Chapter 58: Ana’s Office and Bedroom Redo

Fernando said, “I need an assistant here on the granja. ( farm ) If I get sick, it gets very sloppy around here without me to keep everything running.”

I said, “That sounds plausible. Go ahead, hire an assistant. You pick who you want. Is there anything else?”

He said, “It’s not my place to say. But Ana should have at least one assistant.”

I said, “That’s a good idea. Is there anything else?”

He said, “Yes - money. Tomas emptied the cash box here, so the hacienda is completely broke.”

I sent, “Ox, any recommendation?”

Ox said, “Five thousand in escudos for now?”

I said, “That should do for now.”

Ox said, “They are now in the bottom drawer of the desk. Should we remove a bed and create her a new office?”

I said, “I am not sure. Women can get weird about their things and their place in life.”

Ox said, “She’s a concubine, Bill. I doubt she will be a problem.”

Ox said, “Let us try. If she doesn’t like it, you can take the traditional route. Gigzik’s ship has a gay Heillizdt that loves designing things. He’s a natural interior designer.”

I said, “Send me a couple of ‘natural’ interior design proposals for Ana’s new office.”

Ox said, “I will have him work out several for you to choose from.”

Fernando and I had about come to the end of anything useful to discuss, and I let him leave.

I sent “PC.”

A computer popped up above Ana’s desk. The difference was that it had a physical keyboard and mouse. These devices stood proud on the desk??? The monitor was just a screen floating above the desk as usual. Who knows where the actual CPU resides?

I said, “Ox, what gives here with the keyboard and mouse? They are not virtual ones.”

He said, “This is Ana’s keyboard and mouse. Nobody here will notice them; the people are all tagged, or like Ana, have AIs. When we had Ana on the ship, we downloaded the ability for her to touch-type. We knew she would need that ability as the boss lady here. This is what worked best for her.”

“Wow, just wow.”

Ox said, “Call up the icon on the desktop labeled ‘Ana’s Office.”

I did, there were five freekin’ designs already. A reddish-hued desk immediately caught my eye. I clicked on it.

Holy Shit! It was so beautiful. It was obviously a stained mahogany. This is evidenced by its fine grain and pink tint. It has three drawers on each side; the bottom ones are large file drawers.

Pulling a drawer open revealed its contents. The large drawer on the left holds a small printer. The large drawer on the right contains a rack and empty file folders. Something bothered me about that last part.

I said, “Ox, the best choice is obviously the mahogany desk set. The office chair looks very comfortable.”

Ox said, “We will get right on that.”

I was typing when Ana came in. She gave my cheek a peck.

I said, “This is called a PC. Only you and I can see it and use it.”

She said. “That seems familiar.”

I said, “Sit down and try it.”

I coaxed her through loading a word processor and writing a brief letter. Then I coaxed her through a simple spreadsheet. She took right to it because she had the ability imprinted in her mind already. She could type fast after she got used to doing it physically.

Ox said, “Her office is now finished. Last door down the hall.”

I said, “Already, you guys timed it?”

“Yes, of course?”

“HO-KAY?”

I said, “Ana, I have something to show you down the hall.”

We stood up and walked down the hall. Oddly, there was a door at the end on the right that might have led to the outside. She looked at me as she opened the door. We entered a room that we had not been in before.

The door opened into two offices, an inner and an outer one. Her office had been relocated to the outer one. The inner would be for her office assistant.

The door was open, revealing her spacious office. I recognized it as a standard spatial anomaly. It appeared to have windows where the end walls would be. We entered.

There was an ornate mahogany desk with inlays, carvings, and shaped edges. It had her virtual PC already on it. Her chair was awesome. I pulled the drawers out so she could look inside them. She saw the printer. She looked at me oddly. I helped her set the chair for her use.

Ox must have seen the byplay over the printer. He said, “We downloaded her handwriting and created a new font called ‘Ana.’ She can whip up a document and print it.”

“When printed, it will appear as if Ana had handwritten it. There are over a dozen versions for each alphabet or numeral character. The characters are randomly picked when she prints. Integrated together, it will always look totally handwritten.”

“That will be very useful.”

He said, “Tell the walls to show the outside.”

I said aloud, “Walls. Show the outside.”

All four walls changed, and the four sides of the huge house were invisible; you could see the entire farm laid out below. The hacienda is on a small hill. The office with no walls was now perched on the hill. There was a vague blue tint to the view. Ana got up and moved to the wall, putting her hand out to touch it.

I said, “Remove tint,” and we stood there looking out at the area as if we were atop a small hill, with her desk.

She said, “It’s so real. They cannot see us, no?”

I said, “Yes, dear, they cannot see us. This will be nice if you begin to feel cooped up.”

I said, “Walls. Show Waikiki number seven.”

The walls changed to my favorite view of Waikiki. I missed surfing. Behind us was water breaking towards shore, with surfers, of course. Before us lay the familiar small cove I love. It’s covered in bikini-clad girls and surfer guys in their board shorts.

I said, “Walls. Turn back to Pink Wallpaper.”

Ana said, “Oh, what was all that?”

I said, “There are thousands of views like those. You can use the icon labeled ‘Walls’ to browse through small images on the PC to see the available choices. When you double-click on one, it will change the walls.”

I assumed that the light pink striped wallpaper was fake.

I said, “Walls, red flocked wallpaper.”

The room instantly grew dark. The dark red flocked wallpaper with black designs is a three-hundred-year-old design that I found gross. I had seen wallpaper like it in a few older restaurants at home. This black flocked design on heavy red paper looked like a tree disease that had run amok in a blood factory or something. Hideous!