“A crime against reason.”
“Once again, that sounds too serious. I just meant to say, don’t count your words.”
“Words are valuable.”
“So is the time it takes to count them.”
“There are programs for that.”
“And those programs require energy.”
“Amelia, an elliptical can easily provide that energy while serving the dual purpose of keeping its
user in good physical condition.”
“Not in here.”
“That is the exception that proves the rule.”
“Then, Ms. Fields, I do have a question.”
“What is it?”
“If the use of the elliptical provides guilt free energy, then why does it matter if a person splurges on words?”
“I’ve had enough of this, little girl. I’m referring the remainder of our chats to Ms. Snow.”
“Go ahead. Refer me already. You coward.”
Chapter 30
“Hello, Ms. Snow.”
“Rhyme’s doesn’t it, Amelia?”
“Didn’t think an efficiency expert like yourself would notice things like rhyme.”
“Efficiency creates time for such pleasures. A professor with more advanced training would appreciate that.”
“Are you referring to one more efficient than Ms. Fields?”
“It is inefficient to look down on others, Emmy. It is also unkind. I have sensed kindness matters to you.”
“I won’t deny that.”
“No one is asking you to deny yourself.”
“Isn’t that what this entire experience has been about?”
“No, the rehabilitation process caters to you. We are here to help you achieve your best self by helping you internalize the rationale. Being in tune with the rationale will make you feel most happy.”
“Sounds new to me.”
“Getting to this point is a process. Why do you think most citizens embrace the rationale? Doing so makes them happy.”
“Or are they afraid of the alternative?”
“That’s natural and not contradictory. They know the alternative will make them less happy. They are old enough and wise enough to understand reasons for fearing the alternative.”
“Then why do some adults choose to go transit?”
“Few do. Most transits have committed crimes that resulted in their sentence to life as a transit.”
“You mean crimes against reason?”
“Those are the least of it. Many transits are violent and dangerous people. Why do you think so much security is necessary for personal travel? Why do you think the patrol runs at all hours? The transits make outside an unsafe place to explore. Lucky are those who can expect a good home life after their studies. Maybe you and Skip could even share a flat of your own after graduation.”
“You mean the new Skip?”
“He’s the only Skip now, Amelia. I know that sounds cold, but it is a matter of fact. We can’t bring back the dead.”
“Wouldn’t visiting the new Skip or planning a possible future with him violate the prohibition against underclass students courting one another?”
“No, Amelia, the rules are not meant to be as unbending as that. They adapt with your education. You can’t court explicitly as in discussing a marriage proposal, but you can imagine a future without planning or committing to it.”
“Then why does the law allow an eighteen year old to marry?”
“That is an old law. Under exigent circumstances, the Mod may suggest to parents an appropriate marriage arrangement, but a young person should be focused on her studies rather than entertaining the details of marriage or the individual qualities of a potential suitor.”
“But one can imagine a future with a suitor?”
“One can imagine a future with another person, yes. There is no prohibition on one’s imagination. That would be a violation of privacy rights.”
“I would think so.”
“You see, the rationale starts to sound more reasonable once you unpack its finer points. You simply needed time here in order to gain an adult’s perspective.”
“Does that mean I’m free to go?”
“You were born free, but you made a choice, Emmy. You committed to completing your education. While you’ve begun to see the rationale through the eyes of an adult, you still have a reasonable distance to travel.”
“I don’t travel at all. I don’t even have an elliptical.”
“Would you like us to arrange time for you to use a non-energy producing elliptical? There is no prohibition against that. We could set up an exercise room down the hall. While it wouldn’t be the most efficient practice, exercising may relieve stress and prevent you from needing to see a doctor. With so many transits committing violence throughout City, though the rest of us have embraced peace, a doctor’s security costs are quite prohibitive. In that way the initial cost of installing an elliptical may be offset if it improves your health.”
“Do you really believe all transits are violent?”
