projections can feel real , but that was just science fiction . Perhaps the unique warmth of human touch was too advanced for the technology of the conspirators . He imagined that there must be persons and nonpersons in the holodeck , some people and the rest illusions . He felt he might never be able to tell if the real people were actors or other people like himself , trapped in the conspiracy . Could people walk into each other ’ s holodecks ? Was it one big network of revolving rooms ?
Now a gothic girl in fishnet fingerless gloves with raven hair and tight black skinny jeans sits next to David on the crowded bus . She ’ s young . Too young to drink , but old enough to buy cigarettes . She spreads her legs . Her right leg is touching his left . He can feel her denim against his as well as her heat . He knows he is supposed to move his leg , but he pretends he doesn ’ t notice . Maybe she doesn ’ t notice . Maybe she does . She is real , and so is he , and in this moment they are touching . They are connected .
David coughs a prolonged , labored cough as he struggles to work the phlegm up , and the girl pulls herself a few inches away , as much as she can on the bus seat . Her warmth leaves him . David is allowed a few minutes to think about the cruelty of this moment before the bus drops him off at the stop that is closest to his doctor ’ s office .
A clammy handshake from the doctor . There ’ s enough pressure to create a mild , shortly-lived sense of pain ; temperature significantly higher than the ambient temperature which , if the locked thermostat is accurate , is 68 degrees with a margin of 0.9 degrees for round-off error . The doctor leaves to do whatever it is doctors go to do . Door closes . David is left alone with the miscellaneous advertisements from drug companies in the guise of informative reference charts . The anatomy of the nerve cell is brought to him by Lyrica . A chart with the muscles of the body is provided by Skelaxin . A sculpture of woman ’ s torso cut in half is provided by something called Seasonique .
The strangeness of the posters grows as David tries to rub the tightness out of his neck . All of these things say “ This is your body ,” with the exception of the bisection of the woman ; that is not his body . He thinks of how out of the sexes , he is a member of the least attractive one . Despite this lowered standard , he still falls short of being an acceptable
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