And on and on, progressing from one-digit, to two-digit, and eventual y three-digit numbers.
“Neat!” Jack said. “When wil it stop?”
“Never—unless I tel it to.”
“You mean it’l count to infinity?”
“If I let it.”
“That’s great, Dad,” Tom said, his voice dripping sarcasm. “But what’s it good for?”
“Nothing. I’m teaching myself BASIC, and this is a demonstration of a program cal ed an infinite loop.” He patted his Apple. “Here’s the future, kids. I’ve
got forty-eight K of RAM—could have gotten sixty-four, but I can’t imagine ever needing
Jack had some idea of what he was talking about—he’d been helping Steve Brussard build a Heathkit H-89 computer—but he had a lot to learn.
As Tom, Kate, and Jack returned to the kitchen, Tom whispered, “The future of
his head. “Dad’s gone off the deep end.”
“Oh, yeah,” Kate said. “Like you’d know a thing about it.”
“Remember when he said Betamax would last and VHS would fade away? This is the same thing—a dead end.”
The crossing topics of computers and VCRs brought to mind the tape Jack had rented last month:
The story was kind of boring but cool to watch.
“I think it’s neat,” he said.
Tom pointed to Jack. “Hear that? Miracle boy thinks it’s neat. I guess I’l have to revise my opinion.”
Then, with one swift motion, Tom swept Jack’s shel ed pistachios off the counter and popped them into his mouth.
“Hey!”
“What?” Tom said, chewing. “Were those yours?”
“You know they were!”
Jack raised a fist and started toward him—Tom was bigger but Jack didn’t care. Anger had taken control.
Kate stepped between them. “That was pretty lame.”
“What? They were just lying there.” He grinned at Jack over Kate’s shoulder. “Want ‘em back?”
Jack started for him again, but Kate held him back. He could have pushed her aside but no way he’d do that to Kate.
As Tom sauntered out, Jack said, “Bastard.”
“Don’t let Mom hear that,” Kate said.
“Wel , he is.”
“Immature is more like it.” She ruffled Jack’s hair. “You rocked his world when you were born. He was cock of the walk around here for ten years, and
then Mom’s ‘miracle boy’ arrived. I don’t think he’s ever gotten over it. A bad case of arrested development.”
“How about you?”
She laughed. “Are you kidding? You were a baby, a real, live baby. Suddenly I didn’t have to play make- believe with dol s anymore, I had the real thing to
care for. I was in heaven.” She hugged him. “I thought you were the best thing that ever happened to me. I stil do, Jackie.”
“Jack, Kate.
Jack lay in bed reading a copy of
stacks of old magazines and let Jack take home a couple at a time to read—”As long as you return them in the condition you received them.”
Jack had already read the half-dozen copies of
rip-off, copying the slouch hat and the bil owing black cape, but a different kind of guy. Jack had thought the Shadow was cool, but the Spider was even
