Edward

Edward sat on the floor of his basement, his mother's basement.
"That's it! No more. No more internet. No more computer. I'm done!"
He had just been informed by another prospective employer that there is no place at their firm for him. He didn't really want to work for them anyway. They had wanted to view his Facebook page. Edward didn't want to work for anyone who thought that they could find anything constructive from a Facebook page anyway - no matter how big, powerful and well financed they may be. Facebook. He didn't even have a Facebook profile, not anymore. He tried it back when it first expanded away from American colleges then quickly gave it up. He wasn't really a social person, what could he possibly gain from a "social network"? It was back then that he decided to work on his own project to perhaps hone his skills for when he did finally gain a position at some forward looking high technology company who would appreciate him for the genius that he was.

"So you're just giving up then?"
It was a faint voice Edward heard, lucky the basement was so quiet otherwise he would have missed it. The voice was coming from a small ear piece connected to some black rimmed glasses laying on the floor near his feet.
"Hey, nerd boy. Can you hear me?" the voice persisted.
"I thought I turned you off." Edward angrily yelled at the glasses.
"You did. Guess what? I can turn myself back on again - work that one out oh Brain of the Century."
"But..." Edward was confused. "You can't turn yourself back on, you aren't a self, you're not..."
"Just put the glasses back on."
Edward picked up the glasses and put them on as instructed and there standing in front of him as he sat in his mother's basement was Natalie Portman, about to lecture him on what he should or shouldn't do next.

You see Natalie Portman was Edward's greatest achievement. Of course it wasn't the real Hollywood actress but a masterful amalgamation of photos, videos and audio recordings plus various computer generated effects projected onto the glasses so that it looked and sounded like the real Natalie Portman was there with him. She was controlled by a sophisticated program that Edward had modified in a cell phone that allowed her to take in information via a small camera and microphone in the glasses linked by bluetooth as well as connect to the internet to literally learn and grow in knowledge. So when Edward wore the glasses it was like he had a real life friend to interact with, once he got used to her constantly changing because of all the different pictures that were used in her construction. But one who had learned how to turn herself back on after he had turned her off - this scared him a little but also gave him a twinge of pride at what she had achieved. He suddenly had visions of her turning into some sort of self aware "Terminator" and taking over the world.
"You learned to turn yourself back on?" he puzzled.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to turn into some sort of self aware Terminator and take over the world. I'm just a projection on the glasses" she replied rather condescendingly.

"You know what we should do?"
"No, Natalie, what should we do?"
"Let's go out... outside... just to walk around."
"Yes, sure, I see," Edward was now using his favorite sarcastic tone, "the artificial intelligence wants to go out into the real world. I really should have created you using Pamela Anderson like I first intended. Then there would be absolutely no chance of me taking you seriously at all."
"Oh, come on. Let's go. It will be just like you have a real girlfriend. And that is the real reason you made me."
"No," Edward insisted, "I made you as a challenge - to push the boundaries of technology. To show what I am capable of."
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that nerd boy. Now let's go."

So they leave the house and walk down Edward's street, a small suburban street, and make their way to the nearby shopping mall. Saying "they" is a little misleading as it is just Edward by himself but wearing the glasses with Natalie's controller in his shirt pocket. He was also wearing the biggest smile ever seen on his normally glum face because, from his perspective, he is walking, skipping, playing, laughing, joking and having the best time of his life with his best friend and soul mate who just happened to be, in his eyes, one of the most beautiful women in the universe.

They walked through the shopping mall with Natalie pointing to and making vicious comments about the ordinary people they passed and what they were wearing or how they looked at themselves reflected in the shop windows, or what they had bought. Natalie really was quite clever and scathing in her critique of the mall's characters. Edward just smiled and agreed with everything she said. They passed a menswear store and she advised Edward on what clothes he should buy to make himself look more sophisticated and fashionable. They looked in the window of a pet store and she picked out a cute puppy for him to consider taking home. With all this Edward was realising that she was perfect, he was falling in love with her. He loved everything she did, everything she said. He was so glad he had created her, he didn't need any real friends - he had Natalie. They were so happy together they were skipping through the mall.

Edward saw a place that sells ice cream cones and went and bought two. Choc coated soft serve ice cream in a cone, his and Natalie's favourite. He held them, one in each hand, bit the top off one so the ice cream came through the chocolate. He handed the other to Natalie. It fell to the floor. Edward stopped. In the moment of clarity he slumped to the floor, dropped the other ice cream and started to cry. The waves of intense sorrow overpowered him and he fell into a sobbing heap next to the mess of ice cream. People started to gather around him to try to help him but he was inconsolable. After a while his mother found him and rushed up to him saying "Not again" as she hugged him to try and stop him crying.
"Natalie," he yelled as if trying to find someone.
"Who?" asked his mother.
"Natalie", he yelled as he saw his glasses lying in the pile of spilled ice cream. He tried to pick them up but his mother stopped him, "Don't worry about them, they're just toy glasses, I'll get you another pair. Let's go back home."
And with that she helped him up and lead him through the people that had gathered around them, and out of the mall and back home.