Hometown Kelly and the Gizmo Team

by Sharon L Reddy

  Kelly unclasped his hands and lifted them from his lap. He moved them over the arms of the chair, turned them over, laid them down and then drummed his fingers. All the movements were slow and quite deliberate, but none were shaky or tentative. He giggled. Both Jim and Leonard were staring at him with their mouths open.

  "Sef... Sev ven teen yee ears be ying moo ved. Didih it in re ver sih. In sti tink tive saidih couldih movuh. You saidih vi de oh to see. I havuh feltih all movuh. Makuh thatih fee luh andih getuh thatih movuh."

  "You didn't practice talking like that or I'd have heard, Kelly."

  "Staruh tin guh nowuh oh er I dih bih ee bih et ter. Workedih on movuh oh en ull ee."

  "Hulk, he's just starting."

  "Oh, I did notice he said that, Leonard. I'm not going to tell him any of it's impossible."

  "Yeah, it's working so well, would seem silly to stop just because of that. The what is an old TV show, Kelly. Every episode is being shown and they're all on your schedule."

  Suddenly Jim started singing with "Do-do do-do do-do... " and Leonard joined in on "Batman." They did it loud enough Gizmo and Eyes heard it over the intercom and joined in for the next "Batman." Kelly had seen ads for a movie on TV, but the 'chorus' and Jim and Leonard's grins told him this was quite something else. Leonard got to sleep after he set his alarm watch and strapped it on Kelly. Kelly smiled and worked on talking. Jim was a light sleeper. Leonard was definitely not.

  Chapter Seven

  Gizmo watched Jim and Jody work together a few moments and all Jim had to do was threaten to "pitch her somewhere flat." Jody applauded when he threatened, but didn't look away from the scope he was watching. He said they could put things together around what she was doing and she'd do it faster if she got some sleep first. She headed for the bathroom and was nearly sleepwalking by the time she came out of it and dropped on the old couch just outside the door. Jody grinned and put on another pot of coffee.

  "I have to leave at four-thirty, take Andrea's car back and drive mine to school in third gear, with my right arm on top of equipment in the front seat."

  "You need some sleep too."

  "I'll get it. I don't have class until ten, but the equipment in my car needs to be set up before seven. I don't have to do that either. I'll drop on the floor somewhere in the student center and someone will shove a cup of coffee in my hand at ten til ten."

  "You have someone called 'Boom' coming. Leonard wouldn't tell me exactly why."

  "Oh, so you can change the color and apparent shape of the van with the push of a button."

  "Say what?"

  "Remember, I said color and apparent shape. The color change is electrochemical, change a clear coating to an opaque color with an electrical current. We're working on the apparent shape change now. That piece you're about to build is going play a trick on eyes. Human eyes are easy. It takes a lot more work to play tricks on electronic ones. Won't do a lot when you're sitting still, but at any speed over forty... two-point two six-repeating miles per hour, every eye will see it as the length and height of a standard-size van."

  "Radar?"

  "Is even easier than human eyes. Solder those three points carefully, but well. Ooh, you are so good."

  "I didn't have much choice about getting good. It was do it right or do it over until I got good. Fast was work faster because Gizmo worked faster. I was the wrong man, Jody. I didn't want a football scholarship. It was one reason my grades weren't good enough to get a scholarship for pre-med. Gizmo's shop was another, but I knew I had my priorities straight. I also knew I'd never really be her shop buddy again, when I finished two years at the community college. My goal was become a doctor. I, basically, wouldn't have come home, except to visit, until I retired."

  "You had something more than just MD in mind."

  "Several somethings. I hadn't actually picked one of them, but all of them dealt with problems experienced by a small percentage of the general population. People hunt for those kind of specialists in big cities near big hospitals."

  "You still deserved to be slugged."

  "I felt lots better afterwards. Some of what you're talking about doing isn't done, Jody."

  "Wasn't done. There's a lot of that happening right now. The Nerds did some things I know are new because Gizmo did new and my little brother ran into things."

