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.
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