Version 2.0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The subway rumbled beneath the apartment building's foundations. Water dripped from the overworked air conditioner, slowly wearing a hole in the faux wood floorboard below it. Elsewhere in the city, cars blared forth their distressed claxons, attempting to dislodge themselves from the morning traffic. The sounds floated amorphously though the messy three-room apartment. Nene sat. The redheaded woman in her early twenties sat alone, her eyes fixed on the computer's screen. Complex graphics, pyramids and 3D Fonts and flickering Hypertext flashed across the whites of her eyes, reflecting the images on the girl's screen. Her eyes dashed unblinking over the information that flashed on the monitor. The telephone rang aggressively, but Nene made no move to answer it. Her eyes never left the screen, her hands the keyboard. The telephone's pathetic claxon continued for a time, then fell silent. The air conditioner shut off, leaving the room silent but for the patter of nimble fingers upon keypads and the click of a three button mouse. A raven landed on the phone lines that stretched outside the window, its eyes coldly regarding the occupant of the apartment. It cocked its head; the images reflected in its eyes a match to those in the redhead's. A knock sounded at the door. Nene made no move to answer it, still held in her perpetual ritual at the keyboard. After a moment, the door was forced open by a brunet in somewhat ratty biker attire. She pushed her way through the pile of takeout food containers and dirty clothing to make her way to the younger girl's side. "Jesus Nene," Priss murmured, "Get a Maid!" Nene did not reply. "What's happened to you Nene?" Priss asked, a business like tone replacing her flippancy of moments before, "I don't know what you found out there in the damned Net, but you can't forget that you have a life. As much as it pains me to tell you this, we need you..." "In the Wired," Nene murmured slowly, her eyes still on the screen, "there is God. We are all connected." Her voice was cold, a ghost's whisper. The redhead's hands continued in their high-speed dance, keyboard and mouse becoming almost an extension of her being. Priss took half a step backwards, then retreated, unable to face her friend's voice. Nene belayed no reaction as Priss made her way from the apartment. Once again, all was quiet, but for the clatter of Nene's fingers on the keyboard. "Why?" a deep voice asked. "Because I am searching," Nene replied, her tone unchanged. "For God?" the voice prompted. "No..." Nene stated. "For meaning?" the voice asked. "No..." Nene stated. "Then what are you searching for...?" the voice asked. There was a long pause. As if the moment itself were suspended, the redhead's fingers paused in mid word above the keyboard. With a rumble, her air conditioner started up again. On the wires outside her bedroom window, a crow landed next to the raven. Slowly, Nene turned away from the computer screen. Her green eyes seemed to pulsate, the blackness of her pupil threatening to engulf her entire being. Nene lips moved, pronouncing a single syllable word. The word hung in the air for a moment, one of the simplest and yet most profound of the Japanese language. Then, as her breath faded into fine white mist, Nene turned back to the monitor. Her fingers resumed their frantic pace as if uninterrupted. In the corner, water dripped from her air conditioner, slowly wearing a hole in her faux wood floorboard. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAIN, Version 2.0 Copyright 1999 to Charles Drake