Forever Yours
Part I
“Before the middle of this century, the growth rates of our technology—which will be indistinguishable from ourselves—will be so steep as to appear essentially vertical. From a strictly mathematical perspective, the growth rates will still be finite but so extreme that the changes they bring about will appear to rupture the fabric of human history. That, at least, will be the perspective of unenhanced biological humanity.
“The Singularity will represent the culmination of the merger of our biological thinking and existence with our technology, resulting in a world that is still human but that transcends our biological roots. There will be no distinction, post-Singularity, between physical and virtual reality. If you wonder what will remain unequivocally human in such a world, it's simply this quality: ours is the species that inherently seeks to extend its physical and mental reach beyond current limitations.”
—Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near
1
The Principles of Lust
HENRY RUSHED from his last class on Thursday to get to the side door of the school where Isobel usually met her ride and looked across the parking lot. Shit! Isobel was kissing Luke next to his new Corvette. Luke’s father had surprised him with the car for his eighteenth birthday the previous Sunday.
“Aw. You’re too late,” Chastity said from behind his left shoulder.
He wasn’t sure when she had shown up. Must have gotten there right after him.
“She’s going to the prom with Luke. You know, she likes you both, but he has more ‘status’ than you do. So far. His dad owns a company.”
“He’s the Chevrolet dealer,” Henry laughed.
“That’s a company,” Chastity said. “Isobel can’t see into the future past the obvious. Luke is a good catch. He’s the last of us to have turned eighteen. You should have seen her eyes when she saw his new car. He’s smart and has money. Or his father does. She doesn’t see what I see.”
“What’s that?” Henry asked, turning to Chastity at last.
Chastity, Isobel, Luke, and Henry had been best friends for years. Isobel was the glamour girl, with Latina fire and good looks. Luke was the DECA business club’s selection for “most likely to succeed.” Henry was a software and computer geek. But Chastity…
Henry quickly decided he hadn’t been paying enough attention to Chastity. She was tall and thin and certainly pretty. He couldn’t help letting his eyes wander over her statuesque form. Either she’d removed her bra or had just taken off the vest she wore over her T-shirt. He could see the hard points of her nipples pressing the fabric out and the distinct shape of the barbell nipple piercings she’d gotten on her eighteenth birthday.
“I see our future,” she said. “Luke is going to manage a great company. Isobel is going to make money grow. But you, dear Henry, are going to make us millions.”
“Millions? I hope you are a true prophetess,” Henry laughed. “And what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to start by going to the prom with you,” Chastity said.
“You want to go with me?” he asked, a little surprised. He hadn’t had much hope of Isobel going with him, but he’d always considered Chastity a little out of his league. Great friends, but ultimately just a fantasy. Chastity almost always had a date on the weekends—sometimes two or three.
“Well… Not ‘go with’ as in dating. Just take me to the prom. Treat me like a goddess for the night and I absolutely guarantee you’ll get lucky,” Chastity said.
“Wow! You know, most girls are happy with princess treatment.” Henry crossed his arms and waited for Chastity’s response.
“I know my worth. And you will,” she said, pulling his hand around and placing it on her butt. Henry squeezed lightly as they looked into each other’s eyes.
Chastity was suddenly very attractive in ways Henry never seriously considered before.
“Okay, my goddess. I’d be delighted to take you to the prom,” he said, giving her bottom another squeeze.
“And have fun with me?”
“I promise we’ll have fun and you, too, will get lucky.”
“That’s a fair transaction,” Chastity smiled. She put a hand on his chest and used her thumb to trace around his right nipple. “Just remember: Worship my body. Don’t pretend to fall in love. We don’t need that complication. It’s just for the night.”
“I’ll check online for ‘how to worship a goddess’,” he said, pulling her close.
“Oh, yeah. I’ll share some links. Maybe you want to get us a hotel room for the night, unless you have a private space at home.”
“Not that private. I hate to have my parents hearing my date screaming my name,” he said. He brushed his lips against hers lightly.
“Better see if the hotel has a soundproof room. I tend to be noisy when I’m having a good time.”
Henry was serious. He could find almost anything online. He broke most of the stereotypes of the computer geek. He didn’t spend much time playing games, like most of his classmates did. If he was on his computer, he was creating something. He didn’t smell, bathed regularly, and wore clean, if not new, clothes. He had intense blue eyes that people said saw right through them. He was polite and had a decent sense of humor. He might not be elected homecoming king, but people generally liked him.
