Cyberpunk

nothing to sell, and here you are in the market. That could be an embarrassing position.”
    Johnny would have to agree. God didn’t ask his opinion. He tucked away his rag and thrust out a hand, which Johnny shook obediently.
    “I’m the schoolmaster around here. Schoolmaster and mechanic. I’ve seen boys like you. I’ve liked boys like you: smart and sweet, and a trifle off the rails. Don’t you go too far, Johnny. Stick to what’s right.”
    Potato-headed young Gustave, with the scoured red complexion, came over and delivered Bella into her Daddy’s arms.
    “You’re a mite loaded down, kid. If you need anything else from the car, you better point.”
    He shook his head. God was being sarcastic: the city slicker’s distrust had been noted. God nodded, and considered Bella.
    “She’s a pretty little girl. You’re young to be her daddy.”
    Johnny was young to be anybody’s daddy, as anyone would know if they knew the way things worked indoors. Not only a city slicker, but a rich fucking gilded youth. Oh, shit.
    “Can you prove she’s your child?”
    The hotel had rooms over a bar that was also a diner. Johnny walked into the desolate lobby with his escort. Gustave leaned over and took one of the keys, an archaic looped shank with wards of metal and a tag, number 5, dangling. The woman behind the desk glanced up.
    “Hi, Donny.” She studied the new guest. “This the eejay?”
    He’d been in town two hours, plenty of time for the grapevine. He was surprised the desk clerk wasn’t more excited. She looked at him solemnly, a little too long—and still without gushing, exclaiming, or using his name. Johnny felt a prickling in his belly. Maybe she was just a serious-minded girl.
    There were other guests, but Johnny was the only stranger. While the rain sheared down outside everybody gathered: the men and youths around Johnny, the women and children several tables away, beyond the single-screen TV that kept babbling away on a cable channel Johnny had never seen before.
    There were, discernibly, at least two rival camps. But nothing bad happened. No guns were pulled.
    These people got married. They had family life, of a kind. But they’d forgotten anything they ever knew about sexual equality. Not one of the gaunt and battered-looking females would dare to come up to the men’s group, sit directly in front of the screen: get between a man and anything remotely like the goodies. None of them, of course, could talk to Johnny. It was one of those things you must not mention. The men’d be outraged and disgusted if you hinted there was anything weird about this arrangement. The women too, probably.
    The guys were prodding for details of life “inside the dome.” Their technique was to make a casual remark, about the electro-paralytic force-field or the death-rays wielded by the android guards—and watch the effect it had on Johnny. He was kept busy protecting their egos. He knew better than to contradict them directly over anything. It would be a dangerous kindness.
    He felt like the Wizard of Oz.
    Bella got bored and went to stare at the local kids. The women petted her, admiring her plump arms and legs: her strapping size compared to their own toddlers. Johnny discussed diamond mining with bared teeth and needles of controlled panic rammed under his fingernails. The women were far more scary than the men. If one of them was to take Bel and go, out into the drenching purple night, what could he do ?
    Meanwhile, the desk clerk who was also the waitress kept passing to and fro. She was breaking the rules, but she seemed to have some kind of special license. Every time she passed she would find a way to flirt: leaning over a nearby table to show her neat butt, reaching up to a shelf to give him the taut curve of her breast and waist. Every small town has to have its bad girl. The younger men hooted and flicked her behind. The other women, young and old, pretended not to notice.
    The party broke up at last. Johnny lay staring at the gray ceiling of room 5, and at the inevitable cam—eye circled with its thoughtful message for your protection . The rain had stopped. The main street outside was noisy with the home-going populace. Must’ve been about every able-bodied soul in town.
    He’d brought Bella out before, but never so far and nothing had ever gone wrong. He considered how important it was for him to believe that it was safe. No danger, no harm, there are decent people everywhere. The upholding