‘No Time to Watch Fish’ By Amy Oiler

It was supposed to be a smooth drive to Chicago, taking the highway instead of a flight to gain husbands Jake and Carlos Adventure points from the great algorithm, a golden calf that demands tribute with every breath, which works tirelessly to rate, to rank, and to monetize every thought, every engagement, and every effort that the unfortunate schmucks stuck in society’s panoptic hamster wheel can dream up. It was supposed to be a smooth windfall of points until a dual breakdown in the middle of nowhere strikes both the car and one half of the couple simultaneously. While Jake continues firing on all cylinders, consuming and creating as much content as an enhanced multitasking brain can process for his legion of avid subscribers, Carlos falters as he glimpses the promise of a simpler life. The algorithm is not amused. It’s up to Jake to talk his husband down from his mental aberration before it’s too late. But which of them has really lost his mind? One of the two of them is a fish out of water, but is Carlos’s stutter step the start of a revolution or a cry for help?

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