By William Fox on SpinningEarthComics.com
Dan took a sip of his hot black coffee. This was his daily treat from the café on his way to work. “Not bad today,” he thought. He took notice of the fact that every day it tasted a little better. Perhaps the baristas were getting better at making coffee, or his tastebuds were becoming more acclimated to this blend. Either way, he didn’t mind. He glanced down at the mermaid logo on the disposable cup. Immediately, he saw his lenses scanning the logo.
“GREAT DEAL! FREE DRINK WITH PURCHASE OF SANDWICH, TOMORROW ONLY!” scrolled across his vision. The words were accompanied by a large translucent picture of a delicious looking sandwich and the same coffee he just sipped hovering a few feet in front of him. This constant spam was an annoying aspect about the augmented reality lenses he had installed six years ago.
“Agh, frick! Get out of my way!” Dan swiped his hand at the annoying ad, which of course he couldn’t actually touch. The ad shot to his side and followed along-side him, waiting for an answer. He gave the ad a side-glance. “Remind me tomorrow morning,” he thought.
Immediately, the ad flamboyantly burst into confetti, leaving behind the fading words, “Reminder registered to neuro-chip”.
Just then, his attention was pulled to a woman several meters up ahead walking in his direction. He didn’t know why his eyes were drawn specifically to her along this busy street. She was objectively pretty, but so were most people nowadays. She walked normally, her haircut was nothing out of the ordinary, and she had an averagely nice style. On any other occasion, Dan would not have taken notice of her. Today, though, he was unable to take his eyes off of her for some reason.
She stopped to step into the line of a food stand up ahead. He halted abruptly as well, only he stood there and stared at her. “Who is she?” he thought. His lenses scanned her face. Data about this woman sprung up in the peripherals of his vision:
Fairly standard for many women her age, but something about her kept Dan’s attention. He didn’t have the urge to talk to her, nor was he attracted to her, despite her general beauty and adequate profile info. No, actually his feeling towards her was not of desire, but instead she somewhat bothered him. For no good reason that he could identify, her general presence annoyed him.
“Why does she have to be here?” the thought whispered through his mind. He wasn’t angry towards her, after all, she hadn’t done anything wrong to him. Instead, Dan was curious on why he felt this way, and even more so curious as to why he couldn’t shake this feeling.
“Excuse me!” Jennifer called for the attention of the man in the food truck. “Sorry, but this isn’t what I ordered. I ordered the number two,” she explained in a sweet voice.
“Ugh, what, you want me to remake it for you then?” a voice grumbled from behind the glass.
“If you could please, sorry, but I can’t eat this,” she requested.
“Fine!” Two minutes later he returned to the window with a new bag that was sloppily thrown together. “Here you go, princess,” the bag was thrusted out of the truck without looking at her. She grabbed the bag and quickly started on her way, with a clear look of frustration on her face.
She stomped right past Dan, who was still standing there staring at her. She was even prettier up close than he originally thought. All the same, he felt little sympathy for her. Yes, objectively the guy in the truck was rude without reason. Yes, she was polite, in fact too polite in return. Yet, for some aching reason, Dan couldn’t help but think that maybe she deserved it.
After several moments, the vexatious young lady strode into the crowd and out of his site. He shook his head as his trance broke. He took another sip of his coffee that had just reached the perfect temperature for consumption. His feet began to move again, carrying him to work through the sea of people and pop-up ads.
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“I’ll have another beer please, same kind,” Terry raised one finger as the waitress strode by.
“You too?” the waitress looked to Dan.
“Mmhmm,” Dan gave a slight nod of approval as he gulped down the bottom of his glass. He set his glass down a little harder than expected. He asked, “So what’s going on with her man? I thought you were back on good terms?”
“Eh, I don’t know,” Terry exhaled deeply, as he rested his elbow on the table and cheek on his fist. “Seems like one minute we’re good and the next we’re both questioning the engagement again.”
“Well, if it’s any consolation, I love you both,” Dan comforted. “And I’ll make you a special offer. I charge $250 per session of couple’s counseling, or a package of $575 for two sessions if you sign-up right now.”
“Oh wow! That is a good deal,” Terry chuckled.
“Yeah, I’ve been learning some tactics from all these ads that keep popping up,” Dan bragged.
Terry raised an eyebrow, “You know you can turn those off, right?”
“Eh, but then how will I get my free deals? I turned off the sound at least,” Dan explained. Just then, the TV in the corner of the bar caught his attention. Visuals of massive protests at the city hall montaged on the screen. The protestors brandished signs that read, “My brain, my choice”, or “No Chip Mandates”, followed by many more vulgar or religious signs.
“Can you believe these people? Get with the times,” Terry demanded. Just then the waitress set down two fresh beers for them, and Terry mouthed a thank you to her. “I mean, how do they expect to be trusted in society if they won’t get chipped? They could be planning to do anything and nobody would have any idea.”
Dan added in agreement, “Crazy people, man. Anarchist conspiracy theorists. They think the government is trying to control their minds or something. Like honestly, do you really think that your miserable life of whining on City Hall’s lawn is important enough for anyone to care?”
Just then, Jennifer Miles’ face appeared on-screen holding a sign in protest. “Woah, that’s her! That’s the annoying girl from this morning I was telling you about!” Dan exclaimed.
“Dang, really?” Terri asked. “Your Spidey-sense was really on with that one. Ope! Here come the batons!”
They watched as the police strode into the crowd. The scene quickly turned to chaos. Some protestors ditched the scene and ran. Some stood tall, holding their signs higher and shouting even louder. Some even fought physically with the police. Dan wondered what Jennifer Miles did. Did she run or stay? How strongly did she actually care about her message? It was somewhat admirable after all, to fight for something, even something as fringe as this. Dan had never fought for anything before. He complained regularly, but never fought.
Just then, her pleasant face popped back on screen, only this time her cheeks were splattered with blood and streaming with tears. It moved Dan. How… noble of her. She genuinely believed in this. And of course, how unfortunate it was that someone this pretty and sweet was beat up.
Just then, his lenses scanned her face. “I don’t like her,” crawled through his mind.
“Yeah, that’s right,” he thought. “She deserves what she gets. They all do.”
