Eerie ex Machina, an eerie, indiana fanfic

Living in Eerie hasn't gotten much easier after living in New Jersey. It was Dad's job that brought us here but I still hate the place. I mean sure, the lawns are kept spotless, there's not a graffitied wall or broke-down car in sight, and everything seems perfectly normal. But that's just it, nothing is what it seems. If you look underneath the orderly row of houses and white picket fences, you'll find something very different from the surface.

In the time that I've lived here, I've discovered one major thing: Eerie is the center of weirdness for the entire planet.
In Eerie, anything can happen.
And as some famous guy once said, "Anything that can happen, will."
But in Eerie, there's some stuff you really don't want to happen...

In this day and age, we rely on technology a lot. We often take for granted all the stuff we use that needs electricity: TV's, radio's, ovens-even hot water for taking a shower. All the everyday things our family uses: like Syndi's hairdryer, Dad's electric razor and Mom's magic blend-all blender (which she rarely uses), it all needs electricity.

I really never gave much thought to the all gadgets we use, I just use them like everyone else. But I guess there are some things you really shouldn't take for granted, especially when those things start having a mind of their own.

"Time to get up, Marshall!"

I was still half-asleep when Mom barged into my room. I pulled the covers off, still wanting to just flop back into bed.

"Up, Marshall!" She came in and put her hands on her hips. I knew that wasn't a good sign. "What did I tell you about picking up your stuff?"

I opened my bleary eyes and saw her staring at the piles of laundry on the floor.

"Are these clean or dirty?" She picked up a few of my shirts then smelled them.

"Clean, I washed them yesterday." I slowly brought my feet over to the side of the bed. I'm definitely not a morning person.

"Put these away in your drawer, so they don't get wrinkled." She finally went out of my bedroom and called back, "Hurry up and eat your breakfast or you'll be late for school!"

I mumbled some reply then finally got up. I reached over to my bedside table and set my alarm clock for the next day to give me an extra ten minutes of sleep. Hopefully, Mom wouldn't interrupt it sooner but I had to take my chances.

Breakfast was the usual: toast, frozen waffles, cereal and some canned fruit. Dad was going over some scientific computer report for his work and Syndi was preparing for her computer literacy class which involved being able to type fifty words per minute, all without looking at the keyboard.

"I just don't understand these numbers..." Dad helped himself to another waffle. "I entered these last night but they don't make any sense."

Mom brought over some juice and coffee, "Did you remember to save your work on the computer as you typed?"

Dad nodded and took a swig of coffee. "I'll have to fix this later." He finished his coffee then kissed Mom goodbye as he left for work.

"Bye, Dad." I waved to him as he gathered his stuff. Syndi absentmindedly replied also, with her ten fingers waving in the air, typing at nothing.

"Don't forget you said you would cook dinner tonight." Mom reminded me. I did forget. Cooking dinner wasn't my specialty but since Mom was working over-time at the mall with her party-planning business, I offered to help out in exchange for more allowance.

I even planned out the entire meal: spaghetti with meat sauce, vegetarian sauce for Syndi (she claims it's healthier, but I don't see the difference), salad, garlic bread to heat in the oven, canned fruit and ice cream for dessert. Shouldn't be too hard for a guy like me.

"Yeah, Mom, I'll be home early. Can I ask Simon over?" Simon's parents weren't getting along great after their divorce but they made some peace after Simon mistakenly 'ran away' from home last time.

What really happened was just a miscommunication about him spending the night at my house. Simon's Dad didn't relay the message to Simon's Mom and so she called the police without bothering to ask his Dad. It was kind of funny, at least until the cops showed up at our house. Luckily, Syndi's close with the police force, after she had done a news story about Officer Brannon's rescue of a dog that wasn't really lost.

Simon, my best friend, is the only one who believes me, the only one who knows just how weird Eerie is. Even if he's just a kid, he's the only real friend I've got. His parents fight a lot, so he spends most of the time at our house.

"Sure, hon. Just make sure dinner is ready by six, okay?" Mom went to get her electronic planner, which she had bought to schedule all her appointments and parties. It even came with a horoscope and fortune teller. I read the fortunes a few times but after a while, the same fortune kept popping up, which was pretty boring.

I cleared the dishes and left for school. If only I had known just how weird my day was going to get.
I knew I should've stayed in bed...

School was boring as usual. The only excitement was having the copy-machine in the principal's office go haywire, sending sheets of paper reports flying everywhere. The papers spread all the way out into the hallway where the janitor was attempting to sweep up the mess.

In the library, the computers were down, so we couldn't pass the time playing Laser Pong, even though we were supposed to be using the computer's encyclopedia to study our next book report on North America and the Great Expansion.

I went home after school and studied a little while. Simon came on his bike afterward.

"So, you're going to cook dinner?" Simon seemed to be doubting my cooking skills so I explained how easy it was.

"All we have to do, is mix the sauce together on the stove and boil the spaghetti, put the garlic bread in the oven and put the salad together. Easy!" I went to the fridge, it was only five o'clock but I figured it wouldn't take longer than thirty minutes to put the whole meal together. As soon as I opened the fridge though, the light bulb went out with a pop. I lurched back then heard a strange growling noise.

"Simon, is that you?" I looked at him but didn't think his stomach would be that loud.

"It wasn't me, I think it's your fridge." He took a closer look and sure enough, the fridge emitted some horrible growl, like it was hungry for food even though Mom went grocery shopping yesterday.

"Uh, we better get the food out before the fridge decides to break on us." I quickly grabbed the salad, and frozen garlic bread. I figured the ice cream would just have to stay in, if worst came to worst, we could have melted ice-cream milkshakes.

"Ok, put the spaghetti aside, get out the pan and fill it with water first, I'll heat up the oven..." I pretended like I had done this lots of times though it was my first time being unsupervised by Mom in the kitchen. How hard could it be?

I turned on the oven and set it to 350 to preheat then turned on the stovetop and put the water on to boil. So far, so good. I got out the two different sauce mixes to cook with the jar of tomato sauce and got out two pans to heat them up in, putting them both on low to heat. I almost forgot, I needed the meat...

"The timer went off. Should I put the bread in?" Simon reached for the cookie sheet with the ready-to-bake garlic bread.

"I don't think it's ready yet, what temperature is it at?" I got out the meat and noticed the fridge's growling was much louder.

"I can't tell, it's going up and down." He held the tray to the side and wore an oven-mitten on his other hand.

"What?" I put the meat down. "Let me see..." Sure enough, the oven was acting weird. The buzzer went off but the digital temperature reading was only at 150. I checked the pot of water and noticed it wasn't heating either, so I turned the temperature up.

"Maybe it needs to be hotter..." I looked back again at the oven but couldn't believe it. Now the temperature was 450. "That doesn't make any sense!" I opened the oven and stuck my hand in. Probably not the smartest thing to do but luckily nothing happened because the oven hadn't pre-heated, it wasn't even on. "What's going on here?"

