A Cursor Story

Chapter 4: Along the Shore

Megan and Ryan were walking hand in hand along the river. Megan was in blue jeans and a dark black jacket. The blowing wind flew Megan's dark brown hair flew into her face. Ryan was wearing a white tee and grey jeans. Ryan's oversized wallet had been pushed into the back pocket.

'Ryan do you ever think about the future,' Megan was trying to reach the depths of Ryan's heart.

'Yes, quite often, ... in fact always,' Ryan guessed what was going on in Megan's mind.

'But why you are asking this question, I thought you wanted to live in the present moment.'

'Yes, I always wanted to live in the present moment but that does not mean we should not plan for the future. You know I received a message from a friend today, she is going to upload chats with her boyfriend on the Boyfriend App so that she could get a score of her relationship. If she gets a score of above 75% which is a RELIABLE category then only she would decide to continue her relationship.'

'Otherwise?'

'Otherwise she will call it quits.'

'Wow man, I did not know about this before.'

Megan punched Ryan in his stomach.

'What do you mean?'

'No nothing, just wanted to say that it is a great app.'

'It is... if it can add to your decision-making process. According to reviews there is 92% customer satisfaction.'

'That is many times more that customers satisfaction levels of relationship counselors,' Ryan could not agree more with her, 'But you were talking about the future.'

'I mean what if we could just go into the future and see how we would look when we grow old. Still walking along this path, hand in hand.'

There was a notification on the iPad of Ryan suggesting the nearest restaurants for candle light dinner. Ryan swiped off the notification without letting Megan know.

'Just get rid of your phone sometimes, Ryan.'

'Yes, sweety that was a useless notification, just give me your DNA profile and I can check right now how will you look like using my FaceApp. And this is not the fake one used in the earlier decades of this century. This is based on projection built on your gene-profile.'

'What else I could have expected from the geek like you?'

'May be you will look like that aunty across the road,' Ryan pointed his iPad to the lady walking across the road on the shore going in the same direction. iPad put up a yellow big sticker on the screen specifying her gender as Female- probability (92%), age 47-probability (89%), ethnicity- white probability (79%).

'Shut up. I am not joking. You are spoiling all the romantic mood. I am thinking about ourselves. Ok if I look like that aunty, so what.'

'I will still love you the same, baby. No matter what.'

'Really?'

Megan came to Ryan's arms who was ready to take her deep embrace. Megan's mind plunged into thoughts of how lucky she was. Megan's hair swept away by the sea breeze and her mind was swept away in thoughts. In this era when each and everything quantified and predictable even human relations, finding true love must be a matter of luck. I wonder why both Love and Luck sound so similar, maybe because they are not predictable even in the era of GRIID.

Ryan's iPhone had another notification for romantic destinations across the world. Notification claimed that based on his mood for the last 2 hours it was best for him to plan for a 2 day trip to the island of Malaysia. It also fit his work schedule and budget.

Megan's phone also beeped with a similar notification. She did not give attention. Ryan picked up the iPad entered the passcode (^^)alpha_Gam_23 and tapped the Ok button.

Ryan smiles looking at Megan while she continued drifting in her thoughts.

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