Freewrite 12/05/06

The art of Refraction

She was in various states of disrepair, a hinge that squeaked, a knob that rattled. She tried to lubricate her joints with a daily concoction of a teaspoon of olive oil and the powder cartilage of sharks. Sharks had become scarce and withdrew from the world into the crevices and fissures of the ocean floor. They ate silicon-based plankton now; it was better than starving and eating each other.

The olive oil and cartilage potion was pricey and, as a result, she worked three jobs. In one job, she sat in a booth at a church, collecting money and giving out tickets of entrance. But it was more than just a cashier’s post. She also ran identity checks to ensure only the right type of people gained entrance. A building-sized computer powered the database and hummed in the basement of the church as it matched retinal scans to biographies. She rarely came across Them, but didn’t fear when she did, the computer altered the police and fed her lines to say through an earpiece. It was adept at keeping Them occupied until the authorities came to take Them away.

When she removed the earpiece, she felt a horrible drain, as if it was supplying an electrical current, an endless stream of energy that excited her pulse and filled her buoyantly. When disconnected, she felt fragmented, she new what it was like to have a phantom limb.

Another job involved cleaning. There was a rich family whom she served at the church with a questionable past. The father of the congregation recommended they provide employment for a needy person. Shelly’s face pushed its way into their minds. They were appalled at the idea of letting such a person into their home, but the rewards were undeniable.

The third job, no one knew about. The third job she performed not as Shelly Ancor, but as Angel Smythe. It had long been outlawed, the provocative statues torn down and obliterated, the theatres torched, the shopkeepers and porn stars, the sex workers and romance writers mauled. She wrote about love, about body. It was tricky and dangerous. The money was very very good.