"Marshall, look!" Simon pointed with his oven-mitten to the fridge. The growling was definitely louder now, in fact, the noise was the least noticeable thing because as I watched, the big box we put all our food in, started to move. It was starting to rock and shake, like it was trying to break loose.

"Whoa!" I ran to the rocking fridge and reached behind to unplug it. Stupid, I know, but I figured if it was unplugged it would've move anymore. It did stop when I unplugged it but then Simon yelled out again.

"Marshall, the oven!" I turned around and the oven door which I left open absentmindedly, was blaring hot, I ran over and shut it, pushing the cancel button to turn it off. Simon was still holding the tray but when the oven buzzer went off again, he dropped it.

The oven started to vibrate and hum. The buzzer kept going off and whenever I tried to shut it off, it just buzzed louder. "Fine, let's just use the microwave..." I reached over to open the microwave but the door opened by itself and started to beep.

"I think your kitchen's haunted!" Simon went to grab the cookie sheet of bread then dropped it again as the dish washer machine door flew open, hitting him in the back.

"Simon, watch out!" It was too late, he had already stepped on the bread. I looked back at the clock and saw that the numbers were spinning out of control.

"It's like all the appliances are going crazy!" Simon turned around just as the dishwasher decided to turn itself on and spray water everywhere.

"Quick! Shut the door!" We both ran and slipped on the floor but shut the dishwasher door, as the fridge started shaking violently and the microwave beeped and blinked on and off. "What's that smell?" I looked over at the stovetop then forgot I had left the sauces on top. They were boiling and spilling over onto the stove, making a nasty sizzling noise that sent another mess onto the floor. I rushed over and turned the stovetop off. Oddly enough, the water I put on to boil never got heated.

I looked around, the kitchen was already a mess. "Simon, what time is it?" I saw him check his wind-up watch.

"It's 5:30." He looked around, still watching the rocking fridge. "Do you have a plan B?"

I groaned. How could I have planned for all the appliances in my kitchen to go crazy on me? The microwave suddenly stopped its endless beeping. The oven buzzer went off again but other than that the kitchen was silent. Even the dishwasher stopped running by itself. The fridge also stopped rocking.

"What happened?" Simon looked around the kitchen, as if waiting for the next attack.

"I don't know but we gotta clean up this mess..." I reached for the dish rag.

"Oh no, Marshall, it's Syndi." Simon looked out the window and to my utter embarrassment Syndi came in the door. Simon rushed over with another dish rag to help clean up.

"What's that smell?" Syndi dropped her car keys next to the cordless phone. "You didn't burn the kitchen down, did you?" She looked around and sighed with the disapproving look only an older sister can give. "What happened here?"

"Um..." Simon started but didn't finish.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." I cleaned up the rest of the spaghetti sauce and dishwater. Simon threw the bread he stepped on out and I went to inspect what was left of dinner: burnt, uncooked and ruined.

"Honestly, can't you do a simple thing, like cooking dinner? It's not that hard." Syndi rummaged through the fridge. "Why is the meat out? You're supposed to cook it with the sauce."

I put the pans into the sink, the sauce was burned black and beyond salvaging.

"Why isn't the spaghetti cooked?" She looked into the pot with the unboiled water. "Didn't you heat the water?"

I watched as she turned on the stove-top without incident. It seemed to work just fine for her. Simon also saw that nothing out of the ordinary happened while Syndi roamed about the kitchen.

"Marshall, you had two hours to get dinner ready. What time did you start?" She brought out some canned food from the pantry.

"I didn't think it would take long to cook dinner and then when we started all the appliances went nuts on us!" It wasn't like I was making excuses, it really happened.

"Yeah, I saw it too!" Simon backed me up.

"Look, I've already had a hard day at school with the stupid computers acting up, ruining my typing test. The last thing I expect is for you to make excuses. Now Mom and Dad will be home soon, so get that salad together and open the canned fruit here." Syndi moved around the kitchen as if nothing were strange or unusual.

Simon and I looked at each other. It was always like this, only we saw the weirdness in Eerie, everyone else either didn't see it or didn't care. I grudgingly helped Syndi prepare the dinner, consisting of vegetables mixed with salad, meat paddies with un-sauced spaghetti and canned fruit.

By the time Mom came home, we had managed to scrounge together dinner. Simon and I sat at the table as Mom came in, with her electronic planner in hand.

"I don't know what's going on!" She sighed as she put the rest of her things down. "Work was crazy, all the computers started acting up, all my receipts got mis-printed and the stupid thing kept spitting out the paper so the floor was covered in rolls of meaningless numbers."

Mom took a look at what was prepared then looked at me. I was in trouble.

"What happened with your spaghetti? Where's the bread?" She looked over, very disapprovingly, at the meager helpings. "Did something go wrong with dinner?"

"Yeah, it did-" I was about to explain what happened when Dad came in the door.

"I don't know what's going on with those computers at work but it was unbelievable!" Dad put his briefcase down and took his glasses off as he rubbed his eyes. "All of our data was totally scrambled, none of the reports got in and the ones that did weren't legible. It was a complete mess!" Dad put his glasses back on then saw the dinner on the table. "What's all this? Is the rest in the oven?"

Simon remained silent at the table as Syndi plopped down into her chair. "Marshall had trouble in the kitchen."

"I did not!"

"Marshall, don't raise your voice. Now I know this is your first time making dinner, so I understand it's a little difficult for you."

"It's not, Mom, really it was the fridge and then the oven..." I tried to explain.

"And the microwave and dishwasher..." Simon added.

"Let's just sit and eat now." Mom ended the discussion right there. "I have a lot of work to do after this, so we'll talk later."

We all ate our spare meal in uncomfortable silence. Simon and I did the dishes while Dad went to work on his reports on the computer. Mom worked on her receipts from work, consulting her digital planner from time to time and Syndi was upstairs, probably on the phone talking.

We finished loading the dishwasher, hoping that it would work and not go berserk on us. It seemed to work without incident.

"Mom, I'm done! Can we watch TV now?"

Simon was on the couch, remote in hand already.

"Alright, just keep it down, your father and I are working..." She was chewing a pencil in her mouth.

Simon turned on the TV, "Time to watch, Are You Afraid Of The-" Just as he turned it on, a weird image appeared onscreen.

"What is that?" I looked closer to get a better look. It was a dark shadow over the TV's image but small enough to fit in the screen. I wiped the screen, in case it was dust and even adjusted the cords behind the TV.

"Marshall..." Simon pointed and just then we both saw what the image really was.

The dark shadow over the TV's screen looked like a little monster. I knew what it was after reading about them, and now everything seemed to make sense, at least as far as weirdness was concerned. It definitely explained why the appliances and everything else electronic was going haywire.