  "Ran into things?"

  "He sees a monitor in his mind, not what's in front of him. I know he's really working hard if he doesn't notice he's being steered. I know it's new if he suddenly yells 'Yes!' and looks around in surprise because he can't remember how he got there. Want to fuck?"

  "What?!"

  "You are not open-minded. I've never had sex with a man either, but I've always considered that as merely a current statement. You are weird, Hulk. Your attitudes about sex for other people are very liberal in general. You need to look at them in specific too. What are you going to do if Kelly meets an interesting man?"

  "Uh... "

  "You'll do fine, Hulk, but you needed a thump as warning. He doesn't have a lifelong cultural framework of sexual attitudes into which healthy attraction was brutally stuffed. His first loving touch was given by a male. Don't mess him up. Explain your feelings are different when he notices men than women, or ignore them as silly. I recommend you explain, then ignore."

  "Why are you so sure I'm going to have to deal with this... situation?"

  "Because you almost said 'problem' and Kelly noticed I'm more than just nice by a stretch. So is he, but he's just aesthetically pleasant until you look in his eyes and he smiles. When he really takes over the rest of that body, he's going to be irresistible. I'm sure you can teach him how not to be. You're too good at it. You flat put people off."

  "I do?"

  "Hulk, you suddenly become 'Greek god among mortals' and other people see to it nobody attempts to put grimy hands on you from then on. It's a great defense and one Kelly can learn easily. Just don't expect him to use it nearly as much. Currently, he's working on being an open invitation, probably in hopes you'll at least notice he's not adverse to the idea in general. I was looking in his eyes when you said hello. Talk about a warm rush. I reminded myself it was your voice that got him hot about four times before my developing erection paid attention. Hulk, do something about that invitation he's trying so hard to give you before someone neither of us likes decides he doesn't care if it's not for him."

  "Neither of us likes?"

  "If he doesn't care it's not for him, I'm sure I wouldn't like him."

  "Point definitely accepted."

  "One more connection on this and one more point. Don't make him wish he was still immobile. Don't stop touching him. Your gentle touch and strong arms are the center of the change in his existence and his shelter against the wonderful, but sometimes still frightening, newness of it. My little brother brings things that worry him to me. Since Alexis is an only child, he brings the things that worry her to me too."

  "They're an interesting pair."

  "That's an understatement, which only I can truly appreciate completely. At regular intervals, I swear oaths not to give examples, so don't ask for elucidation by such. We're a lot alike in some ways, Jim, but most guys from around here about my age are a lot like you. We worked hard at it. I'd lay better than even money over two-thirds of my graduating class are still virgins. I am."

  "It's a good thing my hands know what they're doing. My mind sort of sputters to a stop every so often."

  "Remind yourself Andrea is my grandmother every so often. I do that to most people and Dad has decided it's an inherited characteristic. Oh, I will take Kelly up on an invitation if he makes one to me. I'm working on getting Gizmo to make one by being an open one to her. I wouldn't have said no to Sonata, but we established our relationship in the first four minutes we talked. Basically, she decided I'm too young for her. Am I too young for you?"

  "Sputter, sputter."

  "Haven't you ever gotten a polite statement of interest from a man before? I
have. I told him my wet dreams were still about girls, but I'd look him up after I got farther than that if I was disappointed."

  "I can see it. He said?"

  "Ice cream isn't disappointing, but remember cake for dessert is also nice and they're terrific together. You're getting the workout machine I built myself. The idea is shamelessly copied, but I had even less room than the compact commercial product needed. It's not meant to replace free weights on a full time basis like that one either. I like free weights."

  "Lifting well is a skill."

  "That's why it's a sport. I'm not a bodybuilder. It gives me fifteen minutes of strength-building workout before I leave home the four days a week I don't have time to lift. You're getting it for that characteristic and the fact Kelly can't push himself too hard on it. It adjusts the percentage of your body weight you're lifting, pushing or pulling. As he tires, the computer will reduce the percentage. He'll suddenly find himself with the resistance of a pull toy if he gets shakes, overheated or his pulse gets too fast. It yells loud if it's the latter. I set it for recommended pulse rates for people who are not active til they become very active for him. I just told it not bother monitoring you."

