iViz 1.0

“Please look at the x in the centre.”, the voice in my head said.

“Please look at the x on the upper left.”

“Please look at the x on the lower right.”

“Congratulations, your new phone is ready to use.”

I looked up at the associate wearing the solid color T-shirt with the store logo in the centre. “Is that it?”, I asked. “Yes”, she replied. “In a few minutes your apps will download and your data will sync from the cloud. Simply think ‘menu’ and you’ll see.” As soon as she said ‘menu’, my view filled with app icons and I could see them progressively become brighter.

“See? There you go. I’m going to disconnect the sharing so you will have some privacy.”, Susan said. I could see that ‘Susan’ was her name as it appeared in front, as I looked at her.

“What happens next?”, asked Susan. She gestured toward the seating area where some other new users were seated, staring off at their own iVision Pros. “You’ll want to take a seat while your body adjusts to the new views. It can be a little disorienting at first. I stumbled as I tried to walk to the seating area. Gerry caught my arm to stop my fall. He said, “Think focus, to dismiss the menu view.” I did and I could continue to the comfy couch and take a seat. As I sat down, I glanced at Gerry and realized that his name was actually the letter G followed by a cherry icon.

“Oh” I said, “I thought your name was Gerry for a sec.” He said that it was and that I could customize my own name displayed if I downloaded the Namy Name app from the VAS. He noticed my confusion and said. “Oh sorry, the iViz app store.” Don’t worry, he continued, new synapses will start to form as the newb info synced in. Wow, I thought, “am going to turn into one of those iZombies because of the iViz I just bought?” I worried that might happen if I took this job, but it was a requirement.

I wondered how long it would take, when suddenly directions to my house appeared in front of me, causing me to jerk my head back suddenly. Good thing I was already sitting down! A message popped up next. “Hey, I’m Matt. Did you want to go home?”, Matt said. His face appeared and I could see the Uber V logo superimposed. “Uh, yes” I stammered. “I see you’ve only had your iViz up for 10 minutes. Do you want me to come get you?” I thought that might be a good idea, and said so.

This was like a dream but I was fully awake. As I imagined things, they appeared in front of me, dismissing the previous visualizations. One second my email would appear, then my friends meta post about his dog, my feed from Twitter and finally I saw a pop up to say that Matt had arrived and was making his way to get me. I wondered about the message from my employer, the next episode of Dr Who, when my next hockey game was coming up, what to get my mom for her birthday, an add for a sale at Amazon, my drivers license, then my car in the parking garage, the Youtube show schedule popped in front. I yelled out, “Make it stop!”.

Gerry was standing over me with both thumbs pressed firmly behind my ears. “There you go.”, he said. “Next time just think ‘Exit’”, he said or I could press my thumbs behind my ears. It had only been 15 minutes, since the iViz was installed but it felt like an hour. They had recommended that I stick with the default 5 minute session, but I had assured them I could handle it. Both Gerry and Matt were looking at me, smiling down and enjoying my discomfort. “Common buddy”, Matt said, “You can try some more while I drive you home’.

• I wrote this as part of NaNoWriMo. It was my first attempt at fiction.