"What is it?" Simon looked at me.

"I think it's a Gremlin." We watched as the shadow moved. Could it hear us talking? Suddenly, the TV went off with a loud pop. We both fell back onto the floor and gave a yelp.

"Marshall, I said to keep it down." Mom looked up from what she was working on.

"Sorry, Mom." I tried to turn the TV back on but it wouldn't work. As I reached to unplug it, the lights flickered and the lamp beside the TV went out with a pop, just like it did with the TV.

"You don't think it's moving through the plugs, do you?" Simon looked around the room, expecting the little monster we saw to pop out at any moment.

I looked back at Mom, who was too absorbed in her work to notice much else. "I don't know. What I do know is that Gremlins like to inhabit electronic devices and mess them up."

"How'd it get into your house?" Simon asked.

"I don't know." I looked around trying to figure out where the Gremlin would go next. It seemed that when things were turned on, that was when the Gremlin would strike. Nothing else was turned on, except for Dad's computer...

"Maybe I can tell Dad what's going on, he might believe me about the electronic stuff at least, even if he doesn't believe in Gremlins." Just then we heard a high-pitched scream. It came from the bathroom.

"Syndi!" Simon and I ran upstairs as Mom called behind us.

"What's going on up there?"

Syndi came out of the bathroom, in her bathrobe, holding up what used to be a hairdryer. It had smoke coming from the other end like a burned out torch. "My hairdryer just exploded!" She turned as Dad came out of his bedroom.

"Are you all right, hon?" He examined the blowdryer. "How did this happen?"

"I don't know! I just plugged it in and then it exploded as if something went through it..." Syndi wrapped the bathrobe closer to herself.

"Do you have the right voltage on this thing?" Dad examined the burned remains of the hairdryer. "Maybe it was an electrical surge..."

"I have an extra one in my bathroom, you can use that one, Syndi." Mom came upstairs. "Simon you better get home now, it's getting dark and I don't want your parents to worry again."

"Oh right." Simon had gotten into real trouble after his run-away-from-home episode, which grounded him for a week. "Okay, I'll see you, Marshall. Let me know what you find out."

"I will." Simon left to go home, leaving me alone to sort things out.

It seemed I was the only one who knew what was going on. As Dad messed around with the hairdryer, Mom and Syndi continued to run into more trouble with the appliances. The other hairdryer stopped working but at least it didn't explode. Dad went downstairs to check the fuse box but of course didn't find anything. Meanwhile, I went upstairs to the attic to do some research. I read all I could about Gremlins but there wasn't much there. It also didn't say how to get rid of them, which is what I really wanted to know. I decided the next day to go to the library after school and see what else I could find about these havoc wreaking little monsters.

"Marshall!"

"Yeah, Mom, just a sec..." I had just gotten in the house, after stopping by the library to pick up anything I could about the Gremlins that were taking over our appliances.

My day was not going well at all. First, my alarm clock didn't wake me up at the time I set it to, in fact it was permanently stuck at 66:66 o'clock. Dad was also late for work because his alarm went off at 3AM instead of 6AM, so he had gone back to bed and forgot all about it. If it wasn't for Mom, Dad wouldn't have gotten up to leave for work. Second of all, the only books I could find with Gremlins in them were in the children's section of the library, which made it really embarrassing for me to ask the librarian who wouldn't stop staring at me the whole time I got the books from the shelf.

So hearing Mom yell at me was not a sign of any good news.

"Now Marshall!" Mom sounded angry.

I threw my backpack and books on the couch and ran to the kitchen. "Yeah, Mom. What is it?"

She had a pile of what I thought was groceries on the kitchen table. I was wrong though...

"Did you unplug the fridge yesterday?" She looked livid and as I scanned through all of our food that she had bought the day before, I didn't blame her.

"Uh, I can explain..." Would she believe me about the Gremlin inhabiting our fridge? Probably not.

"This is all of two hundred dollars worth of food, now gone to ruin! What were you thinking? Why did you unplug the fridge?" She started taking the pile of food and began throwing it into the garbage.

"It was acting crazy, it was rocking back and forth..." I tried to explain.

"A kitchen fridge does NOT rock back and forth. Look, if it wasn't working you should've told me and your father could try to see what was wrong with it. You don't just unplug it!" She was at the middle of the pile now but the trash was already full. "Take this out to the garbage." Mom sighed and was really exasperated I could tell but she didn't understand what I was trying to say.

"Mom, I'm sorry..."

"This is coming out of your allowance, for the rest of the year!" She went to get her electronic planner and started typing something into it. "You're going to do the shopping today and pick up all the stuff that spoiled in the fridge..."

"But Mom!"

"No, excuses, Marshall. I need to get dinner on the table before your father gets home and I had to leave work early besides." She tapped the electronic planner angrily. "What is wrong with this thing? It was fine this morning when I charged it."

I decided it was no good to argue. I took out the trash and came back to see what I had to get at the store. "Where's the shopping list?"

"It's on here. Where is it?" She looked ready to throw the pocket planner out. "I don't believe this!" She finally swore.

"Mom, it's okay..." She hardly ever swore without good reason, so I knew she was upset.

"Everything's gone!" Mom slammed the planner on the table, almost breaking it. I hesitantly took a look at it. The battery was still inside, so unless the memory chip was damaged, all the data should still be in it. I tried to turn it back on.

"Wait a sec, Mom. I think I got it..." The screen didn't pop up with the shopping list though. Instead I saw the unmistakable image of the gremlin, all digitized and full of menace.

"Never mind, just get these things for now." She wrote down the items for today's dinner on a piece of paper and handed it to me. She took the planner away without looking at it and threw it on the desk that was piled with the rest of her receipts from work.

"Let's go. I have to stop by work while you shop. The blasted computer messed everything up there. I still haven't gotten these receipts straightened out yet."

We left in a hurry but trouble awaited us when we got home. This time it was Dad who was upset.

"I have to go back in after dinner. We still haven't gotten those reports done yet. Every time we try to print something out, the same numbers keep popping up. It just doesn't make any sense!" He poked at his instant mashed potatoes without eating them.

I had helped Mom make dinner and just as I was about to sit down, I noticed something on Dad's papers. The columns and rows of numbers didn't make any sense to me but I did see that there was a pattern.

"Dad, can I see that for a minute?" I reached for a sheet of the printout.

"Well, unless you're into calculating the input ratios concerning data transfers, I don't think it will be of much interest to you."

"Yeah, no...I mean, I just want to look at this." I took the paper as Mom raised her eyebrows at Dad.

Syndi spoke up as usual. "What are you looking for Marshall? Proof of alien existence in number theories?"

I shook my head and rolled my eyes at her. But as I looked at the printout of numbers, the pattern finally became clear. I had seen this image before, like the one on TV and on Mom's planner. It was the Gremlin.

