And beautiful. Jeremy tried not to stare too openly at the young woman across from him. She would probably think he was just another creepy old man — she couldn't have been much more than half his age. But he couldn't resist watching her.

She was dressed for the warm summer weather. Her simple white cotton shirt perfectly accentuated her figure. Her funky skirt was probably purchased at a second-hand store, and looked like the kind that were in fashion when Jeremy was her age.

"Christ!" he thought. "When I was her age." It didn't feel as bad as he had once thought it would feel, to think those thoughts; but it sure put everything in perspective. Jeremy belonged to a different time, a different era than this beautiful, unapproachable creature which sat before him on the zooming subway.

She was, indeed, a creature of the future. Her clothing aside (— oh, would that it were aside), she was obviously a product of a world Jeremy had seen die. She had all sorts of political badges for causes Jeremy had never even heard of. She had a keymat spread across her lap, which she was delicately stroking with one elegant finger. Her HUD delicately framed the left side of her round, rosy cheeks, her blonde curls tumbling all around.

Was she looking at him?

Yes, yes she was. She was looking at him. Jeremy blushed, slightly, and turned away a little bit. But he turned back, and she was still looking at him.

Jeremy's heart skipped a beat. It had been a very long time since he had caught a girl watching him. "Maybe I should say something," he thought.

"No, that's stupid."

"No, of course I should say something. Anything. Yes. I'll do it. I'll say something."

Jeremy opened his mouth to say something. He never had the chance to speak.

"Fuck!" the beautiful girl shouted. "My Windows crashed again!"

"Stupid Heads-up Displays," Jeremy thought. He sighed.

Some things never change.

Not intended to be a nodeshell rescue, but might as well kill two birds with one stone....