Star by Eliza Witte - HTML preview

32

XVIII

They had already reached the Information Center. Aaron went to the Administrator and Annie followed him.

‘Aaron Faith,’ he introduced himself and the administrator, a fat black lady, quickly found his student’s number in the system. She checked him out, collecting the books and quickly turned to the next customer, Annie, greeting her merrily, ‘Hi, Annie!’

‘But I didn’t say my name,’ Annie spluttered.

‘You think that having so many students, I can’t remember them all? You are right – I don’t but you read more than the others. So what can I do for you?’

‘Well, I’d like to use the Information Center.’

The Administrator smiled, ‘That computer over there is free. By the way, your Internet account expires soon.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘You will need to deposit some more money,’ said the lady and turned to the next student who had just arrived. Annie and Aaron had to separate to two different desks but they promised to meet later. Annie sat in front of the computer and concentrated all the power of her mind in an attempt to conjure up an image. While she was figuring out that a computer at the Student Information Center didn’t exactly work like the World Information Center, she still kept considering the matter with the money. Louie didn’t have money.

That was so because he said it but obviously Annie didn’t have it, either or maybe she did but now she had to… what was the word… ‘to deposit’ more. She feared that it might turn out like the case with the breakfast which she failed to find anyway but she was interrupted as she managed finally to start the computer and to log on the internet. ‘This is really funny,’ she thought, the humans have the incredible ability to turn even the simplest space laws such as dynamics, mechanics and electronics into serving too complicated devices which were rendered however absolutely useless, unless the human again told them expressly what to do. Like the thing before she was now standing. To evoke an image with your mind was so much easier then to start this thing. Anyway, now Annie was glad she managed to do that. She knew she could trust the World Information Center, be it even in such a miniscule and unsophisticated version. First, she’d see her own calendar for tomorrow and she’d be prepared – no more unpleasant surprises of any kind. She typed the word ‘forecast’ in the search engine. On the screen first popped up 33

the weather forecast for all possible regions. Reaching page 10 of the search results Annie got both amazed and annoyed, ‘No Life-forecast?’

After another 5 pages, the closest that she got was ‘Your Birth-sign forecast,’

‘That’s all? O-o-o-oh, this is so primitive! And why do they only rely on the 10 planets in their system. There are billions of planets and stars in the universe and each of them loves the Earth and its habitants in a most unique way! I guess I’ll just have to get the program from the Students Desk,’ she murmured. She was just about to close the site when something drew her attention – ‘Money Forecast’. She clicked on the link. GOD! On the screen there was nothing but diagrams, charts, numbers… she scrolled down…

values, buy/sell ratio, currency, some funny names like yen, pound, and dollar.

‘Which one of these exactly is money?’ Annie simply got a headache. In the next several minutes she made vain attempts to answer this question and finally reached the conclusion that this stuff was not for her. Some ten decades ago, when she had just emerged and was to study for the very first time the calculation of her own trajectory, she felt as useless and talentless as she was feeling now. The only difference was that everything in the universe had now and then a trajectory while money seemed to be just a humans’ invention which for the time being had proved to bring about nothing but trouble.

XIX

She was still considering the topic when she came into ‘The Blue’ bar to settle it once and for all with Louie. He might not have the money but at least he’d know what he was lacking. She quietly opened the door and took a look around. The bar was empty and it was for the first time she’d seen it like this. She slowly approached Louie’s office at the back and heaved a deep sigh of embarrassment at the sight of the door. However, she was really determined to go all the way, so she knocked, ‘Yes!’ Louie answered from the inside and Annie entered. On the table there was a bottle of whiskey and a dirty glass and behind them there was Louie in his usual grey rumpled suit, slightly drunk. ‘Oh, Annie, come in!’ he said a bit amused due to the alcohol, but then he got suspicious.

‘Don’t tell me you are not going to work tonight. It’s Friday evening and the bar is full. I can’t let you go!’

He talked with a strange funny accent which was made twice more so from the effect of the drink on his tongue. It was later that Annie found out he was from Cyprus but was making all efforts to look like a decent local gentleman WITH money, which in fact was his religion.

‘I will come to work but it’s not this that brings me here,’ replied Annie 34

‘Then what is it, dear?’ softened Louie in turn.

Annie hesitated. She didn’t know how to bring it up but there was no coming back now.

‘Louie, you… you said you had no money.’

‘WHAT? I can’t! I CAN’T! I can’t pay you more. That’s her – it's your friend's fault!

She’s giving you these ideas,’ jumped Louie as if someone had put a burning torch in his pants.

‘But…’

‘I can’t! That’s it! I don’t dig money, see. Everybody wants money! Where from? If you want more – I don’t have it. But I tell you one thing – in your contract you agreed to work for that much. So that much I pay. Louie’s not a swindler. Enough about it! Go!’

Annie was ready to shout out at the top of her lungs, ‘But, what, for a black hole’s sake, IS money?’ but she refrained just because by now she had figured out that Louie liked people to fawn on him and because she’d just gotten some additional information to experiment with.

‘Sir, I don’t want anything. I just want to see… this contract!’ Louie was looking at her with discontent so she had to repeat herself, ‘Sir, I don’t want anything!’ Louie reluctantly opened a drawer and took out a dirty piece of paper, murmuring, ‘What is there to look at? A contract like any other. Black on white.’ He handed it to Annie. Annie took it and looked at it and felt her heart going up her throat. She saw something she had seen before - a strange little sign - $. She was getting closer now.

‘So this little sign is…,’ she took a deep breath, “Is it money?’

‘This little sign is the dollar – the King!’

‘What does ‘currency’ mean then?’

‘The currency is the money of other countries. They say it is also valuable but I tell you,’ he stopped to take a big one from his glass and then to take out a wad of 20$ bills from his pocket. ‘This here is Uncle Sam’s brother – uncle Dollar! This is important. I don’t care about the rest. This is the King!’

‘So 20$ is money?’

‘You, dear, you are a good girl. Don’t ask for money from Louie coz he ain’t got no money.’ He winked at her and put the wad back into his pocket. ‘Go now! Go! And make sure you come on time tonight, all right!’