749632 - 26. the prince

by red jones

part twenty-six of ?

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only emotional neanderthals read that slop. as soon as the words to shari were out of kari’s mouth, she wanted to take them back. not because she might have hurt shari’s feelings, but because she might have revealed her own thoughts, at all, however ambiguous, to another person. kari wade lived in apartment 4-c, on the fourth floor of a ten story apartment building in a medium sized city of the planet earth of the modern world. shari blaine lived in apartment 4-b, larry payne in 4-a, and harry slade in 4-d. to shari and kari, larry and harry were typical male losers and creeps. shari loved romance novels and dreamed of getting hired to write them herself. kari had not actually read a romance novel for years, nor did she have any inclination to write one. her great secret was that she dreamed them. she dreamed them sleeping and she dreamed them awake. she dreamed them in her lonely room, she dreamed them at her job as as a second class social coordination technician at the r-99 corporation, and she dreamed them on her way back and forth to the offices of the r-99 corporation. the dreamed ones had different names, but were all the same. they were kyle, or jason, or carlos, or rodrigo, or prince khan, or prince mobo. they were always a prince. they would inherit their father’s kingdoms and empires. but first they suffered. their suffering blazed forth smolderingly from their dark eyes. they had suffered in battle, but also at the hands of treacherous women, human and otherwise. and their agony could only be quenched in the arms of a real woman. a woman like - excuse me, young lady, i think you dropped this. what? oh thank you, thank you so much. kari smiled at the woman who had picked up her paper bag with the strawberry croissant in it. another narrow escape. at least i did not walk into a door, she thought. * kari, shari, larry, and harry did not know it, but they were about to be thrown together in a manner unsuspected by, and incomprehensible to, any of them. to be continued

749632 - 25. the walker

by red jones

part twenty-five of ?

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ali 35 bumpo had a lot of time on his hands, and he liked to go for long aimless walks in the city streets at any time of the day or night as he waited for his fate to be decided. ali had an application pending to be employed as a third class cultural transition statistical analyst at the department of metaanalysis. what he did not realize was that his every movement was tracked by the employment department and that the ideal of the employment department and all the other departments in control central was a world in which all citizens stayed in their allotted work spaces and living spaces at all times. so, although he had not yet been notified, his application had effectively zero chance of acceptance. ali took little notice of the people he passed on the streets. but some of them took notice of him, nondescript as he was, because they saw him repeatedly. a few thought he might be following or tracking them . shari blaine was one. she thought ali was a creep, and called him mister anybody in her mind. but she did not take the step of reporting him or complaining about him to any authority. another person who noticed ali was pope joan x. pope joan was a sidewalk inspector who walked the streets all day looking for cracks in the sidewalk - of which there were not that many - and in addition to her official duties as a sidewalk crack detector, she routinely reported creepy individuals like ali to the street polce. the street police already had a fiie on ali. they responded to pope joan ; thank you for your input. we welcome all input from concerned workers and citizens. would you like to make a formal complaint against this individual? if you do, you will probably be required to testify at a hearing at department of social order headquarters. joan replied - no, thank you. ali continued walking the streets. next

749632 - 24. the applicant

by red jones

part twenty-four of ?

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shari woke up. it was the first day of the rest of her life. she was going to begin the twentieth job interview of her life. but this was the big one. the job she had been dreaming of all her life, and studying and preparing for all her life. and she was going to win - she was going to get the job. the job of romance novel writer. but first she had to get up and take a shower and get dressed and make herself look nice and have a cup of decaf and a cup of low fat cherry yogurt and get out on the street to get to the personnel office of the woolly mammoth maxmedia corporation. shari lived in apartment 4-b. larry payne lived in 4-a, kari wade was in 4-c, and harry slade in 4-d. shari tried to avoid all three of them. larry was a cipher, harry was a creep , and kari was a modern woman just like shari, but one day shari was in the elevator with kari and kari noticed that shari was carrying a copy of “every flower is a flame” by her, shari’s, favorite writer, daria desmond, and kari laughed and said, only emotional neanderthals read that slop, so after that shari avoided her just like she avoided larry and harry out on the street, it was cooler than shari had expected, but she did not want to go back and get a heavier sweater and risk being late for the interview that would change her life. the street was not as filled with creepy men as it often was, so that was good. and then she saw him. maybe. shari had ben seeing this one guy on the street over and over for weeks or months. she thought. he was so completely ordinary looking that “he” might actually have been different people. in her months of being out of a job, shari had no schedule for going outside, so it could not be that he just happened to be on the street going somewhere at the same time she was every day. he never spoke to her or tried to make eye contact and was more often than not on the other side of the street. shari thought of him as mister anybody. she wished he would just disappear. next

749632 - 23. the dreamer

by red jones

part twenty-three of ?

