Story time: Spirited away.............

Rachel brought it on herself. She could not help it - she was creative and smart. She was one of the first people to sign up for the newly rolled out SmartG. It’s the new RFID chip implanted at the side of her right thumb. It could literally open doors, pay bills with the digital currency called DigiMuni and it knew all her vital statistics. She was proud to have been in young developers team for the beta version. Now she was equally as proud to be one of the first volunteers for the 7 day test.

Rachel and her 3 teammates were spirited away to a secret location. They traveled in style in a flying car to the newest smart city called NewMuni. It was green, pristine and futuristic. Her small noise-canceling room was sparse but efficiently planned. Outside were ropeless side moving elevators and electric self-driving and flying cars everywhere. However, most of city life occurred underground. All was well on the first day as living in NewMuni was intuitive. She marveled at SmartG's final features and the new facial recognition system called FaRe.

On day 2, Rachel went to the underground coffee bar around 9:30 am. She met her teammates, Michelle, Adam and Tyler. When she departed, her room door opened automatically, thanks to SmartG and now she entered the coffee bar using FaRe. Everyone except Rachel ordered coffee using FaRe. She wanted her favorite hot beverage - a cappuccino. She drank one the day before and it was good.

Delicious cappuccino

The FaRe monitor showed this notification:
“Rachel Lamm - you have reached your maximum for the week. Do not proceed.”

Everyone was surprised. She was allocated 150 DigiMuni and still had ample funds. They recalled that the code stipulated 4 per month not 1 per week. Everyone encouraged Rachel to try one more time. Tyler teased her by saying,

“Come on genius, this is just a test. You can hack the system to get yourself a drink.”
Rachel agreed to try again.
“That’s the spirit!” said Tyler, egging her on.
FaRe then showed a similar but intriguing notification:

“Rachel Lamm - you’ve reached your maximum for the week.
You can't out-smart SmartG.”

Everyone chuckled. They thought it was a “smart” notification. Rachel now tried to order tea. The same notification appeared. Now it was Adam’s turn to quip,

“FaRe is not fair - it does not like the genius.”
Rachel was used to her smart-aleck colleagues.

Michelle was more sympathetic than the males, she said,
“It's a shame - I will order a cappuccino for you as I haven’t had one as yet.”

FaRe showed this notification;
“Michelle Fellows, you’ve purchased a hot beverage today. You’ve reached the maximum for this time period.”

They wrote down these malfunctions to inform their superiors. All four developers discussed the features of FaRe and SmartG. Soon the conversation changed to the prospect of their future careers looking bright, after being on the beta team and now being volunteers. Everyone was in good spirits.

Rachel returned to her room to call her husband, John. She wanted to call in comfort not privacy as cameras recorded their every move. They had agreed to daily calls at 11:00 and 17:30. She could speak to their children, Lia - 7 and John Jr.(JJ) - 5 years old - before lunch and dinner times respectively. Rachel curled up in the chair in front of the computer monitor and commanded SmartG to call her husband. Her call went directly to voicemail. It said,
“Press 1 to leave a message and 2 to re-dial.”

Rachel pressed 1 - the number re-dialled. She then pressed 2 and the number re-dialled like it said. Another malfunction? She made a note of it but found the error very annoying.

Rachel knew John would call if she didn't but she did not hear from him. Hmmm She could not text him either as she couldn't log in.

Rachel first called Michelle, her closest colleague, then the guys - the same thing happened. Now she was becoming concerned but she needed to maintain composure in order to think clearly. If she was being observed - she wanted to display calm even with SmartG malfunctioning.

"Was this really a malfunction”, she thought it was rather dubious as she recalled the words - “You can't out-smart SmartG.”
What is now expected of her?

Lunch was at 12:00 and dinner at 18:00. It's time for Rachel to go downstairs. Maybe the others could help her reactivate SmartG. She approached the door but it did not open. She waved her thumb over the panel-it became red. In frustration she tried again although realizing nothing would change. Rachel's computer monitor blared out an alarm. It startled her. It had an equally alarming message in red,

“Rachel Lamm, you've broken the rules. Your privileges will be reinstated after disciplinary actions. You can't out-smart SmartG.”

She could not believe her eyes! If this is a test, why disciplinary actions?

Rachel desperately wanted to speak to John. Her calm countenance began to change. She was now more fearful and overwhelmed. She paced the room racking her brains.

Now she stood at the window thinking about her family. The bright midday sun illuminated the city. She wished she could escape in one of the flying cars outside her window. Instead she was like a wingless bird in a cage. Without SmartG, she was trapped. Was she really being punished because of her love for cappuccino?

The day passed torturously slowly. It was almost 6 1/2 hours since entering her room. Pacing the floor provided no solutions. Periodically she looked at the video intercom for signs of life - only to be disappointed at every glance. Surely John would be concerned but he doesn't know her location. Surely one of her colleagues would come to check on her or inform their superiors. No one came to her rescue.

Rachel was now frustrated and worried - she disliked the silence and hearing her own thoughts providing no solution nor solace.”

It's now 18:30. She was curled up in the chair again - it felt more uncomfortable than before. She thought about her colleagues. She tried to consoled herself by thinking,
“They are wondering why I didn't return and why I didn’t call? ”

Rachel did not believe her own thoughts. Her colleagues did not come earlier so why would they come now.

No sooner had she finished the thought, when she heard a click at her door. The panel became green but sadly from the adjacent video intercom, she noticed 4 men in uniform. They stood perfectly still.
“SmartG repair men....but 4 of them?” Rachel thought.

This question and more flooded her mind. Rachel knew this wasn't good, she wasn't naive. One of the men spoke via the intercom in a monotone robotic voice,

“Rachel Lamm, we are from NewMuni’s Disciplinary Team. Please cooperate and come outside otherwise we'll enter and you'll be handcuffed.”

Rachel was scared and trembling as she walked towards the door. When she opened the door and stepped outside, the spokesperson said,
“You can’t outsmart SmartG”.

Before she could find her words, she felt a tugging on her right arm. She thought,
“I came outside but I am being handcuffed anyway - liar!”

Then she heard someone say,
“Mommy, can I please have my snow globe back?”.

As she opened her eyes, the light streaming in from the window casted a hazy, angelic glow around her daughter, Lia. Rachel was holding a snow globe labeled - “NewMuni - a futuristic city.” She smiled and handed the snow globe to Lia.

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The photo is my own and taken with my iPhone SE2020.