"Hurry up and eat, Marshall, before it gets cold." Mom spooned some more instant mashed potatoes onto my plate.

I had to do something, maybe I could show Dad later. If Mom and Syndi heard me talking about Gremlins in computer printouts, I don't think they'd take me seriously, or let me out of the house without supervision.

But it was there, the image of the Gremlin. All I had to do was show Dad and maybe he'd understand.

"You know, there was something that happened like this before where the computers kept printing out strange numbers that didn't make any sense." Dad shoved a spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth then swallowed. "It turned out someone had put the equation for PI into the main computer and jammed up the memory, so that it was still stuck on the problem some weeks later and all it would printout was the answer."

He quickly downed his glass of milk. Dad always ate fast when he was working on a deadline for a project at Things Incorporated or when things went wrong with work. Mom was always warning him about getting heartburn. "The computer printed almost a billion digits before it finally crashed...but it was pretty amazing to see." He finished the rest of the baked pork thoughtfully. "Then we had to replace the whole system and go through our backup files to replace all the other information that was erased."

Syndi, amazingly enough was paying attention to the conversation. "Did someone do it for a prank?"

"No, I don't think so. It was mainly curiosity I think. But Phil was transferred right after that."

"Phil, the crazy guy who said PI was the answer to the universe?" Mom poured Dad more milk and made him slow down as he ate.

"Yeah, that guy. In fact, just before Phil left, he said he was working on a pet-project of his that studied strange statistical phenomenon relating to quirks in computer systems and electronic equipment." Syndi soon lost interest and went back to reading her magazine on Fashionable Female Journalists of America.

Mom shook her head, "That guy had a screw loose, I'm telling you. Remember when he put that virus in your computer at work? You told me he was trying to see how it could think."

For some reason this conversation about Dad's co-worker interested me. I normally wasn't interested in the boring statistical scientific information relating to Dad's job but maybe it was because I had no idea how such things worked. It made me wonder how all of it worked, if it was possible for computer data and electronic devices to have minds of their own.

"Yes, that's right". Dad answered Mom. "Phil claimed that machines, computers and the data they use, could form their own patterns and even learn behaviors that aren't originally programmed into them. We studied such activity when I was working on that ATM program before it all went hay-wire. Phil wanted to bring artificial intelligence into the system but the supervisor was very clear that no ATM machine should have a mind of its own."

My mind flashed back to the episode of Simon and of Mr. Wilson, the ATM with the heart of gold, who also made Eerie go bankrupt and almost landed Dad in jail. That was definitely a lesson on how NOT to use artificial intelligence, especially in a town like Eerie.

"Just before Phil left, he was working on something very hush-hush..." Dad finished his glass of milk and got up to put his dishes in the sink.

"I'll do the dishes." I offered. Mom gave me one of her stern looks. She was still mad at me for the fridge incident.

"We need to talk about how you're going to pay for the groceries that got spoiled." She got up and cleared her dishes.

"What happened?" Dad got his papers together, ready to leave for a late night at work.

Mom told Dad what happened while I finished my dinner. Suddenly I didn't have much of an appetite.

Syndi's involvement didn't help either.

"You unplugged the fridge? What a stupid thing to do!" I wanted to grab her magazine and bop her on the head with it.

"Well, it was a mistake! It wasn't my fault the stupid thing went crazy on me!" I angrily shoved my fork into the mashed potatoes.

"All right that's enough." Mom turned to kiss Dad goodbye as he left. "Marshall, hurry up and finish your dinner then get to those dishes." Syndi left the table and I was finally alone with my thoughts.

I hadn't had time to read about the Gremlins yet but I was thinking about what Dad said. If computers could really think by themselves and manipulate information like that, how hard could it be for a Gremlin to do the same? Maybe Gremlins worked the same way a virus did, manipulating information, data and electronic appliances. If so, how did they do it? And what made them get into the electronic appliances in the first place?

There were too many questions to sort out at once. I had to wait until I finished my chores, then I was going to do some serious research.

"It says here that During World War II, airmen said that Gremlins were responsible for aircraft trouble and sabotage..." I flipped through the rest of the book but it was mainly just pictures of cute little elves dressed in jumpsuits. I didn't think this was an accurate description of what was infesting our appliances.

"You don't think that the Gremlins were also at our school, do you?" Simon called me after I finished my chores. He had a book report to do and couldn't hang out at my house, so I was talking to him on the cordless which gave off an annoying buzz every once in a while.

"You mean what happened with the copy machines and computer in the library?" Simon had a point, maybe it wasn't just my house. Could the Gremlins be invading other places? I thought back to Mom's trouble at work and with Dad too. And Syndi! "Wait a minute, Simon! Have you seen evidence anywhere else?"

"Just at school..." I could hear shuffling in the background and Simon came back on the line. "Here we go! It's on the news now: Statewide shutdown of DMV computers holds up lines for hours."

"No way!" This was too much. If this really was the work of the Gremlins then it was already too late. It was already affecting the rest of the state. But who would believe us and take our story seriously? I thought about what Dad said of his co-worker, Phil.

"We have to tell someone. I think I know who."

Simon shut the TV off in the background. "Who?"

I was about to answer when the phone started growling at me. There was a static sound that became an animal hiss. Then I heard the unmistakable sound of chattering on the other line.

"Simon? Do you hear me? Simon!" It was getting louder. And it wasn't just one voice but many others.

The phone clicked off and I was disconnected from Simon.

This was serious. What if the Gremlins had already invaded all of our electronic systems? Would Eerie shut down as well? What if the whole state of Indiana just shut down? It would be chaos. I couldn't help but think of an apocalyptic nightmare raging its way across the state, or even the entire USA. I had to do something and quick, before the whole world went into total chaos.

The next day I knew it was time for action. I took matters into my own hands and got the number of Dad's co-worker, Phil, from his Rollodex. For some reason, Dad never used an electronic database for his information but I think in this case that was a good idea.

After school Simon and I used the kitchen phone to make the call, since it didn't require a plug to work, like the cordless phone did. I didn't want to be interrupted by the Gremlins again and I especially didn't want them to overhear my plans for getting rid of them.

I had been grounded for the unfortunate grocery incident that wasn't my fault but Mom couldn't say no when Simon wanted to come over.

"Now you and Simon are not to go anywhere. You're officially grounded until we work out the payment for those groceries." Mom was gathering her things for work. She normally wasn't this strict but I could tell her job was stressing her out.

Dad left early for work again, coming home only to eat before he and Mom both left the house. Luckily Syndi was away too, so I didn't have to worry about her butting in.

As soon as they both left I told Simon my plan.

"Okay, I'm going to call Dad's co-worker, Phil, and tell him what's been going on. Hopefully he'll listen and believe at least some of what I'm saying." I picked up the phone and began dialing, hoping that this was still the current number.

