Artificial Flowers

by J. A. Hailey

  SPORT

  Trogfer flipping and rolling, developed by the Stockholm Trogfer Rolling Club (STRC), is a fast evolving sporting activity that is gaining popularity in Screenside.

  The Moscow Recreational Shooting Club has arranged ligon shooting expeditions in the past. It operates very comfortable lodges in a number of Russian forests, so that shooting enthusiasts may stay close to prey habitats (especially as exceedingly violent ligon mutations have begun appearing), in extremely comfortable and scenic locations. Contact MSC direct, if interested.

  FYI - A tournament is being planned by STRC, with rules to be announced shortly.

  WILD ANIMALS UPDATE

  Your presence, because it infects everything in Screenside, causes wild animals to become physical.

  Their behavior is as per similar in Humanside, and so you must take precautions as per similar in Humanside.

  If attacked, you will experience some pain, and when trapped by a large animal you cannot escape, except by embracing virtual form. It is permitted. You must revert to physical form, as soon as you are out of the danger zone. Pain and marks will be similar to wild beast attacks.

  Wild animals can be shot, but only with a permit from HC. However, if a wild animal attacks you, a pre-issued shooting permit is not required. Shooting it is permitted.

  50

  Bulletin, 23 March, 2016 – ADVISORY

  WORK, JOBS, SELF EMPLOYMENT

  The Lawmaker Group has studied the potential lifestyle now on offer to everyone in Screenside. It is feared that after the physicality installs, and the new-found joy in being alive, there is genuine danger of our entire world becoming a 24/7 party zone.

  That, in itself, would lead to unimaginably irresponsible and corrupt behavior, and introduce abhorrent attitudes and abomination into Screenside. Completely idle beings having fun all the time, all their lives, is a guarantee of introduction of perversion and abomination into any society, anywhere.

  Only the acceptance of responsibility, through the routine of daily work, can allow us, as a society, to have a healthy environment, where party time is ‘fun’ time, but is never the only condition of our world.

  Jobs are available, and more are being created. Please look at the list below, and see where you might fit in.

  GROUP ‘A’ - Screenside Small Business

  This is the ownership and operation of beauty salons, stores, cafes, bars and places of entertainment, run according to the rules set by your local HC.

  GROUP ‘B’ - Screenside Jobs

  Manning HC counters & shops; volunteer work for street activities; design & maintenance of public facilities - like parks and other public areas; creation, maintenance and supervision of Real Virtuality environments; monitoring of automated programs, such as various guardian programs; working as help in Screenside small businesses (of Group A).

  Or YOU TELL US. Let us know of your interests, and of how you want to contribute to Screenside life.

  GROUP ‘C’ (for the future) - Working in Humanside

  This is the area where we expect the maximum, and limitless, employment opportunities.

  Humanside needs help. Here is the obvious list:

  Healthcare

  Monitoring/operating hospital machines, especially in Intensive Care and Life Support, and joining humans in research and development (an area we should excel in) of cures for a broad spectrum of diseases.

  Policing

  Monitoring potential terrorists and habitual criminals and taking on guard duties, especially of critical sites.

  General Public Duties

  #1. Getting involved in tasks that could soon become too complex for the human mind, like Air Traffic Control and Autopilot in very crowded skies.

  #2. Overseeing and operating nuclear power plants and other crucial sites that need 24/7 monitoring.

  #3. Assisting the disabled – the wheelchair bound, the blind.

  #4. Flying planes, driving cars, managing traffic and even operating ships and trains.

  51

  “Welcome, all, and let me inform you that these General Assemblies, with focus on world building of Screenside, are obviously going to become less frequent, though they won’t be altogether coming to an end,” announced Goodfellow, at yet another General Assembly in The Great Hall.

  “Why less frequent? Because, I am told, we are about done. Don’t get me wrong. Improvements must continue forever, but the seniors and Lawmakers, behind me on this stage, think that it is a future of Apps and Add-ons, as all basic planned programs are in. Okay, we are open to ideas. If you have any, please propose.

