The Book of Jobs - what Steve is doing on The Cloud

Wednesday 12 September - Day 8 of 30

Steve woke up this morning determined not to give in to temptation. He would not go over to the iTower. He would not watch live streaming of today’s Apple iPhone5 event in San Francisco. He would not see his successors trying to do a product launch as well as he had. He would not check Apple’s share price. 

It should be easy to avoid all this, and he knew he should. He couldn’t take a repeat of yesterday’s blasts from the past. 

First, he had the day off, so he didn’t have to report to his new job at the iTower. Besides, the news would probably be late, as usual. The Cloud was notorious for its erratic coverage of events on The Earth. Always the same excuse—galactic interference.

Second, he had a party to attend. Today was the ninth Deathday Party for Johnny Cash, and people said that every year he had an all-day-into-the-night rockin’ out blast over at The Circle. The Man in Black was putting on a show again, and Steve would be there.

He remembered how at first it had seemed odd that people would celebrate their Deathday, but on second thought it made perfect sense. It was the annual anniversary of their arrival on The Cloud. The date was all-important, because it marked how many years of time you had served. Subtract years served from age at death and you knew how much more time you had.

Steve figured out Johnny Cash’s numbers: he was 71 when he died, he had done 9 years on The Cloud, so he had 62 years to go. Wow! He still had 6 more years than Steve did, and that didn’t count the 9 he’d already put in. So it was good to die young?

This crazy Yin-Yang rule made your head spin. Back on The Earth your goal was to live as long as you possibly could. But here on The Cloud it was the exact opposite—the shorter your life, the sooner you could opt out. And it was all the Big Guy’s fault. He was an absolute autocrat, Steve thought to himself, and also an egomaniac.

Steve wanted to have a Deathday party too, and and his first one was now only three weeks away. He’d better start making plans! The man behind the richest company on The Earth, the man who changed people’s lives forever with his beautiful mobile devices, the man who made the brilliant ‘Think Different’ campaign happen, needed to have a party like no one had ever seen before.

He’d better start to think different right now.

But how?

 (to be continued tomorrow)