Simon agreed to my plan but asked, "What's he going to do if he does believe you? Does he know how to stop the Gremlins?"

"I guess we'll find out." I dialed and waited for an answer.

It took a moment but someone picked up.

"Hi, is this Phil? You used to work at Things Incorporated?" It wasn't much of an introduction but I didn't know what else to say.

"Yes, that's right. Who's this?" A pleasant older male voice answered.

"My name's Marshall Teller. I'm wondering if you could help me. It may have something to do with a computer virus or something..." I looked to Simon to back me up. He nodded as I continued, "Um...something has been happening to our appliances and computers around here. Everything is going crazy. Would you know something about it?" I flailed around helplessly to explain the weirdness of the situation without freaking him out too much.

"Oh, yes. You mean the computers and appliances seem to have a mind of their own?" He seemed to know exactly what was going on.

"Yeah! It started around last week. It's even in the news with the DMV computers shutting down and stuff..."

"That's right. You must be talking about my Gremlins."

I couldn't believe my ears. "Did you just say YOUR Gremlins?" Simon nudged closer to hear what the guy was saying.

"My program that I had been working on before I was transferred. Unfortunately, I hadn't been able to perfect it but it seems the Gremlins have taken a notion to continue without me." I heard the man laugh and wondered if he had lost a few of his marbles. What kind of person would make a destructive program to wreak havoc on everyone?

"Listen, Mr. Phil... You gotta stop this. My Mom's job is at stake here and so is my Dad's..."

"Well, I warned them! I told them at Things Incorporated that only I knew how to stop the program. They just wouldn't listen to me."

"I'm sorry but you have to stop it now. Whatever you started has to end now."

"I'm afraid young man, that is not so simple. I don't work for Things Incorporated anymore, so it's not my problem. I work for someone else now..."

"But you have to do something! You're the only one who knows what's going on..."

"I have other things to attend to. My other project keeps me very busy. Now I must be going..."

I interrupted him, "Wait a minute! If you don't do something I'll tell everyone it was your fault!" Simon nodded vigorously. "You could even lose your job where you're at right now."

The man's voice changed from slightly pleasant to something more menacing. "And who's going to believe a child like you?"

"Don't underestimate me, I managed to track you down. I can also find proof of what you did. Dad keeps copies of everything at work, and not just on the computer. He keeps hard copies of most of his work." Some of what I said was true but it was a far catch from the truth. Truth was, Dad wasn't so organized and often lost most of his hard copies. But I had to somehow convince the crazy guy at the other end of the phone that he had to take responsibility for what he had done.

"How did you know it was the Gremlins?" The man's tone had changed into genuine curiosity.

"I saw a printout of the creature on Dad's database paper. And my friend Simon saw the creature on the TV screen too." I wanted to make myself seem knowledgable so I also added, "And I've been doing research on artificial intelligence in relation to computer algorithms and stuff."

"My, you are a smart young man! Perhaps I should reconsider and see what's been happening with my pet-project. I am rather curious as to how the Gremlins are behaving and it would be a chance to see how they have evolved."

This didn't make me feel relieved at all. A nut-case like this guy might only make things worse. So I decided to use more of my improvising. "Well, I told Dad all about it and he wants to talk to you about what you did."

"Oh really? Then why didn't he call me himself, instead of having his son take the task?"

Oops. I guess I didn't think of that...

Simon grimaced and quickly made a cutting motion across his neck. I got the message.

"All right, so I haven't told him yet. But he'll figure it out soon enough. He's been having trouble at work with the computers and even he could see a picture of a Gremlin in the numbers." I hoped this was true.

There was a moment of silence before the man answered again. "Very well. I shall come over and see for myself what's going on."

I hung up the phone after agreeing on a time that he would come over to the house when Mom and Dad would be home. It would be around dinner time.

"Oh no, I forgot!" I turned to Simon. "I was supposed to help Mom with dinner but she's not coming home until later because of the stupid computer thing at work."

Simon took a look at the kitchen. It was silent now but who knew what would happen when it was just the two of us cooking.

"Maybe you can order pizza?" Simon shrugged.

We all sat down to eat for dinner.

I had called Mom and just this once she said we could have pizza, as long as it came with a salad and no sodas.

"Um, Dad?" I looked over to Dad who was going over his paperwork. He still had his briefcase on his lap. Mom was also going through receipts on the dinner table, something she would never ordinarily do. Simon stayed for dinner and I thought this would be a good time to tell Dad about Phil. I opened my mouth to speak but just then the doorbell rang.

"Who could that be?" Mom looked up from her receipts, with her glasses perched at the end of her nose.

"I'll get it!" I ran to the door. When I opened it there was a man standing on our doorstep, bald with glasses, dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and kakis. He looked very non-nondescript and bland. But he smiled when I stepped aside.

"Hello, you must be Marshall. I'm Phil, of course." He extended his hand and I hastily shook it.

Dad came to the door, looking very perplexed. "Phil. What a surprise! What brings you here?" Dad shook Phil's hand as he came into the house.

Mom looked less than thrilled to see the man who had once put a virus into Dad's computer. "We're in the middle of dinner. You'll have to excuse us." She went back to looking at her receipts while shooting a distrustful glance at Phil every once in a while.

Phil didn't seem a bit put off with the situation. "I was in town and I thought I would stop by to say hello. I understand you're having problems with your computers at Things Incorporated?"

Dad nodded. "Yes, you heard about it then?" He continued while I took my seat at the table. I watched over my shoulder, wondering how I was going to confront Phil in front of everyone. Syndi was reading her magazine at the table and she only gave one glance at Phil before going right back to what she was doing.

Simon also watched as Dad handed Phil the computer printout and it was a short moment before Phil saw the Gremlin in the paper. His eyebrows went up and he threw a quick glance at me then nodded at my Dad.

"This does look serious. How long has this been going on?" Phil asked.

Dad explained what had been happening and he and Phil went into his office, which he shared with Mom, in the spare bedroom.

"It's certainly odd." Mom suddenly said to no one in particular.

"What's odd?" I asked. Simon finished up dinner and was getting ice cream from the freezer.

"It's odd that Phil would show up at this time, when everything is going crazy with our computers." Mom shook her head, still looking over her papers from work. "Hopefully he hasn't embedded another virus..."

Maybe I took it for granted that Mom and Dad didn't show any interest in the weirdness that surrounded them, but sometimes Mom could be very observant.

"What do you mean, Mom?"

"I was just joking, honey. No computer virus could be responsible for this entire mess. It would shut down the whole town!" Mom put the rest of her papers on the kitchen counter, making a big pile that almost toppled over.

"I heard the bank shut down today." Syndi spoke up. "It was on the news." She didn't look up from her magazine.

"When was this?" Mom got some bowls down for ice cream.

