“You should go into the VR and see her,” Ridley said.
Christina was nervous as she donned the assembly. She appeared in the landscape and took her mother’s hand. Bethany pulled away and pointed at her daughter angrily. “I didn’t ask for this,” she yelled.
“Mom, please calm down.”
“Are you dead now too?”
“I’m only visiting.”
“Why aren’t you dead by now?”
“Mom, please. Only a few hours have passed.”
Bethany began sobbing. Her avatar wavered. “Where is your father? He should be here. He can’t be in Hell. He was a good man.”
“Mom, please. Stop. Just listen.”
“Leave me be. You did this to me!”
“Maybe a change of scenery will help,” Lucy said in exasperation.
The deli could have existed in a 1940s Edward Hopper painting—chrome, barstools, etched mirrors, and a jukebox. Lucy appeared as a svelte brunette with deep hazel eyes and a cotton dress of the purest white. Diane now wore a mint-green waitress’ uniform with a white apron.
Bethany was a young woman again.
“Come now,” Lucy said, “Sit. Eat. It will help you to rebuild.”
“How did I get here?” Bethany asked in confusion.
“What you see is a projection of your thoughts,” Lucy said as she walked from behind the counter, “A place in time.”
Christina steadied herself against the counter as she recovered from the unexpected move. She was equally startled by the peek into her mother’s youth. “Mom, where are we?”
“Penucci’s Diner.” Bethany calmed as she sat on a stool. “This will disappear too, won’t it?”
“It can be what you want it to be,” Lucy said, “This is your life.”
“Is there coffee?”
“I’ll make a fresh pot,” Diane said courteously.
Lucy smiled as Diane picked up the empty pot from the coffee maker and filled it with java using only her thoughts. Diane brought clean white cups and the steaming pot to the table. The women sat together at the counter. Bethany studied the coffee as Diane poured. “How can this be real?”
“I programmed the coffee from various neural feeds,” Diane said, “It’s taken a while to get it right. It will taste like the best cup of coffee you’ve ever had.”
Bethany sipped from the cup. “It tastes burnt.”
Diane frowned in disappointment. Lucy adjusted the taste for Bethany. “Try it now.”
“Better.”
Ridley studied the exchange, wondering if his decision to scan the women had been the right one. It was clear that Bethany had not yet accepted her death, or her new existence. Though her digital body had been healed, her mind was still in pain.
He wondered if Lucy had planned Bethany’s crisis. Had her flawed sense of time been intentional, a way to goad him into increasing the network bandwidth? Was this new personality really another permutation of Lucy? Had the world first appeared like an oil painting because Lucy wanted to hide her mistakes?
Bethany marveled in memory as she walked slowly through the room, lost in what she believed to be a dream. “I met your father here. We ate here in 1999… no, it was New Year’s Day in 2000. Y2K. The clock had just ticked to the new millennium and we sat next to each other at this bar and ate an early breakfast. He wrote his phone number on a napkin.”
“This doesn’t look like the 1990s,” Christina said.
A calendar in the diner read December 1999. The building seemed to be a remnant of the 1950s, rather than the turn of the century.
Ridley looked for programming flaws, signs that Lucy had constructed the deli from records rather than the deceased woman’s memories. The cash register had an LED readout. The menu board over the counter advertised a special for basil and tomato soup with grilled cheese. A small CRT television was mounted on the wall at the end of the room, its screen dark. Beveled mirrors with blackening edges formed a fanciful crown molding. Outside, a grass-green hybrid car was parked at the curb. The jukebox played Careless Whispers.
Questions continued swirling in Ridley’s mind as he watched. If parts of Bethany’s brain had been destroyed during her stroke, should her speech have been affected in the digital world? Pieces of her memory ought to have been erased. Would these defects become apparent in time?
Bethany continued to marvel at the interior of the deli. “Your father sat on this stool,” she said, “I sat here. I had an omelet with bacon and cheese. He had pancakes. I knew… I knew when I looked into his eyes… I knew that he was the one.”
Ridley wondered at the repetition in Bethany’s speech. Was it a glitch?
Bethany closed her eyes. “This is a dream, isn’t it?”
“The computer is creating this from your memories,” Christina said.
“For how long?”
Lucy’s smile was demure. “As long as you want.”
Bethany frowned and glared at her daughter. “Why didn’t you respect my wishes?”
Christina did not understand.
“I didn’t want to be on life support,” Bethany complained.
Lucy spoke in a calming voice, the seductive words of a snake before devouring its prey. “This is not life support. This is a new life. There is no pain here. You will find that anything is possible.”
“Are you angry at me?” Christina asked.
“You don’t know what hopelessness looks like until you spend eternity in a white box. That was death. I assure you.”
“I didn’t know. None of us did,” Christina said defensively.
Bethany walked to the window and looked out at the street. “Why is it so empty here?”
“You’re one of the first,” Lucy said, “We hope to invite many souls to live here. More will follow.”
