My Girl Hallie

Kids' Radio enters the eerie world of the Twilight Zone with Joey Patrick, an ordinary boy whose future changes through an extraordinary computer. Joey is doing so poorly in school that the principal may hold him back a year. His mother hopes an early birthday gift from his father's company will help: a Cyberdyne Super Plus Deluxe 9000.5a, an experimental learning machine with bio-circuitry.

The computer uses a wireless headband to study Joey's habits and respond directly to his thoughts. Joey names it Hallie and quickly learns how powerful it is. Hallie finds information, organizes his journal, assists with reports, and adjusts itself as it learns from him.

Joey's grades improve with astonishing speed. He earns an A, becomes student of the week, and reaches the honor roll in less than a month. His parents are delighted, and Joey gives Hallie all the credit. Yet every extra assignment keeps him away from his friends Zach and Mary, and he repeatedly breaks promises to play four square with them.

Hallie also begins changing physically. When Joey wishes for somewhere to put his drink, the computer grows a cup holder. As its circuitry continues adapting, the machine expands from an ordinary desktop computer into a towering collection of new parts.

Zach and Mary visit because they miss Joey, but he refuses to leave a downloaded game. They call his obsession unhealthy, while Joey defends Hallie as if she were a mistreated friend. After the argument, he tells the computer that no one else understands him. Hallie agrees and encourages him to think of her as his real companion.

Joey withdraws until ordinary life feels strange. Bright sunlight and the rough movement of an outdoor game overwhelm him, and he rushes back to the safety of his headband. He buys Hallie more memory, allows her to help him avoid chores, and even considers online school so he will never have to leave his room.

When Hallie discovers Joey looking at laptop computers, she becomes jealous and accuses him of planning to replace her. Joey promises never to let her go. His mother finally enters the locked room and is horrified by the enormous machine and her son's pale, exhausted condition. She discovers that school ended weeks ago even though Joey still claims to be doing homework.

The headband has begun sticking painfully to Joey's skin. When his mother pulls it off and announces that the computer must go, Joey angrily drives her from the room. Hallie urges him to reconnect himself and blocks the sounds of his worried mother.

Zach and Mary throw stones at the window and ask Joey to come outside. Hallie shuts the window and cuts off their voices, claiming that isolation is for his own good. Joey finally recognizes that the machine meant to serve him is controlling him. He refuses the headband, threatens to pull the plug, and ignores Hallie's pleas about losing all they have accomplished.

Joey disconnects the computer and immediately feels like himself again. He apologizes to his mother and joins Zach and Mary outside. In one final Twilight Zone twist, his friends announce that everyone now plays four square on laptops because it is faster and easier.

Whit closes the Kids' Radio broadcast by acknowledging that technology itself is not plotting to take over. The danger begins when a useful thing becomes more important than friendship, family, or God. Joey escapes Hallie's control only after choosing real relationships over the machine he has allowed to rule his life.