to LA, but just two instances of the same program: unthinking, unfeeling, just existing on the whim of the moment.” She stopped. “Do you think leaving her running is what made Lisa… You know…”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“I guess it couldn’t have hurt. I mean… Is lightning more likely to strike a rod when it’s left up for hours or when it’s left up for years?”
“Do you think it’s as simple as lightning?”
She responded with a thoughtful smile. “It’s kind of interesting to me that Aether thought she would find the meaning of life in humanity. To think that, from someone’s perspective, we’re the strange creatures inhabiting a strange world, and that we’re the ones possessing some otherworldly wisdom.”
“You’d have probably liked her… after she got over wanting to kill you, I mean.”
“It must have been very frightening. I can’t imagine what I’d have done.”
I nodded. “There were close calls, but someone else was seeing me through it.”
We walked out into the hall of worn carpet and scratched paint, beautiful wear-and-tear.
“Monday,” I said, noting the date on her ticket. “So you have another day here, right?”
“After all the frustrating attempts from home, I assumed I would need a lot of time here.”
“Well, we can take a trip up the coast tomorrow. There’s a place in Santa Barbara I’ve been meaning to look at.”
“Why Santa Barbara?”
Why, I thought. What a beautiful word to wield in one’s vocabulary.
I responded, “Why not?”
I heard my door’s welcoming chime immediately. “She must have changed my reader, too.”
I threw the unopened envelopes onto my messy coffee table, the whoosh of air causing my expired train tickets to fall to the floor. I bent down and spotted the picture of Vair standing by the Long Island Sound. The picture lay on top of a sealed package, with the typical PLEASE RUSH: EXTREMELY URGENT message boldly stamped on top. It was heavy. I realized that I hadn’t opened it the other day.
“A little energy left, do you want to do