remain calm and respond. “No, Champ. I’m just a handyman in the, um, hospital you’re in. Do you remember what happened to you?”
‘Not much, sir. Something hit our boat. That is all I remember. Thought it was a bad dream, and I have been trying to wake up. Heard you read about the fish. I have been trying to use the fish. I am in a hospital?’
The wording seemed funny. No contractions like most people use. Unable to upgrade to that? Spelling had improved in just a few hours. What is the kid even thinking with? The EEG monitor was showing nothing but that occasional blip in the new section of the brain, and low activity in the old section. He can hear through his ears, but how is he working his Volt Wizard read out? Hacker! That’s what the tech guy said. An electronic circuit hacker. “I wonder.
“Champ, I’m going to try something. First, tell me how you sense you are talking to me. Your mouth isn’t moving, but I can read what you say on an electrical device I’ve got plugged into the wall. Maybe we can do something more to help you.”
‘It is hard to explain, Sir. I have been trying to discover my way out of where I am at and I can see, sort of, paths to take. I can go places and make things change a little, but...it is really hard to explain, Sir.’
“That’s ok. This is something new and we don’t have all the words for it yet. Hang on.”
Karl took his cell phone and pulled out a recharge cord. His Volt Wizard’s plug had a piggy back plug behind it as part of the package. The phone plug went into there, he turned on the phone and hit the camera button and aimed it as his own face.
“Champ, the way you’re reaching out to talk, there is another circuit open to you right next to it. Can you sense anything? Can you see something?”
‘Sir, kind of. It is clearer than what I had before. Wait. I am trying, sir. Wait. Yes. I can make out something. It is getting clearer. Is that you, Sir? I can see you. I am...really glad to see something. Thank you, Sir.’
Karl Hoffman took a moment. What he had done would make history books, science books, headlines. Wait till the world gets a load of this! Everyone will want to talk to the Champ. Yes. Everyone. Scientists, researchers, psychologists, neuroanatomists, brain mappers, celebrities. Yeah, everyone will want a piece of Champ’s pie. Poor kid. They’ll dissect him. That’s the bad part. But, he’ll never be lonely. That’s a good thing, right? Yeah, but they’ll never stop testing and examining him, trying new things to experiment on. But won’t this push the envelope further for research that will help others? It would have to.
But he was only a boy, scared to death, alone, family gone, stuck in bed for the rest of his life, like Felix. He probably doesn’t even know about his family. What’s left for him?
At least now he can communicate, talk and be talked to, and can even see, somehow. Could he do more?
‘Sir?’
Talking to his cell phone so the kid felt he was talking towards him, “Champ. We’re going to have to take this a little at a time. There’s a lot that’s been changed for you. I’m not sure where this will end up, but I’ll tell you right now, I’m not going to abandon you. Karl Hoffman is your friend for the rest of his life. I have to go now. Hospital rules won’t allow me to stay here more than a little at a time, but I’ll be here every day. Look, let’s try something. You’re seeing me through my cell phone, and you’re talking to me by what’s called a Volt Wizard...it’s sort of a tool for electrical circuits. I’m going home now, but I’m going to plug in both of these things when I get there. See if you can find them, and I’ll talk to you from there. OK, Champ?”
‘I am scared, Sir.’
“I know. Me, too. Try, in about an hour, if you can figure time. Meanwhile, nose around the circuits here...I know it doesn’t make sense, but just try. You’re learning fast. Heck, your spelling has improved greatly since this morning. See what you can sense. If we can’t connect tonight, I’ll be here in the morning and we’ll try again. OK Champ?
‘OK, Sir. I will miss you.’
Karl unplugged both devices, and it tore his heart out to do so. It was all he could do to walk to his car and drive only a smidge above the limits home.
The house was small, but it had been sufficient for two for many years. He had thought to sell it for closure, but the pain of her departure wasn’t strong enough to overcome the comfort of familiar memories and touchstones. He still tended her flower garden faithfully.
Karl Hoffman at first had tried to keep to his wife’s tradition of healthy dinners with variety on the plate. Over a three year period, Karl found his male bachelor genes had settled for a single item...a sandwich, a can of stew, or on hot days, a couple of cereal bowls.
