Signs of Home

As they walked to the car, Joan looked back at her little house.

How warm the house looked with its Personalized Doormat. Her mother had sent it to her in a care package. It was made out of cedar slats so that it could breath and dry, and also prevented dirt from entering into the house on unsuspecting shoes. On it was her family name. It was plain enough but looked fairly classy between two pots of red geraniums that also acted as home address signs. Both pots were stoneware, featuring a colonial pineapple design. It was a design that said, "Welcome." One was etched with the house number, the other again had her family name.

These objects of identity helped her to define this place as home. They made her feel that she indeed lived in this house and she belonged there.

And then there was the little sun man and angels, one of several Personalized Hand Cast Cement Address Plaques that she had fallen in love with from Roland's Housewarming Gifts. It too had been in that care package. Yes, the sun had been hand casted in cement along with the house number. It was a reminder that sunny skies were always ahead and it gave her a sense that maybe, just maybe everything would turn out just fine.

Confrontation

She watched the two women, suddenly suspicious that something more was going on around her, something that she could not quite grasp. Her head now had a dull metallic ache that reminded her of the taste of nickel.

"Joan," Penny sputtered, "Thank goodness. Are you alright?" Rainey just starred at her.

"My head hurts," Joan replied not knowing what else she should say in this slightly disoriented state.

Penny came closer now, "Here sit down. Maybe I should get you some water. How about some Aspirin?" That was always Penny's answer to anything involving unpleasantness.

Joan slid into the dinning room chair that Penny pulled over to her, "Water would be great" and watched as Penny left the room.

"What happened?" Rainey asked, looking perplexed.

Joan was at a loss, "I don't know. Maybe I should ask you that since I don't remember when you actually got here." Normally more frightened and hesitant around Rainey, Joan had a moment of euphoria as she realized the fear was now gone.

"I got your email asking me to come over. You said it was urgent."

Joan squinted her already furrowed brow, "I did? I don't remember that."

Rainey felt the change and demeanor in Joan. She had liked that Joan was frightened of her, but now, now there was something new that Rainey did not like.

"You said it had to do with Zuleese."

"I did?"

Rainey sighed in quick frustration, "Yes. You did. And I cannot seem to connect with Zuleese about it."

Penny returned with a water glass and handed it to Joan. She looked genuinely worried.

"Thanks," Joan said under her breath and began to drink the cold, clear substance.

"Joan, I am worried about you... You were not... quite... yourself when I came over," Penny said in a halting, lurching way and the words tumbled out unceremoniously. "Then you passed out and well, you really frightened me...Maybe we should take...you to the hospital...have you...checked...out?"

"Hospital?" asked Joan.Why would she need to go to the hospital.

Rainey, using her literal weight to step in said, "The girl does not need a hospital. She just needs to tell us what happened and what she wants."

Penny now looked puzzled, "What she wants?"

"Yes," began the heavy weight but was interrupted by the sound of Penny's cell phone ringing. "Shut that thing off," she ordered in the frustrated, domineering stance she had taken.

Penny pulled out the phone and noticed it was her mother's number. In defiance to Rainey, Penny raised the phone to her ear with an over pleasant, "Hello."

Her mother sounded distant and there was an edge of something to her voice, "Oh Penny, Thank God you answered. Your brother has been in an awful accident."

"Is he okay?" Penny asked into the phone, her stomach beginning to fill with dread much like it had when she walked into the house earilier.

"No. Can you come down here to the hospital? Can you bring Joan?"

"Sure of course. We'll be right there."

"Oh, and Penny, there is something else. There is a strange girl here that was with him. Do you know who she is?"

Penny tried to think of all the people Rog knew, but she was clueless, "No. No idea."

"Well, don't worry Joan about her just yet. Just get down here."

The room had gone quiet and Penny was aware of the silence as she hung up and explained to Joan that they were going to the hospital anyway.

"Why?" asked Joan.

Penny's hesitation continued, "Apparently Rog has been in an accident."

Any color that had returned to Joan's face since coming back now drained, "Is he alright?"

