Getting Personal
Chapter Six
“Citizens of the United States of America, I present to you… the future. Our new future is here. Our future is now.” President Olson’s authoritative voice droned out dramatically across our living room as Camden and I were suddenly glued to our seats, our eyes intently fixed on the President’s figure as he delivered this apparently monumental announcement. I was completely lost on any idea of what it could be, and I was sure Camden was as well after we had been up to our ears with the library project for the last month. Neither of us had heard any scrap of news pertaining to a ground breaking announcement to be given by the President of the United States of America tonight.
But nothing would have prepared us for what he was about to deliver.
“As of the beginning of next week, history will be marked by the mass delivery and distribution of an incredible new technology, and will be available to every single person in the United States of America.” The President paused once more, and I could feel Camden twitch with agitation.
“Let it out already!” He blurted out in frustration, willing the President to actually disclose to the public what they were distributing and what was apparently going to be so amazing. President Olson continued the extremely overdrawn dramatic pause for a few more seconds before inhaling and breaking the big news to the American public.
“Personal Chip Operator.” Was all the President said, and took yet another break from continuing his speech. Someone really had to let him know that the amount of “dramatic pauses” only worked for so long before they just got annoying and people wanted to stop listening to you. Finally, he continued.
“This ground breaking technology will be delivered to the doorstep of every household for every person in the country as of next week. Personal Chip Operators will enable every person to access any wireless network within a hundred mile radius, and operate any piece of technology the person owns and syncs to their Personal Chip Operator. This device requires no batteries, and will last a lifetime. These chips are being delivered to the public as a measure of goodwill, and we believe that it will create a new society. These Personal Chip Operators will move us towards more user friendly technology, open up availability of resources and allow society to be on an even playing field, and will generate a sense of energy efficiency. This will also cut back on the number of devices a person needs to have on their person at any certain time, and bring us back to a simpler way of life. We are ecstatic to bring you this new technology without charge, and contribute to the growth and progress towards a more peaceful society.”
Camden and I stared forward, disbelieving, not truly knowing what to make of what was going on. Before we could gather any coherent thought together, the President continued in his monologue to the undoubtedly speechless American public that was watching.
“If you have any questions about the Personal Chip Operator, or wish to find out more information, we are opening up a website specifically dedicated to all information pertaining to the new Personal Chip Operators. The site will be operational at 12:01am Eastern Standard Time. All of your questions will be answered on this site, and you may find out the scheduled delivery date of your chip. Thank you, and I look forward to sharing these exciting new steps with the eager American public. Goodnight.” President Olson signed off to the enthralled masses, and suddenly the media was up and screaming at the President with excitement as he walked off of the stage surrounded by his entourage. Their uproar was deafening, and Camden quickly shut the television off.
We both remained sitting silently for a few more minutes, puzzled, confused, and curious. It certainly was a great day for surprises, apparently. I still didn’t fully understand what exactly the Personal Chip Operator was, though. Turning to Camden, I hoped he had picked up more than I had.
“What the-?” I began, a quizzical look spread across my face. The second I locked eyes with Camden though, I knew that I wasn’t going to get any more information from him. He was just as confused about the whole affair as I was.
“I have no idea. At all.” Camden brought his hand up to his unruly curls and pulled on a strand for a moment. “That certainly came out of nowhere.”
“Well, we were basically in a book bubble for a month, hun. Maybe there were some points leading up to this.” I reminded him gently, but I wasn’t fully resolute on the fact that there was anything leading up to this. It would be just like the government to spring this on us randomly, sideswiping everything and effectively striking everyone speechless for a moment.
Camden and I ranted for a few more minutes on the possibilities of what in the world this “Personal Chip Operator” device could be. Some were silly, some serious, but mostly a mix of the both. Joking, but a tinge of truth staining each of the ideas we held. Maybe it’s actually a tracking device, an internal GPS thing or something.
I wonder if we have to swallow it or get it imbedded into us like all the old Sci-fi movies?
