NOTE: If you haven’t been following this from the beginning, and if you want to know the full sequence of events, start with the introduction. Click on Archives on the right.
Steve Strether joins me at the crosswalk. Maxwell Avenue is busy and Oval Street is backed up at the red light, in the Thanksgiving shopping rush.
“Fred, are you joining tonight’s Community Meeting?”
“Yeah, I had a job to find the time, Steve.”
“Have you got the link?”
“Not sure I have seen it.”
“It isn’t Zoom, you know.”
“Oh! What is it?”
“Look for, ‘SnaZConnect’ with the green and orange logo.”
“No, have not seen that one.”
“It gets complicated because ribbons of texts cross your square at the same time as video conversations.”
“Sounds like it will be beyond me!”
“Bel and I have a bottle of mulberry wine to help us get through.”
“It is going to be interesting.”
The light changes.
A couple sits outside the Pie Shop in hoodies and jackets. A cloud of dry grey oakleaves floats across the street like brittle snow. A muster of loud crows takes off from the utility poles in front of the Light House Filling Station.
“Look at those crows, Fred!”
“I see, no masks!”
“Must be time for their meeting.”
“Looks like those Corvids recovered from West Nile virus, back in ninety-nine.”
“Now it is our turn with Covid.”
“They don’t need any software, either.”
“Catch you in your square Fred, got to pick up a prescription over there.”
He walks over to our newest store, ‘Legal Drugs’.
The meeting starts at 4 PM and Steve sends me the link, which works on the first try.
There’s Lou greeting me, full screen.”
“Here’s to your tenth anniversary in Fauxmont.”
Lou’s image flickers as he raises a glass.
“Congratulations Fred.”
“Thanks, I moved in on the 25th of November 2010.”
Lou’s picture diminishes. There’s Diddlie, Lark, Steve Strether, Daisy, and various others I don’t know, all faces in the checkerboard pattern on my screen.
His voice seems to cause his image to expand again into a bigger highlighted square among the others, which were all the same size a moment ago.
Lou is sipping from his glass.
Albrecht joins the meeting.
“Here’s to you, Fred!”
Albrecht swigs from his beer bottle. Now his square has displaced Lou’s.
Diddlie’s square goes blank.
Then a text unrolls in my square.
“I don’t associate with Fascists!”
Albrecht’s image fills my screen again.
“What’s her problem?”
“Can somebody tell me how this thing works?”
Lou texts me:
“Just restart your computer.”
All the images on my screen flicker on and off and then swirl out of sight, as if they are water going down a drain. My ringtones sound.
“Hello, Fred?”
“Yeah, Lou, when you told Diddlie to restart I was kicked out of the meeting.”
“No, I was telling you, to restart!”
“Oh, okay.”
“Go back to www.SnazE.C.”
“What is going on?”
“Don’t know.”
“Seems like whoever is speaking gets a big highlighted square.”
“Right, but you can click down below and break off, into a private conversation.”
“I see, but there are more options.”
“You can allow others to join, or not.”
“What are all these symbols?”
“Well, you can record the conversation in audio-only or include video, or video only. And you can do this with or without the other person knowing.”
“That is an invasion of privacy!”
“Seems like it, but if you read the terms of use, you find you have consented.”
“Yeah, right! In the middle of all that micro verbiage!”
The restart works, time to hang up.
Dick East’s face fills the screen. The caption reads; “DIRECTOR”. His Van Dyke beard and squint in his left eye, seem more pronounced in the closeup view.
“Hi everyone, I hope you can see and hear me. I am Dick East, Chairman of the Fauxmont Guild. It is my pleasure to welcome you to our first virtual Guild Meeting.”
Diddlie’s square is back, blinking on and off. She texts on my square.
“Right-click on my square, will you?”
Click
The Red Queen is nodding towards me, pecking her screen.
“Queenie, get out of the way!”
She lifts the bird clear.
“Hi, I have this on confidential”
“We are missing the meeting.”
“Aren’t you recording it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, just record it, then you can run through the whole thing later, skipping the endless nonsense.”
“Suppose I want to say something.”
“You think anyone is listening?”
“It is a community meeting, isn’t it?”
“It is a SnaZ.c meeting!”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean they are controlling it all the time.”
“Who is? How?”
“Wake up Fred. I am talking about Jake Trip, Ernie Manstein, and The Leiden Organization.”
“Aha, and you think Ernie is in control?”
“His people created this software we are using. We are like, his beta test.”
“Diddlie, who told you this? Mr. Liddell?”
“No need to get snarky Fred. I am telling you something few people realize now but it will come out after it is too late.”
“Well, in that case, you better watch what you say! They will get it all on the record.”
“And just what can they do about it?”
“You tell me! You’re, the expert.”
“Well, I am getting expert help from a certain source, as we speak.”
“Sounds conspiratorial to me.”
“Oh, look who is here!”
Donna Intaglio appears in a square next to Diddlie’s.
“Hey Donna, long time no see!”
“I know Diddlie. We are still in Grenoble.”
“Donna, what time is it there?”
“Ah, it is 10:28 PM.”
“It is nearly 4:30 here in Fauxmont.”
“Yeah, this technology makes no time-sense!”
