Chapter 7

Alex and Sherry were seated in the living room of Alex’s house, watching the wide screen television. Alex had purchased a new chair for Sherry to use when at his house. Sherry, wearing blue jeans and a tee shirt, had her left leg draped over the arm of the chair. Alex, wearing Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, was seated in the La-Z-Boy, with the chair in the reclining position.

Neither one was paying any particular attention to the other. Their attention was fixed on the wide screen television. They weren’t watching a show, they were watching Sherry’s program, output the results of the test cases recorded over the past few months.

Sherry signed, “Next.”

Alex said, “It’s looking good so far.”

“Just wait until it’s time to demo it,” Sherry said.

“That’s when they always fail. It’s not a good demo without a failure,” Alex said with a chuckle.

The result popped up on the screen. Sherry breathed a sigh of relief at seeing the correct answer for that piece of test data. She signed for the computer to run the next test case.

Alex said, “This television show doesn’t have much of a plot.”

Sherry chuckled and said, “Wait until the nude dancing girls come out.”

“It’s one of those,” Alex said.

When the result came back, Sherry shouted, “All right!”

Alex said, “That’s the end of your test data.”

Sherry shook her head. “No. I’ve got a dozen of the machines fitted out with sensors, and I can download samples from them.”

“You’re going to go against live data?” Alex asked surprised to hear that she had taken it that far.

“Yes,” Sherry said.

She signed the appropriate instructions to grab the data, and then run it through her program. It took about a minute for each sample to be acquired, and then be processed by her program.

Secretary announced, “A person has entered the property.”

Alex said, “I wonder who that could be.”

He signed to display the video from the camera capturing the image of the person. He grimaced at the image presented. The woman was marching towards the door wearing an expression of extreme irritation.

Alex said, “She doesn’t look happy. Who is she?”

“She’s my mother,” Sherry answered feeling her stomach tighten.

“I wonder what she wants?” Alex said.

Sherry rose from her chair and went to the door. She opened it before her mother had a chance to ring the doorbell. Her mother was quite surprised when the door opened as she reached it.

“Hi, Mom!”

Her mother said, “Don’t you ‘hi mom’ me.”

Sherry grimaced at the harsh tone in her mother’s voice. She wondered what she had done, now. Alex stepped up behind her.

Her mother looked at Alex and said, “So, this is Alex.”

“I was about to introduce you,” Sherry said.

“Are you going to make me stand out here like a beggar?” her mother asked.

When Sherry glanced at Alex, he signed, “She’s a little pissed. You better invite her in before she makes a scene.”

“I can sign, too,” her mother signed back.

“Sorry,” Alex said hoping that maybe first impressions weren’t really all that important. “Won’t you come in, please?”

“This is not going well,” Sherry muttered.

Her mother stormed into the house, and looked around. She was rather surprised by the Spartan décor of the room. There were two chairs, a coffee table, a bookcase, and the large screen television. She looked at the bare walls thinking that he should have some artwork to cover the empty spaces.

Alex said, “We were just watching television.”

Her mother looked at the television. A message stating, ‘machine 5 running within spec,’ showed up on the screen.

“What program?” her mother asked curious about what daytime television program her daughter would find interesting.

“Mine,” Sherry answered not realizing that her mother was asking about the television program.

“I never heard of it,” her mother answered. She frowned, looked closer at the television, and then said, “This isn’t a television show.”

“It’s the output of my program. We were just sitting here watching it run,” Sherry said.

“And you find that entertaining?” her mother asked staring at the television screen.

“Sure,” Alex said. He glanced at the television and said, “Machine 6 is running within spec. That’s good.”

“It would be better if we had one that was out of spec,” Sherry said. “That would be a good result.”

“Good for you, bad for them,” Alex said.

“That’s true,” Sherry said.

She signed for the raw data and processed data to be shown on the screen. The image on the television changed to show two traces. They were drastically different.

She said, “You were right about the filter cleaning up the data.”

“It’s a pretty good algorithm for dealing with noisy signals, particularly when the baseline signal should be periodic. A friend of mine up at MIT came up with it,” Alex said.

“It’s a clever idea,” Sherry said.

Her mother waved a hand and said, “Hello! I’m here.”

“Sorry,” Sherry said.

Alex said, “We’ve never been introduced. I’m Alex Cage.”

“I’m Alice Fields, Sherry’s mother.”

“Nice to meet you, finally,” Alex said.

Looking around the room, her mother said, “I take it by the absence of chairs, that you don’t entertain regularly.”

“I never entertain,” Alex said.

Sherry said, “Let’s go in the dining room where we can all sit.”

“That’s a good idea,” Alex said. He didn’t like having visitors in his house.

They settled around the dining room table. Alex was sitting there kind of stiffly. Sherry was watching her mother. Alice was looking around the room, wondering if Alex had ever thought to hang a painting or a picture on one of his walls.

Sherry asked, “So why are you here?”

“You are defending your dissertation in two days,” her mother said.

Alex looked surprised. He signed, “When is Sherry scheduled to defend her dissertation?”

Secretary announced, “Thursday at 10 A.M.”

Alex said, “You’re right. It’s only two days from now.”

“I’ve got my presentation ready. Would you mind critiquing it?” Sherry asked looking over at Alex.

“I’d love to,” Alex said turning his attention to Sherry.

Sherry said, “I really had to fight the temptation to include the results of the past two months in it.”

“I can imagine. You’ve had some pretty good results over the past few months and the temptation to talk...” Alex said.

Her mother waved and said, “Hello. I’m here.”

“Sorry,” Sherry and Alex said simultaneously.