The Computer Who Loved Me

by Lloyd G Miller

  “She was a consensus all American volley ball player all four years at BYU. She was the team star in every sport she played in high school. You should see her pitch a softball.”

  “She’s beautiful,” whispered Kyle.

  “Yeah, she is. The missionary photo I showed you didn’t do her justice, did it?”

  “Not at all.”

  Becky popped out of the water on her first try. It took her a little while to feel completely comfortable, but once she did, she became amazingly graceful. She did all of the tricks that Annette had done and then some. Then she traded in the slalom ski for a wake board and wowed everyone again with more feats of skill and grace. Josh leaned over to Kyle to speak over the boat noise. “I have never known a more competitive athlete than Becky, on any level, male or female. She can’t help trying to outdo the competition. Once the competitive instinct is triggered, there’s no stopping her. Normally she is as sweet as honey, but don’t cross her on the court or the field.”

  Nate and Nancy were so intimidated watching Annette and Becky that they chose to just ride on the tubes. Kyle had let Bobby handle the boat while Annette skied but drove for Nate and Nancy during the tubing. In the afternoon, they all swam. Kyle noticed that Nate had slimmed down considerably while he had gotten very flabby. As soon as he could, he would have to do some serious exercise.

  The couple concentrated on finishing medical school. They had mastered all of the lectures and textbooks. Now they were ready for a crash course in all of the things done in the lab, including dissection of cadavers and surgery. Annette was very nimble with her hands, but Kyle struggled. His large, powerful hands were hard to control in delicate maneuvers. Dexterity was not something he could just download to his brain. It involved his whole body. The doctors who directed them were satisfied with Kyle’s progress and very complimentary about Annette’s. Once Kyle could discard the wheel chair and crutches, his confidence increased and he became more sure handed with a scalpel.

  Nate and Nancy married as planned. The Jameses gave them an electric Thunderbird as a wedding present. Josh and Becky married a couple of months later. They were also given an electric Thunderbird as a wedding present although Kyle suspected that within a few years they would want something more like the Expedition with the children he expected them to have. The three couples did many things together and made good use of the boat and the Expedition. Kyle and Annette both received their medical degrees but chose not to go through graduation ceremonies. Kyle got back in shape. Annette encouraged him to bulk up to 220 pounds. Unlike most women, she liked massive muscles on a man. Annette got her own body into superb physical condition.

  One afternoon Josh dropped by to bring Kyle a book. Kyle and Annette were dressed in tight fitting workout clothing. “Josh, good to see you. Can you join us in a short walk around the block?” invited Kyle who was donning leather gloves.

  “You guys look like you are ready for something more strenuous than a walk around the block,” commented Josh.

  “Oh the path is steep in places. It will actually be quite a challenge,” responded Kyle. Josh had a quizzical look on his face but played a long. Both Kyle and Annette placed their hands on the sidewalk and shifted their entire body weight onto their hands and arms. They proceeded with the “walk” on their hands.

  “You guys really know how to make a guy feel like a wimp,” commented Josh. “Even Nate is starting to look more buff than me.”

  “So how is Becky doing?” asked Annette.

  “She has morning sickness really bad.”

  “Poor dear. Has that dampened her desire any for a large family?” asked Annette.

  “Not one iota. She is determined.”

  “You’ve got a real trooper there, Josh,” added Kyle.

  Chapter 23 – Spiritual Love

  Annette lie next to Kyle snuggling after an hour of exquisite passion. She marveled at how much she had grown to love this man whom only a few years earlier she had mocked and ridiculed. She had been so wrong about so many things back then. Who would have thought that a bullet to the head would have brought wisdom and joy? She let her mind drift back to that evening. It was the first time that she had seen Kyle well dressed. He looked very sharp in his tuxedo that enhanced his extremely masculine physique and features. Kyle made her date, her husband, look like Pee Wee Herman. Most women found Carlton very handsome. Annette had originally been drawn to him by overhearing other women talk about him. Her competitive nature had driven her to seek him out and attract his attention. Carlton quickly fell in love with her. Her peers were envious of her and that fed her vanity. Before she realized the trap that she had created for herself, she was married to Carlton.

  It had mostly been a joyless marriage. Carlton just did not know how to promote his career or how to build wealth. His salary as a full professor was adequate, but he could have earned so much more. Meanwhile, Kyle, who until recently had dressed like an impoverished moron, had made himself rich and famous. Go figure.

  Annette had not been paying attention to the odd events at Kyle’s table. One moment she had been eating dinner and the next she was floating above the crowd, looking down on her critically wounded body. With an amazingly detached attitude, she watched the events unfold. Carlton was beside himself with grief. How could someone so smart be such an idiot? Realistically, if she died it would be one of the best things that could have happened to Carlton. She turned her attention to Kyle. For some reason he had a large brass vase over his head, but he was acting calm and rational. She decided to follow Kyle’s little group. Two things impressed her. Not only was Kyle very calm and rational but so were his fiancée and friends. Secondly, she was impressed by the love and devotion of Kyle’s friends. Annette had not had a true friend in her entire adult life.