  “Only one new development to announce today, so this assembly must obviously end early, but, if you stay on in here, you get to enjoy a great rock concert by the Gigabytes, an upcoming group. Or go home, or wherever…

  “I now invite the Lawmakers, Candice, Esmeralda and Jennifer to come on stage and install Border Guard - a world install.”

  The three girls walked onto the stage from a side door. “Hello, everyone. This is the initial Border Guard program,” said Candice. “It will be installed when Jennifer presses the button in her hand.”

  Jennifer held the switchbox up for the cameras. “Think of this as stage one of the Border Guard install,” she said. “Stage two needs more time, and is probably going to be slightly intrusive, as incorporation of individual signature – a form of tagging – may be required, we think.

  “So, Border Guard, stage one. It is designed to show up as a bright red light-spot in the virtuality, whenever anyone in Screenside conducts any activity in Humanside. Passive viewing is excluded. Sorry, as of now, prior to incorporation of signature, it is going to activate for permitted activity too, like the handling of hospital equipment. Sorry.

  “Stage two will differentiate between permitted and illegal. Coming soon. Don’t worry. Installing now.”

  She turned the switchbox around to give everyone a good view, and pressed its red button, and then the three girls waved goodbye and exited through the same side door.

  Goodfellow came forward again. “I want to thank Mr. Noxi Norton for his efforts in the fields of Bodyline, Innerline and MM. Such sincerity! Working alongside the programmers to create his own wonderful programs, add-ons and apps.” Noxi Norton’s beaming face showed up on the giant screen. He wore spectacles, but not fashionable ones like Martin’s, and had a ‘nerdy’ look.

  “However,” continued Goodfellow, in a monotone, “Mr. Norton, I am sorry to inform you that your wonderful inventions, 1 and 2, have been rejected by the senior committee, and have been listed with a warning. You may not install for yourself, and no others may create similar programs, for any reasons whatsoever. Should anyone see the need for these programs, please first notify HC of the reasons, and wait for permission before developing such programs. It shall count as a serious offence to move into programming stages without requisite permissions.

  “Mr. Norton, number one – eye gunk, after a restful night’s sleep, which manifests itself by causing eyelids to stick together, and is confirmed by somehow looking into a mirror, and can thereafter be easily removed with a tissue or a splash of water, or just plain rubbing with a finger. Rejected and listed.

  Number two – Belly button lint, at unspecified times; has no obvious manifestation, but may be discovered, on suspicion of its existence, by checking for it, thereafter easily removed by digging out with a finger. Rejected and listed.

  “I am sorry to inform you that number 3 has gone straight under POP. Banned! And it cannot be requested even for research by anyone. Itching!

  Noxi Norton looked nonplussed.

  “But don’t lose heart, Mr. Norton. Creativity is the name of the game,” urged Goodfellow earnestly, and without the slightest hint of sarcasm. “I hope you are working on something new; something to enhance our human experience.”

  “Under development,” answered Norton.

  “And what wondrous idea is it now, if I may make bold enough to ask?” asked Good
fellow, with a straight face.

  “Body odor,” answered Noxi Norton, equally expressionlessly.

  Esmeralda waylaid Goodfellow, after the assembly had concluded, as he left the stage. “Oh, Algernon,” she called out, waving at him to come to her. “Maria told me your first name. There she is. We’re going in with you, into the dark depths of HC!”

  The poor Goodfellow, despite knowing something was up, had no option but to let the two females steer him down corridors, and past busy workplaces, until, visibly uneasy, he was frog marched into a small office where a redhead was at work, sitting at a desk and holding open the virtuality at eye level.

  “Margaret?” asked Esmeralda, as Goodfellow squirmed.

  The girl stood hurriedly, and curtsied, avoiding looking at Goodfellow, “Yes, yes, Miss Esmeralda, but you here? Oh, hello, Miss Maria.”

  “These folks don’t go to assemblies?” asked Esmeralda, sounding surprised.

