The Wakeful Wanderer's Guide to New New England & Beyond

Hungover

This is the reason, dear readers, I decided to stop here in Glenville. Millennia ago, Plato said, "the unexamined life is not worth living." I can only hope that by looking more closely at all aspects of our interconnected life, I have helped to strengthen our communities, not weaken them.

– The Wakeful Wanderer's Guide, Vol. 6, lines 235 - 239

Marto examined his writing on the paper of the old Royal typewriter on the desk in the virtual Keys. He did not want to apologize for his actions, but try to give context to the direction his travels had taken. Perhaps he was only digging a deeper hole by raising more questions. He had to decide whether he was going to be a source of light entertainment and escape for his followers, or whether he was going to give a genuine accounting of his travels, both in the world and in his heart. He remembered one of his mentors; a chef named Herbert « Jennifer « Caroline « Fey « Alexa « etc, who taught him the key to living a Merited life was being authentic. ["People know when you are putting on a show for them. Just be yourself. It's plenty."] Marto knew that keeping things light when he had questions in his heart would only lead to failure. Feeling content with the new lines, he published them and then exited to the town square bench where he still had a half cup of tea to finish.

The tea gone, he walked back to the Ng's home. They had crafted a tube for him, with a string to go around his shoulders to hold the painting Bruce had made him. He took it graciously, adding further ratings and went to look for his unicycle.

It was gone.

He had left it leaning up against the side of the house, near the kitchen entrance. It was not there. Thinking someone had borrowed it to ride on, he asked the children of the town whether they had seen it. They had not. He went looking for Lauren.

["I will be right over,"] she thexted him.

It was hard for Marto to accept someone had stolen his favorite means of transport. It was flabbergasting. The idea of theft was perfectly outrageous to him, but not so much for the people of Glenville. They had seen a few of their members unable to share and give things in their town. The thieves would take items of value and run off to another community, or escape to a feudal enclave.

["Do you ever catch them?"]

["Sometimes we find them headed down along the coast. We have no real means of punishing them, so we just take what was ours and send them on their way,"] thexted Lauren. ["Mostly it's a sign they are not right for our community."]

["There is an insight there, I think,"] Marto replied, hoping Lauren would take his meaning.

Marto's remaining followers became amazed and enraged at the theft. ["Who would do that?"] ["Don't they know what it does to your Merit?"] ["What a stupid act. What were they thinking?"] Encouragingly, the novelty of the theft perked up his followership slightly. Marto took solace in this.

["I suppose I will have to walk,"] sent Marto to the town and his followers. The unicycle was a complex piece of hardware, a self-balancing interfaced system with a powerful motor which took several days to print and assemble. It had been designed by Trig « Martha « Helena « Tabatha « Evelyn « etc of Naper Great Lakes tribe and Marto had ridden it since the second of his tours. It had a positioning element within it, but it had been disabled by whosoever had rudely taken it. The uni's whereabouts were unknown.

["Put out an APB!"] sent Barb from Concord South. She was making a joke and sent references from old police television dramas. The meme ["All Points Bulletin" : "APB"] was echoed by Marto's other followers, checking the visual recorders attached to trees in a 30-kilometer radius. A discussion began about how far a thief with an unfamiliar modified uni could get in the hours estimated from its last recorded position. Always in search of a novel project, the Interconnected started multiplying the APB and soon it took on a life of its own.