  When Kyle walked out of the hospital, without even being released, to help Carlton save her life, she almost wept if a spirit could weep. No one but Carlton had ever done something like that for her. Amazingly, the bizarre plan worked. Carlton had not even told her about his creation of a sentient program. It was marvelous and Kyle seemed to bring out the best in it. He was very clever. After Kyle’s wedding, Annette returned to her body. The pain was unbearable. Somehow, she managed to pop out again. She hung around, observing Carlton and Kyle’s friends. She followed Nate to the airport to meet Kyle. To her surprise, she found herself eagerly anticipating Kyle’s return. Nate was very upset about something, but Kyle was as calm as a summer morning. Annette could not get her spirit mind around the technical and financial details, but as she watched over the next several weeks, she observed two things. Everybody associated with Kyle’s little company worked very hard and seemed happy about it and Kyle had somehow turned financial disaster into huge profits, especially for himself. He was very generous and honest with others but managed to make a fortune. He knew how to build wealth.

  The next most clever person was not really a person at all but the program that Carlton had created. It somehow tricked him into believing that she had regained consciousness but as a much wiser and more loving version of herself. She managed to fool everyone, although Kyle seemed to be suspicious about something. Several times Annette tried staying in her body. The pain had subsided, but she was blind and deaf inside her body. She could only sense what was going on when she left the body.

  Then both Carlton and Sharon were killed by a swam of bumblebees. Annette knew that she had always been a very selfish and self-centered person but was ashamed that she felt no grief at the death of her husband. Instead, she felt excitement that maybe the computer chick in her body and Kyle would hook up but she wanted to be in her body when it happened. She yearned to hold Kyle in her arms. Was she falling in love with him? She spent more and more time in her body. With persistence, she began to sense her surroundings through the computer system. It seemed very alien at first, but gradually her spirit mind adjusted to the digital brain. Things were starting to heat up between Kyle and the computer girl who called herself An
n. Annette wanted to be there when they kissed. She would not be in control, but she would feel Kyle’s lips against hers. She felt as giddy as a schoolgirl, well, actually, she was a schoolgirl, at least her body was. Thanks to Ann, she was rapidly becoming a doctor of medicine. Not bad. Not bad at all.

  The kiss came and it was wonderful, although she desperately wanted to take over and control her body. She knew how to really kiss a man. Then Ann did something extraordinary, she risked her life to save a bunch of children. At first, Annette was furious that Ann was risking her body. Fearing the pain to come she slipped out of her body again and watched from above. As she watched the children escaping the bus, she had a Grinch-like moment. Her heart seemed to grow. It felt right that her life be sacrificed to save those children. After the crash, she returned to her body. There was only minor pain. She was cramped but not seriously injured. Once again, Ann had proven her brilliance. Annette could see nothing so she slipped out of the body again to observe.

  None of the rescuers seemed to know if she was even still alive and were afraid that any attempt to extractor her might seriously injure her body. Then she saw Kyle, running and leaping from car top to car top. He was a force of nature with super human strength. He ripped the car body apart with his bare hands. His muscles bulged and flexed. He was magnificent, her hero in shining sweat. When her body was finally exposed to view, she returned to it so that she could feel Kyle reach in and cradle her in his muscular arms. She knew then that she had to have him. She did not even care about his money. She wanted his body and spirit. She would marry him and never let him regret it. She had been a selfish, unloving wife to Carlton. She would be an incredible wife and lover to Kyle. She thought of the corny saying, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” It actually made sense to her now. Kyle really liked the computer girl so Annette would learn to coexist with her and work together with her to win Kyle and keep him happy.

  Chapter 24 – Bar Fight

  “Kyle, my alcohol tanks are really low. Can we stop at the closest bar and grab a quick beer?” asked Annette anxiously. If she ran out of alcohol for her fuel cells she would lose the function of her auxiliary processors that clung to the wall of her stomach. The couple had been out to the Adamms’ home to visit and were returning.

  “You know how I hate bars, but you got to do what you got to do. Just try not to get into any fights,” kidded Kyle. The parking lot was full and the jukebox could be heard from the parking lot. One reason Kyle had shunned drinking was that he hated bars and how people acted when they had been drinking too much. Walking into a bar with a woman built like Annette was asking for trouble, especially with the parking lot full of custom motorcycles and pickup trucks. The couple approached the bar and Kyle ordered a couple of beers. His tanks could use a little refilling also, but he would have preferred to wait until they got home. After a few minutes, a large, heavily tattooed man in a leather vest turned his body towards Annette.

  “Well, what do we have here? A fine mama with world-class jugs and a boy. Hey baby how about you and me blow this joint and leave the kid behind?” Annette had at one time in her life sung in bars to help put herself through school and was cool and collected. Kyle, on the other hand, saw his worse fears being realized. He definitely did not want to get into a bar fight.

  “Let’s go Annette.” The beers had arrived and Kyle paid for them. Annette drank the whole bottle at once and set it down. The two walked out of the bar.

