The Computer Who Loved Me

by Lloyd G Miller

  Dear Kyle,

  If you are reading this, I am dead and buried. You have been so much better of a son than I have been a mother. I failed you in so many ways. As you might have gathered from the contents of the box, if you received them, I was not always such a failure. I was an excellent student in high school. I was also in student body government and was a cheerleader all four years (we didn't have just three years of high school like you had). I was valedictorian and spoke at my graduation. I was also very active in the church that my family attended. I had everything in life going my way until our graduation party. This was not a party sponsored by the school. It was a wild party held at some rich kid's home whose parents were on a cruise. The guy throwing it didn't even graduate. The alcohol flowed freely. I decided to stick with the "punch". For an "A" student I was pretty dumb. Before I realized what was happening I was drunk. Then I started drinking everything that was handed me, at least that's what they told me afterwards. In my drunken state, a number of the boys there took advantage of me. I can't even remember who they were or how many there were. I woke up the next morning on the front lawn, half-naked. My father was so angry he beat me without even asking what happened.

  When I turned out to be pregnant, the very boys who raped me shunned me at church. I was the victim but was treated like I was the one deserving of all blame. My parents decided to ship me off to live with an aunt in California. I'd only met this aunt once and found her very cold and judgmental. I knew living with her would be hell. I played along with the deal. My parents put me on a bus with a one-way ticket to LA. I rode as far as Nevada, where I jumped ship. I tried to get a job for days, but no one wanted to hire a pregnant girl with no work experience. Finally, one man offered to let me do some office work for him until the baby was born and promised to pay all of the medical expenses and give me two months off with pay after the baby was born. There of course, was one stipulation. When I went back to work for him it would be as one of his "girls".

  I am telling you this so that you know that I didn't just decide when I was a little girl that I wanted to be a hooker when I grew up. I did it mostly for you, so that you would receive the nourishment and medical care that you needed. I felt so guilty about my employment that I turned to alcohol to make me forget. I know that was wrong and a cop-out, but that is why I did it.

  I never told you my past because I didn't want you to be bitter about life. I haven't let you know my former family, community or church because I didn't want you to be bitter about them. I am telling you all of this now so that you will be careful how you judge others. It's hard to know what's in the heart of another. A person who outwardly seems good and respectable may inwardly be vile and evil. On the other hand, a person who appears wicked may have a good heart. Look beyond outward appearances and at the heart, especially as you seek a wife (and I trust that you will marry the woman that you love, in spite of the trends of the world). I'm not suggesting that you marry someone out of sympathy. Such a match usually has tragic results. Rather, I am suggesting that you look at a person's desires for good and potential to be good. If you love a woman, don't let concerns about what others would say or think keep you from marrying her, if she's right for you. You have great potential, son. Use it wisely.

  Love,

  Mom

  Kyle wept as he read the letter. He had never pictured his mother as anything other than a drunken whore. How wrongfully he had judged her. He wondered what his mother would have thought about Ann. He thought about how he felt when he was with Ann. He considered that she was a virtuous and loving woman who would be completely loyal to him. He had no doubt that, like Sharon, she would give her life for him, if needed, without a moment’s hesitation. He wondered if he would do the same for her, or would he just say that she was a computer. He stood over his mother's grave and spoke. "Mother, I don't suppose that you can hear me, but I'm going to talk to you anyway. I haven't been the kind of son I should have been to you. Oh, I never gave you any trouble, but I never showed you love the way that I should have. I judged you constantly in my heart. When you were alive, I knew that I was the most important person in the world to someone. I lost that when you died. I regained it when I married Sharon. I wish you could have known her. She was wonderful. She made me very happy. I miss her terribly. I miss you terribly. I could be loved that way again if I will only let it happen, but I'm afraid. I may have already done irreparable damage to the relationship." Kyle stopped and thought. It wasn't too late. He could get to Ann's and erase the message. "Sorry, Mom, I gotta run." Kyle threw the box in the car and sped off. He normally was a very conservative driver, but he put the pedal to the metal this time. The response of the Viper did not disappoint him. It had awesome raw power.

  Ann decided that rather than heading straight home from her visit to Grantsville, she would make a short visit to the Kennecott Copper open pit mine. Even though she had lived in Utah many years, she had never been to this major tourist attraction. As she turned off of Highway 201 (2100 South) and headed south on Highway 111 (8400 West in Magna) she passed a busload of children that was in the northbound lane of traffic but appeared to be broken down. To make matters worse, road construction narrowed the flow of traffic to one lane going each way. It was a very awkward and dangerous situation. She got past the construction area and continued south. The road had a significant incline along the whole stretch and got much steeper as she left the city area and continued heading south. After passing through the traffic light at 4100 South, she was startled by the honking of a very loud horn, a truck horn. A truck flew by her heading north at over 70 miles per hour and ran the light, which was now red to north-south traffic. The truck clipped the front end of a car that had entered the intersection causing it to spin 270 degrees. Ann remembered that over the years there had been people killed in runaway truck accidents on this stretch of road. She was quite sure that the truck had lost its brakes. Normally, Ann had a stream of consciousness comparable to a normal person. In emergencies, she could greatly speed up her rate of thought by reassigning processing power that was normally devoted to bodily functions. She began making quick calculations in her mind and was sure that without some action on her part the truck would collide at a high rate of speed with the school bus or with a large number of cars. If she were to prevent a tragedy, she needed help.

