, she found out that the door was unlocked.
When Elizabeth walked into the house she saw her- Circus Baby. The blonde girl walked up in front of the giant robot.
"Daddy isn't watching," Elizabeth informed Circus Baby, "Don't tell Daddy that I'm here, I wanted to watch your show too! I don't know why he wouldn't let me come see you, you're wonderful!"
With those words she got closer to Circus Baby to give the animatronic a hug. When she made contact with the torso of Circus Baby she felt a sharp pain in her scalp. Then before Elizabeth could realize what was going on, she felt nothing at all.