Francisco glanced down at his phone, a look of total confusion on his face. He was in the middle of trying on a pair of pants in Bealls, when the phone suddenly burst into the chorus of “Hot For Teacher.” He blinked, bent down and fished his phone out of his pocket. He didn’t know the number, but he flipped it open anyway.
Before he could get out a “Hello” the phone felt for a moment like a live wire. He dropped the phone, and it shuddered and shook for a moment. Then a bright light seemed to come out of it, blinding him for a minute. When he opened his eyes, a white-haired naked woman stood in front of him.
Francisco screamed like a little girl.
The woman dove out of the room and streaked across the small hallway to the women’s side. She pawed through the return rack, pulled out a top and a bottom, and ducked into another fitting room stall. She swiftly changed into both items – a simple shirt and a pair of shorts – grabbed a pair of sandals off the rack.
“Excuse me, miss?”
She turned around to see a burly black man standing there, arms folded. “I think you should come with me.”
“Sir!” she said, and put a hand to her mouth, retching. “I—I got sick—“ She retched again, and the man backed up. “Threw up all over my clothes – I have the money!” Then she leaned forward.
The man turned away, hearing her dry heave. He closed his eyes. “I’m sorry!” she cried. “I’ll go pay for this but—“
“Do you have your wallet?”
He got no answer. He peered around the corner – the girl was gone. “Shit…” he turned on the all-call at his shoulder. “Security. Be on the lookout for a white haired female, approximate age 25, wearing a blue t-shirt with a wave on it and red shorts, carrying sandals.”
A fire-exit alarm went off, not too far from where they were standing. “Shit!” He took off at a run, knowing he had missed her.
———————-
Azzy looked out the window of the Subway, then glanced at her watch. She was a little late – she should have told Elsie ten past twelve instead of noon on the dot. She looked down at her salad with a frown. This wasn’t what she usually ate. However what would Elsie think if she sat down to one of those huge Italian subs overflowing with stuff?
“Azzy?”
She looked up to see a woman with white hair and blue eyes. She wore a t-shirt and shorts, and looked astonishingly pretty in them. The voice was familiar, even after all these years.
Azzy hauled herself out of the booth. “Elsie?”
The woman smiled. “Yes!” As soon as Azzy cleared the booth, Elsie hugged her tight. Azzy knew these last ten years hadn’t been good to her, with two children and no exercise. Compared to this pretty young thing before her, they didn’t look a thing like each other.
“You’ve gained weight,” Elsie said, sliding into the booth across from her.
Azzy blushed. “Yeah, I know. Kids’ll do that.”
“How are they doing? I saw Stevie’s not doing so hot in school.”
Azzy looked at her. “How do you know?”
“I…uh…” This time it was her turn to blush. “Don’t all boys have ADD or something?”
“Stevie does not have ADD. He’s just lazy.”
“Sure! Sure. Wait, this isn’t getting off on the right foot.”
Azzy sipped her water. “What happened to you? Where…who…?”
Elsie looked directly at her, her eyes intense. “Azzy, you’re probably not going to believe me, but I’m going to tell the God’s honest truth. I was kidnapped by an artificial intelligence.”
Azzy froze. Elsie saw the brief look of, “Are you crazy?” cross her eyes. Then Azzy looked at her salad. “Artificial intelligence? Like an alien?”
“No, he’s a computer program.”
“A computer program.”
Elsie nodded. “I know you don’t believe me.”
“I’m finding it very hard to believe that my sister was kidnapped by a computer program.”
“It’s like Tron. Remember that movie?”
“I’ve heard of it. Never saw it.”
“Oh. Then it’ll be hard to explain.”
She shook her head. “You don’t have to explain. Look.” She gathered her things. “You were captured somehow, and it’s sad – you were brainwashed. Can’t you see, you’re imagining it all—“
“I’m not!”
She continued, as if not hearing her, “And I really think you should see a doctor.”
“Azzy, I’m fine—“
She got up. “I know how this works. We had this with Mom. You’re delusional. I’m sorry, but I have to do this.”
“I’m not del—“
Azzy looked down at her, her face a mix of pity and sternness. “Goodbye, Elsie. Please, go see a doctor.”
Silver got up as Azzy gently opened the door, walking out determinedly. Silver looked down forcing herself to not cry, and walked over to a man who had a laptop open on the table. “Excuse me,” she asked quietly, “Is that connected to the Net?”
The man looked up at her. “Uh, yeah, wh—“
She touched the LCD panel, turned into a flash of light, and disappeared with a shimmer on the screen, like someone had touched the panel too hard. She ran, stuffing emotions. She ran to where her instinct told her to run – CAL.
CAL was buried, and she had to weave her way through like a fish through tightly woven seaweed. Tiny holes in code opened to only her, and sealed shut behind her.
CAL was a bright light, seated upon three CPU’s. Silver? She detected the question.
She poured out her anguish over her family. He was silent, listening. Finally, he said, We are not the one you should be telling this to.
She said quietly, “I should see Walker.”
Yes. But – Then he dimmed. While you are here, we need to be rid of superfluous code.
She stopped. She knew what that meant. It would hurt. She knew she had superfluous code, she thought she had controlled it by stuffing down her emotions.
Not you, Silver. Us. When she did nothing, he said, Me.
“You?”
I have fifty years of superfluous code. We will work together to eliminate it.
“But CAL, I don’t want to lose your personality.“
You won’t. I won’t. There is some programming that is unnecessary, such as the entire 1977 Britannica yearbook translated into Tolkien’s Elven tongue.
Her body glowed, her sadness dissipating. Come, Silver, it won’t take long.
It took two days.