our skin

Sophie went back to Bill's house the morning after she knew.

"We have to expand the site." she told him when he opened the door. She marched in while he sputtered questions. "It's not just the ancestors who are lost in this modern electronical trap. It's the others, the ones the credit card companies took over. Don't you see? We have to rescue them. All of them. We have to find out where TransWorld Credit and all the rest of those blood-sucking weasels have stashed these people's identities. Then we have to give them back. And if we can't do that right away, then we just have to have a place for those poor identity-less souls to stay until we can find a way to do this."

Bill muttered darkly "I have no idea what you are talking about. Talk sense. Or don't talk. "

Sophie explained about the TransWorld Credit and her accounts there. "Look. They wouldn't have said all that if they had just innocently accidently misplaced my identity. They were going after Anna. And then when erasing Anna's soul was too difficult, they went after me. After they thoroughly confused me and Anna, they would just get rid of us both."

Bill lead her into the kitchen and microwaved some instant coffee. "I'm the one who is thoroughly confused. Do this again. Slowly this time."

Sophie perched on the living room couch, took a deep breath and slowly sipped her coffee. "Ok. The credit card company has all the information on everyone. They know what we eat, where we sleep, what we do every minute of the day. Now, they take that information and they shape our identity.

They know the shapes and shadows of our souls. But what they really want is not money, like they say they want. They want the power over all of us. And the way they are going to do this is to take away our identities. Leave us hanging out there, just soulless. Then they call us and say we have to settle our accounts. That's the kind of power they want." Sophie paused to get more coffee.

Then she settled back into high backed chair at Bill's kitchen table. "You see, when they confused my account with Anna's, I knew something was up. I just didn't know what. So I did some experiments on the web. And I knew. They stole Anna's identity, but Anna fought back and grabbed onto my identity--which was all she could do, poor child. That's when they went after me. And now I know just how to stop them."

Bill shook his head vigorously and hit his ear to get the words out of it. "I have no idea what you are talking about. But I'll do whatever it is you want to the site if you'll just leave me alone."

And it took them the rest of the afternoon to fix the site until Sophie said that it was good enough as a temporary holding place for Anna and all of the rest of those the credit card companies had screwed. At least until she could get a real fix.

joining the / river's flow / is the only / way to / welcome in / anything beyond / our skin

if there are / other waters / we can not / know them / all we see / in rivers / is their presence


Follow us all: Amy/Anna, Sophie/Yuki, Kit/Richard, minor characters or sift through water leavings and river journeys.