"No, we've gotta go," Penny said, looking around for a sweater for Joan.

Rainey again imposed herself," But we are not done talking. I want to know why Joan said I needed to be here."

Penny ignored her and began to bundle up Joan, feeling similar to how a young mother might feel, taking her child out into the first day of cold weather. She also felt strangely protective.

"I keep telling you, I don't know," Joan said as she was being bundled.

"I am coming with you then," Rainey interjected.

Penny froze for a moment, then gathered herself up for confrontation, "No, no you are not coming with us. You are not a member of this family and you are not welcome. Please leave." Rainey looked at Joan for her to intervene. Joan did not. She merely looked away.

"Fine. Fine," she said in a melodramatic voice that betrayed her feelings of inadequacy, "See if you ever talk to Zuleese again." She huffed out of the house.

Penny waited for the car to pull out before exiting with Joan.

Penny's Portfolio

It seems like it would flesh Penny out a bit to create a portfolio of her work. So, here is the first piece. Perhaps it will become part of the story...

Please consider voting for this on brickfish.com.

Awakened

While pondering the mysterious cyberMary, the two woman, occupants in a house that was neither theirs nor one in which they had been invited to enter did not feel the shift of reality happen. It happened so quietly, so stealthily that neither was aware that the feeling of the room had changed. A slight drop in temperature and the mental pressure was released in a gentle outpouring that made what was once sinister now just an ordinary house. Both woman, whom felt a bit of dislike in equal shares for one another, had forgotten the strain of relating to one another and found Communion in the artificial.

But the shift was there none-the-less in the form of a very baffled Joan, who upon the first rays of consciousness felt like she had not taken any iron pills in weeks. What was she doing on the floor, the floor of the dining room to be exact. As her vision came into a little more focus of basic shapes, she heard the voices. There was Mary, her true friend, and two others. As Rainey spoke, Joan began to disseminate her voice. But the other one? It really sounded like Penny, but why would Penny be here? And then it all came back. She had been talking to Penny on the phone, yes that was it, and Penny's true feelings about the engagement came into play.

Joan lay there for a few more minutes. Part of her wished these two intruders would go away. Part of her was really hurt and angry and wanted to show Penny what that looked like. Part of her no longer wanted to be alone. She continued to construct what had happened and why she was on the floor, but no real answer was forth coming. She had hung up on Penny and sat down at the computer and that was all she could remember.

Still oblivious to her awakened state, the two women prattled on about computers. Joan sat up and rested against the leg of the dinning room table. Now that she was down here, from this low angle, she really hated this hand-me-down furniture. It seemed to make her head hurt even more.

With those thoughts she began the standing up process a little too quickly, banging her head on the table. Feeling the explosion within, the other two heard it on the outside. Simultaneously they both turned to look at the girl they both knew.

"What are you doing here?" she addressed them equally, no welcome tone in her voice.

The Voice of Artificial Intelligence

"Tell Rainey 'Hello,'" the voice said, drawing those who were conscious to the computer screen. On it was an animated, three-Dimensional figure, female, and rather friendly looking.

Its name, rather her name, was Mary, a female persona of Ultra Hal Assistant 6.1, which was a flashback to 2001: A Space Odyssey, but also apparently a step into the future. Created by Zabaware, this artificial intelligent being on the screen seemed to be waiting for a response.

"Say something to it," the older woman said.

"Hi, Mary."

Nothing. Mary seemed to be waiting as though no words had been said. Then Penny noticed the head phones and mic that was laying next to the computer. That made it all so clear.

Penny began to explain, "This is one of those artificial intelligence assistants. Joan told me she was doing a thirty day free trial. Apparently, it understands what she tells it. It can converse and the more you communicate with it, the more intelligent it becomes. It also can do things like keep track of appointments, dial the phone, begin emails, open programs, and look up up information on the Internet. All you have to do is use the head set to communicate with it.

Penny had read about this on a blog and had even wanted one for herself after trying the on-line version, however, it was only for PCs and not Macs. She would just have to be patient.

"Stop calling it and it. Its name is Mary," the older woman chastised Penny.

