“Guess what I have for you?”
I’m about to take out a batch of white chocolate-chip cookies from the oven when dad walks in. How does he always know? He’s holding something behind his back and without thinking about it, I send out a scan to see what it is. I didn’t mean to, it was just instinct. If I’d have thought it through, I wouldn’t have done it. The way dad had asked it, it sounded like a good surprise and that’s the kind I like. So why spoil it. Only it was too late for that.
I almost blurted out, “A check for one thousand five hundred and thirty-seven dollars and twenty-two cents.” Instead, I just barely managed to play along, “Is it a pair of socks?”
Dad chuckled and told me to try again. I took a second to remove the cookies from the oven, because burned cookies are sad cookies. “An ancient map leading to buried treasure!” This guess somehow wasn’t right either. Apparently, it wasn’t a puppy, Elmo, or a fireman.
Dad handed me the envelope and I opened it as we sat down for cookies. It was a check from the university for my work as a teaching assistant, minus some taxes. It’s funny how a year ago I would have considered it a fortune and yet today the amount only registered because I’d known it without opening the envelope.
My scan had read the amount off of the check. Not just the amount either. It had read the account number and the banking institutions address. When did my field learn how to read? I quickly looked around for something else to read and saw a box of cereal that I hadn’t put away yet. The scan showed the box and its contents. No writing, no reading.
I got up and scanned the few cookbooks that dad kept in the kitchen. Nothing besides the paper and cover material from them either. I tried focusing harder and was rewarded with more nothing. Wait. It wasn’t all nothing. There was a faint something and it came to me that I must be sensing the ink. I knew that ink had some amount of metals in it, but each individual letter didn’t have much. As a whole though, my field could sense the metal content, but couldn’t read the text. It seemed reasonable to assume that there weren’t enough metals in the letters to be able to read them. If that were true, why was the scan able to read the check? What was different about it?
The internet is a wonderful research tool. I should use it more often. It took five seconds to get my answer. Checks were printed using MiCR printers. Magnetic ink character recognition. As the name suggested, check printing used a magnetic ink that the banks were able to scan right into their systems. It had all sorts of anti-fraud measures, but I didn’t bother reading further into it. I was entranced by the idea that machines could recognize the ink and my field could too. More importantly, without looking at the check, I could still remember the account number at the bottom, the amount of the check to the pennies, and the bank’s address. Everything printed on the check was clearly set in my mind. Just like the information I got from scanning hundreds of meters into the ground, as well as my forms in Kung Fu, my mind could better retain and understand what I scanned with the field.
It was Saturday, almost a full twenty-four hours since my breakdown, and Eva had suggested that I take the entire weekend off. No Kung-Fu, no foundation, no work of any sort. I was supposed to relax and recharge. Read a book, binge some Netflix. A trip to a local printing shop to test out some theories about my field probably wasn’t what she had in mind.
‘In Print Condition’ was in Belmont and it took me about twenty minutes to get there. I liked the name, but it was the fact that they were the only ones nearby that advertised MiCR printers for sale as well as custom metallic ink printing that made it my first stop. I wanted to know more about how my field could read metallic ink and this seemed like a good way to compare the different printing styles.
I came prepared with two files on a thumb drive. One had the first two pages of “A Tale of Two Cities”. I needed two pages because I wanted to test printing on both sides of the page vs printing on just one side. Would the ink on the other side of the page ruin my ability to scan the text? Would I be able to scan both sides of the page at once?
The other file had two pages from the Mayo Clinic’s website about the heart, complete with a high-resolution picture. I wanted to see how the different inks handled the high-resolution pictures and how the colors came out. Again, I prepared two pages here and the goal was to see how my scanning was affected by two-sided printing when a color picture was involved on one side of the page.
Walking into the store, I was the only customer and the salesperson, Anthony, was at my side in moments offering his assistance. Either he was super bored, or he was very good at his job. I rarely got such attentive service anywhere I went. I explained that I wanted to print out some test pages in both metallic ink and in magnetic ink and see the differences.
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“I don’t think that anyone’s every asked me that before. I can do it, but I’ll have to charge you for the printing.” I gave him the go head, describing how I wanted each file to be printed twice for each ink type; once one sided and once two-sided.