The next night, Friday, there was a dance after the last regular season basketball game. Henry joined Isobel, Luke, and Chastity at the game as their typical foursome when they didn’t have individual dates. Isobel was constantly bumping into and brushing against him as she flirted. After the game they all headed for the end of season dance. At her insistence, Henry took Isobel to the dance floor.
“Are you supposed to be paying so much attention to me?” he asked. “You’re going to the prom with Luke.”
“That’s not for two months yet. I notice you aren’t just hanging on Chastity,” Isobel said.
“Part of our agreement. We aren’t dating, we’re just going to the prom together.”
They bounced around to the music and Isobel backed up to grind against him as she threw her head back to ask, “What makes you think Luke and I are dating?”
“The way he’s staring at you across the room.”
“Yeah. I love that. He’ll wait until I’m done with you.”
The song ended and Isobel wandered toward Luke, who made a direct line to her. Henry didn’t manage to leave the dance floor before he was snagged by Sheila, the class president. The blonde cheerleader was intent on lecturing him about the need for a senior project for the class. Henry automatically checked around to see where his friends were.
“Are you listening to me, Henry?” she asked, moving in closer and putting her arms around him in a way that wasn’t particularly suited to the music.
“Of course, Sheila. And I agree that we need a really good senior project. But it’s getting late in the year to be starting something now,” he answered. She cuddled in his arms, satisfied that he wasn’t daydreaming, or watching that slut, Chastity.
“Well, what do you think we could do, given the time constraints? It’s already March and we’re just three months from graduation.”
“Yeah. I can’t believe nobody thought of this six months ago.”
“We were all too concerned with getting early apps for college out. Have you been accepted somewhere yet?”
“Yes. I’m staying local and will go to the university. They have a good computer science program with a new specialization in artificial intelligence and machine learning. I have a couple of good scholarship offers.”
“That stuff’s creepy,” she said, shuddering a little. The motion did wonderful things for the way her breasts were pressed against his chest.
“How about if we got an upgrade to the gym PA system?” Henry asked suddenly. “Announcements during the game tonight were all garbled. I don’t think it was just my hearing. I worked the system for an event once and it must be fifty years old. It’s practically falling apart.”
“That’s true. Do you think we could raise enough money in the time we have to replace it?”
“Put Isobel on raising the money and Chastity on recruiting volunteers. The whole system will need to be removed and those speakers in the middle of the gym must weigh in at fifty pounds each. I’ll check with the local electronics stores to see what we can get. Might have to build something, but it can be done. I’ll take Luke with me and he can negotiate the deals,” Henry said.
“You four do everything together, don’t you? Well, I won’t complain. If you need a date because Chastity is off screwing someone else, let me know. I mean, you know, while we’re working on the project,” Sheila said.
“That’s really kind of you, Sheila. I’ll see what comes up.”
“Mmmhmm,” she said, rubbing her middle against his to see if she could get something to come up.
It was, but the song ended and Henry guided Sheila over to where Luke had arrived with Isobel, Chastity, David, and Rachel. It seemed Luke was telling a very funny story and Sheila laughed politely as she heard the punchline.
“Hey, I was just talking to Henry about what we could do for a senior project,” Sheila said, stepping in. As class president, she was used to commanding attention whenever she wanted it. “Isobel, I’m wondering if we could meet after school Monday to talk about the fundraising aspect. Luke, I think Henry has an idea about putting in a new gym sound system that could use your negotiating skills. Anybody else want to get involved? Why don’t we all plan to meet Monday. Invite others and we’ll divide up into working groups.”
“Great idea, Sheila,” David said, moving next to her. “You know I’ll do whatever you need. Why don’t you fill me in on the details while we hit the dance floor.”
“That was slick,” Rachel said as the two left the group.
“Don’t worry. Henry will dance with you,” Chastity said. “He’s a great dancer.”
Henry doubted that what he did could be called great dancing, but he did manage to not make a fool of himself or his partner. He led Rachel to the dance floor. Chastity had cut him off just when he was going to ask her to dance. Luke led Isobel to the farthest side of the gym to clutch each other and shuffle their feet. Chastity was alone for almost fifteen seconds before one of the basketball players asked her to dance.