What if it gives us cancer or turns us into mutants?
Maybe UFO’s came down and are using the President’s body as an earth suit, and this is their way of injecting us with their species and will take over the world as we know it.
Do you think that the aliens would let some of us stay the same? And fly into space?
That would be cool. I always wanted to see the moon up close. Do you think they’ll look more like E.T. or like…War of the World style?
I prefer vacuum looking things over E.T.’s fingers that look like sausage. Maybe it will be all the weird looking ones like in Men in Black.
That could work, I guess.
Our playful banter of our speculations and ideas got progressively more ridiculous, laced with sarcasm and humor more than anything else. Quickly we began to forget what had even started our conversation as we burst out into laughter over our divergence to extra-terrestrials and what they would look like if they existed and indeed had infiltrated our government.
With light hearts and aching stomachs from laughter, we headed upstairs to bed. I had never been so happy to collapse and forget about such a roller coaster day. But, I was happy it was ending on a lighter note, even if I still didn’t know what in the world the government’s new “Personal Chip Operator” really was. I supposed I would have to wait and find out like the rest of the country in the morning.
Settling into bed, Camden and I turned out our bedside lights and slipped into a relaxing sleep. As I moved closer to unconsciousness, Gene’s two words attempted to force their way back into my mind, but I focused every once of concentration and imagination to shift my mind away. This left me slipping into dreams of E.T., Will Smith, and chocolate chip cookies. A very strange imagery, but welcome none the less at the close of the day. Anything to keep the two daunting words far from my mind.
Tuesday produced itself all too soon, and I found myself dragging my way into work. It was harder to keep the image of Gene’s office out of my mind now that I was back in the same building with him and the office door just behind me and to the left. At first I was afraid to go back into the office, fearing it would be as I had left it last night, or worse. But when I finally gathered the courage to go into his office on the pretense of some random inquiry, he was chipper and cheerful, and his office was back to normal. The clean cut edges and lines shining brilliantly back at me, and not a single scrap of paper was found in the room, not even in the waste basket next to the front door.
At first I couldn’t decide what was more unnerving. Seeing my once predictable boss, Gene Harper, the brilliant mind of SanTech being torn apart at the seems and surrounded by chaos, or the almost unnaturally enthusiastic Gene that now sat before me. He clipped away at his work, and I even heard a faint whistled tune every now and again floating out from his office during the day. It was odd, to be sure. Definitely one of those weird Gene moments.
By the end of the day, I decided that I preferred the over cheerful Gene to the anxiety ridden one. At least it put my mind somewhat to ease, and helped me to push away that piece of paper that had burned itself into my mind so fixedly. I deduced that it must have simply been some silly project he had set his mind to again that just wouldn’t work. Now that he had figured that out, it was all going to be okay. Gene had moved on from whatever he thought was a tragedy.
So the rest of the work week passed without much to do or any extraordinary events. Mostly the office was found to be buzzing with news and excitement about the new Personal Chip Operators. Other co-workers were ecstatic about getting their chips, thrilled and excited about examining this extraordinary new technology. They didn’t seem to have all of the pressing questions about what it actually was like I did, but I did work at SanTech and most of the other employees understood technology a lot better than I did. Okay, everyone there understood technology more than I did. Except perhaps the janitor, but somehow I highly doubted it.
Camden and I had indeed gone to the recommended site given to find out more information on the Personal Chip Operators. The website had outlines that major features, how to activate it, where we could sync up devices to it and operate off of it, etcetera, etcetera. I had been bored out of my mind with the information, and felt that there was more to it than what they were telling us, but Camden had simply shrugged and resigned to the fact that the chips were coming whether we wanted them to or not. He had also suggested that we could wait to activate them if we still weren’t sure about the whole operation when they arrived.
