Fragments

by James F. David

  Elizabeth thanked her and then made excuses to leave. When they left, Mrs. Clayton stood on the porch and called after them.

  “If people would come visit more often I wouldn’t have to water so much.”

  Elizabeth turned and smiled at her, then promised to return.

  After supper Elizabeth found Wes with his computer, scrolling through lines of programming commands.

  “It’s Wednesday night,” she said.

  “So?”

  “So, it’s church night.”

  “You’re not serious. I mean, going to church on Sundays is one thing, but if you think I’m going two days a week . . .”

  “This time I’m asking, not telling. Pastor Young called and asked if Daphne could play tonight. You don’t have to come, but all the savants are going.”

  “I don’t want to unsettle Yu—” Wes said.

  “He’ll be all right; in fact, I think he’ll be ready to map tomorrow.”

  Wes brightened noticeably. Tomorrow all of Frankie’s pieces would be together and he felt like celebrating. Normally, church wouldn’t be his choice, but at least Elizabeth would be there.

  “Maybe I will go with you.”

  At night the church took on a different aura. The interior felt harsher, because the normally bright stained-glass windows were dark, reflecting only the indoor electric lights. Only half full, the church felt hollow, the few sounds of the congregation reverberating off the hardwoods accenting the interior.

  As soon as they entered, the savants were the center of attention. Their unusual behavior and peculiar looks made them a curiosity, and the congregation freely stared. Fearfully, Wes watched for the tittering and pointing the savants often garnered, but there was none; instead the congregation displayed sincere interest.

  Ralph, in the lead, greeted those he knew by name and shook hands with everyone within reach. Ralph’s energy lit up the room and animated the crowd. Pastor Young was there, dressed informally, and greeted Elizabeth warmly. Then he ushered them to the front row and began the service. The evening service was simple and alternated between prayers and hymn singing. When they got to the place where the sermon would normally go, the program called for Daphne to play. As soon as her name was mentioned, Ralph poked Daphne and she walked to the piano, head down. With a quick adjustment of the piano bench, Daphne began to play “Amazing Grace,” rocking forward and back to the rhythm. Daphne’s rich playing moved the congregation, and they soon stopped seeing Daphne as a carnival act and began to worship through her music. “Onward Christian Soldiers” followed, and then “How Great Thou Art.” Daphne played for twenty minutes, and then, without a word from anyone, stopped and returned to her place in the pew. Only Ralph spoke.

  “That was real good, Daphne. You only messed up a little in that one about being built upon the rock.”

  There was a snicker from a middle pew, then a clap in the back, and soon the church vibrated with the thunder of applause. Wes applauded with the rest, embarrassed over his short-sightedness. His interest in Daphne’s calendar-counting ability had kept him from seeing her other gift—the gift of music. It took fresh ears to appreciate it.

  Everyone wanted to meet Daphne after that, and Ralph worked the crowd at her side. To Wes’s surprise, Daphne took each offered hand in turn, although her head remained down. Yu leaned against a wall, rocking his head back and forth, but Luis and Archie stood in line shaking hands mutely.

  Pastor Young shook their hands last, thanking Daphne generously, and then lingering when he held Elizabeth’s hand. Wes, at the other end of the line, couldn’t hear what was said, but Elizabeth smiled broadly and then giggled. Wes felt his ire rise but couldn’t understand why. Elizabeth was nothing to him. Still, on the way back Wes found himself asking questions about the pastor.

  “You two sure seem to be chummy. What was he saying to you back there, anyway?”

  Elizabeth looked at him curiously. “He was just kidding around. He said we should take our act on the road.”

  “That all?”

  “He asked me out.”

  “What? That dirty letch.”

  “What are you talking about? He’s a pastor, not a priest. You don’t know anything about religion, do you?”

  “I know a hypocrite when I see one. He doesn’t know what our relationship is. For all he knows we could be engaged or something.”

  “I told him we just work together.”

  Wes hesitated, embarrassed by his jealousy. “That’s right. We’re just friends,” he agreed.

