A Techno Carol (with Apologies to Charles Dickens) - A Story in Five Parts

Part I:

“Go to your room!”

Dad shouted at him, but it was his mother who was in tears. Jimmy Curtis knew that this was serious when he saw what happened. The presents were being wrapped, and he could have waited in his room…but why bother? His parents knew what he wanted for Christmas, and here it was, Christmas Eve, and they were still getting things ready for the big day. So, why didn’t they get him the system he wanted? Why a stupid-looking 2.0 version of the super Benevolt gaming set? And no extra controllers for it? He had to say something.

“I said, ‘Go. To. Your. Room!’”

He was already up the stairs, hearing his little sister’s laughter as he walked past her room. Katy was enjoying this.

“Finally gotcha!”

“Shut up…”

She threw a ball at his head, missed and stuck out her tongue. “Merry Christmas, moron!” The door slam drew his parents’ attention, but they saw that it was the one who was not ungrateful making the noise. Jimmy did not bother to look back.

At least he had his room.

From wall to wall, there was something to do. All those old board games were gathering dust in his closet, but he had the desktop, laptops, tablet, smartphone, keyboard (should really practice more), TV (big fight over that one) and his stereo (Dad wanted him to keep it; still wondered why). But he knew that he would have to be careful. If they heard anything, he’d be grounded all through the holidays, and he did not want that. There was a sale after Christmas he knew about and he was going to get the right system… So, only the smartphone…

Jimmy was thirteen now, doing well in math and history, not so much in science and English literature (so boring to him). He had saved up for the system, but knew that his parents were going to buy it for him. And why didn’t they just wrap it at the store? It wasn’t his fault… It was not his fault.

No texts. He could hit Mike or Steve, but he knew they were on vacation. Mike’s parents went skiing and Steve always headed south with his. Good to have rich parents, he thought.

On his bed, he waited to hear his parents come up the steps. But there was no sound in the hallway. And it was getting late…

He turned off the lights with a clap. Only the light from his small screen glowed on his face as he got under the sheets and Call of Duty duvet.

He was really tired…

*

“Young man…”

Well, that wasn’t his parents. Dad did not sound like a British person (not much of an impressionist, he thought, even when he tried). He stirred under the sheet, letting the cell drop onto the carpet.

“Young man.”

He finally looked up, raising his head up from the pillow. This was…weird.

A short man in a tweed suit and a smooth haircut was standing in the moonlight that seemed stronger than it had ever been in his room.

“Damn… Mom! Dad!”

“Oh, please stop it. I’m not here to hurt you, young man. And they won’t hear you, anyway.”

The temptation to run to the door was there. He could have made it, but…wasn’t this a dream? It must have been. His room was on the second floor, right above the backyard with the security lights and silent alarm. They would have heard something. His dad would have had his mom pull him and his sister out of their rooms to the basement. Had to be a dream. Just had to be…

“Okay, okay… What you want?”

“What do I want? Well, why do you think I’m here?”

Jimmy looked carefully at the man. Hadn’t he seen him somewhere else? Maybe in a movie or…?

“Alan…Tunning?”

“Turing. Very good. I guess that the education system in this country has not failed everyone.”

Jimmy sat up and wondered how he ended up with this in his head.

“Ha, ha. Very funny. You have something against me?”

“Not personally, young man… Jimmy.”

Great, it really was a dream. This would be great for his paper on what he did over the holidays (would he still be writing one?).

“Okay, you know me. I know you. Why is this happening?”

The man at the window moved closer to the bed. Jimmy noted that it was a very old-fashioned look to his wardrobe.

“Well, they thought that you needed to have a bit of a lesson.” The man looked around the room. “You seem to have everything I helped make possible.”

Jimmy was not able to hide his confusion. Alan frowned at this.

“Oh, you know only part of the story. My work helped to bring about the systems you have here. All this came from math and science. All my ideas led to your…gaming culture and toys.”

Jimmy thought about the movie (Katy made them watch it one night when he wanted to see “Die-Hard”; still bothered him to think about that). He was a scientist during that war and he used codes to help his country win. And it was all math and science…

“Well…thank you?”

“You’re welcome, young man. But that is not the reason why I’m here. I have to explain what is about to happen.”

Alan sat on the bed. Jimmy wondered if he was going to wake up soon.

“You will be visited by three ghosts.”

He wasn’t responsible for his response. Laughing was an uncontrollable response.

“Seriously? This? I thought that you would be really better than this, Mr. Tunning.”

“Turing.” He was not smiling.

“Turing, right. I know the movie. The ghosts show up, the old guy sees his life and what is going to happen to him and his crap, and then he changes. All really nice. Wonderful. Beautiful. And I’m thirteen… Think I’m doomed already?”

Jimmy noted how quiet the man was.

“This isn’t just about you, young man. There are bigger…implications for you. You still have a role to play, and I think you need this.”

He stood up, went over to the window, and looked at the moonlight.

“They’ll be here soon. Go back to sleep.”

Jimmy tried to laugh.

“Yeah, right.”

Turing just smiled and looked at him.

“Go to sleep.”

Jimmy was tired. He really was tired and needed to go back to bed.

“They’ll be here soon. Sleep.”

He was already under the covers, wondering why this was happening to him. And who were 'they'?

He went back to sleep.

*

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