Hometown Kelly and the Gizmo Team Read online

  "The implant Gizmo built."

  "Yes, and I should be able to get it to track the network of fibers if that gets 'lost' too. Don't get more than ten miles from it or it will come after you. If you decide on an airplane ride, it will follow you on the ground. If you decide on an ocean crossing, it may look for a ship going the same direction. Call one of us to come get it if the trip is intentional. It will call us if you don't, probably to pay its passage. Alexis and Fowler were giggling when they wrote the program."

  "I haven't really had time to get to know them."

  "Fowler said about the same thing. That's it for this piece for now. I won't know if it needs more until I get those x-rays and find out if I can borrow a satellite or ten to track the filaments."

  "Borrow a satellite?"

  "Well, you're actually paying for it. We'll just use it for a bit more than your cellular phone."

  "Thank you."

  "You need to be the only bodyguard Kelly needs, Hulk. We're just doing our best to make sure you are."

  Kelly watched Jim paint the van and was amazed. He had real talent and didn't seem to even realize it. He was still thinking about it when Jim carried him to the house. He waited until he'd headed back to the shop, then talked to Leonard about it.

  "He's too good at too many things, Kelly. I have a collection of proof. I have poems he wrote and sketches and sculptures he did that he doesn't know I have. His mother gave me her collection before she died to add to it. He nearly struggled to be just another kid."

  "Hiss guhrades were not that good."

  "He'd have been furious if his teachers didn't dock him for not turning in homework everyone else needed, for the practice it gave them using what they were learning. He does I'm-only-as-bright-as-the-other-guy better than anyone else. He's really the only one who doesn't know he's doing it. Which is, of course, why no one really minds. He can keep up with you."

  "Me?"

  "Kelly, we've all watched you learn and worked not to giggle. You fit right in with this batch of geniuses. There's nothing wrong with average intelligence. If there was, it wouldn't be average."

  "Aver age would be hiyur if it was needed for survival. G still gives me trouble when it comes in the middle of a word."

  "Like I said, giggle. Kelly, you speak a bit slowly but it's a choice you made and you know it. You choose the words you use deliberately and are aggravated when the appropriate one is difficult for you to say precisely, but use it. Your vocabulary is vast. Your ability to define words from context is extremely good."

  "I had a lot of time to practice."

  "And used it well. All of it."

  "I do not understand."

  "Kelly, you understand what Fowler and Alexis did. You understand what I did. You understand everything anyone showed you and explained. Jim can, but some things aren't explained and some are unexplainable. Gizmo expects you to be back regularly to have the van checked and have changes made as your needs change. Jody is helping. They aren't explaining everything. Gizmo never did."

  "Boom explains so fast, you're too odd... aw wed to follow the explanation. So they tell us what it does and we have to come back for re... guhler maintenance on the how it does it."

  "My scoot has a regular maintenance schedule, but I don't know it. Gizmo tells me to bring it over on a regular basis. That's the kind of regular service you'll get too. She'll know where you are. If you're a half-continent away and she says she'll see you tomorrow, you know there's a very good reason. She called me at three AM once and said it was time to bring my scoot in. I was not fully awake when I got on it to come over. I'm very glad. I might have said wait til morning."

  "What do I do about Jim?"

  "Oh, that's fixed."

  "What?"

  "Gizmo is going to get a patent for the way those four pieces lock together. Amunson is going to be very happy she decided to make you one big bed. If you can't get him excited when you're all by yourselves in one big bed, night after night, you haven't said yes."

  "I have to tell him."

  "Kelly, you have to make love to him. He has to say yes to you. He's told you he wants to. He told Bitsy that too. She finally body-slammed him and ripped his clothes off to prove she was ready to add it to their relationship."

  "Is this literal?"

  "She knocked him off a stool by the workbench and landed on him. He said he was laughing so hard he wasn't sure he was going to get it up, but he did tell her she'd convinced him."

  "I want to touch him. I have not been in vited."

  "He'll tell you if he wants you to stop. He'll also tell you if you're going too fast for him. You have been invited. Kelly, you changed it since he didn't know what to do about wanting to make love to you. He would be irresistible if he wasn't... difficult to approach. He'd be a virgin if he didn't tell a few people he hoped they found overcoming the difficulty worthwhile. Loosen him up a bit. Get him in over his head. You can protect him and let him just protect you."

