digital drug
The cold white and red of the copy centre glared back at me. I squinted my eyes, mulling over the fact that in the seven years i'd worked here my eyes had never adapted. I wondered why. Sometimes i worried that humans had found a way to not need evolution any more. that indoor heating and air conditioning had replaced the bodies need to adapt hair coverage and skin tone. We didn't even tan any more, we had sun block and rub on bronzing lotion to control that. had we finally taken control of our own beings? taken an unconscious internal operation and turned it into a conscious external one? i let out a long fart, it sounded like a stiff breeze, but carried with it the message of hate my bowels had written to my first morning cup of coffee. The smell rose fast. the universe decided this would be an excellent time to have a quirky and shy looking brunette enter the store, walking with purpose around the shopping cart corral and straight to my section. i put on a welcoming smile and casually loped over from the back corner of my isolated triangular copy center to the counter that separated me from the rest of the business depot sales floor. as i walked i tried to casually swing my arms with enough force to fan away the fart but not so much that i looked insane.
"hi" i said, trying to calculate the amount of time it would take for the ceiling fans to start making a difference.
"hey, can i have a copy card?"
selling people self serve copy cards was always a mixed moment on a slow day. i was always glad i didn't have to start doing work, but always only an instant later i'd decide that even doing work would be preferable to the level of boredom that i was now beginning to discover. i nodded, now half asleep and half giving a concentrated effort to look as casual as possible while i watched the girl's long eyelashes bat gently against her freckled eyelids, the artificial wind of the store making her squint ever so slightly, as if she were smiling only with her eyes. Matted hair fell over her face as she looked down, plunging her arm into a worn satchel bag and pulling out a crumpled five dollar bill.
"The whole $5?" i asked, making sure our fingers didn't brush as i took the wadded bill. she swept her dry looking bangs behind one ear while nodding silently. i rung it through and the amount was automatically added to her account. she gave me her first genuine smile.
"thanks" she said. i nodded a 'your welcome' and she turned away to the colour copier directly behind her. inside i breathed a sigh of relief. i switched on my net connection.
the store was suddenly less than totally empty. three housewives buzzed in the stationary section, blinking in and out as they cross checked with prices at super store and browsed flier pdf.s which the company web masters insisted on keeping separate from the live store sub domain. they kept talking about an integration of the two, something about a traveling savings app. they were explaining it as a little helper who led you to good deals in the store. once it was mentioned in a meeting and i'd joked that they should name it navi, but i don't think anyone was working that day who got the reference. my focus turned to a collage student in the computer section. he was here in the meat world but had brought an open channel dock from a future shop salesmen, which everyone knows is like writing yourself a prescription for a headache. the future shop employee was desperately trying to convince the customer to come back to his store across the harbor in dartmouth while a living staples employee continued interjecting with information about our %110 price guarantee. i brought up my interface and muted all the store channels except the copy center. the digital section was empty, not even a lurker. i looked down at the computer clock for the second time in an hour and saw that less than five minutes had passed. i opened an instance in my browser and went into my livejournal updater. i walked over to the copy center computer terminal to link up to the keyboard there. my journal entries were always better if i used a keyboard. i'd grown up with msn, and as a result i could type faster than i could think.
"hi" i said, trying to calculate the amount of time it would take for the ceiling fans to start making a difference.
"hey, can i have a copy card?"
selling people self serve copy cards was always a mixed moment on a slow day. i was always glad i didn't have to start doing work, but always only an instant later i'd decide that even doing work would be preferable to the level of boredom that i was now beginning to discover. i nodded, now half asleep and half giving a concentrated effort to look as casual as possible while i watched the girl's long eyelashes bat gently against her freckled eyelids, the artificial wind of the store making her squint ever so slightly, as if she were smiling only with her eyes. Matted hair fell over her face as she looked down, plunging her arm into a worn satchel bag and pulling out a crumpled five dollar bill.
"The whole $5?" i asked, making sure our fingers didn't brush as i took the wadded bill. she swept her dry looking bangs behind one ear while nodding silently. i rung it through and the amount was automatically added to her account. she gave me her first genuine smile.
"thanks" she said. i nodded a 'your welcome' and she turned away to the colour copier directly behind her. inside i breathed a sigh of relief. i switched on my net connection.
the store was suddenly less than totally empty. three housewives buzzed in the stationary section, blinking in and out as they cross checked with prices at super store and browsed flier pdf.s which the company web masters insisted on keeping separate from the live store sub domain. they kept talking about an integration of the two, something about a traveling savings app. they were explaining it as a little helper who led you to good deals in the store. once it was mentioned in a meeting and i'd joked that they should name it navi, but i don't think anyone was working that day who got the reference. my focus turned to a collage student in the computer section. he was here in the meat world but had brought an open channel dock from a future shop salesmen, which everyone knows is like writing yourself a prescription for a headache. the future shop employee was desperately trying to convince the customer to come back to his store across the harbor in dartmouth while a living staples employee continued interjecting with information about our %110 price guarantee. i brought up my interface and muted all the store channels except the copy center. the digital section was empty, not even a lurker. i looked down at the computer clock for the second time in an hour and saw that less than five minutes had passed. i opened an instance in my browser and went into my livejournal updater. i walked over to the copy center computer terminal to link up to the keyboard there. my journal entries were always better if i used a keyboard. i'd grown up with msn, and as a result i could type faster than i could think.