I, The Little Mobile

I, the little mobile with its screen head and belly full of buttons, tried to look around the huge dictionary to see what was in the package Anna brought in, but it was a hard task to move my own body a mere inch of my own accord. I couldn’t move anywhere if Anna didn’t need me. I never normally had any intention of poking around to know whatever new product she bought home but I had a strong instinct this box that created that radiance on her face had something in it to bury me alive.

It made me feel cold with dread.

For the last few weeks, Anna had resorted to looking at me with displeasure and shame.

It had come as a huge shock. She’d never looked at me that way before.

Not once.

I, the little mobile, remembered the day her eyes fell on me at the mobile showroom two years ago. Through the small gap between my box and my lid, I’d been able to discern a lovely girl’s voice as she asked to be shown one mobile model after the other. My box was placed on the third shelf and the last time I’d been opened was to a guy who took one look at me and rejected me without a second thought. I, the little mobile, was determined not to take that to my heart, and patiently waited for someone to take me into their hands, like all those other mobiles who’d happily gone to their new homes.

I’d dared to hope, just a sliver, for the owner of that soft feminine voice to consider me, right when I felt my box being lifted off the shelf. My breath had caught and I’d braced myself, staring directly at the light above when the darkness was lifted off, before a mane of hair obscured the harsh light and a pair of beautiful eyes staring down at me came into view. Hands picked me up and slid the plastic cover from my body, exposing me to the girl. A smaller hand, hers, replaced the one I sat in, the assistant’s, and the most incredible warmth took me over as she gazed at me with wonder.

‘I like this one,’ she’d declared immediately to her parents.

She … liked me?

She liked me!

Someone liked me!

If I had been able to, I would have done cartwheels on the table for the joy that overwhelmed me. My features were explained to her and she’d hugged me close on the car ride home after I was bought, making the seventeen year old my new owner. I, the little mobile, later came to know she was going off to college and needed a communication device to help her keep in touch with her parents and brother. Every time she made a call home, I listened to her patiently. She talked for as long as she wanted, both to her parents as well as old friends. I loved this sweet little girl for who she was, this little girl with a little mobile.

She loaded her favourite songs into me, listening to them whenever she wanted, sent text messages (tapping my buttons gently instead of pushing them, pun intended), took photos, along with her digital camera, and made me an alarm to wake her up every morning. She never went anywhere without me.

I, the little mobile, loved our little world.

But the world around us was drastically changing.

Something called a touch screen became the new craze among people. Anna was surrounded by it. What the hell was a touch screen? Every time I heard the term, I was always inside Anna’s pocket.

But a few days of what’s-its-name and she gave me a sullen look every time she picked me up, or took me out of her pocket, or even looked at me.

I felt weak.

Helpless.

Small.

Insecure.

Inferior.

She had eyes for that weird electronic slab her roommate had recently bought. I stared at the slab in some shock, the first time I saw Anna’s roommate switch it on in front of her and show her all it promised. Oh, so that was a touch screen. You swipe the screen with a finger and it obliges to your commands. There were no buttons on that phone.

A phone they named – the Smartphone.

It looked like the Slothphone to me.

Anna’s roommate had access to her email on that phone and too much of applications to have her plant herself on her bed for hours. She never actually made many calls, resorting to texting on a so called amazing texting application – what was up with that? – with the sleek keypad that resembled the one of a Blackberry.

Every time I cast my sight on the Sloth, I saw it giving me that imperious smirk.

It thought it was so much better than me.

With its whole-world-in-the-palm-of-your-hand thing going on with it.

Anna watched her roommate take these weird front camera pictures by making weird animal faces. Anna’s roommate herself called one of them a duck pout or something, I don’t know whether I heard her properly and I don’t give a click about it.

Anna fell in love with the Sloth.

Leaving me, the little mobile, to wish I could cry.

Never thought anything could make me feel so small.

I wish I knew how to measure up to the Sloth to win back Anna’s affections, but it was a battle lost before strategy.

Anyone who owned something like me was looked down on by so many people from their peer groups, especially among young adults like Anna.

And now, as Anna opened the box she brought in with her and took out what was inside, I wished I could fling myself out of the window as she gazed lovingly at a Sloth of her own.

The shiny black Sloth sneered at me.

I am shiny and black too, you know! Don’t you dare flash that smirk at me, you slithery devil! I threatened him.

Oh, you think we’re equals? Sloth raised both eyebrows at me. Tell me again, does anyone love you anymore? Does Anna?

All I wanted to do was to pop out my buttons and aim it straight for that glossy screen of his, smashing it to pieces.

Anna loves me now, pipsqueak, Sloth sneered at me again. I have everything a person could ever hope to have just a tap away. You’re useless and ugly. And a shame to anyone who still uses you.

We’ll see about that, I snapped at him, though I wasn’t exactly sure what I was saying and what the hell I was doing challenging the glorious git.

Anna didn’t care my battery needed charging as she held the Sloth and leant back on the wall, staring into it while her fingers were at work. I only had a few more minutes left.

Anna … I tried to call out to her but I couldn’t. I never have been able to.

Anna, please feed me … I’m hungry …

She paid no attention to me, the little mobile.

I had so little time left.

Suddenly, she looked up.

My heart swelled as those warm eyes surveyed me, before she pressed something by the side of the Sloth. Then she flipped him over, removing a part of him from the back.

I could have danced right then.

She was taking him apart!

Served him right to come between the pair of us, the stupid Sloth. I watched with more ecstasy as she took out his battery.

Take that, Sloth!

She put him down on the bed and crawled over to reach out for me.

Yes!

My dear Anna held me in her hands, allowing me to enjoy the loving warmth. Though she didn’t know it, I was smiling at her.

But then she did something very strange.

She was making sure all the contacts were saved to the SIM in my safety locker.

Once she did, her thumb reached up to press on the button meant to switch me off.

No … wait … Anna, what are you doing?

She’s going to transfer that SIM into me, dumbass, I swore I heard the Sloth’s thoughts reach to me, even though it was switched off.

Anna, please don’t –!

Everything went black.

I, the little mobile, was never turned on again.

~~~~~

This post was inspired by thinking how would any basic mobile have felt when their owner switched to a smartphone, combined with a spritz of Sherriff Woody’s jealousy of dashing new Buzz Lightyear when he first flashes into his life