The Lev was on level eighty-two but descending rapidly and I called up a map on my Devstick, saying, “Walkys to men’s outers and clothing shops, Johor.” The new shop space, ‘Credabiliti’ in Johor featured as the address for over fifty of the top one hundred listings, so I decided I would go there. The Lev arrived and I stepped in. It was just after nine, past the time for the half morning shift to have already arrived at their contribution, and apart from a woman with a baby strapped to her chest, the Lev was empty.
The woman smiled at me. Smiling back I said, “Ground level please.” You didn’t have to be polite to a Dev, but it’s a small thing to say please.
The woman with the baby got out on Level Ten, probably going to the mothers’ and babies’ center within the complex. The Lev door cut off the sounds of children’s happy shouts and resumed its journey. It was one of the older models from Otis, and hadn’t been upgraded, but then that was one of reasons that the Env was a low cred Envplex.
The Lev finally reached ground level. I stepped out into the ground floor of my Envplex. The door to outside was about one hundred meters straight ahead. I didn’t bother with the directional lights in the rubberized walkway as I already knew the way. I had trod this path over fifteen hundred times in the past four years.
I strolled along a walkway lined with Angsana trees, each keeping the path in shade when it was sunny. Overcast as it was now, the trees still seemed to provide some respite from the humidity, and seeing the lights take a left turn over a grassy hill with a fountain on its crest, I followed the path into the shopping center named Credibiliti. It was here that I could find that shop to get some outers for the meeting with my uncle.
Credibiliti had only been completely finished six months ago, but it was already full and had a waiting list for retail shop space that ran into the hundreds. Even at this early hour it was packed, but then inside and under its roof, time had little meaning. It could be any time day or night and Credibiliti would be packed.
I stopped walking and took a look around to get my bearings. I had entered at the northern end of the shop space and the clothier’s shop that I wanted was in the middle.
I followed the lights and a short while later reached the shop I had selected on my Devstick, ‘Smooth — finest men’s clothing’ said the sign above the door.
The door opened and, as I entered, the noise level from outside was immediately cut to a minimum. The shop was minimalist in design — white, dark grey with full-length image screens set into the walls in undulating curves, providing a chromium finish when not in use as now. The shop staffer rose from where she was sitting at a glass table with a black matte iDev positioned exactly in its center. It looked like it had never been used.
She took in my attire with a glance, looked like she had made her mind up about something and said, “Good morning, sir. How can I help you?”
I smiled at her. She was an attractive woman of Chinese origin, slender and tall, perhaps as tall as one hundred and seventy-five cents. Her pale angular face was highlighted with a gold blush under her cheekbones and her lips accented with a lighter gold.
She looks good: sophisticated, expensive, much like the shop, I thought. I said, “I’d like to get some new outers, something for formal occasions, and a couple of others for smart-casual occasions.”
Smiling, she walked over to where I was standing and took my arm. She led me to a black circle about a meter in diameter. “Please stand naturally as we take your measurements,” and stepping back she pressed a button on the Devstick in her right hand. My body was crisscrossed with thousands of thin beams of rose-colored light that turned off as quickly as they’d come on. Taking my arm again she led me over to an unfinished but smooth stone bench and, indicating that I should sit with a gesture of her hand, sat down beside me on my left side.
A bench rose from the floor in front of us and then extended itself and opened in two. The top withdrew to reveal cloth of a myriad of colors made from natural fabrics inside. I reached out with my right hand, leaving my Devstick on the bench beside me and felt the cloth nearest me.
“That’s Thai silk,” she said. “Do you have a favorite color?”
“No,” I said with a chuckle as I thought about it and realized I didn’t, “but for the formal wear I was thinking of something in a darker shade and more matte. This is a bit too shiny.”
The woman looked quickly down the row of cloth and, pressing a button on her Devstick, the conveyor moved swiftly forward and stopped with a selection of dark cloth in front of me. A dark grey material with a very thin, almost invisible, line of scarlet red running through it caught my eye. I reached out to feel it with my thumb and forefinger, rubbing the cloth between them.
“This feels nice,” I said.
She smiled and said, “Good choice. This particular cashmere comes from Gobi in Mongolia, and as you can see it has this very thin silk thread running through it.”
“How long does it take you to get everything together?”
Her eyes squinted slightly and her forehead creased. “About forty-five minutes.”
“Great, I’d like this cloth for the formal outers and what about something really comfortable to relax in? Something that will keep me warm on a tropical night, but cool in the day. Do you have that sort of thing?”
She smiled and leaned over, taking out the bolt of cloth and putting it on the stone bench beside her. She sat straight-backed and her movements were efficient. Turning to me she said, “We’ve just got a new cloth in and it is exactly what you are looking for.” She reached and pressed the button on the cloth conveyor again and the bolts moved in a quiet hum. “This is AC, short for ambient cloth. It takes on different thickness according to the ambient temperature. It’s very expensive,” as she said this she arched an eyebrow and looked me straight in eye.
She’s in her element, I thought, and smiled in return. “Well,” I said, leaning forward and feeling the cloth. I turned, put my elbow on my knee, and cupped my chin in my hand. “Well, even though I might be a pauper when I walk out of here, I simply must have it.” I spoke in the voice of a young flick star batting my eyelids at her at the same time.
“Can I ask you a personal question, and it has nothing to do with my selection?” she asked.
“Sure, go for it,” and I smiled knowing what was coming.
“Are you in a committed relationship right now?”
I’d been right. “Yes, I am. Does it show?” And I gave her an innocent grin, looking at her under hooded eyelids with the grin playing around my lips but not breaking out fully. “But you can be sure that should the day come when I am not in a committed relationship — and I have to say I hope that day never comes — but should it, then the first thing I am going to do is come back to see you and cred some new outers.”
She burst out with a laugh and turned back to the input, concentrating hard on the Devscreen in front of her. The intensity of her look could have been professional focus, but I suspected it was more a shield to hide the sudden jolt of loneliness I had seen in her eyes.
I went and stood next to her and leaned in close, our arms touching. It was closer than socially acceptable for two people who did not know each other, but I reasoned that we had communicated more in the last five minutes than some people do in years. She stepped back from the Dev and swung her arm in an arc, the palm of her hand slightly tilted and pointing to the black circle where I had been measured. With a shake of her head, a little blink of her eyes, and a soft smile, she said, “There. What do you think?”