My remote control has a strange button. The picture in the thumbnail is not mine. It is from a Google search.

My remote has been around since I can remember. It is small and has a hard plastic body that is grey and white. There are a few things that make it unusual. The first is that you need to put two AAA batteries in the top and not the bottom. I have a little strip of duct tape that I use to cover these and stop them constantly falling out. The second thing is that you can’t buy any other remote for it. I have tried to buy a new remote and they don’t work. I found this out after losing the remote for a few days. I have kept a close eye on it ever since.<br><br>The weirdest thing about it though is the button that isn’t a button. It is a circle of metal that is dotted throughout with holes. Imagine a port on a speaker, that is effectively what it is. Pressing it does nothing. Everything else on the remote works. The volume works. The channels work. Everything except the circle of metal. I have spent hours pressing it and nothing ever happens. <br><br>I used to be convinced that that button must do something but now I am less convinced. After all, why would a remote control have a button that doesn’t do anything? The idea of a remote existing and having a useless button seems crazy. But I was sure that the button was useful. I remember pressing it on a children’s show and something cool happening. I have spent years trying to find the show in order to make it happen again, identifying all of the shows out of all the ones that I used to watch, but it still hasn’t happened again.<br><br>It was a cartoon where the characters were bees. It had a catchphrase of “Hang on kids, this might get a little bumpy”. I remember this line clearly because it was what they always said before the exciting parts. I remember vividly, because I was shivering with excitement. They were about to go into a cave. But it was a bad cave, with evil bears in it. They had to be careful. I remember one of the characters asking “Will we be okay?” And then a voice that sounded like a robot said “Hang on kids, this might get a little bumpy”.<br><br>I hung on to the remote, in case anything might happen. They entered the cave. It got dark. On the remote I was holding it started to rattle. It was making a noise that sounded like a revving engine, like when you turn the key on a car and the lights flash and the radio sometimes flickers. It got louder and louder. The TV began to flicker itself. I was starting to feel scared. It seemed like the TV was about to blow. I was the age where I would believe anything could happen. But then a robot burst out of the TV.<br><br>It was the size of a dog and had waist high spikes on its body. It moved towards me. I jumped out of the way and fell on the ground. It took me a moment to get to my feet and when I did all I could see was the remote on the ground. The robot was gone. I never saw it again. I never saw the bees again. I looked for them but they were gone. I eventually forgot that they existed. But I never forgot the robot.<br><br>I had always assumed that this was my imagination running away with me. But the memory of it always stuck. I don’t remember the name of the TV show, but I always knew what it looked like. I knew what the robot looked like. It was small and had spikes on it. After I got older I started to think of it as a dream. It couldn’t be real, robots don’t come out of TVs.<br><br>That was until I bought my TV. I had saved for weeks to get it. I could finally have a TV to myself. My parents and I had always shared one. But when I got this TV, out came the robot. <br><br>“You should be careful, this might get a little bumpy” it said. I had the remote in my hand. I was pressing the metal circle. I froze. I looked at the robot. The robot was standing where it used to stand. I recognised it. It was the same robot.<br><br>“Do I know you?” I asked it. It didn’t reply. I became braver. I stepped forwards. The robot didn’t move. <br><br>“How did you get here?” I asked. The robot again didn’t move. I went to the TV. There was nothing wrong with it. I tapped the robot on the head. It was cold. I had the idea that it might be dead. How do I know if a robot is dead? Maybe I should just unplug it. I quickly ran around it and saw a plug coming out the back and into the wall. I reached to tug on it. As I did the robot spoke.<br><br>“You might not want to do that” it said. I paused. I took my hand back. <br><br>“What do you mean?” I said.<br><br>“What I mean is that this might get a little bumpy” it said. The robot walked to the TV and disappeared into it. I watched it go. I then turned back to the remote, still in my hand. I had forgotten that it was there. I looked at the metal circle. Was I going to experience the same thing again? I nervously waited to see what would happen. The remote started to shake. The TV behind me started to flicker. I didn’t need to guess what might happen next.<br><br>I couldn’t believe it. The bees couldn’t have been real. But the robot was. The robot was real, and now it was back. When it came back out I was going to ask it about the bees. When the TV stopped flickering I turned around. Something came out. But it wasn’t the robot. It was bees.<br><br>They were as big as dogs. One was wearing a crown. He stepped forwards. They were surrounding me. I was frozen. “We were having a good time when we went away” he said. “What happened?”<br><br>“I don’t know” I said. “I might have dreamt that you existed. I stopped watching this TV and stopped seeing you.”<br><br>“You were a young boy. We thought nothing of it. But we are here now. You have our robot. We want it back.” <br><br>“I won’t stop watching now. I will keep watching.” I said. The bees seemed to consider this. <br><br>“Fine. We will let you keep the robot. But we must go back to the TV and never come back if you don’t do what we say.” “What do you need me to do?”<br><br>They started to close in around me. I was surrounded. The King Bee looked at me. It seemed to be considering what he was about to do. “Hang on, this might get a little bumpy” he said.