Lionel Goulet

The Field: a Story About the Future Lionel Goulet

Gary stepped out of the parking garage into the bright New England sun. He ambled along at his usual pace over to the General Surgery building. He wasn't in a hurry, but he wasn't going to be late either. He felt excited, giddy, and scared. He was going to be getting his Insert, something he had been looking forward to for years. This was a big deal. Gary's wife Jenny had gotten her Insert a year ago and the changes it had brought to her life, to their lives, were both subtle and significant. The subtle change was she no longer had to carry a cell phone. An Insert could do everything a cell phone could do and more. Jenny would be sitting at dinner when she would suddenly raise a finger to Gary, indicating that someone was calling. Last night their daughter Elizabeth called. Gary couldn't hear either side of the exchange between mother and daughter but he could see the look on Jenny's face go from hopeful, to neutral, to sad. She filled him in after the call. It was the same story every time. "Oh, Elizabeth," thought Gary. "My baby, my baby. What can we do to help you?" He pushed these thoughts away. He was not going to let a problem he could not solve spoil the excitement of this day. And maybe with an Insert he could spend more time doing research. There had to be something on the 'Net that might be helpful. That was a significant change an Insert brought to their lives; a real improvement. Jenny had instant access to the World Wide Web now, and she used it like a professor. The question had come up with friends some weeks ago, "How often does Halloween fall on a full moon night?" They were watching a horror movie and it was part of the plot. Jenny replied right away; "Once every 213 years. The next time will be in 2127. It drops to once every 70 years if you allow the day before and the day after full to be also considered 'full.'" It wasn't even surprising, this access to facts. And he was going to have it too! If it didn't...