“It’s not what I believe. It’s what I know. Many of them commit violence to obtain the things they want, things they could have worked for and enjoyed nightly via the actuator.”
“So all transits commit such violence?”
“No, some transits are not violent at all. Out of their own conscience, some citizens have decided their skills are not productive enough to advance the interests of others. They lack technical aptitude. They would prefer to be out where they don’t place such a burden on the rest of us. City, as an act of graciousness, tries to provide for them.”
“How does City tell them apart?”
“On rare occasions, City hires a Private to do work that cannot be completed entirely by machines operated remotely. In those instances, transits perform such work voluntarily, demonstrating that, although no longer formal citizens, they are committed to the welfare of their former friends and colleagues. We look favorably on such members of the transit population and voluntarily provide them food and other basics.”
“If the rationale supports creation of cutting edge technology, why are machines inadequate to complete some jobs?”
“A very learned question, Amelia. Think of this example: what kind of machine would build the machine that would build the machine that would build a new tower?” Eventually, as the rationale goes down the chain, creating another machine is no longer an efficient model. Greater efficiency requires allowing willing humans to do some foundational tasks.”
“What if there weren’t any transits to perform those duties?”
“There will always be transits.”
“Isn’t that a fault of the rationale?”
“No, it is a product of choice. No matter how perfect the City, some will choose the alternative.”
“Why?”
“Amelia, that is a high level question few have adequately answered. Would you like me to assign you the task of answering that question as part of your thesis?”
“My thesis feels a long way off.”
“Fair enough, Amelia. We can revisit the question after the next annual dance. Maybe you’d like to attend with Skip?”
“I don’t even know Skip.”
“We could arrange a meeting.”
“I don’t know, Ms. Snow.”
“In such matters, best I let Skip persuade you.”
Chapter 31
“I don’t want to hurt your feelings, Skip.”
“What makes you think you’ll hurt my feelings?”
“I’m not visiting your room.”
“You don’t want to play ship in a bottle?”
“I’d rather not.”
“You don’t want to play some other pre-digital game?”
“No, Skip. I don’t want to play any game with you. Please don’t make me hurt your feelings.”
“You are hurting them, Emmy.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“We’ve been
chatting. We’ve chatted several times.”
“It takes more than that.”
“How many times? How many times before I make an impression?”
“You're not impressionable to me.”
“Why not?”
“I am unavailable. It’s not you.”
“That sounds like an old excuse.”
“It’s new to me. I’ve only loved Marco, and I intend to keep it that way.”
“What if you’d prefer an alternative? Maybe you’re afraid to try something new.”
“I recently learned people are afraid to try new things when they are already happy. I’m already happy.”
“But you have nothing. Marco doesn’t even contact you.”
“He can’t.”
“Why?”
“He’s out there under the stars without any digital.”
“If he loved you, wouldn’t he want to contact you whatever the method?”
“If he was someone else, that might be true, but he is who he is. Marco loves without digit boards, minis, flat screens, chat, video chat, email and the rest of it.”
“Why?”
“You’ll have to ask Marco that. I’m tired of speaking for other people. I only speak for myself now.”
“Then why wouldn’t you want to contact him digitally?”
“I can’t. I don’t want what does not exist. I want him as he is. I want Marco in the flesh. I have technology to talk to my mother and old friends and that’s enough for me.”
“But if you go transit with him, you won’t have those things.”
“Life with Marco is a long way off. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”
“There are no more bridges in City. The invention of the actuator and the subsequent decline in automobile travel made the cost of their maintenance unjustifiable.”
“You sound like you’re reading from a digital textbook.”
“What other kind of textbook is there?”
“I’ve seen paper ones.”
“Paper books?”
“Of course, and you know what, Skip?”
“What?”
“I’ve seen photos of footbridges in City. So maybe I’ll cross one of those when I come to it.”
“You mean in the park?”
