Gayle was not distracted. She pointed back to the grisly campus and said, “That is the same jargon Thrive teaches us about prison. It motivates a lot of people to not question the system. You are a clubber, David. I see your Storyworld ads all over your profile. So you know what the old word ‘prison’ means. The Recycling Center is a prison. And it’s every bit as nasty as the ones we all read about in history seminars, or the prisons in Alexoria that you Medieval Storyworld clubbers love so much.
“Look at that bird, David.” A long, slender finger pointed out toward the open sky. David watched as an eagle soared overhead away from the tall black towers and domed, prisonlike roofs. Its majestic white head flew over the nasty barbed wires that surrounded the facility. The bird did a steep banking twirl above the laser gun turrets mounted along the wall dividing that portion of campus from the main Thrive campus. David watched the bird soar.
David countered Gayle’s first comment. “You are spreading gossip, Gayle. It is a good thing that miscreants have a place to change. Imagine what kind of society we would be if we had to immediately give up on anyone that did not fit in. My workmates believe that that prison is a sign of second chances. It is something wholesome.” He decided to be less critical. “Maybe your gossip is correct, but the Recycling Center gives me hope. It’s a line of defense, keeping normal productive humans like me and you away from all the nasty dehumanizing assignments at Orns.” He thought about the brandless men he had seen getting thrown into Orns pickup dumpsters.
He was oblivious, it seemed, to the direction of her monologue. But he could tell she was getting more upset with him the longer he talked, for no apparent reason. Her jaw muscles twitched slightly as she spoke. “That is corporate recycling shit.” Her lips tightened, and her fist clenched and then unclenched as she tearfully pointed again to the portion of the Thrive campus with the somber black buildings. “That is not the prison, the Recycling Center. David, those buildings that you’re looking at are the Thrive Upbringing campus and the school. The place where the children are trained, the place…the place…” She could hardly continue as mumbled rage replaced her trembling speech. “That is where you and I were born. There is a building in that black hole of a complex with unbranded women who care for the infants, and then after that, all Thrive does is train our youth to be productive.”
“Thank the stock for our productive youth! May it continue,” David said without thinking. He marked an X on his chest.
A tear dropped from her eye and disappeared beyond the ledge into the palm trees far below their vantage point in the aging clock tower. “I’ve come to the end of it, David. I watch every day as we teach kids to look and be perfect on the outside. And we strip everything and anything we can from their human hearts and insides. Each day is about stripping away something inside of them and replacing it with our objectives. We turn them into machines. We turn them into human-doings. And they lose something so, so precious. Or at least whatever it is that makes us human is hidden and pushed so deep down that our youths can’t find themselves anymore.”
Taken aback by the inappropriate passion and misplaced pain in the voice of the beautiful woman, David scratched his head and looked away. He didn’t know what to say. He was more than slightly shocked that the “prison” was where he had grown up. “Uhoo…” He tried to speak, but his golden colleague was not finished.
“I picked this park to meet because it is one of the only places I can truly feel like myself and hear my soul speak.”
Now she is just talking crazy, he thought but kept his mouth shut.
She continued, “It’s the only place I can hear myself within the city walls. Walking in the beauty of the sand and the trees, with the city and brand names out of sight, I connect with something deeper inside of me. I have been walking to this clock tower every week for the last five years, lately every day. And…and you know what?” He finally looked her in the eyes and stopped scratching his head. She took a deep breath and with effort of will visibly sealed away her distressed emotions. A strong, determined look replaced the tearful, distraught woman from a moment ago.
David desired this human-doing even more. She was strong and passionate and beautiful all in one. Even if she is a bit traitorous in her speech. But the inside can be fixed if the outside is hot, he told himself. Keep looking at her body, and stop thinking about what she is saying. He took the advice from one of his favorite Orns advertisements. He stared her up and down, trying to forget about the disturbing and rebellious content of their brief baby dialogue. It’s easy to forget about what she was saying. He smiled Ornfully; she was what Nnect slogans meant when they marketed “the complete package.”
To appease her and allow himself a longer look, he said, “What do you think should be done? Are you proposing that the Outside-In method is out of date, Abigayle?” He coughed nervously. “Do you mind if I call you Gayle when you finally accept my friend and relationship request?”
“Ahemm, what? Enough about that stupid online dating request. I am suggesting that the system is a fraud. That there is something authentic and real in each of us that we have let our society and our decisions erase. We need to get off our computers and begin to rediscover what it is to be human.”
“Stop preaching,” he chided in annoyance.
“If you want to join me—join us—then you let me know after you think about it.”
David watched her chest rise and fall, and he let his eyes rove over her as she looked away and out the window, not aware that she was losing him somewhere amid the foreign concepts and emotionally contrived rant. He wanted to keep her talking anyway. He was starting to enjoy this proximity. He wanted her badly. “Gayle, do you have something else that you want to reveal to me? You have already redefined my image of the Thrive skyline.” Believing she had nothing else to say, he continued sarcastically, “What other big secrets do you have to share?”
