Free Hylozoic by Rudy Rucker Page B

anything else. “Gotta run!”
    Â 

    Â 
    She bid her father and aunt good-bye, then hopped to Ond’s. Jil and Ond were in their kitchen having breakfast. Thuy got some coffee from them, and joined Jayjay, who was sitting on the patio.The tree shadows were lively and complex. And the cream in the San Francisco coffee swirled the way it was supposed to.
    By now Thuy’s emotions were fully up to speed again. That stain on Jayjay’s pants was really bugging her. Her anger budded and bloomed.
    â€œThe reason you’re an addict is that you’re scared of emotions,” she told him, drawing him aside. “Every time you’re about to feel something, you want to run away.”
    â€œOh give me a break,” snapped Jayjay. “I worked my butt off yesterday. Moving the house, grilling the food, and putting up with your crazy parents. They’re the reason you’re so uptight.”
    â€œOh, now you’re making remarks about my family? My father is a wonderful man.”
    â€œSo move back in with him,” said Jayjay, faking a nonchalant tone. But Thuy could teep the sadness and self-doubt in his mind. Her volatile emotions flip-flopped, and suddenly she threw her arms around him.
    â€œOh, Jayjay, I do love you. It’s just talk. I get carried away. We can work things out, can’t we?”
    â€œI hope so, Thuy. You’re all I want in this world.”
    â€œLet’s have fun surfing today. I’m glad you came.”
    â€œYou and me,” said Jayjay. “Let’s go online and find some boards and wetsuits.”
    Thuy and Jayjay tuned out of the visual world and into the mindweb. They drifted upward into the virtual sky, seeing the city as a grid of glowing personalities.
    â€œHey,” called Thuy to the world at large. “It’s Thuy and Jayjay from
Founders
. We need to borrow surfboards and wetsuits for today.”
    With everyone and everything linked together, people’s attitudes about possessions had changed. Given that you always knew where your stuff was, you didn’t have to worry about getting it back after lending it. And you didn’t have to lend tojust anyone. The mindweb had a rating system in place; and if someone got a rep for trashing things, they were blocked from further borrowing until they made good on whatever damage they’d done.
    Within seconds of Thuy’s request, a few points of light flared up on the colorful map of San Francisco. People were eager to lend to celebs. In a just a few moments a well-off woman had equipped them with some smart boards and psipunk wetsuits that she and her boyfriend had barely used.
    After teeking the goods to Ond’s patio, Thuy and Jayjay undressed and pulled on their suits. In a few minutes they’d be teleporting directly to the Potato Patch break. The piezoplastic suits were like flexible display screens. Thuy’s synched in with her mind flow to show a drifty pattern of hearts and ants.
    â€œWhoah,”
said Momotaro, materializing on the patio, wearing a piezoplastic wetsuit as well. By way of miming his surprise at seeing Thuy and Jayjay, his suit showed an expanding ball of orange and yellow. “You sure you two aren’t too old?”
    â€œJayjay’s eighty,” said Thuy cheerfully. The longer she was away from Yolla Bolly, the more like herself she felt. The live-liness of nature’s computations made all the difference.
    â€œPersonally I’m glad Thuy and Jayjay are coming,” said Bixie, walking out of the house, her suit showing fluffy clouds in a blue sky. “If it was just us four, it’d be—
eek
—a double date. Speaking of dates, where’s Maaaabel, Momotaro?”
    â€œStop saying her name that way or I’ll pound you.” Spiked clubs and atomic cannons flitted across the surface of Momotaro’s suit. Bixie replied with an image of smug pink armor.
    â€œI’m ready,” announced