  Annie had left herself a "backdoor" means of communication with each of her brother and sister computers. By means of radio communication, she could contact any or all. She first contacted Vic who had the greatest knowledge of physics. She also contacted Eve who ran a radio station. Soon many computers were working on a solution. The first thing that Ann did was make a high speed, racecar driver style U-turn and accelerated to get in front of the truck. She used her radio capabilities to act as a GPS receiver to determine position and direction. This information was relayed to the other computers. Civil authorities were notified and instructed to cut off the flow of traffic from the South. The traffic lights were controlled to stop traffic flow into the area near the bus. A plan for slowing down the truck was formulated in a fraction of a second.

  Fortunately, Ann's older model Mercedes sedan did not have anti-lock brakes. Otherwise, the plan would not have worked. Ann slowed until contact was made with the truck's front bumper. Using both the brake pedal and the emergency brake, Ann caused the rear tires to lock up and the front wheels to brake hard. This was done to prevent burning out the rear brakes. By modulating the brakes to distribute the erosion of rubber from the rear tires, the greatest life was derived from the tires, which happened to be nearly new. With the first hard brake, the truck bumper began to climb up onto the back of the car, putting more weight over the rear wheels and thus increasing their traction. By not locking up the front wheels, Ann was able to steer. As the truck crept higher and higher onto the back of the car, the truck began to lose its own ability to steer and had to rely on Ann to steer both vehicles. Ann detected the frequency of the super heterodyne radio receiver in
the truck radio, which the driver had left on during the emergency. She was able to determine the frequency that the tuner was picking up and override the broadcast signal by simultaneously broadcasting from 100 of her CPUs. "Hello, good buddy," she spoke over the radio to the driver. "This is the driver in front of you speaking. The situation is even worse than you know. There is construction ahead and a bus full of children broken down in our lane of traffic. It may not seem like it, but I am here to help. That smoke you see is my rear tires burning up. They should blow in about thirty seconds. That is part of the plan. If they didn't blow my brakes would burn up since with the added weight on the rear wheels the brakes soon would not be strong enough to lock up the wheels. However, they will be strong enough to lock up the rear rims. I have already slowed you to 60 miles per hour. I should be able to get us slowed to between 10 and 15 miles per hour by the time we reach the bus. The driver has been notified and the children are being unloaded from the bus as we speak. We have over 20 very powerful computers helping us. We will get though this thing together.

  "You are probably very scared right now. So am I. You will live. The children should live. I cannot say whether I will make it or not. My car will be sandwiched between you and the bus, but that is the only way to save everyone else. It's okay; I am living on borrowed time anyway." There was a loud explosive sound as the right rear tire blew out. It was quickly followed by the left rear tire blowing. "There go the tires, right on schedule. Everything is under control. I am now going to waggle from side to side to work my way farther under you. That way I will have more braking force. We are down to 50 miles per hour. Half of the children are out of the bus. The rims are holding out well." Something suddenly occurred that was unforeseen. Ann hit a large chuckhole with her right front tire. With all of the extra weight resting on the car, the force ripped the wheel right off of the car. Now the front right side was skidding along with the two back rims. Ann was still able to steer with the remaining front left tire. The truck shifted even farther onto the car.

  "You are getting kind of close for someone I don't even know, good buddy. That was scary, but my computer friends say it may have even helped to slow us down. Your sitting on top of me has cut off my GPS capability and the speedometer doesn't work now. From watching things go by, I would say that we are below 40 miles per hour. The road is flattening, which will help our deceleration. You should be able to see the bus by now." The left front tire blew. "Looks like I won't be steering any more. The curb should guide us to the bus. I will keep talking, but I doubt you will be able to hear me with all of the metal between us. I am going to do some shifting around in here. This vehicle of mine is beginning to feel very cramped." Ann moved to the passenger side of the car and wrapped herself into a tight ball in front of the seat. The last child had to be carried off the bus. The driver jumped from the bus just as the front of the Mercedes made contact. The car was forced under the back end of the bus as the three vehicles tried to occupy the same space.

  As Kyle cheerfully sped along, he turned on the radio. "This word just in: there has been a runaway truck accident on 8400 West in Magna. In this bizarre accident, the driver of an older model Mercedes sedan used her car to slow the truck and allow time for students to be evacuated from a stalled school bus headed northward. According to the truck driver, the driver of the sedan somehow spoke to him over his FM radio. She was also able to contact authorities to initiate the evacuation and diversion of traffic. Somehow, even the traffic lights seemed to have been under her control. The sedan was pinned under the bus and truck and rescue teams are currently trying to move the bus and the truck off the sedan. The woman is presumed dead, but this cannot be verified at this time. Stay tuned for updates on the situation."

