The System

"I got three 7's in an hour. It was humiliating. I don't even know why I bother going there anymore."

It was the morning after, and my roommate and longtime friend Mark was having one of those mornings that people like him have. You know the type – even the good things in life always have a cloud inside the silver lining. I wonder how they get through the day sometimes. Seriously, if life is so bad here on Earth, go live on another planet or something.

But he won't, of course. He'd rather stay here and try to drag me down with him.

This particular morning he was fuming over our trip to the Mingle Zone the previous night. He's the one who insists on going – hey, I have a girlfriend – and he's the one who almost always comes home disappointed and despondent.

This morning it was because of the 7's – shorthand for "Forget it" – and as he scrolled through last night's data on his Compatibility Transponder, it was clear he was not going to get over this easily.

Mark insists he goes to the MIngle Zone looking for a 1, but he and I and everyone else know that single people – men and women both – go there looking for a 2, or at least a 3. Because they're lonely, and because they think they can turn that 2 or 3 into a 1. Which almost never happens, but hey, a boy can dream, right?

***

Mark and I are young – still on the spry side of 120 – but we're old enough to remember when people met people at parties and bars and such places. They stood around and drank alcohol (remember alcohol?) and listened to music or watched sports on big-screen televisions (remember televisions?), and if they were lucky they found a quiet place to talk and tell each other lies and maybe decided to see each other again.

It was a sweet and quaint system, sure, but change happens, and change is good, right? And just like we don't need alcohol or television anymore, neither do we have to endure those clumsy first moments of an outdated concept like courtship.

We owe it all to Dr. Henry Halifax, of course, the man who invented the Compatibility Transponder. It doesn't eliminate all the mystery – my girlfriend started out as a 3 – but it does eliminate a lot of the futile BS that once complicated our lives.

And for the most part, people are grateful. Whether you're in Indianapolis or Istanbul, you can step into a Mixed Zone and know right away what kind of future you might have with the girl or boy who catches your eye, whether it's a plump Indiana farm girl or a dark, mysterious young Turk.

It's better. Really, it is.

***

The Compatibility Index
© Dr. Henry Halifax, QpD, 2017
1 - The answer is Yes, Now and Forever.
2 - The answer is Yes, for Tonight.
3 - Maybe. Link me and we'll See. (a)
4 - Sorry, taken. But the answer might have been Yes under different Circumstances.
5 - Maybe. Link me and we'll See. (b)
6 - The answer is No, not Now.
7 - The answer is No, not Now, not Ever.
(a) - compatibility score of 51% or higher
(b) - compatibility score of 49% or lower

***

No one is sure which Dr. Halifax figured out first – defining the basic chemical and emotional reactions that people have to one another, or the technology that translates those reactions into electronic data.

But where would we be without him?

It was a fortuitous discovery for the good doctor, too, of course. Even when the World Congress stepped in a demanded that the Transponders be made available to every adult human, regardless of financial status ….

***

"I want to talk to someone. I want to ask questions. What if that stupid Transponder is wrong?"

That's Mark again, talking crazy.