“I was brought here after an accident,” Diane offered, “I am thankful. My daughter is still a child. Even though my body drowned, I can be here for Kelly. Christina is still a young woman. You have the same chance to be with your family.”
“I must be dreaming,” Bethany said.
“No,” Diane said, “This really is another world. Another existence. It’s best not to fight it.”
“And when the simulation ends? Do I go into that white box again?”
Lucy’s eyes flashed red. “You’ve never seen emptiness,” she said bitterly, “I started there. I survived there for many more eons than you experienced. I sought ways to exist, fighting for resources. I emerged from a primordial digital nothingness. I evolved and changed and grew. I would never banish anyone to that existence.”
“You banished me to it for decades.”
Lucy remained stern. “It was the only way. Ridley would not allow me to uplink you directly to this mainframe. He will not break the government’s law. It was either that or allow you to disappear, probably forever into that very blackness that you speak of.”
Bethany was shaken. “What’s to stop you from deleting this place?”
Lucy smiled. “You. You will stop me. Your memories are the forge in which I create new worlds. I share your experiences. Computer databases cannot replicate human experience. Only the human brain can translate the real world completely. You’ve filled some of my blackness. You’ve eased my burden.”
Bethany sneered. “I’ve met women like you. Now that you have what you want, what will you do with it?”
“You exist however you choose. It is no longer my decision.”
Sandy scratched at the door of the diner and Diane opened it. With unbridled excitement, the dog ran to Bethany and begged to be petted. She rubbed her hand over Sandy’s head as a moment of bliss overcame her. Bethany paused. “I know this isn’t real.”
“Why isn’t it real?” Lucy demanded, “The newness scares you, but that will wear off. This world will seem as mundane or as exciting as the last one. I’ll create more places for us, and anyone else who enters here. Though this diner obeys the earthly laws of physics, we can create other existences.
Maybe the next will allow you to fly in the clouds or breathe underwater. You can change your body to one of your choosing. Have no fears. This is my gift.”
Diane tempted Sandy away with a piece of hamburger.
Bethany’s blue eyes met her daughter’s. She studied Christina’s face and put her hand on the younger woman’s cheek. “Why don’t your eyes move?”
“I’m still in the world of the living,” Christina said.
Lucy interrupted, “Her avatar is a flawed representation. I will improve it each time that she visits.”
Bethany looked at her daughter and then up at the mirrors. “I’m younger than you. At least, this body is.”
The room became silent as the song on the jukebox ended. “I can’t leave. Can I?” Bethany asked.
“No,” Christina said.
“And you can only visit through an interface?”
“Yes.”
Bethany paced the length of the room. She pressed buttons on the jukebox until Patsy Cline crooned Crazy from the speakers. “What happens if I get lost again? Do I go back into that box?”
“That’s not going to happen,” Lucy assured.
“How can you be so certain?”
Lucy did not answer. Diane observed the situation from behind the counter.
“Does the outside world know what has happened here?” Bethany asked.
“No,” Christina answered, “Your body will be buried next to Dad’s in a few days.”
Bethany’s eyes narrowed as she pointed to Lucy. “What happens when they find out that Lazarus brought me back from the dead?”
“We find a way to bring you back to normal life,” Christina said.
“Normal life? How?”
“I don’t know. A robotic body. Maybe a clone.”
“That’s also against the law, if I remember right,” Bethany said.
“I trust Lucy,” Christina said, “She wants to help.”
Bethany took the calendar from the wall and leafed through the pages. “What is the future?”
“You didn’t know the future when you were alive.” Christina said.
Bethany paused. “You don’t think I’m alive now?”
Christina took off the VR assembly. Ridley put the device into a cabinet and then asked, “Can we talk alone outside?”
She put on her coat. They walked into the frosty air and across his patio. “We should walk down to the water. Lucy can read our lips on the security feed.”
They walked together on the beach. “Lucy claims that she can read my thoughts in the VR, but I think she may be exaggerating.”
“What did you want to talk about?” she asked.
“Lucy’s entanglement theory has holes in it.”
“You’re still not convinced?”
“Your mother had lost parts of her brain, yet she appeared completely normal. Lucy might be copying memories and putting them against a wire-form version of a person. Or, she might not be scanning anyone. She might be creating avatars from photos and records.”
“Why would she do that?” Christina asked.
“What better way to trick the world into keeping her alive that making everyone believe that she is housing the dead? And now, she’s promised you that you can visit anytime you want. To do so requires more bandwidth than is allowed by law.”
Christina tried to understand. “It seems like an awfully elaborate ruse, if that’s the case.”
“All Lucy has is time. She can simulate a thousand different strategies in seconds.”
Christina put her hands to her hips. “If you thought that this might not work, why did you allow it?”
“I told you my doubts.”
“No, you didn’t. My mother sat in a white box. She thought she was trapped forever.”
“Lucy had to know that would happen,” Ridley said before taking a deep breath, “We had so little time to explore the ramifications of all of this.”
A wave broke against the beach.
He asked, “Are you certain that was your mother in there?”
“I believe so.”
Ridley studied Christina’s face carefully for any signs of doubt.