He was sitting at the dinette, quietly and slowly chewing on the latter mentioned item (adding raisins was his attempt of increasing the number of food groups consumed), staring at his Volt Wizard that he had attached to an extension cord to reach a poorly planned distant wall outlet. The clock ticked in the kitchen, strangely synchronized with the flashing cursor on his Volt Wizard display. Sophie had grown up with a ticking clock and it made her feel like home. It made him feel like missing her, but refused to pull the battery on the thing even though each click announced another second’s worth of distance from the last time they held hands.
The read out display remained mute even after the third bowl. He hadn’t been so much hungry as nervous, which made him hungry. Nine PM, sharp. He was about to muse on the oddness of ‘sharp’ regarding time when a word appeared on his display screen.
‘Sir?’
The Volt Wizard had a finger pad that allowed typed documentation storage depending on how the user wanted a given batch of data labeled. It served a different purpose now. But would it work?
‘I’m here, Champ. You reading me?’
Silence. Then, ‘It is different. I cannot hear your voice, but I can understand what you are saying. It sounds very funny, like a robot I saw on cartoons once.’
‘Do you want me to hook up the cell phone camera?’
‘I would like that, Sir, please.’
Karl had it all ready in, but had kept the phone turned off. He hadn’t wanted any interruptions tonight.
‘I can see you now. Sir, I have been practicing reaching out and exploring. Is it ok if I try something?’
Now what? Could this day get any weirder? He wasn’t the world’s greatest typist, so his voice intoned each word as it was typed in; ‘Champ, if it occurs to you to try something, you have me backing you up.’ Karl waited, not wanting to type something and break Colin’s concentration. What was he doing?
The cell phone made a peculiar hissing sound, then a couple of pops. His ring tone of a fanfare made the scene. The Champ was exploring his phone! How did he do that through power lines?
Then came the first time he heard the voice. It was haunting, echo like, but there was no doubt but that it was a child’s voice barely heard coming from his phone. Colin must have then discovered the speaker phone circuit, for the volume kicked up to almost normal volume.
“Sir? Can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear, Champ. What you just did was amazing. How did you do that?”
“I don’t know, but I think I did it because I really wanted to. Are you home? Can I come and be with you?”
Heavens, but how could he answer that one? “I don’t know, Champ. This is all so new to both of us. Your body is still in the hospital, twelve miles from here. Look, I’ve got to tell you things. It might get pretty sad or confusing, but you have to know the truth. I’m your friend and I’ll never lie to you, and I want to help you as much as I can.”
“Sir, you’re scaring me some, but go ahead. You’re the only person I can talk to.”
Oy. He looked right into the cameral lens. “Your name, you know your name is Colin Craft, right?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Should he get the child to call him by his name? Not
yet. One rule change at a time. Just how fragile was the kid? How fragile would HE be in this situation? But aren’t kids more resilient than adults? He sure prayed so.
“When you were on the boat, you got hit with a big wave. Your family was washed overboard. You were the only survivor. You got your head hit several times and it damaged your brain. You were put in a hospital kind of place for people who aren’t expected to get any better. But you’re different. You were stronger than anyone thought. Somehow, you managed to find ways through the electrical circuits that lets you do things like make my phone work, or hear me when I type something on my Volt Wizard. That’s all I know right now. Champ, I really want to help you, but I don’t know how, yet. Talk to me, Champ, please. I’m so sorry about your family and what’s happened to you.”
Silence this time lasted for over a minute. Finally, “Sir, I can’t cry. I really want to cry. People can cry when things hurt. I hurt a lot, but I can’t cry. Sir, am I still a human person?”
God! Why did God pick a simple handyman to handle questions that would stump Solomon the Wise?
“Yes, Champ. I think so. Your body is still alive. You can still hear sounds. Blind people have visual aids and you’re seeing me through one by my phone camera. People lose their voice, but gain it back with a device that lets them speak. They’re all people who found ways to overcome a wall that
Switch Child Page 5
