Quiet week
The 19 was half empty and smelled like wet jackets.
"Tell me you noticed," Dev said. "A whole week. No angry reels."
"I noticed you talking about it," Mina said.
"Not one. No bloke yelling at his own dashboard. No 'they don't want you to see this'. Gone."
"You stopped watching them. The feed moved on. That's all a feed does."
"I never watched them."
"You watched them to the end so you could be cross. It counts the same."
Teo stood at the second door, phone out, low in his hand. One app open.
payout
last: 9 days ago."Some server farm got droned," Dev said. "Other side of the world. Same week. Explain that."
"Things burn down every week."
"Same week, Mina."
"You've got three mates and a hunch. That's not a study. That's a group chat."
Across the aisle a man with a takeaway coffee was poking at something the size of a matchbox with a tiny screwdriver. Unlit cigarette in his mouth. The tram lurched. He didn't.
"Ask Teo," Mina said. "Teo's neutral. Teo's got a phone in a drawer that earns more than he does."
"What's it even do?" Dev said.
"Shares my internet," Teo said. "People pay to use it."
"What people?"
"Overseas people."
"Use it for what?"
Teo shrugged. "I didn't ask. It's eleven bucks a week."
"See, that's honest work," Mina said. "Teo's not out here blaming drones."
"I'm not blaming drones."
"You want a villain. You'd rather be played than bored."
"That's a hell of a thing to say."
"It's a hell of a thing to want."
Two stops went by.
"I never watched them to the end," Dev said.
"You watched the one about the bins twice."
Teo looked at the app again. Nine days.
The tram slowed for Bell Street. The man across the aisle pocketed the matchbox thing and stood up, coffee in one hand.
"Got a light?"
Teo passed him the lighter. The man lit up on the step as the doors folded, handed it back without looking, and walked off into the wind.
Teo's phone buzzed.
payout
received: $11.40.He put it in his pocket.
"Thanks, driver," he said, and stepped off.
Up front, Marg wrote a line.
bell st
on: 0. off: 2.
thanks: 1.
waited: no.Mina was looking at her own screen. Her thumb had stopped.
"What?" Dev said.
"Nothing," she said, and kept scrolling.