A Cup of Joe by Anita Ensal

Author:Anita Ensal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, science fiction, dystopia, philosophy, utopia, post apocalyptic, coffee, future earth, rise of the machines, cyber romance
Publisher: Gini Koch

Chapter 9

David had the same dream again, night after night. And each time Emily died in it and his heart was taken away. He knew he was giving himself a warning, but he didn’t know what to do with this information.

The week went by slowly. He was sleeping poorly and the Mother Board was spending a great deal of time with him. He used to find it flattering when she did so but now he knew he was being watched, that she distrusted him and was looking for him to slip up and say or do something which would allow her to know that he wanted to see Emily again more than he wanted anything else in the world.

He couldn’t understand why this was so. He’d only spent a few hours with her, after all. Every night when he dreamed he tried to stop his dream when they were done making love, when their naked bodies were entwined together, to not reach the end. But he wasn’t able to stop the dream where he wanted to, and every night he saw Emily engulfed by what he now knew was the Mother Board as she really was.

He ran into the Underwriter in the halls one day, confirming that they were watching him, since the Underwriter rarely if ever was seen out of the top levels of the Tower.

The old man gave him a long look as David gave him a respectful bow. “Are you sleeping well, Chosen One?” he asked finally.

David shrugged. “Normally. Why?”

“You seem…tired,” the Underwriter said with a small smile. “As a suggestion, when you want to awaken, you can override your bad dreams with a simple numeric code.”

“Oh?” David asked politely, wondering if the Master Computer was reading his dreams while he slept and worrying about Emily’s safety if this was so.

“Yes,” the Underwriter said. “Here.” He handed David a piece of paper with an eight-digit number on it. “Memorize this. It will help you.” The old Programmer then turned and walked away, leaving David staring dumbly at the piece of paper in his hand, which looked as if it was very old, older than the papers he’d seen in the coffeehouse.

He couldn’t figure out how a number could help him stop a nightmare, but he’d been trained to do what the Programmers told him, so he memorized the number. His mind’s voice spent some time asking him why the Underwriter had visited him and, since Delight had told him that none fully linked into the System could read or write, who had actually written the numbers down on the paper he was staring at. But he had no answers, and ultimately chose not to dwell on it.

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