Terry Neale - Jo-el

Using thought I said. “ Okay young lady what’s next then?” She’d changed her clothes again. Back to blue jeans with a black silky top. She looked good, but then, she always looked good.

She spoke out loud. “Open the large container.”

I did what she asked. Inside was a silver garment, very light, clingy, sort of mesh, in two pieces. I held them up to examine them more carefully. There were pants and a shirt with long sleeves and no collar. I glanced at Sally and my face said. ‘You really want me to put this on?’ It didn’t look, ME. Not anything I’d be seen dead in. She smiled. Oh crap! Maybe I could fight her on this. She smiled again. Damn.

“What is it?” I asked.

“A smart-suit.” She replied matter-of-factly, as if I should know. “You’ll like it.”

Dang, that’s what my mother would say when she’d just got back from the store with some hideous outfit she wanted me to wear. I was the kid who wore my clothes until they were thread-bear, hated new stuff, all stiff and starchy. I held up the outfit once more.

“How do you know it’ll fit?”

That bloody smile again. “Any size fits all.” Now she was holding back a laugh.

“Very funny.” I headed toward the door with the intention of retreating to my bedroom for the fitting.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“Upstairs.”

“Here’s good. I’ve seen you naked.” She was loving this.

“Once is enough.”

“Ahhh! Spoil sport.” She let out a shriek of laughter.

I left and went to my bedroom and laid the garment on the un-made bed. It was then that I noticed that there were no holes where my feet would go through. Oh-my-God, it’s like a pair of bloody tights. I’m going to look like a silver spider-man. I was on the edge of returning to the family room to protest, when Sally suddenly appeared at the opening to the bathroom. Crap! For a while I’d forgotten that this thing, that looked like the most beautiful women in the world, was a computer and basically was everywhere.

I laughed. I could see the funny side. “I guess I should have stayed downstairs.”

Sally didn’t answer. I undressed and re-dressed in the ‘smart-suit’, at first leaving my underwear on, but Sally shook her head on that. Surprisingly it felt very comfortable, as if I was wearing my oldest, most loved outfit, but I was scared what I must look like. I didn’t even want to look at my manly bulge. I stepped gingerly to the bathroom and the full-length mirror on the door of the walk-in closet. Oh God, I was right. I looked ridiculous. My aging body didn’t do silver Spider-man any favors. And the bulge, well I shouldn’t say, but it was there, but with limited mass. I turned around to protest to Sally. No-way was I going out anywhere in this thing.

She was grinning from ear to ear. “I’m sorry,” she said and calmed her glee as best she could. “I want you to use thought. Think ‘Clothes’. Then think of an outfit you like to wear, like the jeans and t-shirt you just removed.

I hesitated for a second, then did what she said. Immediately I could sense a change in my appearance, even though the feeling of comfort was unchanged. I turned and looked in the mirror and gasped. My silver suit was now my faded jeans and blue innocuous t-shirt. My mouth gaped open. I should have realized. These people weren’t earthly human; they were so far ahead of us we were like ants.

“Shoes.” Said Sally.

I looked down and saw my silver clad feet and thought of sneakers and watched as they magically appeared on my feet. I turned to Sally, “explain”.

“You can look however you wish. Any garment you chose will feel exactly the same as any other. The computer creates a mirage, like a hologram. The smart-suit will protect you from all elements. You will not feel cold or excessive heat. Your bare arms are covered by the suit, but it’s transparent. The raised cloth around your wrists can become gloves and the raised area around the neck can be a hood.”

“So I throw it in the wash with my other stuff, right?”

She laughed. “No, it’s self-cleaning.”

“You’re kidding?”

“Dirt is just atoms like everything else, the material recognizes foreign particles and expels them. Cool huh!”

Very cool, I thought, but she’d just destroyed the whole garment industry on earth. Might not go down well with Macys and JC Penny. Whirlpool and Maytag won’t be too happy either. Mrs. Wong at the drycleaners would be peeved.

I had some fun with different outfits, from motorcycle clothing to tuxedos, business suits of varying design and the clothes I was most comfortable wearing. It was truly astonishing. Maybe I could patent the smart-suit and start production.

“How does it work?” I asked.

“Huh!”

“The smart-suit?”

“The computer projects a micro-thin holographic layer on top of the suit. Basically, there is nothing there, it’s false, just like me. When you touch it, it feels just like the smart-suit whatever you’ve chosen to wear. Just a trick of the eye really.”

I patted my hand along the suit, weird, but it worked.

We were back in the family room. I was comfortable in my make-believe jeans and t-shirt, Sally matched me with her outfit. The rain had ceased and the sun was now coming through the windows in long lines, highlighting the dust that filled the air, my silver smart-suit adding to their numbers.

“Now something essential, to keep you alive.”

I was all ears.

“The raised ring at the edge of the collar of the smart-suit has another function. It’s controlled by the belt attachment at your waist, which links into the main-frames around the planet.”

“How many?” I butted in.

“What?”

“How many main-frames, as you call them?”

“Oh, nineteen. The Cirion word for them translates more literally into base stations. It’s all the same. But they are computers that you would understand, I’m their conduit. Anyway, the smart-suit collar. Just as you can project an image of any type of clothing you are wearing, you can project a different facial look.”

“I can change my face?” I exclaimed, it gets better.

“Basically, yes.”

Back to being dumfounded. Wow! That’s incredible I thought. The implications were unfathomable. I could hide in plain sight. Commit any offence, change your appearance. With the smart-suit, it was limitless. In the wrong hands this stuff would be priceless. How could society function with this stuff? The police would be so screwed, their job quite simply impossible.

“So, you want to try it?”

“Sure.” I answered.

“Okay, so it’s all done by thought. Pick a word or phrase to tell the computer you are changing your face. Then give it some parameters and it will take care of the rest.”

I thought ‘change face’. Why complicate the procedure? Then imagined a young George Clooney, maybe with a touch of Daniel Craig. Definitely saw myself as an American James Bond. Inside I was as excited as child with a new toy.

Sally produced a mirror out of nowhere and I stared in disbelief. Holy crap I had hair and my features were well I guess a cross between Clooney and Craig. I was one good looking dude. I think I even fancied myself. A wide grin crossed my face and I reached up to touch my new locks. That was a disappointment, didn’t feel like hair at all. I looked over at Sally.

“Nothing’s perfect,” she said. “Try some other looks, get used to changing and make sure you fit the clothes to the look.

“Can I go black?” I enquired with interest.

“Sure!”

I changed to having black skin, sticking with the movie star theme. I went with a cross between Idris Elba and Harry Belafonte, when I viewed myself in the mirror I was blown away. Most attractive black man on the planet. After a moment I checked my hands and arms, they too had changed. Would look pretty stupid otherwise.