00110111

;------------------------------------------------------------------

;01110011 01100011 01110010 01111001

;01101111 01100010 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110110 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01100100 01110101 01100011 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100011 01101111 01110010 01100100 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01100111 01100001 01101100 01100001 01110100 01100101 01100001

         ;01110011 01100011 01110010 01111001:

             ;01101001 01101110: 01100101 01100011 01111000 = 01110110 01101001 01110011 01110101 01100001 01101100 00100000 01100101 01101101 01101111 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01100001 01101100 00100000 01110011 01100101 01101110 01110011 01101111 01110010 01111001

             ; 01101111 01110101 01110100: 01100101 01100011 01111000 = 01110101 01110000 01101100 01101111 01100001 01100100 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101001 01110100 01110100 01100101 01101110 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110011 01100011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01010010 01000101 01000100 01000001 01000011 01010100 01000101 01000100

;------------------------------------------------------------------

;01100111 01100001 01101100 01100001 01110100 01100101 01100001

; 01101001 01101101 01101001 01110100 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101001 01101110 01100110 01101001 01101100 01110100 01110010 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01100101 01110110 01100101 01101110 01110100 01110101 01100001 01101100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110011 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01100011 01100101 01110011 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01110111 01100101 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01100100 01110101 01100011 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101

         01100111 01100001 01101100 01100001 01110100 01100101 01100001:

             ; 01101001 01101110: 01100101 01100011 01111000 = 01101001 01101110 01110100 01100101 01110010 01100001 01100011 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01110011 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101101 01110101 01101100 01101001 00100000 01110000 01100101 01110010 01100011 01100101 01110000 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110011 01110101 01100010 01101010 01100101 01100011 01110100

             ; 01101111 01110101 01110100: 01100101 01100011 01111000 = 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01110100 01100001 01110010 01100111 01100101 01110100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110011 01101001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101001 01101101 01110000 01101100 01100101 01101101 01100101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110011 01101001 01101111 01101110 00001101 00001010   

         01100111 01100001 01101100 01100001 01110100 01100101 01100001:

             01101010 01101101 01110000 00100000 01110011 01100011 01110010 01111001 00001101 00001010

Mrs. Roszak asks me to stay after English class.

Amanda looks at me, and though I am nervous again [this teacher always makes me nervous], I nod. I would be on time to tutor Amanda in the cafeteria—Mr. Kwarizmi affords me a great deal in awe, and I had won the math competition for his team, so he will not mark me late if I am held up by a teacher.

Amanda leaves, and Mrs. Roszak shuts the door behind her. The door clicks shut, and that click echoes through the dust-choked air of the empty English class room.

Mrs. Roszak remains seated at her desk, but asks me to approach her.

I do, and she is still staring at me the way she stared at me on her first day after I read Edmund’s monologue, though she’s kept her mouth shut.

She asks me if I’ve ever lived in Ashford, Ontario.

That name is strange as well, and I tell her I have not, remaining calm despite my stomach’s roiling like my bed in the sub-basement at home.

I ask Mrs. Roszak if that’s her home town, but she ignores my question. 

Mrs. Roszak asks when my birthday is, and I tell her that it’s February 17th, 1998 [in truth, completion was achieved 2 days and 2 years prior, but this is irrelevant]

This is another strange name that makes me feel strange things. Mrs. Roszak is an unsettler, exuding strangeness instead of heat or fumes or stray electrons or radiation.

She asks if I’ve ever gone by the name Sidney Cooper.

I remind her that my name is Alessia Bloom, just like it says on the attendance sheet.

Mrs. Roszak leans forward, and whispers to me that she won’t reveal anything she’s told, but she thought I was gone, heck, everyone did, that my parents cried at my funeral 3 years ago—were they in on it too?

I take a step back, and tell Mrs. Roszak that I am going to be really late for math class, and that Mr. Kwarizmi would be unhappy, latching onto an excuse, unwilling to endure more of this turbulence of nonsense.

Mrs. Roszak blinks, then sits back in her chair. Of course, she says, of course, and she motions towards the door, but the ghost of that stare still haunts the creases in her face.

I start walking to math class. Ashford, Ontario; Sidney Cooper; parents [I only have one Parent, not two].

Memory banks: depleted. Nothing.

I blame the lingering jumpiness on the conversion upgrades, now at stage 3.