Read Online Unbearable by Tracy Cooper-Posey - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Tracy Cooper-Posey
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“I, too will be a parent in the summer.”
“That’s wonderful, Miguel,” I told him. “We didn’t know you were with anyone.”
“We got married, Thanksgiving weekend,” Miguel said, grinning broadly. He leaned forward. “Tricky, though. These days, the government wants more and more proof of who you are.”
Nick studied him soberly. “We have documentation,” he said gently.
Miguel shook his head. “No, amigo . You just think you do. These days, one sheet doesn’t cut it. They want two or three and they have to have a photo. Use to be, you could use someone’s birth certificate to get a social security number, or a social security number you lifted from some poor sap to get a job. It don’t work that way now.”
Nick didn’t answer. Because he had been prudent with money throughout his life, the need to get a job or account for himself in any official capacity had never been a great priority. Neither had it been critical for me. Basic IDs were easy to come by, but even we had found it more cumbersome over the last decade or so. Oscar, who had been a lawyer, had often nagged us about setting up more fool-proof identities, for the same reasons that Miguel was expounding now.
“It’s the computers,” Nyanther said suddenly. “The government uses them to cross-check. If something doesn’t match across all the departments, it flags attention.”
I knew very little about computers, except that they were big, expensive and only the government and multi-nationals could afford to use them. “They would use computers to hunt down illegals?” I asked, amused. “Isn’t that like swatting a fly with an atomic warhead?”
Miguel sighed and sat back. He’d given up.
Nyanther was the one to answer. “ Everything will be run by computers, sooner or later,” he said. “No one will use actual money anymore. There will be computers in every store that take your details and take the money straight out of your bank account. I was reading about it on the way down.”
We were all staring at him in amazement. I tried to imagine what it would be like to stand in front of a big tin computer silo at the bodega on the corner of our block and couldn’t do it.
“Not use money?” Tally said dryly. “Impossible.”
“Paper money,” Nyanther insisted. “Coins you can touch. It won’t disappear overnight but eventually, we’ll use computers more than we use cash.” He glanced around casually. There wasn’t anyone very close because it was still mid-afternoon. “Miguel is right. Once computers start talking to each other and cross-checking everything, if your driver’s license doesn’t have the name on it that the computer says it should, people will start asking questions. It will get harder and harder to prove you’re a legitimate human.”
That Nyanther, who had been tipped into the twentieth century less than a year ago, was the one telling us this was ironic. Perhaps it was because he had just arrived here among all the fantastic and mind-bending things like airplanes and central heating and flushing toilets, that considering an impossible-to-imagine future came easier to him.
Tally got to her feet and bent to unstrap Riley from the high chair. “People will always need money,” she said flatly. “It’s the only fair medium of exchange.”
She was impatient to begin and coaxed all of us back out to the cars. It was a simple thirty minute drive out to the forest and I relaxed a degree or two when we saw very few cars on the highway.
The parking lot was similarly unpopulated. There were three other cars, all parked at the end closest to where the trails started. Nick automatically picked a bay as far away from the other cars as possible, which put us close to the entrance. Miguel pulled up next to him and he hauled yet another map out of his pocket. This one was a map of the park itself, with the trails and facilities outlined clearly.
There was a single trail running right down through the
“That’s wonderful, Miguel,” I told him. “We didn’t know you were with anyone.”
“We got married, Thanksgiving weekend,” Miguel said, grinning broadly. He leaned forward. “Tricky, though. These days, the government wants more and more proof of who you are.”
Nick studied him soberly. “We have documentation,” he said gently.
Miguel shook his head. “No, amigo . You just think you do. These days, one sheet doesn’t cut it. They want two or three and they have to have a photo. Use to be, you could use someone’s birth certificate to get a social security number, or a social security number you lifted from some poor sap to get a job. It don’t work that way now.”
Nick didn’t answer. Because he had been prudent with money throughout his life, the need to get a job or account for himself in any official capacity had never been a great priority. Neither had it been critical for me. Basic IDs were easy to come by, but even we had found it more cumbersome over the last decade or so. Oscar, who had been a lawyer, had often nagged us about setting up more fool-proof identities, for the same reasons that Miguel was expounding now.
“It’s the computers,” Nyanther said suddenly. “The government uses them to cross-check. If something doesn’t match across all the departments, it flags attention.”
I knew very little about computers, except that they were big, expensive and only the government and multi-nationals could afford to use them. “They would use computers to hunt down illegals?” I asked, amused. “Isn’t that like swatting a fly with an atomic warhead?”
Miguel sighed and sat back. He’d given up.
Nyanther was the one to answer. “ Everything will be run by computers, sooner or later,” he said. “No one will use actual money anymore. There will be computers in every store that take your details and take the money straight out of your bank account. I was reading about it on the way down.”
We were all staring at him in amazement. I tried to imagine what it would be like to stand in front of a big tin computer silo at the bodega on the corner of our block and couldn’t do it.
“Not use money?” Tally said dryly. “Impossible.”
“Paper money,” Nyanther insisted. “Coins you can touch. It won’t disappear overnight but eventually, we’ll use computers more than we use cash.” He glanced around casually. There wasn’t anyone very close because it was still mid-afternoon. “Miguel is right. Once computers start talking to each other and cross-checking everything, if your driver’s license doesn’t have the name on it that the computer says it should, people will start asking questions. It will get harder and harder to prove you’re a legitimate human.”
That Nyanther, who had been tipped into the twentieth century less than a year ago, was the one telling us this was ironic. Perhaps it was because he had just arrived here among all the fantastic and mind-bending things like airplanes and central heating and flushing toilets, that considering an impossible-to-imagine future came easier to him.
Tally got to her feet and bent to unstrap Riley from the high chair. “People will always need money,” she said flatly. “It’s the only fair medium of exchange.”
She was impatient to begin and coaxed all of us back out to the cars. It was a simple thirty minute drive out to the forest and I relaxed a degree or two when we saw very few cars on the highway.
The parking lot was similarly unpopulated. There were three other cars, all parked at the end closest to where the trails started. Nick automatically picked a bay as far away from the other cars as possible, which put us close to the entrance. Miguel pulled up next to him and he hauled yet another map out of his pocket. This one was a map of the park itself, with the trails and facilities outlined clearly.
There was a single trail running right down through the
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