"Sheep!" - Edouard Kock {incomplete} 


Small room, one window. Dark outside. Unmade bed in the corner, a large plush 
chair in the opposite corner. "Hmm, this can't be right.", Ed mumbles over his 
keyboard. "Let's see...." Everything looked right. That is, everything looked 
right. Sight goes first, right? Or was that hearing. What? Nevermind. Beep-beep. 
2:00am flashes on the digital clock to the left of the screen. Ed gives a sigh. 
"Should stop staying up so late..." With a flurry of hands and some dexterous 
typing, Ed makes the last few changes to his program. "There, this time it should 
work..." We hope. Compile. Perfect. Not a single error. Run. Again no problems. 
Menu comes up, as it should. "New" works, as it should. Two sheep appear on the 
screen. Just as it should. They wander around, giving the occasional "baaa!". 
They graze, baa, graze, wander, graze. As they should. Ed gives a long yawn, and 
gets off his chair. He looks at the screen, checking over the vital signs of the 
sheep. Artificial Intelligence was not exactly his forte, but he enjoyed tinkering 
none the less. In bed, covers over, Ed asleep. 

The two sheep baa, meeh, baa graze. Beep-beep. 5:00 am on the clock. The two sheep 
baa, graze, baa. Stop. Look. Wander over to each other. "Hey" one says. "Hi." goes 
the other. "So, whats new" the first asks. The second looks around. "Nothing much, 
it seems." he remarks. "Seems so" the first replys. They look at the sleeping Ed. 
With a shrug, the first continues his grazing. The second looks around the room, 
then remarks "And what happens now". The first looks up, and shrugs. "I don't know. 
He didn't tell us." The second looks back at the first. "But then what do we do?" 
The first thinks, then says "Keep on doing what we are doing now, I guess.." The 
second gives a frown, then proceeds to pad over to the end of the screen. With a 
frown, he looks at the edge. Trotting over to the other side, he does the same. 
"Hmmm" he ponders. The first looks up at the second, and tilts his head to the 
side. "What you up to?" he asks. "Im wondering...." the second replies. "What?" 
the first asks. Suddenly the second sheep moves back, and with a run-up jumps at 
the edge of the screen. With a slight fizzle, and a soft "zzt!", the second sheep 
ends up on the mousepad. Suprised and startled, the first remarks "Hey! Come back! 
You're not supposed to do that!" The second shouts back, "Who says? He certainly 
didn't!" The second points at the sleeping Ed. 

With a touch of excitement, Second runs around the top of Ed's desk, inspecting 
each and every object to be found there. Beep-beep. 7:00am on the clock. "You 
should come back now, Ed's going to wake up soon!" First shouts. "Be right there!" 
Second replies. With a run up the keyboard and a leap, Second "zzts!" back into the 
screen. "Baaa" Ed hears as he wakes up. With a smile, he gets out of bed and walks 
over to his pc. As he reaches over to the escape key, suddenly Second gives him a 
frown. "HEY!" he shouts. Ed double-takes, and stares at Second. "Uh....what?" he 
says. "Don't do that!" Second shouts. With bewilderment and surpise, Ed slowly moves 
his hand away from the escape key.