Before 24 Billion and Counting

Chapter 5 Part 2 Revealing the past, or the future, securing the now.

I said, "We must, before anything else, get a copy of this. Then we can read it without damaging the manuscript and you can keep the original somewhere secure. Do you have a safe?" 

"Yes, yes all of that. Stop being a publisher for a minute. This is my dance and now is the time for celebration." 

She handed me a generous sensation as the Scots say, and I looked at this miraculous lady through the sparkle of the crystal in the sun, the warm amber of the liquid and its live evaporative edge, and raising the tumbler towards her said, "Here's to you, the manuscript, the sculpture, and the painting whatever they mean, and to our respective parents." 

I felt the fizz of the bat radar as she gently tinked her tumbler with mine. "Here's to this moment, and to the future." 

We agreed I would take us to lunch and get the copy of the manuscript. She made a rapid change into a trouser suit for the street, whilst I wrapped the manuscript in paper and, removing the lap top placed it in my brief case.  

We made our way downstairs and out into the street. Once we were out of the front door Alicia took my arm. "I hope you don't mind but I hate not to walk at a pace and I have to walk slowly on my own." 

I hugged her arm with mine. The women with whom I had been that close in past times had usually been like myself, reasonably fit from intermittent exercise but essentially leading a sedentary life. Alicia was another type of animal altogether with an athlete's body honed by years of hard and disciplined training. Her arm although so well controlled that any pressure was light and expressive, was hard to the touch, with live moving muscle just a millimetre or so below the surface. I could only think that her acutely sensitive nervous system had detected the surprise in my response, for she immediately said with a laugh, "I don't bite you know."

"No but I don't think I'll pick a fight with you - you have muscles like tempered steel." 

"You're a bit of a softie but I think you'd cope." 

We walked towards Victoria, and soon came to a print shop, which trade, for as long as I could remember always used bright reds, yellows and oranges as a color scheme regardless of who owned them. There were fewer of them as direct electronic transmission became more universal, and tightening profit margins were evident, both outside where the prices proclaimed on fluorescent posters for all sorts of processes were unbelievably cheap, and inside where the bright decoration was chipped and worn, the machines were grubby with that yellow-brown on the grey plastic that is peculiar to ageing electronic gear, and the only person to be seen was a youth in a frayed overall that had once matched the color scheme. A portable TV with outsize speakers blared the latest dance craze music. 

"Hallo - want something?" It wasn't said in an unfriendly way but I could see that the job was not uppermost in his mind. At least he thought to reduce the volume of the TV. I opened the briefcase and showed him the manuscript, "I'd like one good clear copy of this in black on strong white paper." 

"Sure ," he gave me three pieces of paper. "Choose which one. Both or OSO." 

I hesitated. "One side only please." 

"OCR scan or direct." I had thought about this, a scanned copy would allow the print to go onto a laser printer giving the clearest script, and with the bonus of a disc copy, whilst the direct copy would pick up any margin notes or other blemishes which might be of interest. There was also a security angle; all electronic copy information was automatically transmitted to the Copyright Monitoring Agency,and it was the most leaky international agency I knew. I opted for direct.  

"How many sheets?" 

"Give or take 550, there are some not numbered." 

"Card or cash."