"Five. I mean four -- if you don't want me to count my thumb. Or eight, I guess -- if we're doing both hands but still not my thumbs."
I was clearly flustered. You would have thought that answering the question of how many fingers I had, in response to what had been asked of me by the man behind the booth in the front of the gentlemen's club, would have been easy. Back in *my* day -- as opposed to the day in 2084 when I stood there -- I was used to the question being asked at that kind of door by that kind of person to be one about showing an ID ... so a finger census before gaining admittance was odd.
But hey -- it was my first night in Old Orleans -- the city rebuilt when the original one was flooded when the Mississippi River became the Bay of Mississippi after the New Madrid Quake of 2023 had changed America's heartland forever ... and had changed *America* forever as it was split into East and West America shortly thereafter.
These were all things I had learned since arriving in 2084 after slipping through the portal created by my cell phone app.
It was only by running these things through my head as I stood there throwing out various numbers in hopes they one of them would indeed be the right one for me to gain admittance that I also remembered another key fact about "the future" that was likely relevant in that moment.
As part of the debriefing the IntransiGents had given me upon my arrival in the Florida Isles, I had been told about the power of the PCB (Population Control Board) and how they had taken over the zoos in order to raise genetically engineered children ... because animals in zoos, in the future, had been released to be free ... and because children were no longer born the "traditional" way as all sexual activity had moved into the virtual realm.
In those conversations I had been informed that children of the future all had a sixth digit, as such an "evolution" that aided them with their texting efficiency. By my showing my hands as they were, I was IDing myself as *early* 21st century.
"You're in," the man in the booth said, after looking at my outstretched hands. "Head to the Voodoo Room."
Voodoo Room. Voodoo had apparently survived decades later, even though other major religions had failed by that time ...
... which is another story for another end of month, as the window to share with you now is rapidly closing. Until the last day of the month next, I remain Ilion in 2084, hosted and brought to the future by t1a7n72.lif., communicating with you through the use of Troy in 2018's social media accounts.
Until then -- stay safe ... seeing as how all the Uprisings are still to come for y'all!