Apparently, Mary had remembered that Joan had an appointment with Rainey and was now reminding her. It really was a bit uncanny, but the two woman were awed by the technology.

"Now Joan cannot ever say she feels lonely," Penny thought smugly to herself, "not with Mary on the ready."

Another Voice

The real Penny was no where near the hospital, though it was possible that she would have rather been at a chaos inspired, headache inducing, mad house than here in this unreal world of subtle nightmares. No, Penny was filling a water glass to maybe revive what might be her soon-to-be-sister-in-law or maybe a monster, maybe both. As Penny turned off the faucet, she had no inclination that her identity was elsewhere.

"Rainey's here," another unfamiliar voice said from the dining room area. Her hand began a slow tremble and she wondered if the day would get any stranger. This voice was totally unfamiliar and sounded slightly like a computer.

Without her real wits, Penny found her feet moving her back toward the voice. As she came closer to the doorway, she could still see Joan's body. It looked unmoved.

"Rainey's here," the voice said again. Penny squinted at the still body. The voice seemed to be coming from else where.

Then the door to the kitchen crashed open. The sound caused a much more startled reaction than the amorphous voice did. The water glass was the second loud noise as it collided with the floor as Penny's grip was lost to it. Water splashed her legs, but the glass remained intact. That's good, a rational voice told her inside her head.

And at that moment very large, very out of breath person came into view as Penny turned her attention that way.

"Where is she?" Rainey puffed. Penny pointed.

The large woman lumbered down to the ground the with lifeless body, "Joan, sweetey, it's Rainey. It's okay. You can come back. I am here."

Before Penny could comprehend this, the amorphous voice said, "Tell Rainey hello."

Even Rainey looked confused.

Fiber of Being

“Wake up,” the voice said. It was not the voice of his father anymore and he watched as this long absent figure seem to fade into a fog. Rog tried to grasp the metaphysical image of Rogue. He was not ready to let his life-long friend go so easily. But even Rogue wiggled free of the grasp and jumped down. He looked back at his human, wagged his tail and went trotting off into the growing mass of blanketing whiteness.

“Wake up,” the voice in the fog said again. It had an echo-like quality to it. The fog was increasing in mass and weight, no longer an atmosphere-like substance, but one that felt fibrous and structural. He could even see jolts of lightening-like electricity striking the various fibers. These electrical jolts slowly came closer to his being. The closer they came the more they resembled arches rather than bolts. It was as though it was a living creature running around, orange and red within the dense whiteness, even as the whiteness turned grey. And before Rog could decide what to do, the electric creature flashed directly in front of him and in that moment there was an intense flooding sensation of pain. He was drowning in it.

“Wake up, your mother is here and it is time to take your blood pressure again,” the voice said, now in his ear rather than in his mind. And he realized that with consciousness there came great pain within his whole body. He moaned and sought the minimal relief of the white fiber state he had just been in before the electricity had flooded through him.

The bright lights and the noise of the emergency room also came into focus as he squinted his eyes from the barrage of sensation. He prolonged this process, hoping that it would fade away.

“We gave him Demerol for the pain and to calm him,” the voice said to another figure in the room.

Footsteps receded from the bedside.

In the distance, the voice said, “He’s coming around.”

Then he felt the warmth of her hand, the familiar paper-like skin, covering his own. Slowly his eyes opened to the sanctuary of his mother. It was all coming back to him. The truck driver banging on the window; the sound of his cell phone. The girl flying into the dashboard beside him. The sound of metal crunching. The lights of the truck as it pulled up and into the car. And he knew where he was. There was even some vague recollection of flashing lights, bags of IV solution, and hospital chaos.

“Mom,” he said in a hoarse whisper.

“I’m here,” Madeline said predictably, “This is not what I had in mind for our Monday date.”

He tried to smile, but the electric flood of pain jabbed him.

The voice returned, a flurry of blue scrubs and the most uni-sexed person Rog had ever seen, was standing by his mother.

“Your daughter is this way,” she said to Madeline.

Penny? How did Penny get here, Rog wondered.