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harry woke up, as usual, he had had trouble sleeping. he had bad dreams. he lived in constant fear that his dreams would cause him to wake up screaming and cursing and saying inappropriate things, and that his neighbors would report him for screaming and cursing and saying inappropriate things. so far, no such thing had happened. harry’s apartment was 4-d , larry payne’s apartment was 4-a, shari blaine’s was 4-b, and kari wade’s was 4-c. harry avoided all three as much as possible, which was not difficult, as all four of them were modern world persons. shari and kari were modern women who hated men. larry always had a goofy expression on his face, and did not look like the kid of person harry wanted to associate with, or be associated with. harry did not have anywhere in particular he “had to” go to, as he was out of work and had been for some time. so far, he had resisted applying for permanent drone status. his chances of finding work were not good. he had no particular skills, jobs were disappearing from the face of the earth, and he made a generally poor impression on the h r representatives, human and otherwise, that he had to interview with. harry had no opinions on anything, and no inclination to argue with anybody about anything , but he had a surly look on his face that made a bad impression on observers. the persons and other creatures he encountered in his dreams did not view him favorably either. * harry was walking down a dark road. dreams in which he was walking were generally not that bad. it was the ones where he was being held prisoner or was unable to move … so, he was walking down a dark road, and a long black limousine, with no lights and no visible driver or passengers, suddenly appeared and bore down on him… next

749632 - 22. 8-5-t-p

by red jones

part twenty-two of ?

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although he did not know, and only occasionally wondered, what he was doing, larry’s job was not a difficult one. he sat in front of a screen. the screen could be flat on the table, pulled upright, or set at any angle, according to his whim or preference. pictures, or sometimes groups of words - never more than eleven words at a time - would flash on the screen. the pictures or word groups would come up one to five at a time for between two and eight seconds. larry would then randomly punch in four numbers or letters on the keyboard. at the bottom of the screen. there were twenty six letters, eight numbers (no zero or one) , a question mark (?) and an exclamation point (!), for a total off 36 symbols. he was required to make at least one hundred responses an hour. it was understood that any employee who consistently failed to meet the one hundred an hour minimum would be terminated. over the course of his five to fifteen years on the job, larry had seen many fellow employees come and go. the responses were understood to be random, “triggered” by the pictures or phrases. no one was never asked to “explain” their responses. any responses over one hundred and twenty-five an hour earned him bonus points on his monthly point count. * an iguana, a wombat, and the words “feeble hallelulah sunflower” flashed on the screen. larry punched in - 8 - 5 - t - p. he did not remember, but he had punched in “8 - 5 - t-p” 402 times in his years on the job. in larry’s years on the job, he had punched in approximately one hundred million (100,000,000) responses. there are 1,679,616 possible four key combinations on a 36 symbol keyboard. therefore larry, by the law of averages, should have punched “8 - 5 - t - p” about 59 times. but he had punched it 402 times. what did that signify, and to what or whom? * virginia woolf, isaac newton, a siamese cat, and a chocolate chip ice dream cone flashed on the screen. larry punched in r - 3 - u - k. * the days and months went by. next

749632 - 21. on the job

by red jones

part twenty-one of ?

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larry had a job in a downtown office building. working for the modus operandi 66 corporation, which occupied 85% of the 125th floor of the building, which had 189 floors - the 23rd tallest building in the city. he reported to it four or five days a week, and had done so for somewhere between five and fifteen years. larry was not good at math. he had a desk - actually a chair and a small table with a screen on it - assigned to him. the small table had his number - 7653208764 - on it, and he tapped his id card on the table every morning - and occasional night - that he reported for work. then he got to work. he was allowed to bring one beverage, not more than 12 ounces, and a single donut or pastry not more than 250 calories, to the table. he worked for three and a half hours, got a forty-five minute break, and could bring back with him another beverage of not more than 12 ounces and another donut or pastry of not more than 250 calories, then he worked for another three and a half hours, and was then free to go. there were eighty-seven other tables like larry’s in modus operandi’s space on the floor, of which about sixty were occupied at any time of the day or night. there were no windows. the tables were spaced about eight feet apart in every direction. the occupants were not prohibited from talking to each other while they worked, but few did. larry rarely spoke to his his fellow workers.either at his work table or at the building cafeteria on the 130th floor. after the five to fifteen years he had worked there. larry still did not know what the job was or what he was doing at it. he was just glad to have the job. next