  "A very mu chual... I don't like chual either and it's on a lot of words! Gizmo fixes everything well. You have a great staff."

  "Thank you."

  "You will give me a copy of your medical records."

  "No."

  "I'll name your wildlife center for you if you don't. Jim does not need to see them if I have. I will know when those who love you will need him among them. I will know your physician. I will have Sonata find out for me anyway. I'll tell her to ask Andrea. I'm sure she knows... everything."

  "She's the only one who insists she doesn't. She likes you. She has perfect taste in people."

  "So does Sonata. If you don't notice her soon, she will bash you over the head. Give me your medical records. I'd prefer to be ethical and come up with a catchy name."

  "I don't want to name it."

  "Why?"

  "It's a pair of farms given back to the small creatures we injure because they can't get out of our way fast enough. I've hit a rabbit on the road. I don't let animals that won't live suffer. It's privately funded and I don't ask for donations outside the county."

  "It's the wildlife care center in your home town."

  "Exactly. Want to help me build a place for Mersia and their daughter with a nice office and surgery for a vet to use in exchange for being there when a vet is needed? Don't try veterinarian. It trips up people who are veterinarians."

  "I'll work my way up to it. Do you know one who would be interested?"

  "No, but I know a kid who'll be one in a few more years. I don't have any official standing, so I don't have to have licenses, inspections and so forth. The county humane society brings me wild animals, so no one is complaining about what I do there."

  "Hand me the phone."

  "The phone?"

  "Yes. It is time I called Walter."

  "He's not going to be ready, Kelly."

  "I know, but he should hear from me that I am doing very well and why my bank account is getting slim. He trusts Jim completely, but he should know I am spending my money for this."

  Walter Amunson was getting ready to leave the office when Merrie told him he had a call he wanted to take, walked in and turned on his speaker phone. She had a rather strange smile.

  "Hello, this is Walter Amunson."

  "This is Keller Nathan Holland the Fourth. Call me Kelly, Walter. My friends do."

  "Uh... Hello, Kelly."

  "Hello, Walter. I thought you should know I bought a yacht, even if it doesn't go in water. I would loan it, but we'll be using it most of the time. I am about to commit to aiding in the building of a home for those who aid the wild animals hurt by our technolo gee. G is hard to say in the middle of a word."

  "Uh, yes, I imagine it might be. Kelly, I'm astounded."

  "Jim stands and stares at me with his mouth open fairly often, Walter. I can hold a spoon or fork and feed myself, but I don't cut my own steak yet. I also do not walk yet, but I can move my legs. Leonard has designed a support frame to aid me in learning to stand. Buy the
patent and get it produced and in hospitals. Donate one hundred in my name. Leonard is the person who cares for the wildlife and I will spend less of my money if he has more to spend. You should appreciate this. The first word I learned to say clearly was bankcard."

  Kelly smiled when Walter burst into laughter. He heard his secretary laughing too. It was very nice. He was glad he'd called. Walter hadn't been ready, but he would feel more secure about everything he had done.

  "Walter, it is probable I was slowly recovering. We spec ulate the implant stimulated that in some fashion, but it was not the a gent of my recovery. Jim was. If you said that to anyone in this town, they would say, 'Of course.' It is still his plan to show me America. We're doing it in a land yacht his, and now my, friends built for us. We will be leaving day after tomorrow. My attorney will aid in this and she took over part of the office of Leonard's attorney. He told me he knew protest was futile and just bowed to the inevitable. I reminded him he recommended her. Make sure Martin is ready when you decide to retire, Walter. He is my choice after you, but he needs to know much only you can teach. Don't let anyone hire him away from us. Make sure Holland makes a generous offer for the patent for the lock assembly Gizmo invented for my bed."

  "For your bed?"

  "It drops from above in sections and locks together. She and Leonard designed it to, quote, 'hold you two and six bouncing.' Holland wants the lock mechanism for the Balltine contract. I listened, Walter. It was all I could do."

  "Hi, Walter. This is Leonard. This is also about to be a conference call. Gizmo wants in on it."

