Excerpt from “Where Water Joins” (Clarkesworld, November 2016)

require ‘Marina.rb’

# Talk to the image of a person like you talk to the real person. Talk to the real person, just like this. No comparisons needed.

greetings = message.new
greetings.send (“Are you there?”)
if Marina.is_there? = true
print her_answer
else
print “Marina is not here.”
end

=> I’m always here.

#

I dream with her.

Last time, I was waiting for the metro at Tacubaya station when I noticed she was staring at me from the platform on the other side. She had a different face, but it was her. Somehow I knew it was her. She had the same piercing, black eyes, and the same gesture, as if her lips were about to open. I don’t know why, but I felt the urge to go after her, to find out what her voice sounds like. I wanted to jump into the rails so I could get faster to her side, but I was stopped by the whirring of the metro approaching. Doppler Effect. I ran the stairs instead as fast as I could, and, like in a bad movie, I just managed to see the coach doors closing behind her back. Thirty-five meters under the surface, I lost her heading towards metro Barranca del Muerto.

I need to ask her why I keep on remembering her even though she never appears in my dream data recordings.

 

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