She was taken aback by the question. She turned so quickly back toward him that he banged his head trying not to let her see his groping stare. He did not want to ruin the moment.
“There is a guild. A club that I am a part of. A group that the Xchange corporate structure is not aware of.”
“Is that what this whole thing is about? You get me out here and invite me to an exclusive club? Wow. I am shocked. Is it like Storyworld? Because I am a prime subscriber to Medieval Storyworld.” He smiled, feeling like a fool. “Here I thought you were some rebellious, crazy, antibusiness freak, and this whole time you were weaving a story that was so convincing you tricked me completely. I would love to watch the commercials for your club, and if it is a tee-up with you, then I would consider investing in the entertainment opportunity. I need more healthy hobbies.”
She kept moving forward with details, not realizing that she and David were thinking of different things. “Yes, David, I have a group I want you to join. We call ourselves a secret guild. You see that brand you have, that I have? We have a member of our guild who has trained us to remove our brands.”
“Is that legal? Customizing your brands?” David paused in horror at the idea of something so illegitimate.
“Would you consider removing your brand, David?”
Oh, she must mean buying myself. Not illicitly removing my brand like a cowardly traitor, he concluded. He laughed in relief, still a bit confused by her proposal. “By the stock, yes!” The repressed tension in his knotted shoulders released, and he stood at ease. “I have always obsessively wanted to have my brand removed. That and marriage to a person like you are basically my long-term goals in life. Oh, and I would love to be a Storyworld writer without working for Orns. Dream World stuff.”
“You really would get it removed?” She was surprised. “What about all this pretentious rhetoric about me being treasonous?”
“I would do anything to have you. Anything to buy my freedom. Anything to have your club—I mean guild—take away my brand and give me a custom one that is better than my coworkers’. I would love
to see my team’s faces when I showed them a better brand than theirs. And on top of that, there is a secret guild that I can’t tell them about. They would never be able to get one better than mine. It’s all otherworldly.”
She gulped, realizing they were on different wavelengths, but tried again anyway. “The man who runs our guild is like that bird.” She pointed at an eagle, which was now soaring far above the clouds. “Fierce, free, and unbranded. He flies free of the city. He takes the brand off so that you can too.”
“Can I request any type of custom brand I want when he takes off this one? Does this man require a lot of freedoms for me to upgrade my brand?”
“David, this man is a mentor. It is free, of course.”
David heard adoration in her voice. He was a little jealous. “Do you have a Selfie of this man? I want to know who he is before I join.” When she drew back a bit, he continued, “Do you have an exclusive chat relationship with this man?”
“No, no, David. I am not with this man. He does not have a Selfie. Here is a photo of us.”
Gayle produced an old-school nondigital photo and handed it to David. In the photo, there were seven people in a circle around a table. Gawking as if surprised the camera had worked. None of them had brands. David looked at Gayle, really looked. He stared at the photo and back at her arm. And then back at her arm in the photo. “Gayle, this photo is no more than a year old. How do you not have a brand on? How do none of them have brands on?” His voice became shrill. “Where are their replacement brands? These human-doings do not look wealthy enough to have bought themselves. You have not bought yourself. Thrive still owns you.” He was very confused now. Little warnings started to explode in his skull. “Something is wrong with all of this.”
“David, are you listening to me? This man does not put the brands back on. He teaches us to live without them.”
“He does what?” David screamed. “So there are no upgraded brands or custom brand clubs? He takes them off completely and criminally? How is he not imprisoned to be rehabilitated or sold to the Orns garbage details? What is that on your arm?”
She gulped nervously again. “It’s a fake. He teaches us how to hide that we have no brand; we pretend.”
He looked at her. And she looked nervously back. Then David could not handle it anymore. “Hahahahaha!” He laughed till tears streamed from his eyes. “Gayle, you had me going there again. Haha, shit, what a story you weaved, wove, woven!” He paced the tower and jumped up and down a couple times on the rickety beams.
He continued when his laughter ceased. “Twice in one afternoon. You are the best storyteller I have ever heard. Wow, you had me for a second there. A secret relationship with a mythical and illegal club that removes brands and lives without them? That is the kind of story they have in Real World. They always tell us we look like a Self-Purchased when we are there. They treat us like that too. Wow. You could write stories for them.”
“David, I think you’re missing my point. I sensed you needed something like this. For real. Do you ever want more than the life we’ve been given?” She tried to break through to him. She was all seriousness.
He chose to ignore the treasonous warning tone to her voice. “Gayle, you are obviously just shy with relationship protocol and prefer to tell crazy stories.” This insight gave him confidence. So he changed the direction of the conversation to something more appropriate. David decided to market himself in this moment. “Gayle, I feel the same way about missing something and wanting more. I have been waiting and searching. I have always wanted to buy myself. At all costs. I’ve sacrificed everything toward that end. Well, almost everything. I do treat myself to some great purchases now and then. And I love Storyworld clubbing. But mostly, I live a disciplined and sacrificial life to become Self-Purchased. I want to own myself and have no brand on my arm. I want to own my own kids and have a wife like a properly purchased human-doing.” He paused. “And right now, do you know what I want? Now I want a relationship. I’ve realized that love has been missing in my life.” He smiled dreamily. “I know ‘love’ is a Storyworld word, but all the same. I like what the word ‘love’ conveys.”
