Reality by Linus Rollman

Author:Linus Rollman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: adventure, literary fiction, reality tv
Publisher: Linus Rollman

8.

The only times when Fletcher was voluntarily away from Bea were when he was fishing, which he still relished. It had also become increasingly important to the clan in general, since their stock of rice was now nearly gone.

A few days after Little Rich was expelled, Fletcher and Sarge sat together on the rocks in between dives. Sarge was watching something in the distance and Fletcher was poking absently at the pearly surface of an empty shell with the end of his fishing spear. “Sarge,” Fletcher said, “Can I ask you a question?”

Sarge looked back over his shoulder and nodded silently. Seawater trickled from his beard and hair, and he looked to Fletcher as if he ought to be carrying a trident.

“Well, you know the other night? When we – when Big Rich left? What were you talking about? You know, when it was your turn to talk? I was just wondering. Because you said some things that I didn’t understand.”

Sarge’s expression was very hard to read: his eyes were hard and bright, but the rest of his face was gentle, maybe even sad. He looked out at the sea again. “Didn’t you?”

“No. Not really. I mean, it seemed like – no, I guess I didn’t.”

“You said, that same night, before I spoke, that you would like to understand. What did you mean by that?”

“The funny thing is I guess I don’t know what I was talking about, really, any more than I know what you were talking about. That’s what I thought when I sat down afterwards. I thought that that wasn’t what I meant to say at all, and I didn’t know what I was trying to get at.”

“Come on,” said Sarge, and he stood, holding out his hand to help Fletcher up.

“Where are we going?”

“If we’re going to talk – about serious matters – it’s best that we keep moving. There’s less chance that we’ll be overheard.” He pulled Fletcher to his feet and began to walk along the water’s edge. Fletcher walked beside him, trailing the point of his little spear in the sand.

“Did you know,” Sarge said, “That there are over five thousand cameras in lower Manhattan alone, below fourteenth street? Put up by the police department, by private security firms, monitoring people as the walk around. That number is several years old, too, and it’s only the ones that could actually be seen and counted. The real number now is far greater. And did you know that they’ve developed software that can scan a crowd and recognize suspicious patterns of behavior? Suspicious movements, whatever those are exactly. It’s amazing, really. A computer can pick out a person behaving suspiciously in a group of a thousand other people. We live in an incredible time. People have always wanted to be known, to be seen, to be recognized, but our ability to achieve those things is absolutely flowering at this historical moment. We can post videos of ourselves to youtube and photographs and the minutiae of

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