He opened my files up on his computer and started setting up the printing. “The metallic ink will do a great job on the photo, but I can only do the MiCR ink in black. Most people only use it for check printing. You can use it for any printing, but the ink is more expensive that regular printer ink so most people don’t bother unless they have a very specific application. Also, you’ll need to choose the type of paper you want to print on. Different paper stocks will make the ink pop more and give you better results.”
Since I didn’t know if my test would even work, I chose the cheapest paper for the trial. Anthony finished his setup and within a few minutes I was scanning each of the four sets. To my relief, both types of ink scanned wonderfully. However, the metallic ink was my clear favorite, as it was much more vibrant to my eyes and, more importantly, it could reproduce crystal clear color pictures. Two-sided printing for either ink choice was definitely out. The scans read the back-side metal content right through the paper and all my scan got was a confused jumble of both sides.
I took a moment to let the implications of this success sink in. I’d spent over a month last year scanning myself and learning all the bones of my body. Using my new scan-reading ability, I could achieve the same results in minutes? I couldn’t believe it, but to prove it to myself, I started reciting the first two pages of “A Tale of Two Cities” in my head, without looking at the printed copy. “It was the best of times, it was…” Holy shit! I knew the first two pages by heart and I knew all the parts of the heart by heart as well. This was a real game changer and I already had some ideas of how I wanted to use this new ability.
“Anthony, do you sell metallic ink printers?”
“No, I’m sorry. I don’t know of any models for the home yet. We can print things for you though.”
“How much would it cost to print out one my school textbooks? It’s around two hundred pages.”
“Uhm. I’m not sure if we’re allowed to do that. It might be copyright infringement.”
“Ok. What if I showed you the receipt for my purchase of the electronic version of the book? Would you be able to print out the book for me in metallic ink?”
“Maybe. I’ll have to check it out. It would be very expensive though. Most people just want metallic highlights on their marketing materials. Full page printing could cost you between three and four dollars per page.”
Six to eight hundred dollars for a regular sized textbook. That would mean that some college level textbooks would cost me more than I’d made for being a TA this summer. Then again, who wouldn’t pay that amount or more to instantly download knowledge directly into their brains? I could easily afford it but that didn’t mean that I shouldn’t look for a better deal. After all, there were going to be a lot of books that I’d want and a printing shop like this was going to ask questions that I didn’t want to answer. I needed to check out the competition.
I paid Anthony for my printouts and thanked him for his help, before getting back in my car and making a call.
“Hi Howie. How are you today?”
“Abby! What request are you going to surprise me with today? Wait. Don’t tell me. I’m keen to guess. Uhm, you’re calling because you need a tank. A pink one. With laser mounted turrets and ammo that explodes into sparkling dust.”
“No Howie. Hold on. Can you get me a pink tank? That sounds cool.”
“That would be a no, Abby. I was trying to make a point. Besides, where would you park the tank anyways?”
“Well, how about in front of my house? It would be really useful in keeping away all those encyclopedia salesmen that keep dropping by.”
I heard Howie snort. “Have you ever even seen an encyclopedia, much less a salesperson that sells anything door to door?”
“Nope. And with a tank out front, I’ll never have to”.
“No tank for you, Abby. Next!”
“What are you, the Tank Nazi?” I smiled at his Seinfeld reference. It was a good show and Uncle Magnum and I had gone through the whole series a few years ago. Thinking back on it, I missed binge watching shows with Uncle Magnum. Since I’d gotten my abilities and he’s gotten Margaret, we hadn’t hung out as much as we used to.
“What’ll be today, Abby?”
“What do you know about metallic ink printing?”
“Why can’t you want normal things anymore? How about a nice AR15 or an EMP hardened computer? I can even get you a great deal on some land mines. Barely used! Why the hell would I know anything about metallic ink printing?”
“Howie, whatever happened to your no questions asked policy?”
“That’s completely your fault. Everyone else asks me for normal things, so I don’t have to ask. Besides, I’m not asking questions, I’m complaining in question form.”
That got a laugh out of me. It was so true. “Ok. Here’s what I need. I want to give you a list of books that I’ll need printed in color using metallic ink. One side only, no binding. Most of the books will be textbooks. If you need, I’ll buy the electronic version and sent it to you. I already have a price from a printing store, but its high and they’re going to give me trouble over copyright issues and they will eventually start asking questions to which the answers are none of their business.”
“I’ll see what I can do, Abby.” He hung before I could. Damn it!