“Excuse me Donna, but Diddlie, didn’t you say you were on ‘Confidential?”
“Oh! I am so sorry Fred!”
“No, No Donna, not your fault. I am trying to understand how this software works.”
“Fred, you didn’t click on confidential. So, you are wide open.”
“Okay, I don’t know where that is. Did you see Albrecht’s square, Donna?”
“Yeah, we were chatting earlier.”
Rank Major’s square opens, filling the screen and interrupting the conversation.
“Rank, where did you come from?”
“Hi Fred, I am in Hong Kong.”
“How come you just interrupted my square?”
“Don’t know, just logged on from the link Dick sent out, that’s all.”
“What are you doing out there?”
“A little reporting.”
“Reporting! I didn’t know you were a reporter.”
“Oh, it is one of the things I do, you know.”
“Sounds like an interesting place to be, at the moment.”
“Sure is, I just got up too. It’s 5:30 in the morning here.”
“Is it today or tomorrow or yesterday?”
“We are thirteen hours ahead of you!”
“Okay, save some trouble and tell me this. What was the outcome of the meeting?”
“Can’t say. SnaZconnect creates a twist in time.”
My screen flickers.
Mr. Liddell fills Diddlie’s square and then fills my square.
“Diddlie, what are you doing?”
“Sorry Fred, it is only a picture.”
“What do you mean?”
“I put up a picture of Mr. Liddell instead of showing myself.”
“Why? This is way too confusing.”
“I just need a little privacy at the moment.”
“So, are you returning to the meeting?”
“I never left!”
“You did. You put that White Rabbit up.”
“Well, it is a picture, a bunch of pixels, same as I am a picture.”
“The rabbit can’t speak, and you can!”
“Oh really!”
An animated white rabbit appears on screen.
“Hi, Fred! Liddell here. Have you seen the Red Queen?”
“Okay, Diddlie!”
Bel Vionnet fills my screen.
“Hello, bel.”
“Fred, where did you come from?”
“Oh, I am just floating through cyber space-time. Thought I was at the Fauxmont Guild meeting.”
“So did I, but I couldn’t see anyone, only heard the voices.”
“Well, I don’t know what is going on. Rank says we are in a ‘Time Twist’.”
“He does? What’s that?”
“You better ask him.”
“Why is Dick East using this software, anyway?”
“Steve tells me it was recommended by Jake Trip.”
“It’s got me confused!”
My screen goes blank for several seconds. Dick East is back.
“Sorry about the instability of the system. We have some, help here. Please, everyone shut off your computer. Wait three minutes and then start up again.”
Albrecht’s face fills my screen.
“Yo, Fred! Have we approved the budget yet?”
“What budget?”
“The one we were all discussing with Dick and the treasurer just now. I moved off to talk to my Mom.”
“I never saw any of it.”
“Where were you?”
“Ah, Grenoble, Hong Kong, and various homes in the neighborhood.”
“You need to go down the bottom of your screen and look under the options menu.”
“Aha, okay, confidential, share, break out, greet, and welcome.”
“So, what is highlighted?”
“Ah, ‘Greet and Welcome.”
“Okay, that means every time someone logs on, they take over your square.”
“We should have had a community training session!”
“Well, everyone under twenty-five knows this stuff.”
“I thought this software was new.”
“It is, but people that age just get it. You know. They are born into it. The code flows through the amniotic fluid.”
“This community is aging and so am I.”
“We are supposed to be shutting down.”
“Okay, Albrecht.”
I shut down and my ringtones sound.
“Hi Fred, ah, you got a minute?”
“Lark, hi, yes, I have three, in fact.”
“Yeah right, ah, did you hear? Theo died!”
“NO! I am sorry Lark. When did he go?”
“The hospital called me a few minutes ago. It was complications of Covid.”
“Sorry Lark. He was always interesting.”
“Yeah, overweight, stressed out, and mostly out of breath too.”
“Have you found Boyd?”
“No, but I think he went back out West.”
“Are you going to announce it at the meeting?”
“I guess. Let’s start up again.”
Clicking on the link brings the interface back.
“Hi, I am Helga Dumpty, secretary to the Fauxmont Guild. I have not got everyone’s vote on last meeting’s minutes. Please check and make sure you voted.”
“How do I vote, Albrecht?”
“This is bel, Fred. I am not there yet.”
“Okay, bel. What time do you have?”
“Just on five.”
“HA! Same here!”
“Isn’t that what you would expect. We are only a few blocks apart?”
“That’s geography. Here, in cyber-space-time the rules are different.”
“Bel’s picture is gone, replaced by letters spelling her name, yellow on brown. I speak to the letters.
“I’ll call Lou.”
Lou tells me over the phone that the vote button doesn’t always work.
“You find it under ‘Meeting Options’ then, ‘Procedures’, then open the vote box and click on ‘yea or nay’.”
“How archaic!”
“Little bit of nostalgia for us.”
“I can’t even find ‘Meeting Options’.”
“No, it isn’t with the other commands. It is up top to the right.”
“Oh Great, my screen just went blank.”
“Same here Fred.”
“At least we have the phone.”
“Sorry Fred, I am out of time.”
