Spaceland by Rudy Rucker Read Free Book Online Page B

“Turn your back, Joe.”
    I obliged, but of course I could see her just as well as before. She picked up a pencil and a pad of paper, wrote on the top piece of
paper, tore it off, folded it in four and dropped it into the pocket of her robe.
    â€œOkay, Joe, you can turn back around. What did I just do?” She cocked her head and smiled, waiting for my answer.
    â€œYou wrote ‘Love Me’ on that piece of paper in your left pocket.”
    Her jaw dropped. And then finally we had sex. It should have been great—our first love-making of the Millennium—but it was only so-so. I was only just beginning to learn how to control my subtle vision. I kept getting distracted by all the things I saw around me, such as the neighbors and Jena’s wet, red innards. I wasn’t at all sure that subtle vision was really going to make me a better lover. And I still had the feeling of being stronger and more massive than before. I was almost worried that I’d hurt Jena, and it made me a little tentative. But she seemed to think I felt the same as ever. The equipment worked. We finished.
    â€œWhen I wrote on the paper in the kitchen, you saw me reflected in the window, didn’t you?” said Jena, smiling up at me with her hazel eyes wide open. “Subtle vision indeed.”
    â€œI’m telling you, Jena, it’s really true. I can see right into your womb.”
    â€œOh no! I forgot! I haven’t been able to take my pill all week. People were stockpiling them because of Y2K and the drugstore ran out.”
    â€œWhat if we did have a baby?” I said idly, still lying on top of her.
    She pushed me off. “If you knock me up, I’ll kill you, Joe. I’m not ready to turn breeder for a long, loong time.” Jena ran into the bathroom to take precautions. I turned my attention elsewhere. The neighbor’s kitchen was right on the other side of the wall by the head of our bed. A fat guy called Dixon. He was sitting at the table peacefully studying the inner pages of his newspaper. It wasn’t much effort for me to read his front page.

    â€œNo Y2K problems at all,” I called to Jena.
    â€œHow do you know?” she said, stepping out of the bathroom. She was nibbling on one of her fingernails while she talked to me. The thought of getting pregnant always made her uptight.
    â€œI’m reading Dixon’s paper.” I hooked my thumb at the wall.
    Jena got a sudden gleam in her eye . “Cards!” she said. “can you read cards, Joe? Wait.” She rooted around in one of the suitcases she used for a dresser and came up with a deck of cards.
    We sat there cross-legged on the bed, naked and facing each other. One by one I told Jena the top card on the deck and she flipped it over. I was always right.
    Jena began whooping and laughing. “Subtle vision! Let’s drive to Tahoe. Joe! You can break the bank at blackjack. We’ll take down Nero’s Empire. That particular casino’s on my hit list. They lobby like hell against Indian Gaming. We’ll make a million and then we’ll go skiing.”
    â€œI’ve never played blackjack. I don’t know the rules. The gangsters will beat me up.” And then I saw the look on her face, and I caught myself, realizing what a fuddy-duddy I sounded like. Sure I could do it. If Jena believed in me, I could do anything. “Reset. Actually, Tahoe sounds like a pretty good idea. Can you teach me about blackjack?”
    We had a little more breakfast in our robes, and then Jena gave me a blackjack lesson. She was interested in gambling. During her summers in high school and college, she’d worked as a bingo caller at the Yavapi-run Chucky’s Casino near her home town of Prescott. Thanks to Jena’s father having been a Yavapi Indian, Jena had plenty of contacts at Chucky’s, not that Jena had had all that much to do with Native American culture growing up. Her mother and