She looked even more taken aback. David trekked onward despite her silence, making himself understood. “Two days ago, I came up with a personal relationship idea for Nnect that will revolutionize the way human-doings interact. Since you’re sharing corporate secrets, I might as well return the favor. I don’t want to owe you anything. I want you to know how much I want you, how much I need you. How much I will use you. I can be trusted; I love you, I think.” He gulped. “At Nnect we’re several days away from launching a new product offering that will allow mutual investment in a personal relationship. It’s like a tee-up before we’re be allowed to tee up. Relationships that are more than just chat rooms or online dates, which you rightly say are insufficient and meaningless after the initial excitement. Therefore, you need to join me. This new Nnect PPRE program I am working on is going to be different from Orns’s personal interface and physical relationships with random strangers. Unlike with Orns, you will only get to buy one person to be in a relationship with—one real, authentic relationship—with corporate laws and product-protection policies in place, of course. The CEO himself could change the law forbidding Productzens from going on actual dates, like we see in Real World and Storyworld. Real dates like free human-doings go on. It’s more than a tee-up, even, which is so structured and rigid. It’s the step after tee-ups, which you have only been allowed to take if you are a Self-Purchased, until now. We will be allowed to date in person and be public about it with this new PPRE program. It is finally profitable with this new structure. It is a huge step for humanity.”
“Of course,” she mumbled. “One small step for humanity, and one large step for your dick.”
“I wanted to invest in a relationship with you, Gayle. I saw you at the gym, and I knew you were the one I was going to ask to be my one.”
“David, stop.”
“Gayle, we have chemistry, even more than I had with Angela from my teens or Bathsheba from Orns.”
“Of course we do,” she said sarcastically.
“Those were superficial,” David said apologetically. “Imagine a world where romance is allowed for us, finally. I see you’re creative and zealous. The way you wove this whole fantasy story together was so real that I almost believed you.”
“David, list—”
He cut her off, “I hear in your voice; you’re a passionate person; I see that your will is strong, even if your story is a bit over the top and rather treasonous.” David laughed at his own jest. “I also love this park. It reminds me of myself years ago. I can’t place what it is, but I feel a sense of inspiration here too. And I have huge goals this year at work.” He rubbed his hand along his blue shoulder, and she shuddered. His brand was feeding him excitement and glowed softly in the dark room. “I could even market us as the prototype relationship, the first to try PPRE! It is a guaranteed success since the CEO himself is backing it up. We would both get bonuses and great corporate review increases, and like I said before—well, maybe I did not say it, but I thought it—you could be a poster girl for PPRE.”
He thoughtlessly ignored the growing look of horror on her face as he got more and more excited and worked up about his grand idea. His brand was tingling and sending pleasure into his heart, encouraging him to continue with his financially sound proposition. Lust ran through him, and the lust seemed like it was about to be fulfilled; he was so near to getting what he wanted, what he deserved.
“It was destiny, by the stock—it was destiny that we met at the gym. We have chemistry, and we have attraction. And I sent you that relationship request. This is my first date ever. It’s a Storyworld fantasy come true.” His hand shifted from his blue brand to his club badge.
She shook her head at him. Pulled her hair into a bun and tied it off. She shifted her weight off the windowsill and scowled. “David, I wrote you that letter so we could start a
conversation and a friendship that was not in the computer system that we paid for. I wanted to see if we could get these brands off and discover what is truly human about ourselves, hidden beneath our habits. I wanted to see if human-doings have the ability to relate without talking about career. I know other people that take a similar path to the one I describe. I showed you the picture. I wanted you to join us. I don’t want to buy myself and then have permits to make babies that grow up in a horrible place like that youth prison out there. I want to be free like the eagle that just soared overhead and is nesting above us in the clock tower. It is not doing that because it bought this space or invested in his view or whatever corporate jargon that Mindmonks and Mind Docs preach about.”
“Are you saying that you don’t agree with my proposition?” David glared back, standing up to his full height. “Are you saying you disagree with our branding system and tee-up system and everything? Did you try to take advantage of me by using my attraction for you to trick me into committing crimes? You abuse my lust and take advantage of my desire. Are you saying that your fabricated, heretical story is true?” His brand pumped anger and energy into him. Raw, powerful dynamism emanated from him.
She saw the glint of the workie drug in his eyes. “Stop it! Control it, David!” She tensed as he clenched his fists. “David, what happens when the brand activates? You feel a rush of life, of pleasure, of adrenaline, and it makes you feel complete for a second. Why do you think we have that brand? What does it motivate us to do? It trains us to be selfish and complicit.”
A Tale Of Doings Page 15