  “Is that what we are, Wes? Friends? I told him we were colleagues. I wasn’t sure we were friends.”

  Wes had to admit he wasn’t sure they were either. “I think we’re getting to friendship.”

  “Yes, I suppose so.”

  They didn’t talk the rest of the way back, but there was a new warmth between them that lasted long after the walk was over.

  The next morning Wes came down to see Daphne playing the piano while wearing an EET helmet. Someone had patched together a long cable, and he followed it into the experimental room to find Len, Karon, and Elizabeth hunched over his terminal.

  “What’s going on?” he demanded.

  Ignoring him, they continued to stare at the monitor while Len typed on the keyboard. Wes joined them to see two wave patterns displayed on the screen. In a softer voice he asked, “What are you doing?”

  “Sorry, boss man. We borrowed your program for our own little experiment. Elizabeth here had a good idea.”

  “Elizabeth?” Wes said with more surprise than he intended. Elizabeth scowled at him.

  Len chuckled and said, “Smooth boss, you have a way with the ladies. Yeah, it was her idea, our equipment, and your program. Still, you get only fourth author since Karon here has been helping quite a bit.”

  Karon smiled up at Wes, then turned back to the screen.

  “Elizabeth suggested we try mapping Daphne’s piano-playing region even though we don’t need it for Frankie. Then she suggested we compare it with the region that activates when Daphne plays the imaginary piano. Elizabeth wanted to know if they’re the same regions. I bet yes, she bet no. She won.”

  Wes was intrigued. It was an intriguing question but didn’t seem like something Elizabeth would be interested in since there was no practical usefulness. There must be more to it, he thought, but decided to be more diplomatic.

  “Interesting idea. Where do you think it will lead?”

  “I suspect the two activities originate in two separate regions but play a similar role for Daphne,” Elizabeth said. “I thought if we could find a common link we might be able to understand why she works so hard at shutting out the world.”

  “Look at this, Wes,” Len said, pointing to the brain activity displayed on the screen. “This is Daphne playing right now. It’s mostly left-hemisphere activity, with some right-hemisphere, mostly from the parietal regions. Now let me bring back what we recorded earlier.”

  The brain-wave display shrank, and a second display appeared above it. Wes spotted the difference before Len pointed it out.

  “See here, Wes. When Daphne plays the imaginary piano it’s primarily right-hemisphere and much less parietal.”

  “That makes some sense,” Wes said. “The right hemisphere normally controls spatial abilities. Picturing a piano and the placement of the keys would be a spatial task.”

  “Right.” Len rubbed his chin, then said, “I don’t see anything that helps here. Let’s display her brain activity when she’s not playing.”

  A third brain appeared, being washed by colors like the first two. After watching for a minute, Len was discouraged.

  “I don’t see anything. Anyone else? The piano playing just lays over the normal wave patterns. Let’s get a cross section.”

  Len typed and the display changed, the brains appearing as if sliced in half lengthwise. They studied the displays in silence. Then Karon leaned in and pointed.

  “Isn’t there reduced activity
in the thalamus?”

  The others watched for a minute, excited by the finding.

  “She’s right,” Wes said. “Take a look lower—in the reticular activating system. That section looks a little more active to me. Len, give us CPS on that.” Len typed and the display changed, showing three wave patterns and a digital readout. “That’s interesting.”

  “What’s interesting?” Elizabeth asked in frustration. “It was my idea!”

  “Sorry, Elizabeth. When Daphne plays, the electrical activity in two particular parts of her brain changes, the activity in the thalamus drops, and the activity in the reticular activating system increases. The thalamus controls sleep and wakefulness and the RAS attention.”

  “They do more,” Len added, “but don’t you see the connection? Those parts of the brain control input from the environment. Those regions of the brain are thick with axons bringing input from sensors throughout the body. When Daphne plays it somehow changes the balance between these two regions.”

