The Ant King: A California Fairy Tale | Page 9

to talk about Internet stocks. He was hungry, cold, lonely, tired, and sober when Monique found him.
"You look like shit," she said.
"Go away, Monique," he said. "I'm a bum now."
"Oh, yeah?" said Monique. "And how's that working out?"
"Lousy," Stan admitted.
Monique got out of her BMW and squatted down next to where Stan lay. The other bums moved away, rolling their eyes and shaking their heads in disgust.
"I've lost everything I love," Stan said.
"Aren't you the guy who loved the dramatic surge and crash of Amazon's stock ticker? The concrete malls spreading across America like blood staining a handkerchief? How everything can be tracked and mirrored in numbers -- numbers, the lifeblood of capitalism?"
"Well, yeah," Stan said.
"Get in the car," Monique said. "You're hired."
Stan got in the car.
Copyright (c) 2001 Benjamin Rosenbaum
Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 2001.
"The Ant King: A California Fairy Tale" is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
If you redistribute this story, please include a link to http://www.benjaminrosenbaum.com.
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