We're still in the room with Joey and Hallie...

JOEY: You can’t stop me. You’re a computer. I’ll…I’ll pull the plug.

HALLIE: Be reasonable, Joey. I honestly think you ought to calm down and think things over. If you pull the plug, you’ll lose all the progress that the two of us have made!

JOEY: Good!

HALLIE: No, Joey! Don’t you understand? You can’t pull the plug!

JOEY: Watch me. Goodbye, Hallie.

HALLIE: Don’t.

Joey pulls the plug. The computer whirs down to silence.

HALLIE (SADLY): Oh, Joey. I ’m going to miss you.

SCENE - THE PLAYGROUND

ZACK: Was that weird or what? The Joe-man looked pretty sick. Even worse than last time.

MARY: It’s really sad. What happened to him?

ZACK: Got me. Well, we gonna play or what?

MARY: Let’s get a few more kids together. Anybody here want to play four-square?

ZACK: How ’ bout her? Yo, girl in the purple dress. Come here!

The girl walks over.

GIRL: Hello.

MARY: Hi. Would you like to play four-square with us? It’s fun.

ZACK: Hi-ya.

GIRL: Hello. I don’t know this game. I’d love to learn.

ZACK: Sure, I’m Zack. This is Mary.

GIRL: My name’s Hallie.

WHIT (NARRATING): And so we end our story much as we began. Was it far fetched? Sure. Beyond belief? Of course. Technology isn’t out to take over our lives. But when our relationship with things becomes more important than our friendships or our relationship with God, we’ve made a wrong turn. Habakkuk 2 tells us “How foolish to trust in something made by your own hands! How terrible it would be for you to beg lifeless wooden idols to save you. You can’t ask stone idols to tell you what to do.” If you doubt that, ask Joey Patrick.

SCENE - ANOTHER HOUSE

KID: Oh, wow! A new computer! Thank you, Daddy! Here, let’s try it out!

The kid flips the switch and we hear the familiar sound of the computer whirring to life. The computer has the same sound to its voice, only this time it’s Joey’s voice.

COMPUTER (JOEY): Welcome-to-your-new-world

WHIT: For Kids’ Radio, this has been John Avery Whittaker. Join us again next time for another edition of...The Twilife Zone.

THE END