Chapter 4

At the bus station, Amalia and Jeremy exchanged a brief kiss. She set off for the financial district bus. She worked there because "the bastards tipped really well on the good days."

When she had disappeared into the crowd, Jeremy sought out the information kiosk and got directions to the main library. He noticed children were walking through the building dressed in their school uniforms. He avoided them to the best of his ability but the station was too crowded. He wanted to stick out his foot and trip the boys horsing around. He didn't. The little girls giggling behind him made his skin crawl and his jaw clench, but he stubbornly refused to run away.

The hour was still too early, which left Jeremy with time to kill. He didn't trust the bus station because there were so many police posted in the building, so he hopped on the bus and took it downtown where the library was located.

He stood on Av. Tiradentes and looked around. Behind him was the grand entrance to Jardim La Luz, the ancient central park with its great arching trees. None of the buildings on the street held any interest to him, so he turned into the park and found an empty bench.

He had a paper bag with a cup of coffee and a big fruit pastry. As he nibbled away at his second breakfast, he wondered what he was going to find at the library. He was troubled that he hadn't been able to remember the name of the building yesterday. It was a word any child would know. Was his mind failing or was it recovering?

The newspaper on the bus to Sao Paulo was a troubling memory, too. The frustration that he couldn't read the words was still fresh and sharp. Jeremy wanted to look at another newspaper to make sure he had actually read the date, but he was afraid of what he would discover. What had made him think that he could read?

If reading was a failure so far, Jeremy could also count some successes. He had ridden the bus into town only a few days ago, but so much had happened in the meantime. He had credits, he had a girlfriend, and he had made money outside of the fields. He had done all of it without being able to read.

An old bell tower rang nine times. Jeremy gathered his courage and walked down the street to the library. Stepping through the doors he looked up at the vaulted barrel ceiling with its murals of life in the state of Brazil. Sao Paulo was the capitol of Brazil, one of the many states in the South American region. He couldn't think of the Continental capital though. What was the capital city of South America?

To the right was the digital library and to his left was the bound library with its books and periodicals. Unsure of where to begin, Jeremy turned left. He bypassed the rack of newspapers with a small scowl on his face. Behind the newspaper rack was a sitting area with children's books sitting in stacks and laying on the large rug. Glancing around to see if anyone was looking, he went for the children's area.

He picked up the picture book on dinosaurs. After flipping through a few of the pictures, Jeremy returned to the plastick cover and ran his finger over the biggest word.

"Di-no-saur," he said, sounding out the syllables.

"You are learning to read," a voice behind him said, making him jump.

He dropped the book and turned to the middle-aged woman standing behind his chair. She had a slight smile on her face that defused the embarrassment Jeremy was experiencing. She had an official ID tag hanging from her neck which meant that she probably worked in the library.

"Ah, yeah," Jeremy said. "I took the day off work to ... to practice reading."

"The library has an adult reading program on the digital side where you can practice by yourself without a teacher. Would you like me to set up the program for you?" she asked.

She seemed so nice with her coiffed hair and makeup. Jeremy nodded and stood up to follow her. They walked back across the great lobby and into the hushed silence of the digital rooms. The second room had a series of individual stations with screens, input devices, and headphones. The woman brought up a program and invited Jeremy to sit.

She placed the headphones over his ears and left with a pat on his shoulder.

Jeremy removed the headphones to adjust the band over his head. As he pulled on the band, he heard the woman say to someone, "False alarm: he's just an ignorant peasant, not a pedophile."

He didn't know whether to be shocked or relieved. Whatever he was, he wasn't a peasant but if the façade held, then all was well for the moment. He returned to the program.

The learning came easily. The reading progressed and he was winging through the vocabulary rapidly when a chime sounded at the two-hour mark. A warning screen popped up reminding him to take a break and rest his eyes.

He ran for the bathroom.

Returning to his station, Jeremy decided to take a chance at reading. He called up the fifth level primers and chose Social Studies. Reading was a joy; he soaked up the facts. The program made it easy to bring up a dictionary when he didn't understand a word. Feeling like a naughty student, he skipped over the boring parts.

He needed to eat. With help from another librarian, he learned how to save his place and how to return to the program.

Sitting outside a workman's café a few blocks away, Jeremy eased back from his meal to sip his drink. He was amazed at his capacity for food and wondered why he was so thin. It was another puzzle for which he didn't have an answer.

The world around him made a bit more sense since his studies in the morning. Sao Paulo had been a huge, bustling metropolis, the largest in all of South America for several centuries before the global collapse. Now it was one of several cities of nearly the same size. Most of the population was gone.

Reclamation was a serious issue in the state of Brazil. Everyone agreed it was a priority, but it was a race against time. The jungle and the rainforest grew quickly and overwhelmed the abandoned outer rings of suburbs and slums. The metals, plastics, glass, asphalt and concrete were very much in demand in the recycling process all over the continent. However, when the jungle overran the neighborhoods before the materials could be harvested, the wealth had to be abandoned. The states couldn't move fast enough.

These facts were much more interesting to him than the lists of political leaders, futbol stars, and other famous people. Those were the parts he tended to skip. He gave a cursory glance to the origins of the people of the continent, but even then, he wasn't too interested.