<meta name="LineWrap" content="true"><TITLE>SR_Bk1 0017</TITLE><A HREF="SR_Bk1-0018.txt">Next (Page 18)</A><BR><P><P>Lemon smiled.<P><P>"Insurance... his insurance... that's it! Insurance! That's a fine devil girl name! How 'bout it, sister?"<P><P>"What--to change my name to 'Insurance'?"<P><P>"Yeah--isn't it great! Has a real nice feel to it! Very sinister, yet very alluring at the same time--exactly as you want it to be!"<P><P>"Hmm..."<P><P>"Give it some thought. Give yourself a minute."<P><P>Colonia nodded and though about it.<P><P>"Well?" Lemon said after a few seconds. "Whattaya think? Is it you, or is it you?"<P><P>"Um, I think it could work..."<P><P>"Yeah! There you go! I, Lemon, Princess of Hell, hereby dub thee 'Insurance'! Congratulations!"<P><P>Insurance raised her eyebrows and gave Lemon a sarcastic look.<P><P>"Well, I guess I can live with that. Insurance. Huh. At least it'll help me get farther away from my past, from being a cold shaft of steel, from the pain of living like that."<P><P>"That's the spirit, Insurance! Get into your new life! Oh sister, we're going to have such a wonderful year together in Yellowhaus as we near our destination! I have big plans for you!"<P><P>"I hope I can live up to your expectations."<P><P>"You will, Insurance. You will."<P><P>--------------------------<P>CHAPTER 6<P>--------------------------<P><P>Keepy came into computer center. The warmth of the place was a little euphoric in contrast to the snowstorm seen through big windows. And the smell of distant fireplace fires recent to her, her hair pure white, the college was almost empty.<P><P>A funny-looking guy with long hair was talking on the phone. He was the only other person in computer center, and he was at the admin desk.<P><P>"I think feBDA beta 4 came closest to replicating that function," he said. "No, no man, I don't know what they're thinking with beta 5, it's way too ambitious. Yeah they're never, never... yeah they're never gonna keep at it long enough. No. I mean even the substances routines, wood types, and fruit... and the basic shapes... shopping..."<P><P>Keepy was sad and felt some computers. The other her was miles away, the one from yesterday. And she knew there were snowflakes that wouldn't hit the ground tomorrow.<P><P>"Yeah Vipe, yeah let me go. I got a customer. And yeah, I totally agree about the stop-motion characters, there's like no way, y'know? Later."<P><P>Keepy looked at the guy and kinda smiled. His T-shirt had silly cartoon characters on it, faded. She would have had the goth look except she never wore black. Her heart was heavy, and almost crying she took a deep breath and shut her eyes for a few seconds.<P><P>"Computer center seems weird, so empty," she said.<P><P>"I know, but that's the way I like it. I got a lot of projects I want to work on while it's still Jan Term, and just look at all the free computing cycles all around us! I think I'm gonna try and make the longest number ever, using like every single computer. Well, the longest number to have arithmetic functions perfomed on it, that is."<P><P>"It sounds cool."<P><P>"Yeah well anyway, is there anything I can help you with? Didn't you... didn't you used to come in here a lot, like back in September, October?"<P><P>"Yeah. A lot of my friends were into some of the games here."<P><P>"Did you ever play bgBDA? I thought I saw you playing it a couple of times. That's my version of BDA. BG, Burchard Gnake, my initials. I don't even know how it started, but everyone names their BGA clones with their initials."<P><P>"So you're a programmer?"<P><P>"Well yeah, y'know, I do spend a lot of my time with that. I've actually been working on my BDA again over the past few weeks, but I think I'm gonna kinda lay off it for awhile. It's just a pointless obsession."<P><P>Keepy cocked her head.<P><P>"What's the deal with the whole BDA thing anyway? I heard that a couple guys programmed it like 12 or 13 years ago, but they lost the original program? And what does it stand for...<BR><A HREF="SR_Bk1-0018.txt">Next (Page 18)</A>