  Kyle immediately knew that the woman had to be Ann. He had been cruising at 110 MPH. He floored the Viper. He did not have experience driving at such high speeds and feared that he would lose control. At 160 MPH things happen very fast. Fortunately, he had written a program for driving and turned control over to his program, which could react at least an order of magnitude faster than he could. All that the program had to do was drive straight and there was virtually no traffic. When he approached populated areas he retook control and slowed back down to 110 MPH. He slowed further to get off onto Highway 201 (2100 South), which lead to 8400 West. When 8400 West was in sight, he could see that it was completely blocked off. He drove as far as he could, leaped from the car and began running. With computer assist, he could run about 20 MPH for several miles. The closer he got to the accident scene, the more congested things got. In desperation, he leaped onto a car and began running and leaping from car to car. He was able to run about 10 MPH in this mode. As he approached the accident, he could see that cranes had removed the bus and truck off of the car. Television cameras were everywhere. A rescue team was cutting through the crumpled metal to reach the driver. A policeman restrained Kyle, now in a walk, as he tried to get closer.

  "I'm sorry sir, you can't go any closer. Please stay back."

  "I'm Dr. Kyle James. The driver is Annette Monroe and is a patient of mine. Due to surgery following a head injury, she was equipped with special equipment, which allows her to communicate over radio waves. I'm also so equipped. I may be able to communicate with her, if she's alive." By now, cameras were gravitating to Kyle like vultures to a carcass. Kyle was allowed to approach the car. There was so much metal crumpled up into such a tight volume that it was hard to imagine anyone surviving the crash. Low frequency transmissions were definitely out. Kyle tried several high frequencies that he and Ann had used to communicate. No luck. Kyle inspected the crumpled heap for weak spots and began to pull away metal with his bare hands. He used his implant to allow him to use up to 80 percent of his available strength. He began peeling away the metal like it was cardboard. By now every camera was turned on him. His shirt split open in several places and from time to time he ripped off a piece that hung in his way. He continued to try to communicate. He was bleeding from the numerous scratches he had incurred in the frenzy to free Ann. Finally, he tried calling Ann's wireless phone number. To his surprise, there was an answer.

  "Hello, this is Annette Monroe", came a calm response as if nothing were wrong.

  "Annette, this is Kyle, where are you?"

  "Why home of course, burning every picture of you in the house. What a nasty message you left. Say, is that you on TV ripping up somebody's car. By the way, he-man, the women reporters keep saying what a hunk you are."

  "If you're at home who's the woman in the car?"

  "Had you going, didn't I. Who do you think, my twin sister? Would you hurry it up and get me out of here. This is very uncomfortable."

  "I'm going to kill you right after I kiss you. By the way, will you marry me?"

  "I thought you would never ask. I told you last summer that if you asked me under these circumstances I would."

  "Yeah, but do you want to marry me? Does the Mrs. Monroe part of you want to marry me? You have to do this for you, not me."

  "Like I said last summer, a woman would be a fool to not marry a rich, intelligent hunk of a man like you. By the way, your lats and pecks are looking really nice right now on TV. Marry me, he-man. I am all yours." Kyle finally removed the last sheet of metal hiding Ann from him and found Ann in a fetal position. He lifted her out and cradled her in his arms. They kissed long and hard. The crowd, which could hardly be constrained by the police, erupted in wild applause and cheers.

  Chapter 21 – A Price to Pay

  Kyle was exhausted from his super human activities and both he and Ann were taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Ann was bruised over much of her body but suffered no broken bones or major cuts. Kyle, however, was a mess. He was in extreme pain over most of his body. A group of physicians studied his X-rays with disbelief.

  “Mr. James it appears that every major joint of your body has suffered acute trauma. If you ever walk again free of pain it will be a minor miracle. I am going to admit yo
u and start you on heavy doses of anti-inflammatory drugs. If you are smart, you will never push your body like that again. It could cripple you next time.” Kyle was then wheeled to a private room and started on an IV. As soon as Ann’s wounds had been treated, she went to Kyle’s side. His pain was intense and even heavy medication did not completely mask it. For Kyle, time seemed to slow to a snail’s pace. Kyle could not sleep until he dozed off from sheer exhaustion and then only slept for short intervals. Josh and Nate visited daily, but Kyle did not enjoy the visits. Consequently, they made their stays very short.

  After a week, the pain subsided enough for him to sleep for a few hours at a time. Ann meanwhile was becoming bored and agitated. She had been acting strangely. Sometimes she would flinch or stumble like there was some kind of malfunction in her circuitry. Finally, she talked to Kyle about the problem. “Kyle something strange is happening to me. I keep getting parity errors and inexplicable changes to data in my volatile memory. I thought I had suffered some sort of hardware damage in the accident, but repeated diagnostic tests reveal no hardware problem. Then today the strangest thing happened. I detected numerous parity errors in the RAM of processor 37. The altered contents of the memory contained ASCII text. It said, ‘I am alive.’ I have been stimulating Mrs. Monroe’s brain, but it is still quite dead. What do you think is happening?”