We located our delivery date, and found that they were scheduled to roll out in our tiny town the day we would be in Detroit with Alex. Camden had mumbled that the delivery agents were lucky we wouldn’t be home when they delivered them. I knew that Camden wasn’t the keenest on the idea of having a personal, government issued chip on his person at all times, especially for free. He had said dozens of times during the week that “Nothing is free. There’s a cost somewhere. There’s a catch somewhere in there.” And I readily agreed with him. But like he said, they were coming whether we liked it or not, and it was indeed a good thing that we would be out of town when they arrived.
Saturday and Sunday flew by with alarming speed, and was mainly filled with finishing the library decorum. The furniture pieces I had ordered arrived midweek, and I saved the weekend for the big task of arranging everything. The end result was exactly as I had pictured it, perfectly capturing the essence of our home library. Cozy, inviting, yet room to let the imagination frolic with leisure.
Camden and Alex had all but been joined at the hip for the weekend, and any unknowing person would have thought Camden was a teenager again with Alex around. They could be found mulling around the farm property, doing odd chores here and there, and discussing their plans for this upcoming Saturday when we would all make the trek to Detroit.
Alex had checked with his case worker, who had originally started to put up a fight against Camden coming, but in the end agreed to let him come. He did lay down some strict guidelines however, and Camden was lectured about following the said rules to the letter. He readily agreed, of course, and was just thrilled he was able to come along with Alex. But if Camden was thrilled he was coming, Alex was overcome with excitement about it. You could see the brotherly love flowing between them, and how desperately grateful that Camden would be with him as he went to visit his father.
Over the course of the weekend while Camden and Alex were plotting away, I resolved to put in a call to my grandfather to make sure he would be home on Saturday for me to come visit him. I adored spending time with my grandfather, and felt a twinge of guilt for not planning a visit to see him sooner. It was nice being close to him again, but I found myself not taking as much advantage of the shortened distance as of late, like I should.
Sunday evening seemed a perfect time to give him a call, so I settled down into my cozy armchair in the bedroom, my needlework resting off to the side still, begging to be completed. Scrolling through names and numbers, I found my grandfather’s cell phone number and tapped the send command. Bringing the phone up to my ear, I listened to the dial tone ring out one, two, three times. It continued to ring for at least twelve times, and I figured he wouldn’t answer now. I ended the call and scrolled through to find his house phone number.
My grandfather was one of the few, rare people who actually used a “land line.” Or what was now referred to as a land line in these days. It was really the wireless home phone, and technically a cell phone. But my grandpa had never taken much to cell phones in his later years. He had one when he was younger, but as he aged, he rejected the idea of cellular phones, saying he would rather see people in person and keep it simple.
I quickly found his home telephone number, and tapped on the “Send” symbol on my touch screen interface. A sweet, melodic ring resembling a classical tune perhaps by Bach or Mozart resounded against my ear for a few seconds before it suddenly stopped. I heard a faint rustling and a grunt on the other end of the line, and a second later I heard the sweet, telltale voice of my grandpa.
“Hello?” My grandpa, Wesley Carpenter, said gruffly into the receiver. I could instantly tell that he was working on something, and his mind was definitely preoccupied. I had to stifle a chuckle as I began to respond.
“Hey Grandpa!”
“Oh, Jenny! Hey, darling! How are you? I didn’t realize it was you, you I never look at that caller identifier thingy.” Wes’ voice brightened instantly, and I heard a loud, metallic clunk as what was most likely a car part hit the table as he gave me his full attention.
“Oh I know, Grandpa. I know.” I smiled knowingly, even though I knew he couldn’t see my face. “I’m good, listen I was calling to see if you would be home next weekend?” I paused, letting him think over his schedule before continuing my explanation. “Cam and I are taking Alex, you remember Alex don’t you? Camden’s hired farm hand? Well, he has a visit with his biological dad in Detroit, and we were all going to drive down together, and I thought I’d come by and spend some time with you if you were going to be home.” I rattled out the details in only a few short breaths.
