Still Here Read Online Free PDF Page B

about her.
    “Sejun,” Vadik said and tapped on the screen.
    A glowing pixelated shape of Sejun’s face emerged from the darkness. Her eyes were moist as if she was about to cry.
    “That is beautiful, guys. That is a beautiful, beautiful app,” Sejun said.
    Bob’s was the only expression that was hard to read. He sat there staring at Sergey as if frozen. Then he rose from the couch, walked up to Sergey, and punched him on the shoulder.
    “I love the way you think, man! Love it. Love it. Love it. It makes me sick that the whole tech business is in the hands of those young kids. What do they know about life? What do they care about death? What can they possibly create if they don’t know and don’t care? It’s only natural that they come up with dumb toys.”
    Bob plopped back onto the couch that bent obediently to his shape. “Oh, how I love it…” He moaned again.
    Vica reclined in her seat and closed her eyes. It was done. Bob was hooked. She could hear her heart thumping in drunken excitement. The image of their bright, bright future branched out in her mind and kept growing, past those omakase meals, five-star resorts in the Italian Alps, VIP beaches in the Caribbean, and their own Tribeca loft, and finally to a really good graduate school and her newfound happiness and amazing sex with the wonderful, talented, magnificent Sergey.
    “I’m concerned about one thing though,” Bob said.
    Vica opened her eyes and stared at Bob. His intoxication seemed to have subsided. His expression was sharp, even severe.
    “I do like your idea, man,” Bob said. “I fucking love it! But it won’t take. Not in the North American market at least. You see, Americans deal with mortality either by enforcing their Christian beliefs or by ignoring it. We don’t like to think about death. We prefer to think about more uplifting things, like prolonging life or making it better. That’s the way it is. Sorry, man.” He sighed and reached under the table for another bottle.
    “Vadik, tell your friend not to be upset,” Sejun said from the darkness of the screen.
    “He’ll live,” Vadik said.
    Was that it? Did Bob mean it was over? Vica thought. Over? Just like that? No, it couldn’t be over!
    “No!” she screamed. “Our app is not about death! It’s about immortality, not death. Immortality. Sergey, tell Bob about immortality. Immortality is uplifting. Sergey, tell this to Bob! Tell Bob! Tell him!”
    She jerked her foot and kicked Regina’s wineglass on the floor. The wine spilled all over Vadik’s newly waxed floor. They all threw their napkins over the puddle, and Vadik stomped on the pile of napkins with his foot as if trying to extinguish a fire. They all seemed to be avoiding looking at her. Sergey too. Especially Sergey.
    “Sergey!” she screamed.
    “You know what app would be really cool?” he said without looking at anybody in particular. “An app where you could press a button and turn somebody’s volume down. Like you do with the TV, only with a real live person. Imagine a dinner party and everybody’s talking, but there is this one person that you just wish would shut up. So you point your device at that person—you can do it under the table discreetly—and lower her volume. Everybody else can hear her fine, and you can hear everybody else but her. Now wouldn’t that be a dream?”
    They all started to laugh. Not at the same time though. Vadik was the first with his series of chuckles. Then Bob with his hoarse hooting. Then Regina joined in, but with her it was not one hundred percent clear if she was laughing or crying. But Sejun was definitely laughing and her laugh was the happiest. “I’m sorry,” she kept saying, “it’s just so funny. Too funny. I want that app.”
    Vica hated their laughter right away; she recognized it as disgusting, but it took her a moment to realize that they were all looking at her and laughing at her.
    She turned away from them, stepped over the bunched-up