Here's the latest installment of my current dark scifi project. This is chapter 29. If you're just tuning in, consider starting with chapters 1 and 2. Be advised that this work considers difficult subjects, including suicide. If you're in crisis, please seek help. Help is available here.
As committed slackers, both Peter and Anabelle were always looking for ways to eliminate unnecessary effort. At work, Anabelle caught Hoot's attention for her ability to cut the right corners and was promoted to assistant manager. Peter, meanwhile, figured out how to cobble together a computer program that transcribed Tom's audio interviews. Now, what had once taken him a week could be accomplished with the press of a button and an hour of editing.
In doing this, Peter discovered that he loved computer programming. He spent more and more time studying code, writing small programs that solved little problems. One day, he accidentally returned Tom's transcripts too soon, just a few hours after Tom had sent the audio files. Tom called a few minutes later. "Hi Peter," he said. "I'm just looking over the latest batch of transcripts and I have a few questions."
"Shit," said Peter. "You got me. I wrote a program to do the transcripts. But I still do some manual editing. Are you mad? I understand if you want to fire me."
Tom was quiet for a moment. "You ... wrote a program to do the work?" he asked.
"Well, more like I put it together," said Peter. "All the pieces were already there, in open source code. I just had to stitch them together and customize the input and output parameters. There are companies that offer similar software, but it's all bloated and based on shitty subscription models."
"Okay," said Tom. "I had no idea you could do something like that. How long have you been programming?"
"I don't know," said Peter. "A few months, maybe. Since you got me this computer. Are you going to make me give it back?"
Tom laughed. "No way," he said. "But I'm thinking maybe you should have a talk with Jo. She's been meeting with developers to talk about creating a reputation system for GSG facilitators. So far, they're all saying it would cost tens of thousands of dollars. Some of them won't even give her a quote. My sense is that you might be able to help her and the others get more clear about what exactly they need and how it could be implemented."
"I can do that," said Peter. "But I'm a total noob so I don't know how much help I'll be."
"Fair enough," said Tom.
They met the next day at Hoot's. Peter knew only Jo and Sam, and was introduced to Paul and Wendy, GSG facilitators from out of town, and Trent, the web designer who had built the existing GSG website. After introductions, the facilitators talked about the system they were envisioning for half an hour. Then they argued about the details of this theoretical system for another half an hour. Peter listened patiently until he couldn't hear anymore. Jo picked up on this and raised a hand to stop the discussion. "You have something to add, Peter?" she asked.
"Maybe just ... that all we really seem to be doing here is wasting time," said Peter. "I mean, all you really need is a way for people to share their experience with a given meeting. So give each meeting a code, and have people use that code as a tag when they comment about the meeting on Twitter or Hive or whatever. Then just aggregate the tagged data and display it on the site when you click on a meeting. Seriously. How hard is that?"
"That ... could work," said Trent. "And it would avoid the cost of hosting user accounts on the site."
"So you're saying people would write the reviews on their own social media accounts, not on our site?" asked Wendy.
"That's right," said Peter. "I know it could work because I had a, uh, dream about it last night."
Jo's ears perked up. "What else did your dream tell you?" she asked.
"Well, I saw the aggregation of social media comments like I said," said Peter. "Then I saw, like, a group of GSG inspectors traveling around the country reviewing meetings. They were different from facilitators. And nobody knew who they were."
"Interesting," said Sam. "We've talked about doing something similar, though we never called them inspectors. Did your dream happen to mention how these inspectors got the job?"
"Not exactly," said Peter. "The sense I got was that these were all people who desperately needed the GSGs to work. People in need of deep healing. It was almost like part of their healing process was wrapped up in the business of going to different meetings anonymously, making sure everything was being done to a good standard."
"Some dream," said Wendy. "But if we have to hire them, how could they be anonymous?"
"That's why they travel," said Peter. "So like, DC could hire a couple of inspectors, and maybe they focus on Jersey, while people from Little Rock or wherever come to the meetings here."
"I want to be a GSG inspector!" said Anabelle, who had been hanging around the edge of the meeting holding a broom, pretending to sweep while she listened in.
"You'd do well at that," said Sam. "As long as we're talking about it, I'm wondering if we shouldn't be doing more along the lines of facilitator accountability. Reviews and inspectors would give us good information, but what's our responsibility when problems come up?"
"We're all thinking about that," said Wendy. "Especially now, with the news out of Philly."
"What news?" asked Jo.
"A facilitator named Bobby Treat has apparently been using his GSG to set himself and other men up with vulnerable young women," said Wendy. "I talked with one of the women, and she said that Treat told her to get into a sexual relationship with one of his friends to help, quote, heal her emotional scars."
"Christ," said Jo. "Is he still running meetings?"
"Technically, he's not breaking any laws," said Wendy. "But from what I heard, the word is out about him so females are avoiding his GSG. You think maybe it's time for a facilitator code of conduct?"
"You should probably talk about that at your convention in Detroit on the anniversary of 321," said Peter.
"Convention?" asked Jo. "We can't pull together a convention in a month."
"Well, that's what you do," said Peter. "You all see the need for it and you make it happen. That's where the Great Wave starts. In Detroit next month."
"You know," said Paul. "I know someone who just bought an unfinished housing development in Detroit. The houses are in working order but the project is stalled because city government is all backed up. Maybe we could do it there?"
(Feature image from Pixabay.)
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