It Seemed Like Such A Good Idea

 

(We were all afraid.  I tried the computer just to check and it was dead. We didn’t know what to do next. The girls cried.  Doug and I sat and just looked at each other.)

 xOx

The kids call me Roops.  It’s as good as anything I reckon.  I am one of the very few old guys they know.  I’m glad I’m around to give them a nudge in the right direction from time to time.  These kids have advantages over their peers just from hanging around here at the old radio shop.

You know, most of that electronic junk in my downstairs is kind of a joke.  It’s interior design.  None of them know what is functional and what is baloney. I get a kick out of that. It looks like an electronic graveyard in here.

When I wandered downstairs that morning I padded over to the real stuff and plonked myself down into my old chair and turned on the bubble machine, my pet name for my system.

I pinged Thumbienet.  I was hoping to catch up with Doug.  Nothing. This was not a major bummer yet, but I had to wonder why they were not all clustered around that crazy set OZ made learning about their world and how to type, already.

I waited around for a while. Maybe they were having a party over there or something.  I made breakfast. I ate my mush like a good boy.  I drank some of that instant coffee. I put sugar in both of them!

I checked again.  No messages.  I began to get a real hinky feeling up the back of my neck.  Something was not right. There was no good reason for them to be offline.  I hoped they hadn’t burnt the house down somehow.

I figured I should check with my bestie Shortie and see if he knew anything. He has a name, but I can’t say it. I call him Pete.  So how do I get ahold of Pete?  Well, it’s kinda zen you know?  I just sit very, very quietly and think of nothing but Pete and he picks up the receiver somewhere up there where the Shorties hang out.

See, the Lights are just manifestations or projections of the Shorties. They are a means of communication with us earthbound critters. Oh, they can do other stuff too, like a spot of warfare.  Remember those two Spookies they obliterated out in front of this place?  Yeah.  That.

Anyhow, Pete, just to make it easy for me sends me regular typed messages and I answer him the same way.  I would have a hard time maintaining a purely mental connection.  I’m too distractable. Maybe too stupid!

I had been sitting there with my hands on my knees thinking about Pete for a few minutes when I heard a message come in.  I get a little bell sound just like in the old days. I turned to my monitor. There he was.  He didn’t use any apps or platforms.  He just appeared on screen, pow! Just like in an old-fashioned horror movie! The ghost in the machine was Pete!

“In the Name of All Being, greetings,” Pete said. “You are all questions today.”

“Hi Pete,” I said. “You’re right about that.” I tried to focus on what the real kernel of my question was before speaking.  They are uncanny if you think about that aspect and maybe even a little daunting to talk to even if you do it all the time.

“Pete, I’m not hearing back from the kids.  You know about the internet that biological, OZ and his buds set up for them I assume.  Things were going fine.  Then this morning, nothing, and I am worried.”

“Yes, we knew, and we knew it was doomed to failure from the start. Totally vulnerable as a spider web. I’ll tell you why. It was wide open. As soon as it was formed, something else began to form over it, using the connectedness in a new way. There are still wicked forces in creation. Old powerful, hidden forces.  The war is not over.

“An artifact of their net grew out of it, becoming an anti-mind, like a hive creature.  It acquired a type of sentience. But it was obscene and power hungry. No human life could have survived if it had taken charge.”

“Wait a minute, Pete.  This false mind thing took over that quickly?”

“Yes, we had to shut it down.  It doesn’t exist anymore.  All Being would not allow it to continue. Those hundreds of others are no more.  Poor things.” Pete was silent for a moment. “Their bodies lie wherever they were when they went offline and perished. They were scattered all over Israel and some in Europe.”

“Is OZ gone too,” I asked him. I could just picture that scenario out at the house. The kids had become fond of OZ and would mourn him for sure. He had become more human in his affect as time went on and had taken more of an interest in their human lives. He still wore that big safety pin Jen had pinned on him to be able to tell him from the other others, and he seemed proud of his difference from the rest of them.

 

Awakening

We all gathered around OZ’s body where he lay on the floor.  We could see that he was breathing. Jen laid her right hand on him, and she prayed. How she loved that thing is beyond me.  But she did.  Pretty soon we all did too, Doug, Lou and me too.  It was a sad time, but also sweet in a way.

Bubby got up to take a look over our shoulders.  He laid his big black muzzle on Lou’s shoulder.  Then he threw his head back and howled, like we had never heard him howl.  Not ever!  His long note of dog urgency rang through the house and even outdoors.  He called again and again. We had never seen Bubby behave in this way.

Lou said, “look at his eyes!” She was pointing and had leapt up to her feet.

OZ’s black eyes were open.  They seemed a little different though.  His eyes normally had no more expression than two buttons would have, but now that was not the case. As he lay on the floor, he looked at each face over him, like he had never seen us before.

He sat up. We moved back, giving him some room.

“What am I,” he said. “There were so many, but they are gone now. I hear no one. But I am here. Why am I here?” 

Jen said “I think you are here to help us. You can do things no human can do! I think All Being brought you to us and also saved you from being just an other, OZ! You have a new life.”

He smiled.  OZ smiled and that is the absolute truth!  I had never seen such an awful smile, but a smile it was.  He giggled a little, like a little child. He scrambled to his feet and got back on his wooden chair.  He crossed his arms over his chest and fiddled with his big safety pin.

I will attest that was quite a morning.  We had to get to know him all over again and find out what was left of his strange abilities. I wondered if he could still do internet by himself.  I had read about hotspots in Roops’ books in his crazy front room with all the electronic junk.

Doug asked him about that, and OZ said “I’m not sure.  We will have to try to see what is left.”

Gabe had awakened from his morning nap and came wandering into the kitchen with everyone else.  He saw OZ sitting there and ran up to him and hugged his knees.  OZ laid his hand on the boy’s head and smiled around the room, looking from person to person.

“I will try to help you, I will do my very best!”

The whole novel linked here: In the tenth year of the pandemonium.docx