May 29 was John's birthday, and Samel wanted to take John to the beach park that weekend and then have dinner at a family-style Mexican restaurant.

It's the only time since Christmas that three people have gone out to eat together. John rarely went out, and the couple had always thought that John preferred to be alone, that he could spend an afternoon alone on the living room rug, and that he could play until dinner if he wasn't disturbed or distracted.

In Sammel's absence, Miss Langkaram would come to the house to help take care of John.

She lives in a two-story cottage across the road, is a Catholic, kind to people, willing to help, and Foley has said without malice that Langkalam has nothing to do at home alone, so he is happy to take other people's business as his own.

But the lovely Langkalam, perhaps a word that is inappropriate for a woman approaching sixty years old, is gladly accepted, and the corners of her mouth are always filled with a smile that is not disgruntled about everything in life. In Representative Foley's memory, a similar smile never appeared on his mother's face.

If you come home and see a lilac and dark green twill shawl hanging on the wall at the entrance, Foley knows that Shamel has not returned, and that Langkaram is watching TV or reading on the sofa in the living room, and she is a woman who likes to read, either the data device or paper books, which makes Representative envious.

If human reading habits have not changed for hundreds of years, they have undergone many changes in the past ten years, from mobile phone reading, to e-readers, laptops, and now to a data device for everyone.

These changes are of course beneficial, and for those who like to read, there are more convenient ways to read, and when you go out, you always have to choose the books you must bring and the books you may read, and you have to bring at least one or two alternative books on a five-day trip, which makes the already cramped space both heavy and cramped.

Langkaram likes to read books and read stories about gothic horror, vampires and the like.

There are always people writing these kinds of stories all over the world, and there are a lot of readers who like them, although the content and atmosphere are similar; Many of them have been made into movies, and the box office is also very impressive. Two years ago, a director reshot Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire" with visual enhancement technology, which ended in the North American box office for three weeks in a row.

At one point, Foley and Samel say that they saw Langkalam reading it all the time, and wondered if she would become spooky too.

Of course he was joking, and Samel laughed and said that she would become a vampire queen. "Anne Rice is really good at making money, and it is said that her son has become a writer." Samel seems to know a thing or two about this.

"If John were a lonely American teenager, reading would at least keep him from being lonely." When Shamel says this, Foley is a little surprised. "It's better for a Langkalam to read Gothic than to sit on the couch watching boring TV shows or studying elections all day."

These words came from Shamel's mouth, which was beyond Foley's expectations, and on second thought, maybe she didn't know Shamer, and there were many books hidden in her data machine somewhere, maybe no less than her paintings.

Foley never went to a bookstore with Shamel, nor did he see her buy paper books, and she had few special hobbies of reading other than those related to her paintings.

But after that time, Foley realized that he was wrong, and that Shammel was at least as fond of horror as many Americans, and even at the bedside of his mother, who rarely read, Foley had seen a copy of Mrs. Shelley's Frankenstein.

If John enjoyed reading stories like "The Vampire Queen" or "The Monk," Fryco wouldn't be able to worry about it at all.

Maybe it's better for boys to read Marvel or detective stories. Of course, if he likes to read science fiction, then he really has found the right person, the science fiction books at home occupy half of the bookshelf on the study wall, if John likes it, Foley can introduce him one by one, from "Around the World in Eighty Days" to the "Base" series, he can chat with him for an afternoon and dinner time in the "Base" series alone, the little guy will definitely be curious about this series, and then look at himself with admiration and say, "I really want to read it now." "The romance of a father taking his son to read science fiction is definitely no less than taking his son to watch a Lakers game.

Maybe he won't have the same taste as himself, and even Efia, who also likes science fiction, has different tastes from herself, they both like Stanislav Lem and they both like William Gibson. Perhaps it was the first time he saw Ephia holding a copy of William Gibson's "The Nervous Wanderer" in a café that he had a crush on her.

"It's a man's romance." Foley says to the clerk who was leaning his head down the farthest part of the wall.

"What a man's romance." The clerk spoke with his face half-sideways, not taking his eyes off the book. It's a break, and she's completely free from the guests.

"Cyberpunk." Foley sat down across from her.

"Should women read vampire stories?"

"That kind of mysterious, dark, romantic, murderous, even barbaric gothic story?"

"Isn't that what you want to say?"

"Isn't it? Don't you like that kind of story? ”

"Unrealistic romantic fantasies?" She placed the book on the table and stretched out her right hand to fold a triangle at the page number.

"Don't you have something to clip in your book? This will depreciate the book. Representative Foley says.

"I like to fold triangles, and the books I've read have such triangles, and this is my book anymore, it's no longer anyone's."

"It's rare to see a girl who likes sci-fi."

"How do you know I like sci-fi."

"I hope you like it, maybe."

At this point in the conversation, Representative Foley finds herself too abrupt and even disturbs a wonderful reading time that should be the most intimate and undesirable of her day. So, out of nervousness, he talked more than usual.

"Nowadays, cyberpunk stories are not only set in outer space, but are more set in a dystopian Earth in the near future, just like now, the line between reality and virtual reality is blurred on the Internet and in digital space. In a cyberpunk world, where the direct connection between the human brain and the computer is commonplace, more people live under the control of money and technology by huge corporations, and people are pessimistic and hopeless about reality. ”

Representative Foley said a lot of his understanding in one breath, and he spoke faster and faster, and when he was said and done, he felt that he had done too badly. If the girl just picked up a random book with a nice cover from the bookstore shelf, maybe her boyfriend liked it, and he just wanted to have more common hobbies with him besides sleeping with him......

The clerk looked at him, his mouth was half open, and the light-colored lipstick really didn't match her skin tone, and orange would be more attractive. Forlì pondered to himself.

"You're saying you enjoy reading these too?" She asked.

"I, yes, love it."

"Really?"

"Isn't it like that?"

"Do you think the cyberpunk world is a lot like the world now?"

Of course, today's young tech employees are like the computer hackers, personal cyber enthusiasts, and engineers of the early years when writers were creating cyberpunk. The difference is that nowadays they are no longer addicted to drugs, perhaps to the virtual world. “

"But one thing is very similar, you look at artificial intelligence, virtual reality, genetic engineering, these technologies are all in the hands of multinational companies, far from the traditional single-country enterprises. They have a lot of different levels of technology, the best way to calculate the bank balance of 100,000 families in a second, $5 to enjoy a romantic relationship, the data machine knows yourself better than you, Gibson writes about cheap technology is making our lives change..."

"Deteriorate."

"I didn't say that."

"Yes, you didn't say that."

"Maybe you'll like Verno Vinch."

"Maybe not everyone thinks that such a future is good."

"That's right, that's what he meant."

The two of them laughed, and they were lucky to find someone to talk to about a book with them. ”

Representative Foley looks out the window at the sun, he feels happy, work, love, the future, everything is bright.

"My name is Foley, Foley Eugene Soder."

"What a strange name."

"yes, I think so too."

"My name is Ephia."

A wonderful first encounter, but no wonderful outcome, Foley is saddened that he has not read for a long time since Ephia disappeared, and for a long time he has not found anyone to talk to him about reading, which is sometimes more difficult than finding a lover.