Virtually Innocent

Coder 001

It isn't clear which wakes him up first, the perfume or Nurse Harper tapping on his chin. Anthony gurgles a rough 'good morning,' as he mentally shifts back into an awake mindset. She greets him instead by saying that she's brought him a sugar-free lemonade.

"I sent an email first thing this morning about the environment. Took me a little bit, but I found the email for that coder person," her explanation is serious and focused. Once he finishes his morning drink, he is surprised when Nurse Harper taps his chin again. This time she is spooning some chocolate pudding into his mouth. She tells him, "The night nurse said that you were jerking your head around a lot and crying in your sleep. I figured you would like the extra calories."

Anthony doesn't recall having any nightmares or a reason for the night nurse's notes. He does find himself explaining to Nurse Harper that he did cry after she was gone, but not really in the middle of the night. Though he doesn't go into detail, he admits that he was missing his wife and feeling frustrated by the system.

Nurse Harper finishes feeding him the pudding while expressing that she often finds herself feeling frustrating by medical systems in the same way she sees in prisoners with the legal system. She specifically complains about the chain of command, the lack of trust in nurses compared to doctors, and all the insurance barriers to providing necessary care.

After a few minutes, she realizes that she's been talking for a long time, quickly apologizing.

"Goodness, I've talked your ears off, Anthony! I'm so sorry, that wasn't very professional of me," she admits, though not sounding all that worried about professionalism so much as embarrassment.

Anthony assures her, "It doesn't bother me. There's no sound for me right now, so it's just me and my memories of noise."

Even though he can't hear her frowning, there's a lowness in her tone that seems akin to sadness. She puts her hand on his neck again, rubbing his neck again, and hums.

"I only took this job because I wanted to see what this looks like firsthand so I could denounce it if it goes sideways. This is an idea that looks great on paper, but I wish everyone could see what I see."

Nothing comes out of Anthony's mouth, but he is once again comforted by her kindness. When she's done and leaves the room, though, he forgets about it all and resumes his efforts to get the attention of Coder 001. He replaces the morning routine with slamming into the boundary until he prompts the error message. He repeats in a whisper the number of times he is told "Something went wrong. Please try again."

It isn't until after Nurse Harper comes back for her afternoon checks that he takes a break, and he's so tired that he can barely use his muscles to drink the fruit juice she's brought along with her. Their conversation is much lighter, but she confirms that Coder 001 received her email and will be working on it in the late afternoon. According to the email, Coder 001 has been helping the other coders with their first tutorial walkthroughs, having been the first to do it and having done so with a live audience.

Anthony forgot that there were others just like him, or at least who were going through the program at least. It makes him wonder if other people are struggling with the same limbo that he's been stuck in since his immersion, or if he was just lucky enough to have an issue that nobody else had experienced. He supposes that it doesn't actually matter. Right now, Coder 001 knows the problem exists for sure now, and he racked up 47 triggers of the error message, so he feel that he just relax the rest of the day.

Before Nurse Harper leaves the room, Anthony thanks her for being so kind. It confuses her, since she thinks medical staff should always be kind to their patients, regardless of what their circumstances are like. Before leaving, she adds, "And I think the people in jail or prison need that kindness a little bit more than most other patients that a nurse sees. Kindness isn't really a part of that social culture."