"This afternoon. Everyone was waiting in line but the ATMs weren't working either."

"That's strange! I hope it doesn't keep up. If we can't get money out we can't pay the bills or buy food." Mom took out some spoons and passed one to Simon, who helped himself to ice cream.

"Uh...I'll be right back." I excused myself from the table and went to see what Dad and Phil were doing.

I managed to walk in at the wrong moment because it seemed Dad and Phil were arguing about something.

"You're not taking their side about the intelligence program are you?" Phil had his hands on his hips, making him look really silly while Dad stood over him.

"Well, you were transferred awfully fast right after that. Not to mention the virus you installed on my computer..." Dad started.

"Now see here!"

"Uh, excuse me?" I interrupted them.

"What is it?" They both answered and stared at me.

"I'm the one who called Phil about the Gremlins." I decided to get it out in the open. With the sudden news of the banks going haywire, I knew I had to act quickly.

"Gremlins?" Dad adjusted his glasses. "Marshall, what are you talking about?"

"My program I made before I left." Phil clarified.

Dad looked flabberghasted, "I never heard of this!"

"Well, it was all very hush-hush. But just before I left, I decided to unleash it, using your computer..."

"Not again! All right, Phil. That's it! You're not getting me involved in this mess, whatever it's called." Dad marched out of the study.

"Wait, Dad! Phil's the only one who can stop this." I turned to Phil, "Right?"

"That depends..." Phil started, "On how far it's progressed and how many there are."

Clearly, Dad had had enough. "I'm getting on the phone to Things Incorporated and I'm reporting you to the TEA authorities."

"TEA authorities?" I asked.

"Technological Enforcement Agency, made after the invention of radio, an obscure branch of government..." Phil answered.

"Which you have just violated!" Dad went to pick up the cordless phone but as he finished dialing, the strange voices I had heard before came through the phone. "What on earth is this?" He put the phone back.

"It's the Gremlins, Dad. We have to stop them."

"I don't believe this nonsense! What Gremlins?" Dad just wouldn't believe me.

"Well, I don't have to suffer this treatment. I have better things to do." Phil went out of the study.

"Wait, you can't just leave. They're taking over. Pretty soon it will be too late." I begged and pleaded but it's hard when you're just a kid to convince grown-ups of the highly improbable.

"Frankly, I don't give a..." Phil didn't get a chance to finish his sentence because just then the lights went off.

"Edgar! Marshall! Bring some flashlights!" Mom called from downstairs.

This was not good. Had the Gremlins gotten into the electrical system? Were we forever going to be without power? How were we going to stop them now?

It took a while to find all the flashlights in the dark but we gathered downstairs at the dinner table to wait it out. Dad called some neighbors and they too had lost their power. It wasn't clear from the wind-up radio we used, just what was going on. There was no sign of a fuse blow-out but it was like the whole electrical system just shut down.

"It looks like we're stuck in the dark for now. Phil, maybe you better get home now." Dad turned the radio off.

"This looks serious." Phil deliberated for a moment then said, "I suppose I better try to stop this thing."

"What do you mean?" Mom asked. "You're saying you have something to do with this?" She held up the big heavy flashlight and I hoped she wouldn't hit Phil over the head with it.

"Marilyn, now don't get angry but I think what Phil is trying to say is..." Dad was trying to calm Mom down.

"Oh, I'm beyond angry. If Phil is somehow responsible for this disaster then he better well fix it!" She was holding the flashlight in a tighter grip.

Simon was still eating his second helping of ice cream, not wanting to waste the rest of it in case the stuff in the freezer melted. Syndi was doing the same but was less enthused with the task.

"How long will the electricity be off, anyway?" Syndi shoved another spoonful in her mouth.

"You don't think the Gremlins managed to shut down the whole system do you?" Simon said between mouthfuls of ice cream.

"Gremlins?" Mom asked.

Uh-oh. I gave Simon a look. Now we were going to get it.

Mom continued, "Oh, great. What's next? Big Foot digging through our trash?"

Simon almost choked on his ice cream.

"That is part of my program, the one I was working on before I was hastily transferred." Phil explained.

"But they're not actual Gremlins, Marilyn..." Dad interjected.

"Oh no, they are." Phil said.

Everyone except Simon and I stared at Phil.

"They are real Gremlins." Phil went on, "I mean they're not little elves in jumpsuits, they actually exist. I found out about them during the trial for the ATM program we were working on. So I thought I would lure them out with a little program I created, also named Gremlins. But this turned out rather different." Phil went deep in thought. "I never thought they would go this far. Then again, we really do rely on a lot of technology to run our lives. The Gremlins must be learning more. They are getting smarter."

"All right, Phil. I think you better explain your part in this and how you're going to stop these, Gremlins." Dad took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He was really upset.

Mom looked like she was seriously debating whether or not to hit Phil over the head with her flashlight. She still had an iron grip on it.

Syndi looked bored and finished her ice cream. "Is the ice cream in the freezer going to melt? Should we finish it?"

Mom sighed and got up with her. "I've had enough of this nonsense. Edgar, you deal with this." She helped herself to some ice cream along with Syndi.

Simon finished the rest of his ice cream too. "So how're you going to stop the Gremlins, Mr. Phil?"

"Honestly, I really don't know." Phil answered.

"Well, you created the program, just un-create it. Delete it, erase it, make it go away!" Dad put his glasses back on.

"You know as well as I do, that won't work. Once a program like that is started there's no stopping it. Unless you had another program..." Phil trailed off.

I decided to put my two cents in. "Well, how does this Gremlin program work? How did you lure the real Gremlins in the first place?"

"There's no such thing as a Gremlin, Marshall." Dad got up and surprisingly helped himself to ice cream.

"That's the last of the ice cream. And the rest of our groceries are going to go to waste." Mom threw the carton away.

Phil spoke, "They love puzzles. They like to figure things out. I started with a simple equation, a game really. You know the rubrics cube? Well, I used a digital replica of it and they solved it."

"I thought Gremlins only destroy things?" Simon leaned his head on his hands, listening intently.

"Those are only the fictional Gremlins. Real Gremlins are smart. They're not exactly a virus, more like a parasite that lives off of a host. It can't live without a power source but they travel awfully fast, so they always have access to something." Phil explained.

"I still don't believe all this. How did they shut everything down?" Dad asked.

"They must've figured out a way once they got inside the system. All of it, is just like a huge puzzle for them. So much information travels along tiny wires, like the speed of light, the speed of information is almost unending. It's always moving." Phil was starting to get philosophical and I didn't want to get lost in the conversation.

"So if we can't stop them, what do we do?" I asked.

"Nothing. It seems I've unleashed Pandora's Box." Phil finally said.

"You mean, you didn't even know what you were doing when you started to lure these Gremlins?" Mom asked. "What exactly is the purpose of making the program in the first place?"

