Maybe I Took The Wrong Lesson From That Book
One book that had a profound influence on me as a kid was The Runaway Robot by Lester Del Ray. Written in the mid-60s, it told the story of Rex, a pet robot who belongs to the family of a young boy named Paul. The family is living in a settlement on Ganymede, and when they are recalled to Earth, they are forced to leave poor Rex behind. But Rex and Paul conspire to make it back to Earth together, and they hatch a plot to be reunited.
What really struck me about the book was its tragic ending. Just when it appears that Paul and Rex's plot will succeed, Rex is caught by authorities on Earth as he's searching for Paul. The last thing Rex tells us is how he is literally backed into a corner, and he must watch as a policeman reaches toward him, pushing his "off" button, and watching the world plunge into darkness.
I thought of this ending from time to time through the years, wondering that a kid's book would have such a downbeat ending. It seemed to me that the book was saying something important about life; that tragedy can strike at any moment, that the good guys don't always win. And that it's important for kids to know these truths because they can't be shielded from them.
A few years ago I found a copy online (God bless Alibris!) and when it arrived I had mixed emotions. I wanted to read the book again, but I wasn't sure if it would hold up as well as it did in my memory.
Well, it held up pretty well, up until the end. That's when I realized that the last page had been missing from the copy I had read as a kid. In a dizzyingly fast epilogue, Paul's family discovers his location and switches him back on. They are delighted to be reunited with him and promise that the family will never again be separated. And they live happily ever after.
I liked my ending better.
