Out of My Mind

Rose is the star of school after Thanksgiving because she has received a personal laptop from which she can access the Internet, upload pictures of her dog, and create a social media page. From Melody’s perspective, Rose now has “the whole universe—at her fingertips” (123). Envious of her friend, Melody can only dream of having a computer made specifically for her, one that could “talk” and “would have room to store all my words, not just the most common ones that have gotten pasted on my dumb plastic board” (123).

Melody shares this desire with Catherine, who thinks the idea is brilliant. In context with this hope, Melody decides to write her biography project on Stephen Hawking. She wants to know how he lives on a daily basis, how he “does ordinary stuff” (125), and how he can be a husband and a parent. She especially wants to know about his talking computers. Catherine seems determined to help Melody find out if a designer computer is at all possible.

As the winter holidays approach, Catherine and Melody use the school computers to research electronic communication and talking devices. They find one called a Medi-Talker and watch a video of a boy who can’t speak using the system to talk for him. Melody kicks with excitement as this is what she wants, and Catherine prints out the information and places it in Melody’s schoolbag.

At Mrs. V’s house after school, Melody excitedly has her look at the paperwork and uses her board to ask Mrs. V to show her parents the details about the Medi-Talker. While waiting for her parents to arrive, Melody “dream[s] of talking, talking, talking” (130). After watching the video, Mrs. Brooks agrees that the system is one that Melody needs and deserves. They fill out the information, but it is a long and laborious process with prescriptions, financial statements, school approval, and insurance approvals necessary before the Medi-Talker arrives before Christmas.

Mrs. V helps Melody set up the Medi-Talker, using the system’s dozen levels for family information, vocabulary words, and so on. They locate a sentence-creator on another level and Mrs. V types in hundreds of sentences and phrases that Melody wants and needs to use. For Melody, the system will allow her to have “Ordinary words. Normal conversation. I’ve never had that. Awesome” (133). Other levels in the program include maths, jokes, and an entire music section that will allow Melody to download whatever songs she wants from iTunes.

When Mrs. V encourages Melody to try it out, the first sentence Melody says through the computer’s speakers is, “Thanks, Mrs. V” (134), causing both of them to reach for tissues. Mrs. V snaps back to her practical mode and explains to Melody that there are many empty levels she can modify strictly for herself: “This will be your world, so let’s take our time and make it exactly what you need” (135). Melody names her computer “Elvira” and sets out to find the right computer voice to express how she wants to sound.

When her parents arrive, Melody speaks to them and says, “Hi, Dad. Hi, Mom. I am so happy” (136). Her parents begin to cry, especially when Melody says, “I love you” (138).