Tyler thought Alfred might be a dud foster dad just like the others but at least he had gotten Tyler a Christmas present.
Tyler tore off the wrapping paper, and as each layer fell off, ads jumped off at him through his bio-implant contact lenses. This is why they had even let poor kids like him have lens implants: the ads. One of them digitally jumped towards him and he moved his head to avoid it. Christmas tree needles poked the back of his head and one of the ornaments blinged a catchy advertisement jingle behind him.
He could see a virtual balloon rising out of the box and he squished it with his gloved hands. He felt the simulated resistance from his "mandi-gloves" until it burst with virtual confetti and a festive sound whizzed around him from his "ear-echo" bio-implants. There in the air hovered a shiny treasure box. Of course it was just a virtual object.
Alfred spoke up, "It's a software upgrade to all your bio-implants, big guy."
Tyler's skepticism tempered his hopes, 'this still doesn't mean he wants to be my dad.'
He motioned with his gloves like he was opening it and suddenly the whole room pulsed light for a moment and a satisfying "level up" bling sounded and a glitter visual swooshed around him.
"Thanks Alfred," Tyler said and looked at him.
Alfred smiled and nodded. "You'll never have to look at all those ads and be surrounded by all those distractions ever again. He has nothing to sell us. It'll take a year or two for your synapses to really finish rewiring to match the bio software but then you're probably gonna see a lot more good in the world. He has finally made all this software free."
"That's why...?"
"Yep, that's what caused the war. No one else wanted to give it to everyone for free." Alfred leaned in and with his most sincere smile he said, "But he does."
"I have another present for you, Tyler." Alfred handed him a real box this time from under the tree. "He has even been revolutionizing DNA re-sequencing technology," Alfred talked as Tyler unwrapped the box. What he really wanted for Christmas wasn't DNA or Implants.
"He seems to know everything about our DNA. And the upgrades teach our bodies to heal themselves and fight off diseases. In your case your diabetes will now go away. He really does make all things new." Alfred put his hand on Tyler's shoulder. "This is what's going to save our wildlife and plants and world too. He's re-engineering the world to thrive again."
Tyler then broke the seal on the inner most packaging and lifted a cold strip of material like skin in front of him.
"It's a patch like the others. You just put it on your stomach like the last ones. It will heal into your skin and add the DNA your body needs." Alfred helped peel it off and apply it firmly to Tyler's stomach.
Tyler didn't understand everything that happened when the new guy had taken over, just that it started a big war. But it wasn't nation against nation. People in each house turned against each other. 'The battle to end all battles,' Alfred had called it. Alfred had set Tyler's media filters to weed out pretty much everything about the war. But it was started by someone who's name started with J, or maybe a Y. It was confusing because different people pronounced it differently.
"Tyler, you're going to grow up in a far better world than I did."
"Will you be in that world with me?"
Alfred nodded and said, "I think so. He says he is releasing the age patch soon."
That isn't what Tyler was asking, but Alfred continued. "He knows how to tell the body to do everything. I never thought the prophesies would come through a combo of technology and servant leadership."
"But you said a lot of people have died because of him. It sounds like he has brought a worse world."
"For a time it had to be cleaned of the bad." Alfred said this as if everyone he knew had suffered a high cost for it. "He gave them all a very obvious choice. To trust in him, or not. Many did not. They didn't think he was more powerful than them until he said he had to take away 'his spirit' from them. And then like a fire crawling across the world, random people started losing their will to live. You could see the humanity and joy of life just leave them. No crying. No laughing. They even stopped eating nutritious food. They only wanted candy and drugs and too much sleep and bad stuff like that until those folks just sort of languished and died."
"Why didn't they believe him if he was so good?"
"Some maybe because they didn't want to lose their own control. Or do the things he wanted them to do. But he said they needed to obey him if they wanted to live in a good world. Some people were scared to lose themselves."
"Because of what the medicines would do?"
"Because they were afraid of being changed. Of being healed, but they didn't know it. It's going to be a much better world. A new leader has come. One we can finally trust."
"How do you know? I heard some people called him an alien."
"In a way he is. Though he is a man, he came from above. He knows all things about us."
"How does he know that?"
"He says it's because he designed us. It's really strange. But everything he does seems to prove it. He has a power and knowledge no one else has ever shown before." Alfred picked up Tyler and set him on his lap. "From everything I've heard, he's a very hard man on bad things. But he seems oh so good for everything else. Not only the best leader I've ever heard of. But the best, most powerful human, and he has finally come."
"How do you know he's the best human?"
"Because no one else was able to clear away all the red tape that was keeping me from adopting you." Alfred smiled until Tyler realized what this meant. Tyler leaned in and gave Alfred a long hug, letting his renewing heart start to heal with his renewing body and renewing mind.
-Raw Spoon, Day after Christmas, 2021
