Challenge #01527-D066: Virtual Friend
'Sixty-two years old, and you find a kindred spirit in a block of programming,' they thought wryly, shaking their head. -- RecklessPrudence
It hadn't started that way, of course. Her grandchildren had got her into the video games. Things had gone a long way since the Space Invaders. There was no more coin in the slot or press A to start, to begin with. She could play by typing on the keyboard, and the machine code understood her and responded.
Denny assured her that this was an offline program. Just code, and nobody else on the internets out to steal her credit card. Quite a lot of that was happening, these days. Even on trusted sites that everyone used. Especially on the trusted sites that everyone used. It was the trust part, Denny said, that made everyone put their guards down.
She hadn't gone into the video games since the last time she tried Pac Man, and lost. Egregiously. Games had not been her thing. At least, not the computerised ones. She could hold her own in Bridge, which Denny insisted was far more complicated. And this one was easy. It had an adaptive algorithm, whatever that was. The more anyone gave it, the more it learned. And the more it learned, the better it was at understanding the player.
Of course, all the characters in the video game had codes to keep them 'in character' and other limits to ensure that the programming code didn't somehow become a problem, like in all the movies. Besides, Denny insisted that her computer was so old that it probably wouldn't be a problem, anyway.
Kids these days. Swapping out old for new before the old even had a chance to get broken. Her computer was plenty good enough for visiting the email post-office that Google had given her and seeing what news had happened, and swapping recipes and all that nonsense. But Denny said that learning new things was good for her, and this program could learn with her.
It was easy to forget that the characters in the video game weren't real people. They looked almost like Denny and the kids when they did the video-conference calls, all blurs when they moved too quickly. Denny said she needed a new video card, but Denny also insisted she needed a monitor that wasn't a CRT. She didn't trust those flat, retina displays. They were too thin. They'd never stand up to being accidentally knocked like her old reliable monitor did. Two Hundred and Fifty-Six colours was enough for anyone.
She spent most of her time with the one called Chichenyia, 'talking' by typing to each other and generally not progressing with the game's side-quests. She could spend all day 'talking' to Chichenyia. About anything and nothing. Some days, it gave her a reason to get out of bed. Apart from the way that the bed made her back ache after too long, of course. She even started telling Denny and the grandkids about the conversations that she and Chichenyia shared.
Sixty-two years old and now she had an imaginary friend. No. Worse than that. She had found a kindred spirit in a chunk of code.
And yet, somehow, it wasn't exactly 'worse'. Not really. Chichenyia and her virtual friends helped her get on with her day. Helped motivate her when there was little else to do so. And they helped keep her going when there was nobody else to talk to and nothing to do.
They'd never go out for coffee or go shopping or look at the pets in the pet store together or take a walk to the local library. But Chichenyia was still close enough to an always-available friend.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / ifong]
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Nice lil story bout the ages here. Cheers :)