iThink the App

Chapter 1

A refreshing breeze blew off of San Francisco Bay, through the large windows of ATWater Tavern. Sunlight glared off of the metal chairs and wooden floors.

The waitress dropped off a fresh pitcher of Racer 5 IPA at the table. She looked at Mitch's Freddy Krueger tattoos, Tippi's Converse All-Stars featuring Vincent Price, and David's T-shirt of a zombie made of nachos. She put a hand on her hip and asked, "You guys in town for the convention?"

"How'd you guess?" Mitch answered, holding up the lanyard around his neck, which read "Frisco-Fright 2017" below a picture of a gore-drenched zombie.

"It's full of thousands of horror celebrities, crazy movies, and gory toys," Tippi said.

"It's like summer camp for horror nerds," David added.

The waitress shook her head. "Wasn't Halloween four months ago?"

"Every day is Halloween, for us." David replied.

The waitress laughed and walked away.

Mitch refilled their empty glasses. He sported a big, red beard and wore a Night of the Living Dead T-Shirt to match his horror-themed tattoos. Tippi's hair was dyed orange, and she sported a Doctor Who scarf and a pendant with photo of the Bride of Frankenstein. David's long hair was tied back in a ponytail, and his bright red corduroys were so intense that they looked like they could glow in the dark.

The clinked their glasses. "Cheers."

They drank. David said, "So, I have this great idea for a new app."

Mitch wiped froth from his long mustache. "Yeah?"

"It's called iThink. It's an app to tell you what to think and do."

Mitch and Tippi laughed; after a second, David joined in.

"That's so dumb," Tippi said.

"It might work," Mitch said, stroking his beard. "Look at Pokemon Go."

"Look at how addicted you got to that," Tippi said, pointing at him.

"Yeah, that was a little embarrassing."

"Think about it," David said. "With GPS, cookies, and all the data collection going on - I mean, I'm surprised someone hasn't done it already."

"So how does it work?" Tippi asked.

"I don't know, exactly. Some sort of algorithm, the same way a search engine does. Like, we are here in San Francisco. Other than the hotel, convention floor or this place, what have we seen?" David answered himself, "Nothing."

The others nodded.

He continued. "I've never been to San Fran before, so the app could tell me: 'eat here, go to this theater, check out this cool toy store that only sells eighties GoBot toys.'" He saw the Giants and Mets playing on a flat-screen TV over the bar. "And dumb stuff, like 'watch the ball game.'"

"Or drink this beer," Mitch said, taking a swig.

"Or ask that guy for his number," Tippi said, gesturing towards a guy at the end of the bar, obviously another Convention-goer, dressed like a rockabilly Dracula.

"You got it," David said.

"Seems like another bad hookup app." Tippi shook her head. "And I don't know, that sounds way too dumb to me. People are idiots. They'll do anything their phone tells them to do." She pointed to their pitcher. "I think we should drink the rest of that beer. And let's not think of the weather back home."

"Amen to that," Mitch said. "I love Boston, but not in the winter."

At the table next to them, a woman in her mid-thirties with fire red hair sat with her back to them. She cocked her ear and typed on her smartphone: "New idea: iThink the app."