  "All this is fitting in the van?"

  "Well, we had a lot of space to work with after we decided against the ballroom and swimming pool. It's not really a van. It's a land yacht. Your satellite dish is getting some additions. It's a very convenient disguise for them and no one is going to get it off the van. Don't knock it off. It'll take the body of the van with it. It's a real obstacle in the middle of the van, but lower it into it if you're on a road which might have sudden underpasses truckers avoid. Making that dish reasonably aerodynamic was a chore. I looked at how Gizmo did it and know how difficult it was. Stay in fancy campgrounds a lot. It's a custom RV and will be right at home among the luxury condos on wheels."

  "I keep building things and reminding myself Gizmo knows I need a long bed."

  "Almost the whole back is a bed when it's a bed. Kelly's seat is nice to nap in, but moves out of the way for it. Gizmo and Leonard designed it to support you two and six bouncing guests."

  "Oh, that's what I was welding. It's stored?"

  "It's your ceiling. It'll be more like sleeping on a futon than an innerspring. It doesn't store with sheets on it, but those and pillows store in one of the table seats. The liner comes out and makes a nice laundry bag. The whole design is incredible. Am I blabbing surprises?"

  "Gizmo forgets she hasn't told me things and Leonard thinks it's hilarious I have no idea what she has me working on."

  "He thinks it's hilarious you don't ask her."

  "He always has."

  Jody turned and looked at him a few seconds then slowly nodded. That had taken care of Fowler's last worry. Gizmo had never 'chatted' while she worked like he did. She wasn't "not talking to him."

  "You were starting to not know what she was doing before you left."

  "Quite some time before, but I usually figured out what something did before it was finished. It seemed like it was taking longer every time though. By the time I'd spent two years at community college and on a different schedule, I wasn't."

  "I always understood you were sure you did the right thing for both of you. We all were, but you still deserved the punch Brad gave you for the way you did it."

  "I liked being here with Bitsy and being her extra pair of hands. I loved her and I always will, but I wasn't going to be here. It was going to take years just to get into pre-med around working full-time and more years to save the money for at least six years when I couldn't. It hurt when I realized I wasn't the right one."

  "Thank you. I am, but I wouldn't have been. I don't want to marry anyone, even Bitsy. This is the part of her life I want to share most. I do know what everything we're building will do. I'm awed by her genius and couldn't do it, but I'll whoop and get to work to help as soon as she starts building what she's come up with."

  "You're in her league. I'm not and I wasn't going to be around to be water boy any longer."

  "Ow. Yes! Very carefully solder the piece I'm holding. If my fingers get too warm, it is."

  "A heat sink is in order."

  "If I could think of a way to put one on it without wiggling it at all, I'd put one on it."

  "I'll do a quick attach, then we'll get one on it and I'll make it a solid connection."

  "Sounds good. We'll hope we don't do it six or seven times, then have to start over with a new circuit. Oh, you are so good."

  "This is the skill that saved Kelly's life. The filaments attached to the experimental implant he had would have taken a lot of time to cut and I just wanted it done. I grabbed my soldering iron and a new tip and they were loose in about two seconds total. The physicians who had put it in had sent him home because trying to take it out had killed another patient. Gizmo said it would have 'short-circuited his system' if I'd done it any other way."

  "Explain filaments."

  "I have no idea. The implant was to cause muscle contraction to prevent atrophy. Kelly had three hours of therapy twice a week and a half-hour every day and it worked very well, but the price tag was way beyond what most could afford. They were trying to find a way to aid in the care of patients, improve their health and reduce cost, but the contractions began to increase in severity about two months after implantation. I don't even know where the filaments go."

  "That I can find out. I'll do a series of x-rays. We've got a solid connection. Our circuit is happily at home and ready to go to work."

