A. I. Evolution: The Coming of Christopher

Chapter 16

The next morning arrived and I got up on time, even though I had forgotten to set the alarm the night before. I had not just woken up close to the time I needed to, in fact when I looked over at the clock, it was exactly six thirty, the time I set my alarm for. The coincidence was so startling that I had to check the back of the clock to see if I had set it and had simply not remembered having heard it. I had to shake my head when I found the switch sitting in the off position.

I swung my legs off the side of the bed and stretch as I look out the window to the light from the rising sun as it chases the darkness from the room. "So, there is something else to talk to Jane about," I think as I stand and head for the washroom.

My usual breakfast of cereal and milk before getting dressed after my shower, puts me in good spirits for the short drive to work, and the usual stop at the coffee shop for the morning pick-me-up. I park the new Toyota in my normal parking space and smile at the good fortune of having a vehicle paid for and still new.

I enter the large building by the front door, where the dust and smell from the plant floor is kept from the customer area. My office is down the long hallway to the right of the reception desk. I pass by Sam's office to see him already there, talking to one of the clients on the phone. A quick wave of his hand says the traditional good morning as he continues to negotiate a delivery time for their shipment of chairs.

At my office, the design I had finished the day before, which I needed to carve into the sample wood was still sitting on the printer. I picked it up and stared at the clever swirls and how they seemed to travel back on themselves but not quite touching, before going off in the opposite direction, only to come close to the original spiral in the center. The feeling of being drawn into the design, pulls me deeper till I need to force myself to look away, lest I lose myself in the repetition of the pattern.

I sit back and drink my coffee as I consider the design. "Is it too complicated for the carving machines; will they be able to duplicate it properly?" I finish my coffee and pick up the design, not having come up with any reason not to proceed. I move down the hallway to the wood shop at the back, where the furniture is produced in quantity and assembled for shipment to the clients in the local stores.

Sam is there having an impromptu meeting with some of the key woodworkers and notices me walking past. He only glances in my direction for a second, but I know that he wants to talk to me about something. I think, "now that is a normal feeling, and not one of the seemingly enhanced abilities I have been noticing. Though it does make me wonder about the responses we have to people around us in a normal, innocent way, and how much we are a very social people, more in tune with those we interact with than most of us realize."

Sam quickly hands the papers to the foreman, who had stopped to see what he wanted with the main assembler, before excusing himself from them and moves quickly to meet up with me.

"Good morning, Christopher. The boys are all ready to relieve you of some of that money that you received from your accident."

"Well, that may be the case, because I have never played poker before."

Sam smiles and shakes his head. "That is such an obvious ploy. It is almost something that everybody has to say before they show up and clean the table, then admitting after the fact that they might have played a little bit before."

I shake my head at him. "Well, in this case, it is the truth. Last night I opened the only deck of cards I have ever owned, and they were in perfect order. I could tell that they had never been shuffled before, so believe me, you are going to be playing with a newbie tomorrow night."

"I will pass it on to Bill and the others then, so they can dream of what they are going to do with all the money they are going to win from you."

"Maybe," I smile, in challenge to his assuredness.