After their organizational meeting on Monday, Henry and Luke went right to work on the PA system project, but it wasn’t the only thing Henry was working on. His real brainchild had originated with his computer tinkering from as early as eight years old. That was when his father, Ryan, helped him build a new computer for his mother, explaining what each part was and the relationship of the software to the firmware to the hardware.
“And you are what we refer to as wetware,” Ryan said. “That’s what’s up here in your head. Without your brain to assemble this machine and to program it or give it instructions, it is nothing but a boat anchor. No matter how smart machines appear to get, you are smarter. You just need to remember to use your head.”
Sylvia, Henry’s mother, was happy to have a new computer and was pleased with how well it worked. As Henry studied and devoted himself to learning more about computing, Sylvia was often distressed to find her computer in pieces on the kitchen table as Henry installed new hardware components or worked on optimizing the software. Still, the computer always ran better and faster when he was done with it.
At her suggestion, Henry soon built his own computer as a laboratory to experiment with how commercial software affected the computer memory and how the hardware itself influenced software development. By the time he was a teenager, he had a pretty good understanding of what the world of software and hardware was really like.
“One of the things I’ve noticed,” Henry told Luke, Isobel, and Chastity at lunch one day, back when they were freshmen, “is that software companies survive on upgrades. You can bet that if you put a giant software company in charge of building a bridge to Hawaii, they’d get it built to the middle of the Pacific Ocean and then they’d open it to traffic. They’d charge a toll for people who used the bridge to fund building it the rest of the way. To make people feel good about only getting halfway to Hawaii, they’d get a third-party investor to build a big shopping mall out there. And in ten years, you still probably wouldn’t be able to use it to get all the way to Hawaii.”
“Okay. That’s profound,” Chastity said. “What are you going to do about it?”
“Well, I can’t take charge of building the rest of the bridge, but I can probably clean up some of the construction debris. See, when the software company releases each upgrade, it doesn’t necessarily get the bridge any closer to the destination. So, you get bridge update 2.0 and find that you now have three different routes you can use to get to the middle of the Pacific. But none of them get you any closer to Hawaii. One is an exclusive express lane that costs a little extra, but you can get to the middle of the ocean faster. One has extra features. You can stop here and see whales. At this branch, you can eat the best fish stew in the world. And over there, you can transfer to a ferry that will take you either to Hawaii or back to the mainland. And the one route you really wanted still stops in the middle of the ocean at an even bigger shopping mall. So, if that’s the only route you want, why clutter the waves with these others?”
“So, you don’t buy the upgrade?” Luke asked.
“There might be one feature in that upgrade that enables new cars to use the bridge. Without it, only old cars could use it,” Henry explained. “Here’s what we need to do: We build an app that examines each upgrade to whatever software is on our computers, and makes sure only the important pieces are taking up space on our computers. You can choose whether you want the whale watching feature or if you want to strictly go in the express lane, but you don’t have to accept everything they build.”
“Will that even work?” Isobel asked.
“It’s what I’ve been doing manually to my mother’s computer and my home lab computer for years. And while I’m in there, I tweak the system a little and make it run faster, optimize the file distribution, recover lost space, and reset the clock speed. There’s no reason it requires wetware to do it, though. I’ve been working on writing a utility that will search stuff out, give the user the choices for what to include, and wipe out everything that’s not getting us closer to Hawaii.”
“I could sell that,” Luke said.
“I’m counting on it,” Henry laughed.
“I mean, we could create a company around just that idea,” Luke expanded.
“And keep making money by selling upgrades to the app each time a major software update comes out from another manufacturer,” Isobel said.
Henry groaned, but nodded his head. Chastity picked up his nod with a wry smile, but didn’t say anything.
As seniors, Luke and Henry worked on building the PA system with Isobel and Chastity heading up fundraising. The app Henry had spent three years developing was finally being tested by his friends and select others in the school’s computer science program.
Luke negotiated some great deals for the components of the new system and Mr. Roland gave them access to the computer lab to work on assembling the system. It was not much different than assembling a computer, as far as Henry was concerned. However, he had to do much more wiring and soldering than in a computer. Any mistake in that process could cause feedback, static, or a variety of other sound errors. They carefully tested each stage.
Sheila often hung out with Henry as he was working in the computer lab, pretending to help, and teasing him with ‘accidental’ flashes of her legs and breasts. Nothing that could be mistaken for indecency, of course, but Sheila wanted to be sure Henry was motivated to complete the project. He never actually saw her nipples, and only seldom her underwear, but he often stared down her advantageously positioned cleavage.
