Influence

ROOFS

After leaving Boronne — I drive to Home Depot to talk with David about a mass purchase of siding, lumber, bolts, etc. My goal is to make twenty ‘very small’ houses. I recently acquired a lightindustrial unit off Old Middlefield road, and believe we can build twenty units in about a week. Probably two weeks, but the target is one.

There is no problem with the order, and the price is fine: about half of what Virginia gave me for the units, so the other half can be used to pay for the labor involved. If we get it done in two weeks, that will be fine. We might sell some of the units to defray costs, but the bulk will be donated to people living in tents or worse.

By the time I am done — It is noon, so I head to dialysis. My clinic is in Menlo Park, almost within the Facebook campus. I was on Facebook when it first came to California, but got off it when the social value of the social network became very suspect.

Dialysis patients get hooked up to a hemodialysis machine using either their catheter or the two dialysis ‘sewing needles’ described above. I used a catheter for about six months, but progressed to direct artery access, which looks the same as a fistula. The flow rate can be higher with the needles, so I can support all the patients in my shift. For the first six months I needed to have another vampire (Susan) with me, but now I can go it alone.

My machine is different from everyone else’s, but that isn ’t visible to anyone who works in the main room. There is a technician controlling flows between patients and me, so people get their own (cleansed) blood back. I feel like the RNs know something is unusual, but they keep their concerns and questions to themselves.

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Josephine ‘wires’ me up, and for the next four hours I am trapped. Dialysis can be very draining for normal patients: cramps, sleepiness, etc. It is draining for me also. I commonly need to sleep for most of it. Given my dialysis shift starts at noon, it is somewhat ironic. I need to sleep for a while at night too, so maybe I am just half-vampire? What am I?

• April•

“No, you are not exactly a slave — but you are also not free. From now until you wish to die, you will need to do dialysis with a Amasa-approved clinic.”

“Can’t I just bite people on the neck or something?”

“You can try, but there isn’t any evidence that would work. And you would likely end up dying in jail”

“So, as long as I do dialysis, you will help me to continue to exist?”

“Yes”

“No other quid-pro-quos in this contract?”

“No, but we might like your help at times”

“Yes… master. Am I going to say no to the Gods?”

“I suspect you might, at least sometimes. That is really up to you… and how happy you want your gods to be “

“Ecstatic?”

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