Page 21 - Demo

Natch!7About fifty yards in from the huge front doors, a circularinformation desk displays a massive bank of directional signswith sub-department, division, bureau, and office floor numbers.As the building%u2019s comprised of two twisting towers, each floornumber has a two-letter abbreviation in front of it: th for this andTH for THAT. I know! Did I say that sometimes things can go offthe rails? The th elevators are on the East side; the TH elevatorsare on the West. At a few junctures, up in the middle floorswhere the twisting towers seem closer together (they aren%u2019treally), it%u2019s possible to get off the TH elevators, walk down a shorttransparent connector, and push the button for the th elevators.But it isn%u2019t very often%u2014maybe only once every forty-seven floors.So, it%u2019s worth it to pay attention to which side you%u2019re supposed tobe on when you%u2019re down in the lobby. On that very first morningof their very first day, Gene joined the shufflers going East whileJean shuffled West.%u201cGood luck!%u201dAs she walked to the TH elevators, Jean passed a large glowingimage of sea life along a Pacific coral reef. There were so manybeautiful creatures to admire, so many shells, fins, claws andtentacles, every conceivable shape, size, color, and texture, all inmotion as if they were all performers in a carefullychoreographed dance. Jean was mesmerized by the gracefulsynchronous movement, so much so that she almost began tothink of it as an aquarium rather than an image. She wastherefore startled when the entire scene abruptly changed. Awave of pixel dust washed across the screen, and suddenly shewas looking at thousands and thousands of caribou migratingacross a great expanse of tundra. Like the coral reef, the tundrawas animated by the constant motion of the ragged, mudspattered caribou, some with tall, stately antlers branching fromtheir forward marching heads, and some no more than a fewdays old fixated on keeping close to their munching, migrating