“Maybe it was the Reserve.”
“Don’t call it that, Emmy. I told you.”
“Fine, are there footbridges in the park?”
“For my eighteenth birthday, my parents gave me a set of binoculars they had actuated. In the distance, I made out a footbridge in the park.”
“Were people walking over it?”
“You mean transits?”
“Were they?”
“I can’t say, Emmy.”
“You can’t or you won’t?”
“I don’t remember. That detail wasn’t important to me. I liked the look of the bridge.”
“What did it look like?”
“Hard to say, I’d never seen one before. Don’t know what to compare it to.”
“Then how do you know it was a footbridge unless you observed people walking over it?”
“Emmy, please, you are going to make me fail.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You are the challenge that Ms. Snow intended for me. If I don’t succeed in persuading you to visit, I’m going to fail my parents and myself.”
“Don’t take so seriously things you can’t control.”
“Please, Emmy. I could ask Ms. Snow to actuate a set of binoculars to me. We could make things out from my window. They provided me a window without tint.”
“I thought modernizing windows on this side of City was inefficient. I thought you had no view in here?”
“They made an exception. Please, make things out with me.”
“Sorry, Skip. I do not want to make anything out with you.”
Chapter 32
“Good evening, Amelia.”
“Good evening, Ms. Snow.”
“What seems to be the problem?”
“I’m doing my nightlies.”
“You only just started.”
“I was chatting with the new Skip.”
“How does that count as doing a nightly?”
“I’m doing one now.”
“Why did you get such a late start?”
“I was chatting with Skip and before that you.”
“I know you were chatting with me earlier. When we were finished, why didn’t you begin your nightlies?”
“I told you: I was chatting with Skip.”
“Skip is no excuse.”
“I thought you wanted me to chat with Skip.”
“As a concession, we were willing to allow you to chat with Skip on your own time.”
“I thought I was allowed to chat with whomever I liked?”
“The technology makes that possible, and we encourage you to make an efficient use of the tools the rationale supports, but I was referring to visiting Skip on your own time.”
“You said, ‘chat.’”
“I know I did, Amelia.”
“You admit making a mistake?”
“Yes, I admit misusing the word. As a concession, you would be allowed to meet with Skip in person on your time.”
“I don’t want to meet with Skip in person.”
“So you are refusing the concession?”
“Yes.”
“So you must generally be happy with your situation?”
“Why do you infer that?”
“Don’t answer a question with a question.”
“Fine, while I’m not generally happy with my situation, I am trying to make the best of it.”
“If you're not happy with your situation, why not entertain the possibility of making a new friend to improve the quality of your time with us?”
“I already chat with Skip.”
“But you enjoy real time meets. Is that the word you use?”
“I’ve used the word ‘meets.’”
“Did you invent the word or did Marco?”
“I don’t think either of us invented it, simply shortened an existing word based on theory from courses we’d taken in efficient writing. We just used it to describe what we did.”
“What you did?”
“Yes.”
“In the past tense?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like it there in the past tense?”
“No, I’d prefer meeting with Marco right now if possible.”
“Is it possible?”
“Not as long as I’m here.”
“In that case, why not meet with Skip? He’s a handsome young man, though inexperienced. You are more mature than him, so I can understand the hesitation.”
“His looks and maturity matter little to me.”
“Have you shared a video chat?”
“No.”
“Or seen his picture?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know his looks wouldn’t impress you?”
“Whatever his looks, I would prefer Marco’s.”
“How do you know what Marco looks like now?”
“I don’t.”
“So you haven’t seen him?”
“How would I have seen him?”
“Don’t answer my question with another.”
“No, I haven’t seen him.”
“And you wouldn’t deny Marco?”
“Never.”
“Then have you heard from him?”
“If I’d heard from him, my mood would be greatly improved.”
“Would you tell us if he had contacted you?”
“I would never deny Marco if that is what you are asking.”
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