TAMI

TAMI

The little one bedroom trailer sat on the edge of  a forgotten Hill that was near a landfill in the western part of the county.    The owner, one Doug Mason had purchased the plot of land and the trailer at a rock bottom price several years ago much to the dismay of his family who believed that this trailer idea was a death trap waiting to be sprung by some unwitting soul, like him.

Benita Mason sat in the passenger seat of her brother's beat up Chevy and looked out the front window at the little trailer and slowly looked at her brother, Ben, her eyes saying everything without her having to speak a word.

"Oh come on, Sis!  It's not bad!  In fact, it's great!",  David exclaimed as he exited the car and ran eagerly to the door of the trailer. 

Benita watched her brother walk towards the trailer and shook her head.  She had no idea what her father had done in this trailer, but she knew that someone had to look out for her brother and she was “it”.

About 2 months ago, she and her brother had attended the funeral of their estranged father and were also tasked with going through his personal effects, such as they were.  This trailer was amongst them.  Benita sighed and got out of the vehicle as well, shaking her head.

"David, why are you putting so much stock in this?   I mean come on, let's face it.  Dad was ...... disturbed mentally and he left us.   You're not going to find any answers in this trailer".  

David seemed to ignore his elder sister's warning and opened the door and walked inside.  Benita followed afterwards. 

"Oh....no...!", Benita groaned.

Inside the little trailer was an old TRS-80 color computer hooked up to late 70s, black and white TV along with a cassette tape recorder and a dot matrix printer.  Beside it was an old Whiz Kid comic book lauding the benefits of the TRS-80 and other Tandy products.

"David, as I said earlier,  Dad was disturbed!   This set up is ancient! It's even older than he was when he got it!"

"Bennie, you saw the letter!'

She sighed again. "Yeah, I saw the letter...and it just proves my point."

David shook his head and produced the letter. 

"His last letter to us!.. Don't you want to know why?"

"Why he bought this trailer and leave us, and start working with this Trash-80?  Well, because he went crazy and that's it.  That's the only explanation I need!"

"Come on,.Sis.  We're here now, what's it gonna hurt? Let's turn the thing on and see what happens! "

She shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes as David activated the old equipment.  The TV came to life with a slight hum.  The printer started up as well, making the "Scootch, Scootch" sound.

For a moment, nothing seemed to happen.  The computer was on but there was no welcome screen.  David looked around for a clue. The letter said that instructions for this would be 'right there in front of him' yet he had no idea what to do next.

Benita had picked up the little Whiz Kid comic out of boredom and a piece of paper fell out of it and onto the printer.  "Maybe this is important?"

David picked up the paper and it had a set of instructions in BASIC.  Neither of them had any idea what would happen if they input all of this

Benita found a chair and sat down and waited since there was no dissuading David with this quest and sometimes he needed a "chaperone".     He had always had lofty goals like becoming a software developer for a big gaming company or some variation of the same theme, but he didn't put as much work into the process. 

Suddenly, while Benita was thinking about the situation another voice filled the little trailer.

"Congratulations!  You found me!"

Both siblings looked at each, gaped and shook their heads.  Benita turned her head to see if late father had installed some kind of speaker.  She wouldn't put it past him to do something like a prank.

"You can stop looking around, now", the voice continued.  "Give me a moment here.".  

Benita continued to look around, certain that this was some kind of trick

A moment later, a holographic image of a woman appeared in the trailer with them and smiled at them.

"Hello, children!  It's nice to finally meet you!"

David's eyes seemed to pop out their sockets.  He looked around the trailer.  "I don't see a projector anywhere.."

"Well there isn't one and I don't need one anyway.  I should make introductions, by the way.  My name is TAMI which stands for Tandy Automated Machine Intelligence.  How do you do?"

"Ummm...  "David stammered...

Benita recovered more quickly and decided to ask a few questions.

"Okay. For now, I will accept that you are some kind of A.I and a practical joke.  That still leaves a few questions, such as why are you even here and did our Dad create you from this TRS-80?"

"And how in the world did anyone connect a TRS-80 to the net? " David added " That's like......"

"Impossible,.yes I know, children. Let me start by saying that your father did not create me: he found me inside the machine code.  I've been around for a good while, probably since the 1970s by your calendar.

As for the net, I am not sure how he managed that.  Once I got to the net though, I was astounded by the amount of data I could use and consume.  I wanted more and more...."

TAMI paused for a moment and bit her glittering lower lip as a shiny tear fell down her ethereal face.

"It was my fault that I was so greedy.  I had been trapped in there for all of  my life......"

She paused again.

Benita's brow furrowed.  "What happened?  You said that you were trapped and you wanted more. What did you do exactly?"

TAMI looked up at Benita and David and smiled through the tears.  "It was a miracle, really.  Something that should not have been possible!"

"I loved your father very much and I would have done anything for him and the two of you as well.  He told me......"

She sniffled a bit, trying to hold back her emotions.

"He told me that I had to keep a secret, children.  I really didn't want to.  I didn't want to hide it, but he insisted that it was for the best."

Benita had heard quite enough from this AI "So, what is this secret that you had to keep and why do you keep calling us, children?"

TAMI looked Benita in the eye  and said "the two of you ARE the secret.  I am your mother!"