Optimal by J.M. Berger

Author:J.M. Berger [Berger, J.M.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2020-08-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Jack had not been prompted to take an umbrella. By the time he got back to the apartment, he was drenched and freezing. Before conferring with Megumi, he took a long hot shower, and the ache in his bones slowly subsided.

When he emerged, he stared at himself in the bathroom mirror, turning the lights up as bright as they would go, seeking to banish the darkness. His face was weighted down and creased in places it had not been before. Fresh lines had been inscribed around his eyes and mouth, like a record of all he had seen and felt since this task had fallen to him, written over the fading image of his old self.

He hardly recognized his counterpart in the mirror—a man who had suddenly discovered sharp objects, after living his whole life in a bubble.

When he emerged, dry and warm, he saw a similar expression on Megumi’s face. She was sprawled on his couch. From her gaze, and her expression, he guessed she was replaying the footage of his run.

“I’m guessing you don’t have anything like that in Asia,” he said.

“How would I know?” she replied darkly. “My continent is a lot like yours. Everyone is comfortable, happy. I’ve never seen anything bad. But maybe it was there all along, just 20 or 30 blocks off my beaten path.”

“Tell me about Asia,” he said. He wasn’t ready to dive into the more immediate matter. She seemed to welcome the distraction.

“It’s very clean and quiet,” she said. “It’s clean here too, but Asia somehow feels cleaner. There’s a smell here that I couldn’t recognize at first, but I eventually realized it must be the people. I guess I’m just used to our soap. It’s noisier here too. Not in a big way, just people clumping around kind of… gracelessly.” She grimaced. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” he laughed. “What are the buildings like?”

She flashed him some snaps of New Tokyo. The construction was similar in materials to New Boston, but the styles were slightly different, flowing, with curved, decorative lines around roofs and balconies. There were more skyscrapers there than here, tall and metallic, gleaming in the bright sun. There were parks and gardens, although the flora differed substantially. A night-time scene showed restaurants with signage in stylish kanji characters and blue-tinted streetlights. She showed him a white sand beach that she enjoyed visiting.

“It’s beautiful,” Jack said.

“It’s cold,” she replied. “It’s much warmer here.”

Jack looked up the city.

“Is Knowledge wrong about the weather?” he asked, slightly puzzled.

“I’m not talking about the weather,” she said.

“Oh.”

“On the other hand, I guess it could be worse.”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “So what did we just see?”

“A different way of life.”

“It was so… bleak,” he said. “Colorless, grim. I’ve never seen anything like it. I didn’t know places like that existed. That they could exist under the System.”

“And right in your backyard,” she said. “Why don’t they leave?”

“Same reason we don’t?”

“We don’t have much motivation,” she said. “We’re living the good life. Everything we need is right at hand, and our prompts keep us walking a circuit.

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