Often I wonder how long I’ll be doing this.

“Two tickets to Germinator please.”

The lady in front of me held out her phone over a scanner.

Beep

The classic audio que signified the transaction was a success.

A couple of tickets printed out on the side of the desk I was standing at and I held them out.

“Thank you. Enjoy the movie.” I flashed the man and woman in front of me a smile.

They said “thanks” in unison, grabbed their tickets, and left.

The next person in que stepped up and the process started again.

Don’t get the wrong idea, I’m grateful for my job, but damn would I be lying if I tried to call it mentally stimulating. Bills gotta get paid somehow though.

After a couple more hours working I swapped places with another employee and retired to the staff room for my break. There were a couple other people in the room but I paid them no mind. My break only lasted 15 minutes so I wanted to relax.

Time: 2:47. I had 13 minutes till I was back up.

I grabbed a coffee, muffin, and took a seat in the corner. The coffee was warm, just how I liked it, the muffin, blueberry. Not my favourite but it was free. A television sat on one of the walls which I glued my eyes to as I ate.

“Newly released statistics show that the FAR network has reached a gross coverage of 82% in committing nations. What do you have to say to this?” The lady speaking was dressed in formal attire and facing the camera.

The screen flicked to a man sitting in an office.

“Well we can definitely attribute this achievement to the unbounded assistance of each nation's government, not to mention the people using the system who make it all so worthwhile.”

The woman smiled and nodded her head, pleased with the man's answer.

“Of course, but I think what everyone wants to know is what the overall goal of the FAR network and its owners is? I mean, it’s been less than five years and people are already claiming the market has become a monopoly.”

The man returned the woman's smile. “There is no crime in having a monopoly Susan. Infact, I like to think that the fact people are making such claims is a testament to how successful the system is.”

“And your goal?”

“Our current goal is to continue expanding. At the moment those statistics only apply to developed nations where the infrastructure is already there, but to achieve complete coverage we’ve still got a long way to go.”

Susan smiled again and I wondered how much she was paid to pretend to care. One thousands dollars per smile?

“Well, there you have it everyone. Thank you for answering our questions Tim.”

“My pleasure. Sadly that’s all I have time to answer.”

The screen cut back to Susan staring at the camera.

“Next up we have a story on sheep and the growing food…”

Ding

My watches alarm triggered.

Time? 2:59. I always set my alarm early so I won’t be late.

I threw my cup and that thing muffins always come in into the trash and headed back to work. Today I was working late.

Some many hours later I was still standing behind the counter at the cinema I worked at. There were no more movies scheduled for showing at this time, so there was no one to serve. I was mostly here for show.

Security wasn’t much of a concern, no one in their right mind would try rob this place with all the sensors watching. Facial recognition software was so accurate that the name had actually become dated- it didn’t actually need to see your face to know what you looked like.

The internet or more specifically social media definitely contributed. With so many images being posted every day it was practically impossible there wasn’t at least one image of someone that could be used as a reference.

I turned my head side to side to see if anyone was in sight. Sigh. The place was empty so I would be waiting for the final movie to finish and standing here to make the place look like it was staffed.

I waved my hand and a monitor projected itself in front of me. Multiple unseen sensors continued tracking my body to detect my interactions with the display. I swiped a couple times until I was looking at the movies currently playing.

Germinator 3 would finish playing at 11:45 pm. I clocked 11:44 into my watch and set it to vibrate. There were 55 more minutes of standing here for me to do, so I just stared at the doorway and zoned out.

Bzzzz

Fifty five minutes later I felt my watch vibrating on my left wrist and tapped it to stop. Show time.

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I’m not a very good actor, but a couple years in customer service taught me how to be a damn good suck up. “The customer is always right.” Whoever the hell thought that up clearly had never worked a day in customer service.

I straightened my back and checked my clothes were tidy. All clear.

People started coming through with a couple sparing me a glance as they walked out the door. A young man, probably around the age of 19 stopped by the door. He got out his phone and absorbed himself into it.

“Probably waiting for someone.” I mumbled.

Bingo.

A young woman around the same age as the boy walked up to him and smiled. This cinema was quite small so there was only around ten metres between me and them.

“Heya, enjoy the movie?” The boy put a smile on his face and put away his phone.

“Yeah, it was cool. Wanna meet up after this?” The woman's voice surprised me with how soft it was.

“Yeah sure should I give you my username?” Out came both their phones.

Ah, I may be coming to an early assumption, but this was definitely a couple. I work in a cinema. All the young people come here for their first dates so it’s easy to tell.

After exchanging information the couple realised there was no one else around, well, excluding me. It must’ve made them nervous because they were both quite happy to leave.

“Finally.” I flicked my hand over the desk again and navigated to the option to sign out.

Before I confirmed I checked my pocket. One phone right where I left it.

I signed out and left the cinema. The actual process of closing down was all automated which made my life pretty easy.

I took a left towards the subway. My train arrives at 12 pm but the walk there only takes five minutes. Can’t deny city convenience, it’s pretty damn good.

At night the city was a light show with cars blitzing past and screens advertising the latest thing you would die without. The sidewalk I was on was still pretty busy as well seeing as it headed into the city centre.

Most of the people at this time were dressed in something provocative or eye catching as they headed to bars and clubs. It made me feel a bit conscious of my work uniform with the words “Movie Maniacs” plastered on it.

Lucky for me, I only had to walk for 5 minutes so I took at seat at the subway as I waited for the train. The station wasn’t very busy, mostly people like me heading home for the night.

The train arrived and I hopped in.

I remember when Maglev was the shit, and it still is, kinda. The train I’m in uses a vacumn tube to eliminate air resistance and achieve greater speeds. Yeah, it travels at speeds of up mach six.

“Attention passengers. Please ensure you are seated or holding onto something before this train begins accelerating. Thank you.”

I heard a couple hisses as excess air in the tube was evacuated and soon after my back pressed into my seat. On one of the trains walls there was a counter that went from zero to six. My home wasn’t far away so it never went beyond two.

At 12:05 am I got off the train and was soon at my door step.

I resisted the urge to check the time and stepped inside.

Except for a lamp that gave the place a dim outlook the home was all lights out. Considering the time and I’d done this practically every day for the past seven or so years I wasn’t surprised. There was an average sized fridge in the kitchen to my right so I grabbed an apple and held it in my mouth, next up I picked a cup from a nearby cupboard and filled it with water from the sink.

Ta-da. Dinner is served.

I sat myself down in a chair facing the wall and relaxed as much as I could. Yeah the views weren’t the best, but after a long day it was a godsend, and over time I’d come to like my quiet ends to the day.

I finished dining and decided to head to my room to get some sleep. Keeping my steps silent I pushed open the door, switched on a lamp, and grabbed some shorts and a shirt from the closet. Before undressing I checked the bed where there was a large bulge; the person I share this room with was asleep.

To be honest, I could’ve used the bathroom to dress, but I was too damn tired. Plus this was part of my usual routine. It’s true, old habits die hard. I dropped my uniform into a basket and slowly slipped into bed, turning the lamp off in the process. I fell asleep minutes later.