“What are you doing for prom?” Sheila asked as she held a clamp in place so Henry could solder a pre-amp on the six-channel mixing board. Henry alerted to possible danger. He had a date. He didn’t want to lead Sheila on, but he was enjoying her company in the lab.
“Oh. Well, um… I thought…”
“I’m sorry. Not me,” Sheila interrupted him. “Dave already asked me. You know I wouldn’t back out on someone for someone else.”
“Of course. That sounds like fun. I’m…”
“Anyway, we’re going to recognize the project committee at the prom and plan on doing the presentation there. You should get a date and plan to attend.”
Sheila leaned over the table and made sure Henry had a clear view down her front as she kissed him on the cheek. Then she left the room. She didn’t wait for him to answer the question about the prom. Apparently, she just wanted him to know she had a date and expected him to be there.
Henry was thankful Sheila wasn’t waiting for him to ask her. Over the weekend, his friends and a few others had gone to a movie. Chastity had carefully maneuvered people in the seats so that Isobel sat next to Henry and was well-separated from Luke.
Isobel quickly put the armrest between their seats up and leaned against Henry. She held his hand, ultimately placing it on her leg and encouraging him to squeeze a little. Of course, she was wearing slacks, so it wasn’t like he was feeling her up, but she did snuggle up against him and just before the end of the movie kissed his cheek.
Unfortunately, when the movie ended, the group reformed for burgers and he was separated from her, so the friendly cuddle was at an end. He didn’t know why he continued to want Isobel’s attention. He knew it wasn’t going anywhere. But that was a principle of lust.
Henry was concerned about Isobel, though his concern was often overshadowed by his desire. She was extremely flirtatious around him most of the time, but he recognized that as a part of her character. She hung on Luke when they were together, and Henry had seen her plant a kiss on Dave right in front of Sheila. Henry had been on the receiving end of one or two of those kisses and could attest that they were worth waiting for.
But Isobel’s mood could change in a flash. He’d once opened a door for her and put his hand on her waist as she walked through. She’d turned and snapped at him.
“Keep your hands to yourself! I’m not Chastity!”
Henry hadn’t even recognized what he’d done wrong. He considered himself clueless when it came to women.
When Isobel started fundraising for the class project, she was a focused monster. Chastity admitted that she only went with Isobel so Isobel would have someone to cry to after a visit. Isobel raised twice the money needed to buy the components of the sound system. They’d expanded the original idea to add six separate input and output channels to the amplifier, microphones, and speakers.
Isobel seemed to vanish when the fundraising was finished. They saw her in class and in the halls, but she never spoke to anyone and stayed away from their group for a week. The next Monday, she was hanging on Luke as if they were getting married.
“You wouldn’t believe last week,” Luke said to Henry after they met with the installation team Monday afternoon. “We’d planned a date to go see the new Wonder Woman movie. I picked her up and when we got to the theater, I reached out to hold her hand and she just lit up. She told me all I ever wanted was sex and she wasn’t going to put up with it. She didn’t know why she’d agreed to go to prom with me and was deciding not to even go.”
“Good grief! Do you put that much pressure on her?”
“Dude! We’ve never had sex. The most I’ve ever gotten with her is a little squeezing of those incredible breasts. But she called me the next day and wanted to know why I wasn’t taking her to brunch at the club the day after our big date. I went to get her and we had a great time. Even went to the driving range after brunch and hit a bucket of balls. It was like the previous night didn’t even exist!”
“I’m worried about her,” Henry said. “And you, too, bro.”
“I think she’s under a lot of stress at home. Her father plans to take her to Argentina to meet the family and some prospective husbands. Her mother is throwing a fit,” Luke said. “Anyway, I guess we’re on for prom. She told me to get a room.”
“If you haven’t got it paid for yet, better get over there. The prom’s next weekend. You know they insist on cash up front from people at the prom. If you weren’t eighteen, they wouldn’t rent to you at all. There’s a whole page of rules they make you read and sign when you pay for the room,” Henry said.
“You sound like you’ve got experience.”
“Chastity promised I’d get lucky. Frankly, I like the idea.”
“But you haven’t dated at all before the prom? She’s almost as unpredictable as Isobel,” Luke said.
“Well, we’ll see how the night turns out. Good luck.”
“You, too, man.”
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
