zero plus nothing equals - 21. the job

by jeremy witherington

part twenty-one of 31

for previous episode, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here

it was a cold morning. the heat from the sidewalks seemed to be less than 100 percent. jose waited for the van, which as usual was late. and looked out at the endless plain of tall buildings that contained the living quarters of the citizens. jose was not a citizen, but one of the last workers. one of the 2.3 percent of the human population that still had a job.. he took pride in the fact but was careful not to show it. and always nodded enthusiastically at union meetings when assured that the goal of 100 percent citizenship was on the horizon. and that jose and his fellows, the last workers, would finally be rewarded for their heroism. the bus arrived, a little less late than usual. there were usually two other persons on the van when jose got on it. zambo the gutwrencher, and howard johnson. zambo was jose’s best friend, and jose hated him. is that not always the way? jose suspected zambo of being an informer for the union. zambo was always making little remarks hinting, only hinting, that maybe 100 percent unworkerhood was not such a great idea after all. of course zambo always stopped short of advocating outright wilsonism. at any rate, zambo was not on the van on this particular chilly morning. but howard johnson was. howard was a great guy, and everybody liked him and wanted to be just like him. jose wished with all his heart and soul that howard, and not zambo, could be his best friend. but the union, in its infinite wisdom, had decreed otherwise. jose nodded to howard, before taking his assigned seat. seat number 33, out of 68. the bus chugged away, leaning the drone residences behind. out on to the desert , where the work building stood low and lonely. another day, another something or other. jose coud never remember what the other something was. next

zero plus nothing equals - 20. the window

by jeremy witherington

part twenty of 31

for previous episode, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here

sally was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that she had made herself. with bread she had ordered two days ago. and peanut butter and jelly she had ordered seven days ago. in a room on the fifty-seventh floor of a building. the room was not large. or so she had been told. but it was the only room on the fifty-seventh floor. all of the one hundred and eleven floors of the building had one room of the same size. each of the floors/rooms could only be accessed by its sole occupant. that was the theory, anyway. sally was not so sure. how did you know? she was always expecting a knock on the door. there was only one door. and one window. from the window she could the desolate plain stretching away to the horizon. the room had one table, one chair, one cot with one pillow, and one screen. many things could be seen on the screen. but more things could be seen inside her head. and even more in her dreams. her name was sally johnson. but that was just a name. she could make up a new one any time she wanted. like veronica evans, or linda velaquez, or number 784, or old blood and guts. or queen henrietta xvii, or sacramento annie, or blue star, or see you later. meanwhile she listened for a knock on the door. because how did you know? you do not. next

zero plus nothing equals - 19. falling down

by jeremy witherington

part nineteen of 31

for previous episode, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here

number ten woke up. they rolled over and went back to sleep. they had a dream in which they were walking down a dark road. they were on a mission. to make amends. with number one. who had been their best friend in school. sort of. it was hard to remember on such a dark road number one and number ten did not really like each other that much. or spend much time together walking down dark roads or otherwise. number ten had tried to be accepted into number twenty-seven’s select circle. but without success. the road got darker and darker. number ten tripped and fell. they could not get up. they lay helpless in the middle of the dark road. the night was silent. they thought they might hear a cow, or an owl, or a fox, or a wolf. or a rooster! suddenly number ten woke up. what an unpleasant dream, they thought. at least it had not been about school. number ten’s phone rang. they hoped it was not from number thirty-eight. please, not number thirty-eight. number one or number twenty-seven, but please please not number thirty-eight. next

zero plus nothing equals - 18. betrayal

by jeremy witherington

part eighteen of 31

for previous episode, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here

the stranger rode across the desert,. he was bitterly disappointed at not keeping his rendezvous with the queen. he decided to get his revenge. but against whom? against the queen, who had not kept her promise to meet him, no matter what the obstacle? though the heavens turn to ash. and the oceans turn to sand. those had been her words to him. under the old oak tree, on the night before she was to be delivered to the king. accompanied by ten thousand horsemen of her uncle, the great emperor. whose empire had turned into sand. the very sand the stranger was riding across on his strange beast. night fell, and the stranger decided, having put a hundred leagues between himself and the town, which was the only remnant of the empire, to stop for the night. when he fell asleep, the strange beast wandered away in the direction of the great mountain. the stranger slept, blissfully unaware of the beast’s perfidy. everybody had betrayed him. the queen. the beast. and the world. he had a dream in which he was walking down a dark road. he decided to get his vengeance, not against the queen, whom he still loved. not against the beast, whose betrayal he was unaware of. but against the world. against the world. next

zero plus nothing equals - 17. missing!