  “What effect would that have?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Hard to tell,” Wes said. “Especially since the activity in the two regions changes inversely. I would guess Daphne would become less aware of some parts of her environment and more aware of other parts.”

  “That makes sense,” Elizabeth said. “Daphne is trying to rebalance her mind by playing. If only we could teach her to do the same thing without the piano playing—maybe with biofeedback?”

  The group was interrupted when a smiling Gil came into the room, followed by Yu. “He’s hungry,” Gil said. “And after breakfast he says he’s ready to try on the headgear.”

  Yu cooperated as long as Gil was near him, and they finished mapping him by afternoon. Wes was anxious to try for Frankie again, but Elizabeth made him wait until evening. The team spent the rest of the day double- and triple-checking their equipment. Len spent most of the day on the floor tracing the fiber-optic lines and checking the seals on the liquid-nitrogen system.

  They ordered out for pizza to put the savants in a good mood. Ralph met the driver at the door, calling him by name, and then helped him carry the pizzas into the house. They ate in front of the TV, watching cartoons. When the last of the pizza and soda was gone, they ushered the savants into the experiment room. It was time for a complete integration.

  19

  THE FRANKIE EFFECT

  There were five cots arranged in a semicircle, each with a helmet attached to an EET. A tangle of cables filled every space on the floor. The nitrogen tanks sat in a corner, lines running to the EETs to cool the special CPUs. Daphne, Luis, Yu, and Archie were sitting on four of the cots being fitted with their headgear. Part of the team now, Elizabeth helped Karon with the savants. Only Yu was apprehensive; the others were calm, and even eager for the session to begin. Wes didn’t quite understand why Daphne and Archie were eager, but welcomed it. If Yu adapted as well as the others, Elizabeth would have no way of prematurely stopping the project.

  “Wes,” Elizabeth said. “Do you want Ralph on the fifth cot?”

  Momentarily confused, Wes stared at the empty cot. Suddenly it came to him. “No, not Ralph, put Gil there.”

  Standing in the doorway with a big wad of gum in his mouth, Ralph said, “Gil’s right, he’s probably better’n me at this. ‘Sides, now I can watch what I want on TV.” Ralph turned and left.

  Ralph’s comments about Gil being right made no sense to Wes, but Gil’s face was flushed—from anger?

  “Wes, we don’t really need a fifth,” Shamita said. “We planned this for four.”

  “I know, Shamita, I wrote the grant,” Wes said testily. Then, apologetically, he added, “I just thought this would be a better test of the program’s potential.” Unsure of his own reasons, Wes hurried on. “Take the others under, Shamita, while we get Gil ready.”

  While Shamita systematically relaxed the donors, Wes thought about Gil. He didn’t need the fifth, and Ralph’s geographic ability might actually be useful. So why use Gil? Not knowing, he decided to minimize Gil’s role.

  “Shamita, use Archie for the base matrix.” Then, thinking better of it, he added, “No, use Gil for the matrix, just like before.”

  Len and Shamita looked at him strangely. Then Shamita said, “What about Luis’s hindbrain memory?”

  “We used Gil before—it’ll make a better comparison.”

  Shamita shook her head, and Karon whispered in Len’s ear, eliciting a smile.

  Shamita typed and soon Wes had Gil’s brain-wave activity displayed on the screen, only the psychomotor functions depressed. One by one she added the brain-wave patterns of the savants, each appearing in a row above Gil’s.

  “Wes,” Shamita said. “Do you see that peculiar wave?”

  Wes looked, but suddenly the screen scrambled.

  “What was that, Shamita?”

  “Power spike, I guess.”

  “Not with my surge protectors,” Len said defensively.

  “Check it later, anyway, will you Len? What were you saying about a peculiarity, Shamita?”

  “Huh? Nothing. I think I’m ready here. Len, watch the hypothalamic output.” Shamita typed for a few more minutes and then pointed to Wes. “The parameters are set as before. I’ll configure Yu’s after the others are in.”

