Avatars

i told serval the other day that i'd been to see this movie, avatar. she didn't get it. i had to explain it to her. she listened, eyes all blank.

"so you were watching a screen with avatars on it?" she asked.

"yes" i said.

"so what's new about that? you do that all the time."

"it's not the..."

"you've been doing it a million days when controlling me, haven't you?"

"no, it's..."

"eighty?"

"this was a very big screen. and i wasn't controlling. just watching. it was a story."

"oh, i like stories" serval said. "was it a good one?"

"yes, it was."

"tell it to me!"

"no, it's too long for telling."

"awww."

ok, so i told her the story in brief. she liked it. not the end, though, which she found absurd. she hated that part. if it had been her, she told me, she would have done it the other way round. and become human. only a very, very stupid human would like to become an avatar, she concluded.

"it was worth the money seeing it, though" i said to change the subject.

"what? you paid for this?"

"yes."

"how much?"

i made a couple of currency calculations, from kronor into dollar and on into lindens and, as this was beyond her counting capacity, on into hairs. like, more than one expensive hair for each finger of her hands. she stared at me:

"you paid all that to watch... wow, that must have been a looong movie. how long was it, a year?"

"no. not so long."

"how long was it?"

"about two and a half hours."

"how long is that?"

"much less than a day."

"that's nothing. eh, my new skin was less than all those movie hairs!"

"i know" i admitted.

"and it took you two years getting it for me."

"yes."

"you don't really like me, do you?"

so what could i do but fill her linden counter and bring her shopping. i'm not sure it helped.

e.