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Kwan was, by now, laughing aloud.
'Print,' said Mae, 'thirty-three copies.' Two copies were lined up side by side on one sheet of paper.
There was a whirring sound, and Kwan eased the paper out of her machine.
'Mae,' she said, reading. 'You are a miracle.' Mae felt triumph.
CHAPTER 9
The only man to show up at Mae's first lesson was Mr Ken.
He sat quiet and patient and brought no one else with him. He was not a leader of the village. 'There is no need to do this just for me,' he said.
'I need to practise,' said Mae.
Alone, in front of someone who accepted her, she spoke from the heart.
'We should all be grateful to Mr Wing who brought us this machine just in time. Finally we can see TV. But not just TV, not just kung fu, ah, but Info. This is what the rest of the world has had since they were born. This is what they know like we know how to breathe. Now, this is where Air starts from. Air thinks everyone knows this. If we don't know it, we get nowhere in Air. And if we get nowhere in Air, we will be as far behind the rest of the world as apes are from us.
'You won't believe what Air does. In Air, they don't just give you TV shows. In Air Krus come and give you their whole head. Their wisdom enters you; you can use it like it was your own brain. In Air, children will become wiser than adults. They will have parts of wise adults in their heads. I know this because I have shared this. I have had a great Kru in my head, telling me about Mat Unrolling.
'In New York people are already sharing their wisdom, their dreams in one pool. It becomes like another person that everyone can use. They call this Collabo. They have Collabo clubs, where everyone dances to everyone else's music. All of this, all of this will be on us next year. And half of us have never made a telephone call! That is why we must move. That is why we must learn now!'
Her hand had become a fist, and she shook it. Mr Ken sat in his chair as if it were accelerating too quickly.
Sunni came to Mae's first afternoon lesson. She wore a black gown with gold leaf, and a floating chiffon scarf, and she was pink and white, and her hair was in a glossy sweep. Her nails were painted, her shoes were white.
She made Mae look as if she had come direct from the fields. Who was more of a fashion expert now?
Sunni's face was a mask of a smile, and she gazed at each of the women, and gave them a nod.
'I assume it is all right for me to come as well, Mrs Wing-ma'am.' She did not even look at Mae.
Kwan smiled and said that all were welcome. 'Mae is doing helpful work for all of us.'
Sunni sauntered among the rows of cushions, nodding gracefully to each of the women. 'I will be round later with the fabric I promised you.' She folded herself neatly onto a cushion and sat next to her ally, Mrs Ali. Elegant, dignified, they gazed about them as if from a great height.
Sezen showed up with her boyfriend, to whom Mae took an instant dislike. His face was frozen into a sneer and there was a tattoo on his neck. Mae had Sezen's notebook ready to give back to her. 'I'll talk to you about it later,' said Mae, and Sezen, for no very good reason, turned to her boyfriend with her mouth open as if aghast at bad behaviour.
More women came in clumps of friends, chattering and laughing. Mrs Mack came alone. All the Pins came together. Mae's sister Soong Se came with Ju-mei's wife, who had been born a Soong. As they arrived, misgiving-doubts overtook Mae. Could she really talk to so many people?
Mae was torn between different impulses: one towards elegance, one towards directness.
'Hello. I am very pleased to see you all here.'
The women murmured hello back. Exactly as if they were in school and Mae was teacher. This surprised her, made her shy, made her retreat into peasant bluntness.
She tried to start as she had started with Mr Ken, but it came out muted and flat. 'When we go on Air, this is what they all know. So we need to know it too, to keep up with them, okay?'
The TV would not go on. Mae realized that the TV had always been on when she arrived. Here she was, a teacher, and she could not switch it on.
'It's asleep,' said Kwan. The ladies laughed, not knowing that it was an actual word.
'Wake,' said Mae, shyly.
Up came the five pens of Air.
Mae felt Sunni behind her, looking for every mistake. 'What the Test did is change everybody's mind. It made the inside of your head look like the inside of a TV.'
Mae was taken aback when the women laughed again. 'So. You have these five pens inside your head now. Air imitates TV. So learning how to use the TV will help learning how to use the Air.'
'I use it to breathe,' said Mrs Ali. She was looking in a conspiratorial way at Mrs Sunni-ma'am. More chuckles.
They wanted this to be jolly, like a ladies' tea party. Mae found she was too shy in front of so many people to be relaxed enough for that. She was exposed to an enemy who had perhaps brought allies.
'Now you will also use it to think,' Mae said to Mrs Ali. It sounded like a rebuke. Sezen's boyfriend gave an ugly squawk, and he whispered something rude that made Sezen giggle and hiss at him to be quiet. Sunni's eyes were on Mrs Ali, and very slightly she shook her head.
Mae pointed to the screen, which was showing the familiar Air Format. 'You will see that you already know how Air works.'
'Oh good, we can go now,' said Sezen's boyfriend. Sezen hid her mouth and laughed.
'Each of these four areas contains different things. The section called "Help" is the one we cover today, because this is where information about "Info" is kept. Open "Help." '
Up came a list of options. Mae could not read it, but she knew it by heart. 'This shows all the things the television can do, how to make the TV work, how to find things that we want to know, what to do when things do not work.'
Mae turned to them. 'Is there something any of you want to know?' They sat. Sunni sat looking down at her new dress, adjusting the scarf into a perfect position.
'Mrs Haseem-ma'am, perhaps you would like to learn how to print a leaflet.'
'I have already printed a leaflet,' replied Sunni, her face a mask of a smile.
'Good, then we need not do that,' said Mae. Her eyes said: That is what I wanted; you will not learn it from me.
Mae wanted to humiliate Sunni in public. Her gut moved her forward. 'There are many things the TV can do. Perhaps I can show you how to use it to design special clothes in a special way. Sezen? May I use your drawings?'
Sezen sat up and blinked. 'Uh. Ah. Okay?' Her boyfriend laughed at her, and she hit him. Mae trotted forward, feeling short-legged, and took the notebook.
'Scan,' Mae said, and held up the book in front of the little camera eye sitting on top of the TV. It took a moment. 'If this was an egg, I would now go and wash the bowls and come back later.' The homely touch made most of her audience laugh.
Then Mae pulled the camera round. 'Now, please scan Mrs Haseem-ma'am.'
The audience was onscreen, and Mae touched the screen image of Mrs Haseem, to select her.
'You see, we live in new ways already. Sezen has been looking at new kinds of clothes for modern people. What the TV can do is show us what such clothes will look like on real people. So they can see themselves if the fashion suits them. We will show modern fashion on Mrs Haseem.'
The young people spurted laughter. Mae had seen a department store in Tokyo do this. If they could, she could.
The machine whirred. Kwan's face was held still, but its smile was spreading. Slowly.
'What the machine is doing is building an image of Mrs Sunni-ma'am. This image will be complete and can do many things. Though it might take some time to make.' She glanced at the screen. The TV whirred to itself.
Mae was stuck for something to say. 'So. Let's start to make our new clothes for new people.' She murmured to the TV, 'Multitask.' The machine did not understand. 'Multitask,' Mae said again.