Phil thought for a moment. "To see what it does."

That really wasn't much of an explanation but I guess that was the job of most scientists, to mess around with stuff to see how it worked, even if it messed everything else up in the process. It was also kind of scary, if scientists didn't know what they were doing, wouldn't that be a big mistake?

Mom dug into her ice cream, jabbing into the bowl with her spoon.

Dad took a few spoonfuls into his mouth, deep in thought before he spoke. "Why do they like puzzles?"

Phil shrugged. "Probably to see if they can solve them. They love picking things apart. They are so intelligent. We can really learn a lot from them."

"Yeah, like how to jam everything up." I had also more than enough of the conversation that was going nowhere. It seemed we were all stuck on a problem we couldn't solve. The Gremlins had won after all.

"We're stuck." Dad said.

Phil nodded.

But Dad spoke again. "We're really stuck." He put down his spoon then turned to Phil. "You remember when you put that PI equation into the computer? It got our systems stuck? We finally had to shut everything down and start over."

"You think someone would've learned from that experience." Mom looked pointedly at Phil.

"Yes, of course I remember." Phil ignored Mom and continued. "I wanted to see if there was a pattern to PI. I believe that PI holds the key to our universe."

Mom sighed and shook her head.

"What's PI?" Syndi asked.

"It is the ratio of a circle's circumference divided by its diameter." Dad explained rapidly.

Mom, Syndi, Simon and I all had the same clueless expression on our faces.

"You can find Pi when you divide a circle by its diameter and you get the equation, 3.14 followed by billions upon billions of digits. PI is an irrational number, with an infinite number of digits that don't repeat themselves or seem to have any pattern."

Mom and Syndi nodded but Simon and I were still kind of lost. And I thought boys were supposed to be better at math...

"Uh, so PI is supposed to be some unsolvable puzzle?" I tried to make sense of it.

"That's right." Dad nodded. "No one has cracked the code yet, if there is one. It just goes on and on seemingly forever."

Phil steepled his fingers together under his chin, lost in thought. He must've known what PI was but he looked like he was trying to figure something out. "That's it. That's the answer." He finally said.

"Oh, so have you cracked the code of the universe yet? Maybe you can fix this mess and get our electricity back on." Mom got up to put her dish in the sink.

"I've got it!" Phil shouted out. We all jumped. "We'll give the Gremlins something to work on that'll take them eons to finish!"

"You want the Gremlins to try to solve PI?" Dad asked. He looked doubtful.

"It just might work. It's a puzzle that's never been solved," Phil got up from the couch. "If we can get them to take the bait, they'll be stuck on it. And we'll have everything back to normal."

"Wait a minute, I still don't understand how these Gremlins got here in the first place? Was it just a computer virus?" Mom asked.

"These Gremlins are real. A living, thinking entity that can move through data and energy, forming a symbiotic but destructive partnership with all that it comes in contact with." Phil clarified.

"Never mind." Mom waved him off, "Are you sure this will work?"

"Only one way to find out. Let's get the computer..." Dad stopped, "Wait. The electricity is still off. How will we connect to the system? My laptop is at work and everything else is shut down."

"The only way to get it to them is through some electronic means." Phil sighed. "Well, it was an idea anyway. I guess we really can't stop them."

Just when it seemed like there was no hope at all the lights came back on.

"Hey, the lights are on!" Simon cried out.

Dad looked at Phil and they quickly ran upstairs to the computer in the guest office bedroom. Simon and I followed.

"Quick before the electricity goes off again!" Dad booted the computer up and then Phil typed a complicated program using something that looked like DOS.

Mom and Syndi ran up too and hovered in the hallway, waiting to see what would happen. As Simon and I watched the furious typing of Phil's program, we could only hope that it would work and that the program would get to the Gremlins before another electricity outage.

"I don't understand. If the Gremlins travel by electricity, why would they cut the electricity?" Dad asked absentmindedly.

"It was probably a mistake. Too much high-speed traveling of the Gremlins overloaded the circuits and major fuses of the electricity system." Phil explained after he finished typing. "That should do it. I put the equation for PI in, now all we have to do is..."

The lights went out again.

"Oh no!" Mom threw hands up in exasperation. "How long is this going to last?"

"Did it work?" Dad asked Phil.

"If it got sent then it should work. If not, then there's nothing else we can do." Phil answered grimly.

"So, how will we know if the Gremlins got the PI puzzle or not?" I asked.

"It could take hours before they all latch onto the puzzle problem. Hopefully, the rest of the state isn't shut down by now." Phil shrugged. "It also depends what they decide to do once they get the puzzle. It could also turn out that they'll have to use more of their resources, electricity that is, to solve the PI equation."

"Wait a minute, you mean, we may have made this problem worse? The Gremlins are going to use every energy source available to solve this?" Dad asked. He took off his glasses and closed his eyes, rubbing them vigorously with his hand. He only did that when we was really tired and upset.

"I don't believe this!" Mom came over and was gesturing wildly to Phil, who was shifting nervously around, in case Mom decided to smack him over the head. "Why didn't you tell us sooner that these Gremlins were going to mess everything up, before you did your stupid PI puzzle?"

Syndi had handed a flashlight to Simon. "Okay, I'm going back downstairs". She announced to no one in particular.

"Well, I'll know what to tell the authorities and who to blame when this is all over." Mom turned away from Phil. "Come on, Simon. Let's wait downstairs." She took the flashlight from Simon.

Simon looked over his shoulder at me and shrugged. I guess there wasn't much else to do but wait. I turned to Dad, "Um, I'll be downstairs too. Let me know if it works." Dad just nodded and Phil had his arms crossed against his chest.

As I left I could hear Phil say something and Dad answering back, "I don't want to hear it...". After a short while Dad came downstairs too.

After what seemed like an hour but was only twenty minutes, Mom turned the radio back on. But there was nothing to suggest that the outside world knew what was going on. We were the only ones who knew about the Gremlins, it seemed.

As Mom was about to shut the radio off, there was a loud buzzing noise coming from it. Had the Gremlins infiltrated the radio station too? I guess it was already too late...

Just then the lights came on again but began blinking on and off, like the electricity was going haywire. All of a sudden, every appliance and electronic device that was hooked up to a plug began to go crazy. The buzzer from the oven in the kitchen sounded, as well as the microwave.

Dad jumped up and started unplugging everything he could get his hands on. "Hurry, before it overloads our appliances." He moved the fridge and unplugged it as it started rocking back and forth.

Mom cut in, "Just remember to plug it back in later!" I knew she didn't know what to make of this either so she just sat where she was on the couch. Syndi also was perplexed about what to do and asked, "What's going on?"

Simon was helping Dad while I had been distracted by the TV. "Look!" I pointed to the screen where rows of digits flew past in view, like a huge snaking ticker-tape.

