My (Portable) Pet Monster

I walked into "no frills" the other day and the head cashier, Ling, walks up to me and shows me this little keychain. "It's my baby" she tells me.

I must've had a pretty weird look on my face. Instead of a baby picture, I see an LCD inside a keychain shaped like an egg, with 3 yellow bottons below it. The small screen is showing a circle which looked like a face. It had two dots for eyes and a line for a nose/mouth.

The thing starts beeping and she tells me that "baby's hungry" and she feeds the thing. I smile and nod and walk away from Ling. I walk away scared, and fast. Ling is 30-something and instead of working, she was entertaining some piece of plastic with a silicon soul.

I am walking towards the end door, so I can walk downstairs to the changing room, and Cindy stops me. She shows me the same thing, with a big smile. "Oh" I smiled "that's the egg your boyfriend was talking about..". More beeping, the thing was asking for attention.

I bump into Neetu, and I tell her about the strange creatures that are spreading around. I thought I had an ally. I was wrong. "Oooooh!" she whined "I want one of those Tomagotchi!"

"Toma-what?" I ask.

"Tomagotchi! You get this little creature and you feed it, train it, clean up after it and it's a wonderful pet! I looked everywhere to get one, but I heard that the last place they sell them is up at Fairview mall!". Fairview is a good hour away when there is no traffic. Apparently this little plastic eggs with the virtual pal inside sold out the day they arrived to the market. Invasion of the "key-chain" snappers.

Everywhere I look, I see someone with one of them. Friends stop me to show me, co-workers are sharing tips on how to keep it alive longer, others are upset for the death of it.

Perhaps they should issue one of this things to every 12 year old in Canada. By law they have to maintain it alive (Military Police will do regular check ups on the kids) and care for it. Perhaps this will prevent couples aged 16-17 to have a baby and tell you "it's just like having a doll". The problem with dolls, that when you are tired of playing with it, you can put it away.