The Splendid City by Karen Heuler

Author:Karen Heuler
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780857669865
Publisher: Watkins Media
Published: 2022-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

The lift she’d gotten from the ceremony didn’t last long – or at least there was no change in her essential being. She found her work boring and her boss as offensive as always. But she did look through the selection of little boxes at the gift shop to see if any more spoke to her or just the box she had been presented with at the ceremony.

That particular box now formed part of the collection that was placed around Gloria’s living room and kitchen. When the witches walked around and handled items, they had been touching the spirit of the witch whose totem it was, connecting with her. Eleanor understood that and looked forward to the next meeting, when her own spirit would be touched, and she would touch others.

That sense of being part of a larger event retreated, and ordinary life resumed. Stan had been getting on her nerves for a while now, sidling over when she was talking to the boss or when it looked like she had annoying customers, just standing there listening with a slightly open mouth. What was the deal with him?

Finally, he cleared his throat one day and said, “You seem to have a lot on the ball. I’ve heard some of your comments and they’re pretty eye-opening. I wonder if you’d like to make a little money on the side? This is just between you and me.” His voice got lower as the sentences ran on, so by the end she was leaning forward, as if what he said was irresistible. She hated it when people did that. She should have just said that she couldn’t hear him.

“That sounds pretty suspicious,” she whispered back, forcing him to lean in to her.

“It’s perfectly legal. And fun. Though you have to have the right attitude and be pretty flexible.”

She frowned. “Flexible in what way exactly?”

“Socially. Politically.” His eyes rose as he considered. “Maybe even a little bit morally.”

“This is getting creepy, Stan. Why not come out and say what it is?”

He sighed. “You’ve heard of Augment?”

“Oh. Yes. It’s a new social media thing, right?”

“It is. You can still get in at the beginning, pretty much. The thing is, you can use it to generate rumors and also stir up some controversy. And you get a cut of the ad revenue if your Augs go viral. That’s not hard, by the way. Everyone’s prejudiced about virtually everything. I started one last week, about the election. I said that the candidate had a particular phobia. I won’t go into it because it started about one thing and morphed into another thing. But there were over fifty thousand hits. There was only twenty bucks on that one, but you don’t just have one Aug going at a time, of course. I made over three hundred dollars last month. Anyway, if you Aug something and I pick it up and blast you about it – and vice versa, if I start and you blast – well, in theory we can reach wider audiences.

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