Highfall by Ani Alexander Read Free Book Online Page A

positive mood with all the pain she had in her life at that moment.
     
    “Hi Annika,” the director had a sad look in his eyes.  He was a very kind, middle-aged man who was known for his fair attitude and judgments.
     
    “Why did you mock Selka today?  Didn’t you know you were playing with fire and nothing good would come of it?”
     
    “What do you mean?” asked Annika, having no clue what he was talking about.
     
    “You don’t know who Selka is?”
     
    “No.”   Annika's innocent look told him that she was not lying.
     
    The director was amazed; he had not even considered that option and thought that Annika had done it on purpose.  So, things were actually even worse than he had first thought.
     
    Nevertheless he did what he was told to do.  He fired Annika.

 
    13
     
    After getting fired, Annika could not stand staying at home any longer and a friend helped her find a job at a trade-fair reception/information desk.  She received the visitors at a desk as they came in, and explained what was where.  The job was not inspiring and she really missed her patients but for the time being it was the best she could get.  The depression she was in needed some distraction in order to become bearable and the job helped.  But that alone was not enough, of course.  She lacked communication, interaction and people in her life.  Annika was an outgoing person and being isolated only made things worse.
     
    Back then very few people had a computer at home, let alone a computer connected to the internet.  That was a completely new and unknown concept, used only by programmers.
     
    In her new job she became acquainted with a few programmers, and they helped her buy a computer and connect it to the internet.  Now Annika had a space where she could escape from reality. There she ran no risk of bumping into Stefan, from whom she was hiding by going to places he never went and going out at times when she knew for sure he’d be asleep.
     
    Her escape was to visit a chat room where programmers met and talked.  There were about ten of them.  They were always the same people talking to each other every day, sharing their thoughts, ideas and experiences.  Nothing very exciting or inspiring since everyone apart from Annika was a programmer.
     
    After work she was mainly at home.  On the very rare occasions she went out, she picked places where she was certain that Stefan would never show up.  As soon as it was time for Stefan’s fix, Annika would shut herself up at home, just to be on the safe side.
    At home she was mainly in the programmers’ chat room, talking to the nice intelligent programmers, who were mainly pretty shy and not really at all hot!
     
    It was yet another ordinary depressing, painful day.  Annika came home from work, ate an apple instead of dinner with her family and shut herself up in her room.  She sat on the bed and opened her laptop, for which she had paid all the savings she had.
     
    “Guys, is there anyone out there who knows anything about the procedure for registering a will?”
That was the first thing she saw on the screen.  The question had been posted by someone using the nickname Saviour.  This was someone new, because she knew all ten of the regulars.
     
    “Why do you need to write a will?” she asked, since she could not imagine someone with a mortal disease spending his limited time in a chat room.
     
    “Because in two days’ time, I am going bungee jumping with friends and you never know what might happen,” the reply appeared on the screen.
     
    “So you are rich, then?  So rich that you worry about who will get the money after you die?”
     
    “No, not at all.”
     
    “Then why are you so worried about the will?”
     
    “I have a lot of brilliant but unrealised ideas, which I don’t want to share with other people yet – unless something happens to me.  If it did, it would be a pity to take those ideas with me.”
    Annika thought the guy was