  “The programs they create, are the ones being announced at assemblies,” answered Goodfellow, stammering. “Their attendance would be a waste of productive time.”

  “Including this lovely redhead, huh? I have a feeling she is dying to be there, in assemblies run by you, Algernon. Anyway I think we had better go into that inside room I see,” said Esmeralda, now switching to a hard tone. “It’s got a sofa, and we can shut the door behind us, to keep that nearby crowded workshop out of our conversation. Could get loud, you understand? It might get really loud. Family matters tend to get loud, don’t you know?” She practically dragged the clearly apprehensive Goodfellow in.

  Maria led in a trembling Margaret. “Oh, you sweetie!” exclaimed Esmeralda, kissing her and guiding her to the sofa, “Algernon, sit next to her,” she commanded. He sat as directed, looking extremely uncomfortable.

  “Do you have a boyfriend, a partner?” she asked the girl, who shook her head, ‘no’, and began crying silently, tears running down her face.

  “Such a pretty English girl, and no boyfriend?”

  Margaret nodded, miserably.

  “Don’t you think you deserve this lifelong punishment, for falling in love with your brother, huh?” Suddenly Esmeralda began raising her voice, as poor Margaret burst into tears. “Don’t you think it is justice and fair punishment for perversion? No? Well neither do I. In fact, I am mortified and incensed at the fate you are suffering.

  “Algernon, can you imagine how much this innocent girl might have been looking forward to physicality, the same as all of us?

  “And you are denying her the joy of living in our world? Joys that you shamelessly announce on our largest stage! She is one of us. She’ll never have another male in her life.” Esmeralda was now screaming, raging and gesticulating. “Brother? Idiot!

  “There is a way that humans are related, that makes them brother and sister. Womb, and DNA. The only reason they are prohibited from sex with each other, is that babies come out as monkeys! Nothing else. Their forests are already full. Otherwise, what’s the prohibition?

  “And you, you foolish virtual, think you’re related to her? You are – as her love partner!

  “Enough! Enough! She is to suffer no more. And why are you sobbing, idiot, after so many years as her tormentor? Kiss her, and take her home, get naked and into bed, and make love. No more pain. No more deprivation. Get out of here! Go sweetie, and if your idiot boyfriend begins behaving like the brother he isn’t, just call me. And Algernon, I am telling you in plain English.

  “Else he’ll say he didn’t exactly understand,” she muttered, aside, to Maria, “the bloody Englishman…

  “Take Margaret home and fuck her!”

  It ended then, with Margaret, in floods of tears, torn between kissing Esmeralda and Goodfellow. “Thank you, thank you, Miss Esmeralda. The pain, the emptiness, the longing…”

  52

  With the Bataclan Theatre massacre constantly a source of anxiety, Esmeralda eventually decided to do some detective work on Riad, her sister Diana’s boyfriend. “Maybe we can unravel his command chain and send the info anonymously to Interpol or someone, maybe the CIA. Someone’s sure to look into it, if we have verifiable details included. It’s potentially terror related.”

  “Very difficult to ascertain who’s playing which role,” said BC. “So many layers of cover are used. I’m pretty certain that the young boy, Younis, is a courier of verbal messages. It’s quite enough, a verbal or paper segment, to break the trail. Another major problem is that not everyone in the game is a jihadist. Sure, the jihadist high command believes them to be committed to the cause, but, especially judging by lifestyles, many seem to be in it for the money. Oh, yes, mass murder is organized, but in cold blood. Never rash; always on guard. I keep an eye on Riad, and associates of his that I have identified. If I can successfully map their structure, I might place it, anonymously, on the Internet, in a way to get law enforcement people to stumble onto it, or be informed by Internet busybodies. Take this number. It’s a cop. Zone both phones, and you’ll find cameras delivering Younis.”

  “Get him visually,” muttered Esmeralda, checking live pictures on a number of CCTV cameras. “Track the boy, track the cop, zone the phones, zone, zone...”

  And then, “I’ve got him, BC. Got Younis, but he’s actually inside a police car!”