  Typing furiously, Wes began patching together Frankie. One by one, the savant abilities were integrated into Gil’s brain waves. “All right, Shamita, give me Yu.”

  “It’s going to be a tight fit. He overlaps with Luis quite a bit.”

  “Your best guess, please. We can toy with it later if we need to.”

  Wes watched as parts of Yu’s right and left hemispheres were deleted from Wes’s display, leaving a wave pattern dominated by prefrontal waves.

  “That should get Yu’s remote-associations ability.”

  Wes took over and replaced another section of Gil’s brainwave patterns. When he had a functioning whole, Len began applauding. Elizabeth came to watch over Wes’s shoulder.

  “Is it supposed to be Frankie again?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Ask.”

  “Who do I speak to, Shamita?”

  “Luis.”

  Elizabeth stood by Luis’s ear. “Are you here, Frankie?”

  A long silence followed. When no answer came, the scientists studied their screens.

  “Does the memory from the previous session carry over?” Elizabeth asked.

  “I don’t know why not . . .” Wes began. “Of course, the memory could have been disrupted by the addition of Yu. It wouldn’t hurt to tell him who he is, but I was hoping we’d solved that self-awareness problem.”

  “You’re Frankie. Who are you?”

  “I’m Frankie?”

  The voice came from Yu.

  “Don’t you remember? We talked before.”

  “I don’t know if I remember.”

  Elizabeth paused, looking concerned. “Frankie, how can you not know if you remember?”

  “I guess I did talk to you, Elizabeth,” Frankie said.

  “Shamita, can you turn off the auditory for a minute?” Elizabeth asked.

  Shamita typed a few commands and then said, “Frankie’s deaf, go ahead, Elizabeth.”

  “I’m a little concerned. Frankie seems to have a memory of our previous conversation—she called me by name—but it doesn’t seem integrated; more like a dissociated memory typical of multiple personalities.”

  “It may just be adolescent,” Shamita said. “Adolescents often don’t feel integrated. They’re chameleon-like, changing from one person to another depending on whether they’re with their friends or their parents. We’re working with personalities that never really left childhood. Maybe when you put them together you get adolescent?”

  Wes thought for a second and then said, “Personality is mostly a prefrontal function. This might be more Yu than anyone else. Maybe we need to cut down his parameters.”

  “We could lose the RA ability.”

  “RA?” Eliza
beth prodded.

  “Remote associations. That’s what we wanted most from Yu—his uncanny ability to see relationships where others can’t.” Then, to Shamita, “Let’s leave it alone for now, and see if we can get Frankie to work for us. Elizabeth, try talking to him again.”

  “You’re sure it’s a him?”

  “It is if it’s mostly Yu talking.”

  With Luis’s hearing turned back on, Elizabeth tried again.

  “Frankie, are you there?”

  “Yes, Elizabeth.”

  “What do you remember, Frankie?”

  “Nothing.”

  Wes ran his finger across his throat and Shamita cut off the auditory again.

  “Frankie won’t have any personal memories, he’s only been integrated once before. We need to build a memory set for him. He should have all the procedural memories of the others, however. Try the abilities; then we’ll try some creative problem solving.”

  Elizabeth picked up a yellow pad. “Frankie, on what day does Christmas fall in 2011?”

  “Sunday.”

  “Very good. What one word goes with ‘tulip,’ ‘light,’ and ‘dim’?”

  “ ‘Bulb.’ ”

  “Correct. Which is farther west, Sacramento or Los Angeles?”

  “Sacramento.”

  Elizabeth looked down at her pad in surprise. “Right again.”

  Elizabeth asked the rest of the questions, getting only correct answers. Then she nodded to Shamita, who typed on her keypad. Soon Shamita indicated that she was ready.

  “Frankie, can you sit up for me?”

  Elizabeth waited by Luis, but it was Daphne who sat up.

  “Shamita, this gives me the creeps. Couldn’t you have made it Luis?”

  “Could have, but this is a better test.”

  Karon brought over a tray covered with pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

  “Frankie, can you put this together for me?”