M. T. Anderson - Feed

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the authors imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.

Copyright 2002 by M. T. Anderson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.

First electronic edition 2010

Anthem for St. Cecilias Day by W. H. Auden copyright 1976, 1991 by the Estate of W. H. Auden, used electronically with permission of the Wylie Agency LLC.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Anderson, Matthew T.
Feed / by M. T. Anderson. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.
ISBN 978-0-7636-1726-4 (hardcover)
[1. Science fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.A54395 Fe 2002
[Fic] dc21 2002023738

ISBN 978-0-7636-2259-6 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-7636-5155-8 (electronic)

Candlewick Press
99 Dover Street
Somerville, Massachusetts 02144

visit us at www.candlewick.com

Part 1
moon

Part 2
eden

Part 3
utopia

Part 4
slumberland

We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.

We went on a Friday, because there was shit-all to do at home. It was the beginning of spring break. Everything at home was boring. Link Arwaker was like, Im so null, and Marty was all, Im null too, unit, but I mean we were all pretty null, because for the last like hour wed been playing with three uninsulated wires that were coming out of the wall. We were trying to ride shocks off them. So Marty told us that there was this fun place for lo-grav on the moon. Lo-grav can be kind of stupid, but this was supposed to be good. It was called the Ricochet Lounge. We thought wed go for a few days with some of the girls and stay at a hotel there and go dancing.

We flew up and our feeds were burbling all sorts of things about where to stay and what to eat. It sounded pretty fun, and at first there were lots of pictures of dancing and people with romper-gills and metal wings, and I was like, This will be big, really big, but then I guess I wasnt so skip when we were flying over the surface of the moon itself, because the moon was just like it always is, after your first few times there, when you get over being like, Whoa, unit! The moon! The goddamn moon! and instead theres just the rockiness, and the suckiness, and the craters all being full of old broken shit, like domes nobodys using anymore and wrappers and claws.

The thing I hate about space is that you can feel how old and empty it is. I dont know if the others felt like I felt, about space? But I think they did, because they all got louder. They all pointed more, and squeezed close to Links window.

You need the noise of your friends, in space.

I feel real sorry for people who have to travel by themselves. In space, that must suck. When youre going places with other people, with this big group, everyone is leaning toward each other, and people are laughing and theyre chatting, and things are great, and its just like in a commercial for jeans, or something with nougat.

To make some noise, Link started to move his seat up and back to whack Martys knees. I was like trying to sleep for the last few minutes of the flight because there was nothing to see except broken things in space, and when were going hard I get real sleepy real easy, and I didnt want to be null for the unettes on the moon, at the hotel, if any of them were youch.

I guess if Im honest? Then I was hoping to meet someone on the moon. Maybe part of it was the loneliness of the craters, but I was feeling like it was maybe time to hook up with someone again, because it had been a couple months. At parties, I was starting to get real lonely, even when there were other people around me, and its worse when you leave. Then theres that silence when youre driving home alone in the upcar and theres nothing but the feed telling you, This is the music you heard. This is the music you missed. This is what is new. Listen. And it would be good to have someone to download with. It would be good to have someone in the upcar with you, flying home with the lights underneath you, and the green faces of mothers that you can see halfway through the windows of dropping vans.

As we flew across the surface of the moon, I couldnt sleep. Link was playing with the seat like an asshole. He was moving it forward and backward. Marty had dropped his bird, these fake birds that were the big spit and lots of people had them, and Martys bird was floating off, because there was hardly any gravity, and whenever he leaned out to get his bird, Link would slam his seat back like meg hard and it would go bam on Martys face, and they would start laughing. Marty would be all, Unit! Just wait one and Link would be, Go for it. Try! Try it! and Marty would be like, Unit! You are so ! And then they would be all big laughing and I felt like a complete bonesprocket for trying to sleep when there was fun. I kept hoping the waitress lady would say something and make them shut up for a minute, but as soon as we got out of Earths gravitational zone she had gone all gaga over the duty-free.

I didnt want to be sleepy and like all stupid, but I had been drinking pretty hard the night before and had been in mal and I was feeling kind of like shit. So it was not a good way to start this whole trip to the moon, with the seat thumping on Martys face, and him going, Unit! Im trying to get my bird!

Link was saying, Go for it.

Marty went, Linkwhacker! Shit! Youre like doing all this meg damage to my knees and my face!

Kiss the chair. Pucker up.

They both started laughing again. Okay, said Marty. Okay, just tell me which of my frickin organs youre going to smash this time.

Keep your tray in the upright position.

Like what organ? Just tell me.

Those arent organs.

What do you mean?

Your face is not an organ.

My face is too an organ. Its alive.

Omigod, is there enough oxygen? said our friend Calista. Because are you having some kind of neuron death?

Im trying to sleep, Loga complained. She yawned. Im flat-lining. Meg.

Then there was this wham and Marty was all, Oh, shit, holding on to his face, and I sat up and was like completely there was no hope of sleeping with these morons doing rumpus on my armrest.

The waitress came by and Link stopped and smiled at her and she was like, What a nice young man. That was because he purchased like a slop-bucket of cologne from the duty-free.

So I was tired and pissy from the get-go.