Wetweb

  * * * * *

  “You never told me you were married,” Claudia said.

  Franklin was still holding open the door of the Chimneysweep bar. His reading was over and when he finished his reading the elderly crowd had applauded politely. Claudia moderated as they asked a few questions which Franklin answered and then slowly they had dispersed into the night.

  Franklin wondered if they understood what he was saying. He wondered if any one of them would now begin to recognize the strange dystopia in which they were living their lives.

  “Yes,” Franklin said answering Claudia statement as if it was a question. “I am married to a very nice woman named Dolly.”

  “Yes, I got that from your reading,” Claudia said.

  They walked together in silence now. It was late. The warm night air smelled vaguely of sour smoke as if somewhere rubber tires were burning. Franklin felt uncomfortable. He thought about the long walk to Claudia’s house and then the even longer walk home. He would be alone again, walking past the dark houses that now reminded him of a graveyard.

  He considered different excuses, he was tired and he wanted to see Dolly. He wanted to be home. But there was no way out. He needed to walk with Claudia until she was home again. He resigned himself to it and walked on.

  Presently Claudia broke the uncomfortable silence saying, “I like your book. I think you do have something original and important to say.”

  “Thank you,” Franklin managed.

  “Did you read the letters I gave you?” Claudia asked.

  “Yes,” Franklin said, “They are very helpful. I did not read from them tonight, but I am incorporating them into the history.”

  Franklin had read through the letters that Claudia had passed to him with growing interest. They were letters from Claudia’s son who had enlisted as soldier in the Warmbot wars, back before there were Warmbots. He was a soldier, who, Franklin surmised, never came home.

  Franklin remembered the pained expression on Claudia’s face when he first mentioned the theme of his work, when he first mentioned the WetWeb.

  He was not sure if Claudia was ready to discuss the letters openly, but the letters contained within themselves a central mystery because they ended abruptly. Franklin in reading the letters understood that Claudia’s son had participated in a military experiment that was utilizing the new Synaptic interface device that was developed by Anand and Sadhna Singh. But the letters ended abruptly. There was no description of how the device performed in on a real battlefield. Franklin did not know if the military experiment was a success or a failure.

  “There is something else about that I want you to know,” Claudia continued.

  “After the letters stopped coming,” Claudia remained composed, as if she had rehearsed these lines.

  She continued saying, “I did not know what happened to my son for a long time. I received the missing in action notice, but it was cryptic. I called the military command and wrote them many letters, but they would not tell me what had happened. It was the not knowing that wore at me.”

  She paused and walked a few steps forward. Quietly, Franklin stayed by her side, step by step past the dark houses.

  Then she continued, “Sometime later, a young man came to visit me. He was in a wheel chair. His name was Jonathan Grey.”

 

  Exo-Suit: An armored suit that combines a strength enhancing exo-skeleton together with a protective shell. The Exo-Suit also provides a regulated artificial atmosphere insulating the soldier from extreme weather conditions and offering a high degree of protection from biological weapons.

  - WetWiki