“Closer to seven hundred. Are you going to help me or what?”
Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Markus silently sits back on the bench. His chin lifted, he gazes up at the sky. Maybe he expects the answer to this puzzle to fall through the dull blanket of clouds, straight into his lap.
“Didn’t this moron just say that he wasn’t superstitious?”
Blue suits pass by them on the tile road. They peek curiously at the strange couple, sitting next to each other on a park bench. Then they eyeball Markus’s abandoned AR-glasses, forgotten in the middle of the tile road. Curious but too scared to stop or ask, they continue their walk along the blue tiles. They’ll never learn what the Unchipped and the Chipped could possibly have in common.
Oblivious to their stares, Markus has clearly forgotten his reality—the reality he’s taking an unexpected break from. Eyes investigating the sky, he seems to be lost in some sort of inner turmoil. Finally, he nods and locks eyes with Kaarina, gives her yet another careful smile.
“Two hundred pills it is then. You said doxycycline?”
Head snapping back in surprise, she does her best to recover from this sudden development. And she needs to do it fast. She has taken all the time she can afford as her companion back home fights for his life. “Can you afford it? Do you have enough CC’s?”
“Yes, I’ve got plenty. And medicine doesn’t cost that much these days. Most people just order what they need with their dinner and nightly pills. It’s all covered by the government.”
Tempted to ask more about the pills she never took, the ones that everyone here swallows on daily basis, Kaarina forces herself to stay focused on her task. Markus gets up from the bench and wipes his hands on the back of his overalls. Smile deepening, he raises his eyebrows. Kaarina has forgotten to answer his previous question.
“Yes, doxycycline. And that’s wild, medicine being so cheap. Do you think they’ll have enough? I mean, because people hardly need to buy stuff from the pharmacy?”
Markus walks back to the tile road, picks up his AR-glasses. “One way to find out.” He turns his back on her and starts toward the crooked sign.
“Wait!”
At her call, Markus slows his stride and turns around. He continues his walk backwards, eyebrows raised in a question. Kaarina speeds toward the road but stops before reaching the tiles. The road is too wide for her to jump over. She hollers instead.
“I thought you didn’t want the rabbit foot!”
Markus grins happily, keeps walking backwards, and shouts back. “You’re right, I don’t want it! But you already paid me!”
He turns around, only a few feet away from the pharmacy. Kaarina looks left and right, backs up to get some momentum, and leaps over the tiles, touching the surface only twice until she’s on the other side. Squeezing the rabbit foot in her fist, she catches up with Markus, reaching for his shoulder. He stops and turns around to face her.
“What do you mean I already paid you? Am I in debt to you somehow?”
“You don’t owe me a thing.”
“What then? I don’t get it.”
Markus loops the AR-glasses around his neck but doesn’t put them back on. Avoiding Kaarina’s questioning eyes, he smiles and shrugs once.
“It’s been months, no, years since I’ve had a conversation with someone without having to watch my every word. A low social rank is no joke, it could cost me my job. I’m good right now but need to make sure it stays that way. This makes me extra careful when I talk with anybody. If I talk with anybody, that is. I’m this close,” he holds his thumb and forefinger a few inches apart, “to leaving my apartment and getting a house of my own. They don’t grant houses to single people, not usually. But I’m not going to push my luck and ask them why they made an exception with me. To get my house I need to score high. Below-average rank would be a deal breaker.”
“Okay…” Kaarina says, her brow furrowed, “but I still don’t get why you’re helping me or how I’ve paid you. Just because we chatted on the bench and I let you touch my face?”
“Yup. That’s it.”
“For a two-minute chat, you’ll buy me a shit-ton of meds?”
“I’m telling you, I can’t remember the last time I laughed as hard as I just did. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I laughed at all. You make me… you make me feel good. Better than I remember feeling in years.”
Stunned, her mouth partly open, Kaarina shifts her weight from one foot to another. Then it hits her, the opportunity. Out of the blue, lucky as can be. Has her rabbit foot finally started to pull its weight?
“If you want to do this again, we can. Meet me here again next week? Same place, same time? There are a few other things I could really use…” Her calculated words make her gag. Taking advantage of kind people is not something she’d normally do. But the thought of new, unshredded winter shoes flashes through her mind—distracting, tempting.
Should I take it back? It’s a scam. I’m a scam. What if next week he doesn’t find me funny at all? But Bill is not there to answer her questions.
Markus’s smile deepens. A single nod seals their deal. He puts on the AR-glasses and reaches for the pharmacy’s door handle.
“It’s a date.”
***
Kaarina walks through the dark woods, holding a paper bag filled with pill boxes. Her excellent night vision is not enough to guide her back home, so she’s turned on her headlamp. Praying the batteries don't run out, she estimates that she’s only twenty minutes away from the barnyard.
Rocky will be there waiting. The other animals might be there too: they usually check in around supper time.
Humming a tune that could be from her past, or could be one that she just made up, she gets closer to the