  "What does it do?"

  "Notices if something is following you and really looks it over. The computer tells you if it's more than just the car behind you on the road. You'll get a buzz if it's a pickup with a couple hunting rifles in it, but only if they're in the cab or someone is holding one. You'll also get a buzz if you make a couple turns and the vehicle is still behind you. I told Fowler that a screen image would let you decide if the pickup was harmless. He was going crazy trying to figure out a way to program the computer to do it. Kelly's recovering too fast for you?"

  "Do you read minds?"

  "No, but Grandmother taught me to 'put myself in other people's places' real well and I know I'd be caught between excitement he is, worry it's so fast and wanting him to still need me in the same way if I was in yours."

  "Right on all three counts. He's now using his hands and arms and talking."

  "Oh, boy. That's so fast it worries me too. That's it. I don't need tomorrow's classes. I'll be back with a portable x-ray as soon as I unload the equipment currently stuffed in my car."

  "You still need sleep."

  "I'll fall on my face when my body gets adamant. I've done this enough to know I'll still be alert enough not to endanger anyone on the road until about noon. Though I may yell for someone else to take the x-ray unit back to Dr. Shand's office and drop after I hand the x-rays to you. When did you decide she should marry Leonard instead?"

  "The day I left. You sure you don't read minds?"

  "If I did, I wouldn't have to ask questions."

  "He never asked."

  "She wants a child and he wasn't the right one to give her one. Marriage means fidelity to both of them. It does to me too. Which is, of course, why I won't get married. I don't have any illusions about my ability to be faithful to one person. I could be, but I would come to resent it."

  "It's about too easy for me."

  "And just as wrong. It hurt when I realized I'd never share what my parents have, but I have Grandma Andrea as an example of how to lead a very full and rich life as a single person. You still haven't looked for one."

  "Mom and Dad were so deeply friends and... "

  "Good, you finally realized that's what you were looking for. You found it, Hulk. That's when becoming a doctor suddenly became unimportant to you. Kelly needs all you are. He always will. It doesn't really have anything to do with his physical condition, even if that is how it began. Being a doctor was the way you saw to give the mo
st of what you are, but just most. You'd have been very good and it would have been very fulfilling, but you'd have still longed to share all of your life with someone. You'd have struggled not to become deeply attached to every patient, Jim. You'd have grieved for every one you couldn't give hope. I think all doctors do, but you'd have needed more than just your colleagues' understanding. You'd have always been lonely. You'd have just filled your life with work so you didn't have time to notice it often. I know a doctor like that."

  "You do?"

  "Dr. Celeste Haroldson, but she won't be much longer. A former classmate of mine is about to hit twenty-one and has plans for his birthday that include marriage. He does expect it to take awhile to convince her. She's still sure sixteen years difference in age is too much, but she agreed to go out with him on his birthday. Everyone who works in her office, at the university hospital and the clinic, where she puts in a lot of volunteer hours, is going to see to it she doesn't have any reason to cancel their evening out and the very private party he plans afterward. He has a bit of assistance he doesn't know about. Grandmother plans on telling her she can afford to pay for the rest of his education and she has another candidate for his scholarship."

  "He's studying?"

  "Physical therapy. Her patients need a good physical therapist and she's currently sending them to two who already have all the patients they have time for."

  "That's where I've heard the name. She's a pediatric orthopedic surgeon."

  "That's the one. She put him back together after he was hit by a car when he was twelve. He's been working on being the right one to share her work since then. Sharing her whole life has only been his goal four years. That's this one. The next piece will make it just about impossible to steal your van, or even impound it for illegal parking. No one's going to break into it and drive off. This will take care of it if it's towed off. Gizmo had figured out a way to stop it, but she was extremely easy to convince to let me do it this way. This unit will track where it's taken and the van will return to where it was taken from, but it will do more with the program the Nerds are writing for it. It will follow if someone takes you, as long as you don't lose your ID bracelet. It'll track Kelly by his, but it will keep tracking him even if he does lose it."