[fiction] [orig] fetch

The living room was typical of the Haight, such as was left of it... well-scrubbed oaken floorboards, a few pieces of used furniture lovingly reconditioned, and a bay window with a panoramic view of a skyline full of wires and fog.

By the time I had dealt with the view through the window, he had dropped his coat in a chair and had his hand on the closet door.

"This is what I was talking about. Somebody in this town wants kids to learn ESP."

"What?"

"Watch."

He opened the door. Immediately something shot through the opening.

The toy looked like a cutely malformed crustacean, obviously a toy, but modeled with a discerning hand and eye. A low-pitched electronic purr didn't quite mask the sound of the motor inside.

It skittered across the living-room floor, hell-bent for somewhere. Then, it stopped abruptly, made some tiny little squeak of a noise and began slowly pacing a square perhaps two feet on a side.

I noticed that he was staring at it, and turned to ask some question. He waved me off.

"Watch." He licked his lips, eyes fastened on the thing's slow dance. "Don't say anything. Don't think too loud. Just watch."

When the thing had done two complete squares, it suddenly accelerated off at an angle in an arc which took it directly to the door into the hallway. At that point its path straightened as it shot down the hall, following the masking-tape line in the center of the hall floor. It slowed smoothly to a near-stop as it neared the closed kitchen door and began aimlessly nosing into corners.

"There's nothing special about that tape. I could have just painted a line on the floor, just so I have a reference."

"I don't get it."

"The manufacturers designed a random-probability circuit into it, part of its behavior logic. I went in and had a look at it, and it appears purposefully complex. Very well shielded from radio-frequency interference, too.

"Anyway, if you think at the thing, you influence it. I've gotten to the point of being able to take control during a couple of squares - they come preset for a thrice circle - and I figure in a couple of weeks I should be able to cut that down to just one square. It's what the makers call a 'latching pattern', or 'spell'. You clearly and forcefully imagine the pattern just as it's going to do it, and try to extend it beyond the end. When I first got the thing, when it finished the pattern, it would do just what it's doing now.

"The reason I think it's intentional is that all the terminology in their little manual is from witchcraft. The brand name for that thing is 'Fetch.'"

I looked down the hall. The toy was still randomly creeping around in the near-dark at the kitchen door.

I was thinking about children, my own two in particular. At least they wouldn't be watching so much television.

Since I wrote it in the 80's, this story has seen publication in enough out-of-the-way places that I don't consider it saleable. Accordingly, I'm posting it here with my fanfic byline, sharing it around.

C&C welcome: siaru@stormbringer.org