  “How dare you let someone talk to me that way and not respond!” started Annette in a chilling tone. “Carlton may have been a wimp physically, but he always stood up for me. You could have easily taken that guy but you backed down.” It finally had happened. Kyle had respected Carlton Monroe more than any other man he had ever known. He was a man true to his principles to the end. Kyle had feared being compared to him. He was sure that Carlton had been his superior in every virtue and attribute of character and now he was being measured against him in a most unfavorable way. However, Kyle was still confident that he had done the right thing. Too bad Annette did not see it that way.

  “What do you want me to do?” meekly asked Kyle.

  “I want you to go right in there and demand an apology.” Kyle turned and reentered the bar followed by his wife. A hush fell across the room. They walked up to the offender.

  “Sir, my wife found your comments very offensive and we demand an apology.” The biker was surprised by the lack of fear in Kyle’s voice. Didn’t he realize he could crush him like a bug?

  “My apologies, Madam,” responded the man in mock humility.

  “Thank you,” responded Kyle. He then whispered to Annette, “Now let’s get out of here.” The two headed for the door. Annette knew men like the biker all too well and was confident that things were not going to be so easy. She contemplated what he might do. Putting her mind in high-speed mode by shifting all of her resources to her sight, hearing and logic, she determined 47 things that the biker might do in response. She noticed that he had been holding a beer bottle. She placed her right hand on Kyle’s shoulder in such a way that she could use her watch as a mirror to observe the ruffian. She watched him swig the last of his beer. She contemplated several possible activities with the bottle. He might just set it on the bar. He might break the end off on the bar to use as a weapon. He might use it in its unmodified form to hit Kyle over the head or he might use it as a projectile. With human eyes, Annette could only freeze about 20 frames per second. She watched each picture unfold like a normal person watching a video in slow motion. Within three frames, she had determined that the bully would throw the bottle. She coolly watched his arm go back. She began preliminary estimations of the trajectory, speed and time of arrival. She began to reposition her body to catch the bottle when it came. She would need to make contact early so that she could decelerate the bottle over many centimeters to avoid hitting the back of Kyle’s head. Once the bottle left the biker’s hand, she knew its precise trajectory. The bottle made a whooshing sound as it spun through the air. Kyle heard the sound and turned his head to see what was making the noise. Without Annette’s intervention, he would catch the bottle right in the side of his face. Annette’s hand intercepted the bottle, gasping it by the neck 340 centimeters from Kyle’s face. She gently decelerated the bottle to a stop a few centimeters from Kyle. She calmly carried the bottle back to the thrower and stood facing him.

  “I believe this is yours. Here catch.” She tossed the bottle higher than the man’s head but short so that he stepped forward with his right leg in the act of catching it. Annette’s right foot simultaneously shot up from the floor at unnatural velocity to strike the man’s crotch. The smacking sound was so loud that every man in the room heard it and winced in vicarious pain. As Annette’s foot returned to the floor the brute sank to his knees in agony. Annette calmly grabbed some toothpicks from the bar and walked out with Kyle, who watched with amazement. Upon exiting the building, Annette walked with a limp over to the motorcycles. She noticed that six of them bore a logo similar to one of the man’s tattoos. She stuck a toothpick in the ignition of the first she came to and broke it off. She repeated the act on each of the successive five bikes. “We can go now,” she calmly informed Kyle. The bar room doors burst open and bikers filled the area. Kyle and Annette ran to the Viper and sped off. The gang ran to their motorcycles but could not fit their keys into the ignitions. The cursing bikers were unable to make pursuit. The couple was silent on the way home, but Annette was exhilarated. She had never done anything so exciting before in her life.

  Annette’s leg was sore for weeks. Rather than turning off the pain she reveled in her discomfort. It reminded her of the excitement of the evening in the bar. After the bar incident, Annette went to work on miniature video cameras with built in transmitters. She consulted with her network of computers, with Kyle and with others in the design. The finished product was a thing of beauty. The basic unit was only nine millimeters long and weighed only a few grams. Sh
e had designed several means of attachment. One model could be clipped or glued to hair. This one was specifically for Kyle so he could have “eyes in the back of his head”. Another was encased in a glob of very sticky substance. It could be thrown at a wall or ceiling and would remain stuck there indefinitely. Another had a propeller and when thrown into the air would descend, slowly rotating. It gave a sweeping, panoramic view of a room. Each camera could transmit 100 frames per second, five times the rate of the human eye. The high speed was not of much use to Kyle but was a great asset to Annette when quick analysis was required.

  As Kyle and Annette watched the evening news, there was a piece describing a sharp decline in the availability of illegal drugs in North America. Both the money and the supply had mysteriously dried up. This good news was offset by an unusually high number of gang turf wars. Every gang appeared to be at war with every other gang.

  “Kyle, I need to buy a birthday present for my mom. Do you want to come?”

  “No thanks, my love. You go ahead.” Annette gathered up some boxes, scissors, wrapping paper and packaging tape. She bought a present at a strip mall and headed to the nearest post office. While parked she wrapped the gift with decorative paper and then packed it into a sturdy cardboard box, which she taped and labeled. She entered the post office with the box and paid the postage, a process that required a frustratingly long wait. As she exited the building, she noticed a transient urinating on one of the tires of her new electric Thunderbird. She dashed to her car to confront the man who was holding a beer bottle in one hand and aiming with the other.