initial IPO. and you’re smarter than me
Hot4Higs: smarter than I – just kidding. And I’m definitely not smarter than you. I couldn’t have thought of
VillagePariah: I’m not guessing. I’ve seen our files... I have a question. did you have any other relatives besides your parents?
Hot4Higs: No. my grandfather died a few months before my parents. he lived on the west coast. I didn’t really know him that well.
VillagePariah: Sorry about that.
Hot4Higs: It’s ok
VillagePariah: Did he die before or after you took the IAT?
Hot4Higs: ?
VillagePariah: The initial aptitude test you took in september of first grade.
Hot4Higs: Would have been after. I remember it was Halloween night.
VillagePariah: Hmmm...
Hot4Higs: What?
VillagePariah: Avillage has the full list of IAT scores from your year. not sure how they got it. your name’s at the top. the file is dated mid-October. don’t remember the exact date.
Hot4Higs: My grandfather had pretty bad diabetes. his death wasn’t too big of a shock to my parents, if that’s what you’re getting at.
VillagePariah: OK. do you know what the policy is on orphan adoption? I mean how long a kid has to be in an orphanage before he’s available to Avillage?
Hot4Higs: 3 months. it’s in their company profile
VillagePariah: Did you ever think it was strange that you lost your parents almost EXACTLY 3 months before the opening of AVEX? Or that they confirmed the opening date of AVEX two days after they died?
Ryan’s cursor flashed for a full 30 seconds with no reply. Dillon kept an anxious eye on the lower left of his screen, continuously checking how many other players were online, hoping he hadn’t scared Ryan away with such a sensitive topic; the number remained stuck at 1.
VillagePariah: It strikes me as odd. I’ve dug pretty deep into this. opening day was an absolute make or break for Avillage. Ryan, you were it. there was no plan B.
There was another long pause.
Hot4Higs: We need to meet.
CHAPTER 6
A natural leader with a tireless work ethic, strong motherly instincts, and endless optimism, thirteen-year-old Annamaria Olivera had been invaluable at the orphanage in the 3 months since a catastrophic 7.9 magnitude earthquake had nearly leveled her home city of Colón, a working class town at the Caribbean entrance to the Panama canal. Her district, Rainbow City, had been the hardest hit.
She had been on her way to school when the quake had hit, walking in a small clearing between two more densely populated areas. First, she’d felt a curious vibration beneath her feet, almost as if they were starting to fall asleep. Then before she’d had time to consider what exactly the odd sensation might be, she was hit with a thunderous force that threw her to the ground, split the road in front of her lengthwise and crumbled the rickety bridge up ahead, sending its splintered remains into the swollen, muddy river below.
Rattled in every sense of the word, she turned back toward her home and watched helplessly as the low-rise apartment buildings began to crumble, one after another. Plumes of dust twenty stories high formed a haunting new skyline in their stead.
Two days of round-the-clock rescue work would pass before a Red Cross disaster counselor finally confirmed what she pretty well knew to be the case: no one in her family had survived.
But with more work to do than there were able-bodied people to do it, she never took the time to grieve. She got busy the moment she set foot in the overcrowded orphanage, nursing minor wounds of the other children when the staff didn’t have time, warming bottles and feeding the babies when she heard them cry out at night, and routinely helping out with the cooking and cleaning. But her most impactful contribution was her unique ability to soothe with little more than a look, especially when the aftershocks hit.
Her large dark eyes were deep yet bright
Hot4Higs: smarter than I – just kidding. And I’m definitely not smarter than you. I couldn’t have thought of
VillagePariah: I’m not guessing. I’ve seen our files... I have a question. did you have any other relatives besides your parents?
Hot4Higs: No. my grandfather died a few months before my parents. he lived on the west coast. I didn’t really know him that well.
VillagePariah: Sorry about that.
Hot4Higs: It’s ok
VillagePariah: Did he die before or after you took the IAT?
Hot4Higs: ?
VillagePariah: The initial aptitude test you took in september of first grade.
Hot4Higs: Would have been after. I remember it was Halloween night.
VillagePariah: Hmmm...
Hot4Higs: What?
VillagePariah: Avillage has the full list of IAT scores from your year. not sure how they got it. your name’s at the top. the file is dated mid-October. don’t remember the exact date.
Hot4Higs: My grandfather had pretty bad diabetes. his death wasn’t too big of a shock to my parents, if that’s what you’re getting at.
VillagePariah: OK. do you know what the policy is on orphan adoption? I mean how long a kid has to be in an orphanage before he’s available to Avillage?
Hot4Higs: 3 months. it’s in their company profile
VillagePariah: Did you ever think it was strange that you lost your parents almost EXACTLY 3 months before the opening of AVEX? Or that they confirmed the opening date of AVEX two days after they died?
Ryan’s cursor flashed for a full 30 seconds with no reply. Dillon kept an anxious eye on the lower left of his screen, continuously checking how many other players were online, hoping he hadn’t scared Ryan away with such a sensitive topic; the number remained stuck at 1.
VillagePariah: It strikes me as odd. I’ve dug pretty deep into this. opening day was an absolute make or break for Avillage. Ryan, you were it. there was no plan B.
There was another long pause.
Hot4Higs: We need to meet.
CHAPTER 6
A natural leader with a tireless work ethic, strong motherly instincts, and endless optimism, thirteen-year-old Annamaria Olivera had been invaluable at the orphanage in the 3 months since a catastrophic 7.9 magnitude earthquake had nearly leveled her home city of Colón, a working class town at the Caribbean entrance to the Panama canal. Her district, Rainbow City, had been the hardest hit.
She had been on her way to school when the quake had hit, walking in a small clearing between two more densely populated areas. First, she’d felt a curious vibration beneath her feet, almost as if they were starting to fall asleep. Then before she’d had time to consider what exactly the odd sensation might be, she was hit with a thunderous force that threw her to the ground, split the road in front of her lengthwise and crumbled the rickety bridge up ahead, sending its splintered remains into the swollen, muddy river below.
Rattled in every sense of the word, she turned back toward her home and watched helplessly as the low-rise apartment buildings began to crumble, one after another. Plumes of dust twenty stories high formed a haunting new skyline in their stead.
Two days of round-the-clock rescue work would pass before a Red Cross disaster counselor finally confirmed what she pretty well knew to be the case: no one in her family had survived.
But with more work to do than there were able-bodied people to do it, she never took the time to grieve. She got busy the moment she set foot in the overcrowded orphanage, nursing minor wounds of the other children when the staff didn’t have time, warming bottles and feeding the babies when she heard them cry out at night, and routinely helping out with the cooking and cleaning. But her most impactful contribution was her unique ability to soothe with little more than a look, especially when the aftershocks hit.
Her large dark eyes were deep yet bright
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