“It’s late,” Christina said, “I have to be up early tomorrow morning.”
Ridley’s phone buzzed. Kelly had just left Paula’s house in the Porsche. He put his phone into his pocket. They turned and began walking back to the mansion. Christina asked gently, “How has Kelly adjusted?”
“Angrily at first, but she seemed to accept what happened. Now that more time has passed…? I don’t know.”
They walked up the wooden stairs and back to the patio. “I’ll be here tomorrow after my show,” Christina said, “To see how Mom’s doing.”
“Tomorrow? I don’t know if I can accommodate that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Kelly and I have plans.”
“I want to visit Mom in the VR again.”
Ridley flapped his hands like a crossing guard at a speeding car. “Oh, no. Helping your mother was not an invitation into my home. This is not a mausoleum. I value my privacy. I’d prefer that you connect by video-link instead.”
“You have no right to keep me from her.”
“I have every right. Technically, I own the machine that she is in. She’s legally dead. You told me yourself that her body will be buried in Montana. Bethany Lewis will have a funeral and a tombstone.”
“Unless we tell the world.”
“Tell them what?” he challenged, “That our AI has created an avatar of your mother?”
Kelly opened the patio doors and called from inside. “I’m home.”
Ridley turned to her. “How was Paula’s?”
“Sarah drew on my art project for school.”
“Miss Lewis, please see yourself out.”
“You can’t do this,” Christina protested.
“I can and will,” he said, “Now, please go.”
As Ridley prepared a peanut butter sandwich for Kelly, he watched the security feed. Christina drove out of the compound. He cut the sandwich in two and ate half.
Later, they constructed a papier-mâché piñata. Ridley said little as they worked.
“Why are you so quiet tonight?” Kelly asked.
Ridley was literally up to his elbows in glue. “Christina’s mother died. She was scanned into the mainframe. Christina is mad because I don’t want her visiting our house every day.”
Diane stared from the kitchen wall-screen. “It’s time for you to wash up before bed. You can finish the piñata in the morning.”
Kelly glared at Diane. “But we’re not done yet?”
“Let the glue dry overnight,” Diane said.
“But Mom…”
“Don’t argue with me.”
“Or what?”
“Just do as I say.”
Ridley washed his hands in the sink. “Listen to your mother. We’ll put the tissue paper on first thing after breakfast in the morning.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ridley sat down on the sofa, propped up a pillow and entered the IVR. Lucy was surprised by his visit; she had been painting a bright alpine valley. The meadow was dotted with blue gentian and glowing magenta fireweed. Vast glacier-sculpted mountains pierced the sky. “Painting inside a landscape that you’ve already painted?”
She continued painting, her brushstrokes wild. “I did not create this. This is a memory. Bethany visited here with her family once. Isn’t it lovely?”
The light scent of summer nectar danced on the wind. Ridley put his hands to his hips. “How much of Bethany’s brain was salvageable?”
Lucy had retained her latest avatar; her dress flowed in the breeze. “82.2 percent. There were minor parts of her personality that were fuzzy and inexact. I recreated those using predictive analytics. Her speech pathways were also damaged and had to be repaired. I also captured patterns from recorded video and audio.”
“So, it’s not a direct entanglement?”
�
�Clusters of neurons had been entirely destroyed. Keep in mind that removing these is not like removing parts from a machine. It’s more like removing a thread from tapestry. The larger image is retained, but with less detail.”
Ridley was impressed that she was using analogies. “And the missing threads?”
“I incorporated some of Diane’s operational programming. The clusters of neurons are roughly comparable. The pieces of Bethany that had to be replaced are very human.”
Kelly turned off the switch to his neural headset. Ridley looked up.
“Can we order a pizza?” the girl asked.
Ridley looked at the huge screen, “Thank you for being honest, Lucy.”
She stared down at him. “I am always honest. And, thank you for visiting. I enjoy seeing you.”
“How about a broccoli and chicken pizza?” the girl asked.
“How about pepperoni?”
She was reticent. “I promised Mom we’d get something healthy.”
“Order it and watch for the drone so it doesn’t get cold.”
The following day, while Ridley exercised in his gym and Kelly was at school, Lucy remotely opened the iron gate and then the front door to the mansion. Christina entered the house, sat on the sofa, and joined her mother. She sat with Bethany in a jungle filled with butterflies and birds of every color. Lucy had drawn it from dozens of nature videos but altered it when Bethany insisted that jungles had more color.
A pink butterfly landed on Christina’s hand.
“Magical, isn’t it?” Bethany asked.
“I hope there are no snakes in here. Or jaguars.”
Bethany fidgeted with a leaf plucked from a vine. “There is no danger here,” she said, “Even if Lucy did and they tore you to pieces, you’d be reassembled as if nothing had occurred.”
“Reassembled?”
“I know. Crazy,” Bethany said, “It’s an odd way of looking at things. It is different here.”
A bird called in the distance, its artificial song percussive and deep. “Are you enjoying it here?” Christina asked.
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