Subtext

Subtext is a collection of cyberpunk short stories previously published on Medium.com by Victor O. Alvarez. As of today, it includes two stories, Subtext and Wipe Down.

Subtext

“What’s your name?” “I’m Jess, what’s yours?” “Rake.”

He shared his handle. He was indeed ‘impressed’ by her.

“Say, are you interested in lock picking?” Smiling, she said, “I am, but not as you wish. I mostly rake my way through everything these days.”

“These days?” he said. “I’ll show you how to go beyond raking.”

As his mansplaining continued, her smile grew and so did his curiosity, until he said, as if he didn’t know any better:

“What would you like to know then, if not this?”

And with a wide smile, she said: “Have this key, see for yourself.”

And so she gave him her card with her email. The one from his hero. He didn’t know ‘he’ was her. And that he played her.

No rake, he knew. As much as he would try and as much as he would live, his muse would loop back to her.

Wipe Down

Will and Phil walked down that long street, carrying 40 pound backpacks and following the same route as the mailman follows every day. As they walked, a Cuban man walked back climbing the street and said to Phil:

“Mucho sol caballero, mucho sol.” (There’s too much sunlight, gentleman.)

Phil agreed and said:

“Man, he’s right, why on earth are we walking when we could just take the car.”

“I already told you, we must do this reading by foot, as not cause interference.”

“Why would anyone still have any non-conforming device after the second wipe-down Will? You get me?”

Smiling, Will said: “Well, any nonconforming engineer, scientist and hobbyist. Anyone.”

“Besides, stop complaining, the car will pick us up afterward anyway.”

Slowly but surely, they walked down into the bustling avenue, bought a snack and took their car up to base.