by jeremy witherington

part seventeen of 31

for previous episode, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here

i am sorry, doctor, but your protege has not returned. i do not suppose you have any objection to our starting the conference without him? of course not. i warned the headstrong youth of the consequences of his impetuous folly, and now he must suffer them. very well then, everyone else is here. let us begin. our first speaker is doctor dee, also known as number one. algernon was lost. and alone. people flowed past him a kinetic dance of obfuscation, blotting out the doors and windows of the myriad shops and cafes in the endlessly looping streets. just when he thought he recognized a shop from a previous passage, he would be swept past it. not that he wished to enter any of them. all he wanted was to get back to the safety of the hotel. he turned on to a quieter street. surely he had not been on it before. the street sloped up a hill, and seemed occupied not by shops, but by dwellings with curiously small windows. old fashioned automobiles were parked in front of the dwellings, and algernon thought he heard the sound of children shouting, although he could not see any actual children. the street grew narrower, and the buildings and the automobiles and the shouts disappeated. he reached the crest of the hill. and looked down upon a city square, with not too many people walking around it. and there was a movie theater - perhaps the same one he had seen on first leaving the hotel by its side door! but it was not to be. the marquee of the theater did not read “ to be continued”. it read - how will you meet your end? algernon took a deep breath. he resolved to ask one of the passersby where he was, and how to get back to the hotel. he had heretofore refrained from this bold step, fearing the worst. but now there was nothing else for it. excuse me, sir - but his first target went by him unheeding - so far from being daunted, algernon felt a fresh surge of optimism. excuse me, miss - next

zero plus nothing equals - 16. the funeral

by jeremy witherington

part sixteen of 31

for previous episode, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here

sam jones woke up. he rolled over and went back to sleep he had a dream in which he was walking down a dark road. he could not remember his name. was it dave fenster? or was it siddharta lollipop? that is a funny name, sam thought halfheartedly. but it is not my name. no, it is not, he heard a voice say. the voice came from the front seat of a long black limousine parked by the side of the country road. get it the car, the voice continued, we have work to do. suddenly sam remembered. < he was not sam jones, or dave fenster, or whatever lollipop. he was nick olivetti, and the driver was dave fenster. nick got in the back seat of the long black limousine, and dave fenster started it up. sorry if i was late, nick muttered. you were not late, dave reassured him, as he maneuvered the limousine around a sudden bend in the road. we have all the time in the world, he added. where are we going? nick asked innocently, as the moon suddenly appeared through the trees. to a funeral. not mine i hope, nick replied with a laugh. you know, dave replied, you always had a great sense of humor for a guy who never said anything funny in his life. suddenly bright yellow headlights flared up ahead. who can that be, nick asked, who would be out on a country road like this at this time of night? you are a real bright boy, aren’t you? almost as bright as these lights bearing down relentlessly upon us. you use some real big words for a guy who never said anything intelligent in his life. look out! the car with the bright lights somehow whizzed past the long black limousine. dave fenster laughed. you weren’t nervous, were you? he asked nick over his shoulder. who, me? nick replied nonchalantly. the road got bumpier and darker. the moon disappeared again, behind the tall black trees. next

zero plus nothing equals - 15. the hotel

by jeremy witherington

part fifteen of 31

for previous episode, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here

algernon looked out the window of the hotel. the desert stretched away for miles. the hotel rose thousands of feet into the air. and algernon could not wait to go downstairs to explore the thousands of shops and restaurants on its lower floors and in the city surrounding the hotel. albert einstein stood im one of the doorways of the suite and looked pityingly at algernon. beware, my boy, he intoned. you may well lose your way if you go downstairs, and not be back in time for the conference. nonsense, algernon responded merrily. i have a perfectly good tracking device attached to my person. no harm can befall me. professor einstein sighed. very well, but do not say i did not warn you. algernon got on the elevator and waved goodbye to the sage. he was the only person on the elevator and it quickly deposited him in the ground floor. he was surprised at how empty the lobby was. there were only a few chairs and sofas and no one sitting on any of them. he saw a desk in the distance and a man with a pencil mustache and sporting a purple bow tie with white polka dots on it standing behind it and staring, with what algernon perceived to be a glum countenance, into space. algernon turned toward the revolving door out to the street but as he did so he noticed a sign over a door to his left saying - shops. that is just what i iwant, algernon thought, i can have jolly fun gazing at the merchandise and not worry about getting lost, because i can always ask the people in the stores how to hget back to the lobby here. and so he walked through the door marked “shops”. he found himself in a short corridor with a floor sloping upward away from the street where he could see a few well dressed people strolling casually along. the corridor turned sharply to the left. to another, shorter corridor, with a staircase at the end of it. the staircase was unmarked, and only went down, not up. algernon went down it. and found himself on another, very different looking street, with crowds of people, many of them not at well well dressed, thronging it. and across the street was what looked like a movie theater, with an old-fashioned marquee reading simply- how curious, algernon thought. he was tempted to turn back into the hotel. next