"That must be the equation PI!" Dad studied the TV for a moment.

Phil shouted from upstairs, "Edgar! The Gremlins have got the puzzle! It's working!" Dad and I ran up to see what was going on. The same row of numbers were on the computer screen, scrolling really fast, before the printer turned itself on and began printing out the numbers. Dad quickly unplugged it so as not to waste paper. Billions and billion of digits would use up a lot of paper, if it didn't run out of ink first.

The lights had been dimmed and not fully on but then they got brighter. Suddenly the ticker-tape of numbers stopped scrolling on the computer screen.

"It can't be done yet, it would take them years to make so much progress..." Phil tapped around on the keyboard but nothing was happening.

"I think my computer got overloaded and shut off." Dad started messing with the computer, turning it off then rebooting it.

"Hey, you guys! The news is on TV!" Simon ran in.

We all went downstairs and watched as a reporter gave the news about the mysterious black-out in Eerie and the rest of the state of Indiana. No one else knew what had happened and blamed it on excessive use of electricity.

"I have a mind to call those news people and tell them what really happened." Mom took the cordless phone from the cradle and was about to dial.

"And who would believe you?" Phil looked really smug, which only made Mom madder. She approached him but Dad held her back.

"Wait a second, Marilyn. We better not tell anyone else about this..." Dad tried to calm her down.

"Why not? That guy shut down the entire state with his stupid Gremlins!" Mom held the phone in a tight grip.

"It's just that our jobs could be at stake here. If they found out it was my computer that brought the Gremlins in...I could be an accomplice." Dad pushed his glasses up his nose. "Plus, Phil works for another company and I don't think they'd be too pleased to hear what happened."

"Who cares about him? He's the one who started this! Is he going to take responsibility or not?" Mom stared at Phil.

Dad turned to Phil and folded his arms across his chest, waiting for an answer.

"Well, if this is the thanks I get for coming around to help you people, then I may as well leave." Phil turned around to go but I stopped him.

"Um, Mr. Phil...it's just that Dad is right. He almost lost his job once with the ATM thing and if his company finds out about these Gremlins, he may really be in trouble." I didn't know what else to say but it really was this guy, Phil, who had started all this.

"It certainly wasn't my intention to start any of this whole mess. Things just got out of control and I had warned them at Things Incorporated but they wouldn't listen!" Phil sounded like he was trying to lay blame anywhere but on himself.

"Well, I certainly hope that you're future projects don't involve sabotaging our electricity or banks." Dad seemed to be finished with the conversation. "I'm going up to bed now. I've had just about enough of this."

"I would do nothing of the sort," Phil interjected. "I'm doing something entirely different. For your information I've just finished a new energy patent. Pretty soon, we'll be getting all our energy resources from viruses."

"Oh not again!" Mom shook her head and stood at the stairs. "You never learn, do you, Phil?"

"No, not computer viruses. Live ones, like the viruses in our bodies. We'll carry all the energy we need to power batteries, tracking devices and internal health monitors." Phil nodded as if he were a genius but I couldn't help thinking that maybe he was a bit crazy. What sort of tracking devices was he talking about? And who was he working for?

Mom had had enough. "Simon call your parents and tell BOTH of them that you're spending the night here. It's already nine o'clock and you two need to get ready for bed. Upstairs, Marshall. Phil can show himself out." With that she went upstairs, along with Syndi.

"Um, just a quick question...Who do you work for again?" I had forgotten to ask what his job was.

"I'm afraid that's classified. I work for the government now." Phil turned to leave but I stopped him.

"Look, Phil. I know you're trying to make life better for people with your inventions but don't you think stuff like that is dangerous? I mean, what if it gets into the wrong hands or people don't know what to do with it? I mean, look what happened with the Atomic bomb..." I tried to make it clear to him but I don't think he got it.

"There's no holding science or the curiosity of man back, young man. Once it's unleashed, there's no telling what we can accomplish." Phil seemed to have made his own point and walked to the door.

I couldn't help thinking that once science and curiosity's unleashed, there's no stopping it either. But I guess some people have to find that out the hard way.

I watched him leave from the window, watching as the street lamp lit the way, wondering about the power of electricity and how lost we are without it. I never realized how much we rely on it until now or how it ever got to this point where we took so much technology for granted, without even knowing how it all works. There was definitely a lesson to learn from this, somehow.

After the whole Gremlin incident, life pretty much returned to normal, at least normal as you can be while living in Eerie.

Mom got her receipts and paperwork straightened out at work and decided to ditch her electronic daily planner for a nice floral patterned pocket book planner.

Syndi aced her typing test by using an old non-electric typewriter Mom dug out of the attic, an old Eerie Bell model. I didn't even know it was there, which makes me wonder what else is buried in our attic that I haven't noticed.

Dad managed to smooth things out at work also and no one else was the wiser after the Gremlin incident. He showed me the paper print-out to show me things were back to normal, but of course I couldn't understand any of the rows of numbers which meant something to him.

Simon and I also had our own lesson from the Gremlin incident and have decided to ditch our own electronic devices for something more mechanized. I use an old wind-up clock that has an even louder bell than the electronic buzzer, to wake me up in the morning.

I'm also getting better at cooking and have thought up some pretty good cold dishes that don't require cooking like: Thai peanut soy salad, guacamole dip, and cucumber salad with rice vinegar. Okay, so all of them are vegetarian and I got them from Syndi's dieting magazine. But it's a start, right?

When Mom threw out her electronic planner, I used it as evidence. Simon turned it on and read the horoscope.

"Never take things in life for granted and be careful watt you wish for." Simon looked at it again, "Hey, it's spelled wrong, it should be W-H-A-T not W-A-T-T." I took the electronic planner from him and read the horoscope again. It was definitely spelled wrong. But was it on purpose? Simon shrugged and put a tag on it before I locked it in the secret cabinet with my key.

"We're going to need another secret cabinet pretty soon." Simon said. It was really getting full.

"Yeah, I'll ask Mom later." I put the key on my necklace back under my shirt. "Hey, we're going to play some board games after dinner, do you want to join?"

Simon smiled, "Sure."

Mom had found some board games under the shelves when she put back the flashlights and was inspired to have a family game night instead of watching TV. I guess we all had enough of electronic devices for a while.

I never found out what happened to Phil and Dad never brought him up or the strange Gremlin incident again. But I still wonder if those Gremlins are working out the puzzle of PI, if there is one, and what they will find. I guess they're still floating around in electronic space somewhere, working out their strange logic on the world's most unsolvable mathematical equation.

If the answer is anywhere, it'll probably be in Eerie, Indiana. The center of weirdness for the entire planet, and quite possibly the entire universe.

13 13
(0 0)
88
666
1111111111
11 0000 11
111 000 111
000
11 11
111 111
1111 1111