I’m a reporter with Vice, and I’m a bit under-prepared for an assignment interviewing a precocious kid at his school. I only learn the kid is deaf because he has sign language translator. He’s introverted, wears glasses, Asian, intense focus, the unmistakable attention-center of the classroom. He’s a cartomancer.
The classroom map seems normal, and it is normal. It depicts just any ol’ day in the world, and the filigreed design at the bottom is labelled “Uncool”. Attached in a small plastic pocket to the map is a spare nitrous oxide charger, empty.
Trying to wrap up my interview, I start writing on the classroom tables to ask the kid, who seems insightful and gifted although inaccessible, “any ideas what I should do next?” This proves very difficult (admittedly I think I was using a brownie. Eventually I gave up and unpacked my laptop again, though typing was much easier. He gave me an answer, I woke up and it seemed a different dream than usual…