Inspired by ZANELLE'S latest post........

Thanks dear gal

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Yeah I actually sell paper books. Mostly for the ‘Analogs’. Big concentration of them in my vicinity. I can relate to Analog culture cuz my mom and dad were Analog til the day they died. And passed on the book store to me, their only child, a mistake made when mom was 50, dad was 60.

Back in 2012. Is where they goofed. I don’t wish to discuss , let alone imagine , my parents’ sex life, so I  honestly don’t know how I was conceived. Mom called me her “one in a million chance baby boy.”

They got used to having an infant , after I came. Even though neither of them particularly wanted kids….

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They were Analog all their lives because they were not adventurous old folks, the kind that have email . Or even a computer. My first computer was a Toshiba I bought from selling a first edition of Huck Finn.

I never cared for Twain. Reminded me of my father. Blah blah blah, with the storytelling and the pauses for laughter and the solemn nod you gotta give whenever he says something  in that twangy way. I despise twang.

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These Analogs are not so primitive that they don’t take full modern advantage of Robotics, of course.  They send their ridiculous little outdated bots into the store to purchase their latest paper book .

 Which would be 20 years old,  the latest.  In 2040 they stopped killing trees so we  Analogs could read a ‘real paper’ artifact. I personally don’t give a shit whether my reading is Internet or Paper. I know how to concentrate. That’s all it takes to read, is my opinion.

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So yesterday, this old robot with coffee stains for chrissakes comes in and says, “Mistress needs a math book. “

I led him to the educational material and went back to spying on that cute chick in Tunisia.

“Sir. Mistress needs math book which, “  blip blip blip, then a female voice, rather nice, “ ‘doesn’t tax my poor  neurons too much, those I got left anyway after reading paper books all my life, ha.’”

“Your mistress sounds nice. Is she married?” I asked the robot.

“No. Divorced then widowed. One child.”

“The one who needs a paper math book? For what, exactly?”

“Calculus”.

Shit. Calculus is taught in virtual reality now, for the rich kids who are smart enough to be born to parents who can afford a smart kid these days. Otherwise no fucking Calculus.

I had one book…my dad’s big white thick mildewed  Calculus text from, like, I dunno, 1973 or so. But calculus never changes , I knew for a fact. All that approaching infinity. And ‘limits’. You never get to where you wanna go without approximating.

I went upstairs and got it.

Put it in the robot’s carry –space.

With a note, handwritten on paper, saying, “if you need tutoring for the young wunderkind, call me at x-xxx-xxx-xxxx”

“thank you, sir , and have a nice day, “ the thing said as it scuttled out.