After I had finished my short speech, I could hear my Grandpa laughing at me in response, most likely at how fast I explained the whole situation to him, and to what detail I explained it. Wesley was a simple man who loved simplicity in most every area of life, which meant simple explanations. I hadn’t quite gotten the hang of editing my conversations to simple points and deleting the “frills” as he called them. Somehow I knew he didn’t mind when it came from me, though.
“Well thanks for the Reader’s Digest version of why you’ll be heading out to Detroit, Jenny dear.” I could hear him smiling at me through the phone, probably shaking his head as well. “I’ll be home on Saturday and I would love to see you! Will I get to see Cam and Alex as well?”
“Well, they’re going to drop me off at your house and head to the hospital, and when they come back I’m sure they’ll drop in, too.” I tried my best to give as short an explanation as possible, working on my shortening technique.
“Hospital?” Apparently my technique failed, and I should have explained the hospital part more.
“Oops, sorry. Everyone’s fine, well, not Alex’s dad. They’re having the visit at the hospital, Alex’s case worker is going to tell him what’s wrong, and then he’ll go see his dad. So Cam is going with.”
“Oh, okay. Well that’s fine, just come on by whenever, we’ll figure something out to do. Maybe I’ll put you to work.” I could hear the twinkle lighting up his eyes, mischievous, yet loving, and I just laughed in response.
“Hey Grandpa, what happened with your cell phone? I tried calling you on that first but no answer.” I asked curiously, and hear him scoff into the phone.
“You know, I never did like that thing. But it broke, I guess. I can’t get it to work, not that I care much to try and make it work you know.” I laughed again, amused at his frustration with a simple, modern device.
“You sure you didn’t break it on purpose? Run it over with a car or throw it out of a window?” I joked in response, and it was his turn to respond with a laugh.
“Now there’s an idea!”
“Do you want me to bring you a new one? I can get one for free at work and bring it for you.” Curious as to how he would respond, I posed the question to him, and received a long pause. Quickly I pulled the silent phone away from my ear, checking to make sure the call was still connected. It was.
“Grandpa?”
A sigh registered across the speaker and into my ear.
“Well now you know I don’t like those things very much, Jenny.” Stubborn to a point, as usual.
“I know you don’t, but they’re still useful. What if you want to take a trip somewhere? You can’t take your wireless home phone with you.” I tried to offer some reason to him, hoping he would take the bait and let me bring him a new phone.
“Well shouldn’t a wireless phone be portable? Isn’t that the point? Couldn’t technically I bring it with me?” He snickered back, knowing he could catch me in a corner if I didn’t respond quickly enough.
“No,” I lied quickly, tried quickly to gather up some scattered thoughts to come up with a clever response. “It’s only fully operational within the radius around your house.”
Another scoff came over the speaker, and I continued in my reasoning.
“Grandpa,” I said playfully, “Who’s employed at the nation’s largest technology corporation, SanTech? Yup, me.” I continued triumphantly. “I think I know what I’m talking about here. I’ll bring you a phone on Saturday.”
Wesley laughed again, merrily, resigning his stubbornness to the fact that I could be stubborn as well, and I wouldn’t budge. He would probably keep the cell phone in the box for years, letting it collect dust. But I didn’t care, I wanted him to have it anyway if he did want one, if there was an emergency and then he would have it to use.
“Yes ma’am.” He responded after his laughter subsided.
“Alright Grandpa, I’ll see you on Saturday?”
“See you then, darlin’.”
“Have a good week! Try not to break any other technology, okay? I can’t always bring you new ones, you know.” I laughed, knowing he caught my joking nature, and he laughed along before bidding me a good week as well.
“Bye now!” His rich voice pronounced and then I turned the phone to touch the end symbol. A smile still spread itself across my face as I thought about my dear Grandpa Wes. He had always been a special person in my life, and I suddenly realized how much I did miss seeing him. Saturday would be a good day, I resolved and sighed in contentment, setting my phone down and settling into my chair to pick up on my needlework, stitching away the weekend and ushering in the new week with a relaxing rhythm.
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