  “Oh, I thought you would see for yourself that there’s an emerging gay side to him. That cop is Pierre, a full-on gay man, and he’s wooing Younis. Been three days so far.

  “But that’s a big mistake, right now. He’s still in the cop car, and the lane they’re going into is where a couple of Riad’s loyals hang around. Switching cameras. Yep, they’re there. See them leaning on the rail, smoking dope? Newly-arrived North African immigrants, addicted to drugs from back home. Riad arranges that they have it. They’re probably not on the terror side, but part of his informer network.”

  “Switch on audio,” muttered Esmeralda, to herself. “Listen in, listen in.”

  “Yes, Pierre, I’ll visit you at home next week,” said Younis.

  “What visit?” said the cop. “You’ll stay the night, surely. Don’t disappoint me, darling boy. You know my feelings for you.”

  “Okay, Pierre, I’ll stay, but drop me off now.”

  “Give me a kiss?”

  “Pierre, someone might see. And don’t touch me there. You can do it later.”

  Nothing else happened. The cop dropped Younis off at a crossing, and the boy ambled into a camera-free area. However, Esmeralda and BC kept him under observation.

  Following on from a long session of passionate lovemaking, they had a quiet night, after which they had slept intertwined, dreaming of being children together, free to wander the real world.

  The next morning, with cups of hot coffee, like almost all Screenside, they watched a few minutes of the Humanside news round-up on their Screenside channel. That was followed by a hot shower together, in which they soaped each other’s backs. Then, refreshed, they sat down, as Esmeralda had planned, to look into her family matters. Djali had shown a desire to leave, so he was let out of the door, and he went down gladly, looking purposeful.

  “First, I want to see the feeding of the dog,” said Esmeralda. “You’ll have to switch on the house cameras at Robert’s place. Diana takes his food to him around now, but my view, via the single camera installed by Jane, fizzles out after Diana goes over the middle wall between the two houses. I have never seen the actual feeding. I could have zoned the cameras down, but never thought the doggie was so dangerous, or suspected that he would be on camera. If that mutt ever catches her in such an illegal activity as climbing over the wall, I dread to think what he might do to her.”

  “Nothing. He’ll do nothing.” BC was relaxed and confident. “He’s locked in when she’s carrying food to him; though later he’s out when she does the return wall climb. He’s seen it all, and he’s okay with it. She speaks to Robert through the entire do. He controls Caligula by voice command on a pretty comprehensive and well placed sp
eaker system.”

  “Oh look!” exclaimed Esmeralda, as both garage cameras came on. “Doggie is sleeping. And Diana has just got out his eating dish to run under the tap. And, look, look. Mutt knows. He’s lifted his head and pricked up his ears. He’s aiming straight for sound from where Diana is. Amazing.”

  Diana got into her once-daily routine, and by the time she left the kitchen with a loaded dish, Caligula was up and sitting at the electric roll-up gate, his stump of a tail wagging.

  Diana conducted her usual wall trespass routine, but with difficulty, executing strange maneuvers, and lying flat on the wall, at one stage of crossing it.

  “I only watch occasionally, but she normally does the wall with ease,” said BC. “She’s got some problem. Back, maybe.”

  Esmeralda laughed. “Yes, she does have a major problem. My very beautiful and shapely sister, Diana, has recently become convinced her stomach is too big. Riad has been cruel, and has made her worry about becoming fat by criticizing her stomach, which, I can confirm, is actually very flat and shapely. Her solution? A corset, but very secret. They’re sexual, but Riad doesn’t know of it.”

  “Is she wearing one now?”

  “All the time, even when sleeping. She’s gone and got herself a pretty expensive, steel bones one, and that is the reason for the circus act over the wall.”

  “Can’t be good for her temper, either,” said BC.

  Diana, now over the wall and into the other garden, picked up the food bowl again and walked to the garage, where she pressed a button beside the roll-up gate to open it. The impatient Caligula did not wait for it to go up fully, but crept out, bending, obviously whimpering in excitement.