  "Hi, Walter, I push Kelly around a lot. Cousin Terry just plain likes you. She's got great taste. I like daddy healthy. Hulk will keep him that way if we keep Hulk healthy. Kelly is now a hometown boy. We unilaterally annexed him. You're meeting people."

  "They call me Eyes. I see to it they see what they want to see and spotlights have trouble hitting them."

  "We're Nerds Incorporated. I'm Nerdette."

  "I'm Nerdo and I'm still going to strangle my next-door neighbor for sticking me with it one of these days. Want to chat on the internet? I know a van that writes great poetry. My big brother asks for interesting programs, but Gizmo asks for impossible."

  "We had fun doing it. Boom, your turn."

  "Impossible just hasn't been done yet. I think you're cute, Walter. I think those boys are adorable. I just retired. I skipped two months vacation in Europe to meet them. Like the old farmhouse I bought in my new hometown. It's got one of the nicest little labs I ever saw. The Nerds told me it was just what I wanted when the vet started building a place closer to town. Big brother said get moving. Orwell used the concept well, but Toffler doesn't write fantasy. Big brothers love those they watch over. This one is flat good at both parts."

  "Thank you, Boom. I've never been more complimented."

  "Course not. Takes fifty years of experience to give one like that."

  "Talk, Jim."

  "I told him what I want to do before, Kelly."

  "You told him what we wanted to do. You knew me so well. Walter, I don't understand how he did either. These are the ones he brought me to. I have loved friends. I consider you one of them."

  "Crash a holiday party at his house, Kelly. I know all the dates."

  "Merrie!"

  "He has several small ones instead of one big one."

  "I'd love it if you both 'crashed' one, but be where you'd like to be Christmas. That's what I'd most like."

  "That's my boss."

  "She has me well-trained, Jim. I think that group has you about the same. The appropriate emotion is to feel mutually smug about it. Every person with a really good staff knows it. I needed to know you would both be safe when anonymity became difficult."

  "Discretion may be difficult with Kelly, Walter. He is going to get us into trouble."

  "I will get us into mischief, Jim. I do know the difference. If we get into trouble, it will be because you decide something is wrong and needs fixing. My own experience tells me it will be the right thing to do if you decide to fix it. Since those others, who have known you for many more years, immediately started working to make sure we get back out of trouble, I have supporting opinion."

  "I'd be less worried if I thought you'd ask if I want to fix something before you start helping me do it. Walter, Kelly's recovery isn't possible, but recoveries that aren't fill the medical histories and doctors' hearts with hope. You made much of it possible. He has a healthy adolescent body. It's currently underdeveloped, but not a great deal. That's amazing. Kelly said he had felt all of the movements and he learned to do them by 'making the feel.' It scares me because I do know how long it should take. Reminding myself how much more was done to keep Kelly healthy calms my nerves a bit. We don't know exactly why he had no motor control. We never will. Whatever the cause, he is finally recovering fully and it's happening fast."

  "I have the muscle to move myself, Walter. You insured I do. I was a personal responsibility to you. You did not see it as a part of running Holland, even though it was associated with the position you hold. That position did not include your prayers you were doing the right thing for me. I have heard those you said as you stood beside my bed. I am your proof I am not the only one who heard. Jim gave me proof mine were also heard. We will say thank You by aiding Leonard in caring for the small creatures of woods and meadows. We will say thank You by sharing what he has created to care for people, with those who need it. It will allow him to fund most of his dream of a place of caring. He deserves to do so, but his reason may be he doesn't have to name it if he pays for it."

  "He's real perceptive. He's also getting tired. He speaks very softly so he's holding the receiver and I'm about to take it away from him. He's had a very long day."

  "Goodnight, Kelly. I think mine's going to be."

  "It should be. I'm sure of it. All right, Leonard, you can have it."

  Merrie smiled at her boss and switched off the speaker on the phone. He grinned, picked up his coat and walked out of his office behind her. His grin broadened when she stopped to add a check on the patent to his calendar for the next day. She put on her coat and lifted the rose out of it's vase. She always took them home. This one she would preserve. It was a reminder of a very special day. She had a nice collection. She had a nice boss.

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