Love in the times of Wall Street

It was stupid I know, but over the days the talks with Brenda became more animated. We joked more and she always seemed to keep the rhythm going. It made me feel like I belonged, like I had finally found that place where my ideas could play, grown and become something better. It came to the point I would even miss her on the days she wasn’t available. I chided myself for generating empathy for someone who I hadn’t even seen then of course I gave myself a little pat in the back and told myself that what more pure a form of love could you find than that for a personality and not a face. It was all bullshit of course, unless you really get to interact with a person without the granted benefit of buffering, as you do through the internet, you don’t really know that person, but whatever I was enjoying myself.

I don’t remember much about the next interactions I know she almost always asked about some show or some idea she had and we bounced it back and forth. Smart little talks always, and every time she would ask me about the news. She enjoyed being aware of all important events and every now and then would mention some strange technological situation and we’d discuss just how bizarre it would be if this glitches or issues still existed in a time when machines were creating other machines. It was all pretty philosophical and entertaining really.

What I do remember is that our second interaction was about that strange glitch on the airline and Wall Street. Turns out that if had affected the economy of china due to some deals happening at the moment. The response had been too slow and some insider trading had happened leading to a rigged system that generated distrust and pushed some strong investors to play it safe while the investigations happened and all this was controlled. We were no experts on macro-economics so we mostly speculated about how this could raise tensions between some nations since it seemed the glitching machine had been a USA hosted power house and it had directly affected chine, which if truth be told was just too much of a coincidence. We weren’t the only ones talking of course it was a generalized thought but talks were already happening in order to set this straight. What was weird was that the airline really had no game in it, its glitch had been isolated but every one talked about both issues as if they had been a single matter. That was another of the points in our conversation.

She kept insisting that it was probably not a glitch but a hacker that tried it first in the airlines system and the shot it at the Wall Street servers. It seemed like a stretch not to mention why would he do this instead of benefitting himself and making sure it all stayed on the down low? Besides if you are hacking you don’t want people to know that you are doing it? And the glitch seemed like it had advertised itself in big red letters on every screen hooked to the server. Brenda insisted that perhaps the benefit wasn’t economical and was more political, hell it could even be someone who gained from China and the USA being at each other’s throats. I wasn’t convinced, if it was that it was to blatant an attempt and they could easily track it down, besides by the political talk of things it didn’t seem like it would escalate, there would be reparations and most of it would be on the land of economics and business instead of on the land of politics.

Finally we decided to drop the issue as it seemed we were getting at nowhere and just kind of on each others nerves. For me this was the wooing phase, I didn’t want to be a jerk to her so I didn’t mind the subject change. I remembered our previous talk and told her about a short story from Isaac Asimov I loved. She promised to read it and said she needed to go. I was left there thinking that I was deluding myself and I really needed to get out and stop feeling so much for someone that wasn’t immediately available to me. I picked up my phone and texted a friend, it was time for some human contact and I needed a drink.

Despite going out I can outright tell you I wasn’t at all with my friend. She was by no means dull but I craved the interaction with Brenda. It was a pretty meh night out and my friend seemed unbothered by it, she was simply happy to get out, make some chat and see me.

When I got back, I opened the laptop and began going through news sites. Seemed effectively the glitch had been found and was being fixed, reparation for the business lost would come in the form of a new deal between China and the US. This deal would be oriented towards a new program the US was funding and would outsource manufacturing of sensible parts to china. It seemed like a dumb move if it was military, given the history, but I figured it was just some meaningless project and chine would not come even close to anything remotely dangerous. All in all, the parts seemed happy and the markets were recovering from that minor stabilization. You could tell tension between nations was long from being over but this at least was a step in the right direction. Something in me felt like it needed to smile. Something else asked me how would Russia be feeling right about now seeing potential allies and former enemies making eyes at each other? I could only imagine Putin drop-kicking a bear into submission to relieve his anger, I mean the man had the fame of being an awfully skilled person at violence. Perhaps he was just a nice guy with a hard face, who knew.