Real Estate

Cassie and Hiro enjoyed the tea and the almond cookies. While relaxing and munching on the sweets, Cassie asked, "How did you find a place to live? Where are the residential sections?"

"We can walk around after we finish the tea." The tea things were placed back on the tray, which Hiro whisked off to his modern, futuristic kitchen. Then the couple went back out into the sunshine and walked around the neighborhood.

"Why is the sun still shining? We met in the late afternoon or early evening, then we walked here, then we had tea, and the sun should at least be setting or it should be night by now." Cassie just couldn't figure this place out.

"Did you want it to be night? It would be difficult to see the neighborhood if it weren't light out. See?" And with that, dusk fell and within seconds the myriad stars began to shine. The moon was crescent shaped and gave some light to the scene, but it was very difficult to see what the neighborhood looked like.

"No, I guess this is not the way to look at the houses. Perhaps if there were streetlights?" And then some lights appeared. But the lights were glaring and harsh and left pools of darkness and wavering shadows as the tree braches swept in the mild breeze and cut through the splashes of light.

"Do you really think that is better?" asked Hiro.

"No. It is actually worse." And the stars began to fade and the sun began to shine, not on the horizon, but high in the sky. The street looked bright and cheerful in the yellow haze of a spring day. There was no trash along the gutters, no peeling paint. All the houses were neatly cared for, but the architecture was highly varied. It was like no neighborhood that Cassie had ever seen in her life, even granting that the Boss had placed her in the past, present, and future.

Cassie was stunned by the sight. There were medieval castles, grass huts, Roman and Greek temples, post-modern boxy houses, geodesic domes, futuristic pinnacles with domes toward the tops. Every imaginable type of house. "Wow, who lives here?"

"We all do, or at least, we all can. There is space, just like in the bar. Everyone in the bar can have a private corner because there are no limits to the number of corners. Out here everyone can have the type of house they prefer because there is no limit. There is no limit to the space or the infrastructure needed. It just all is here. So if you need electricity, it is provided. If you need plumbing – another one of the wonderful features of society that I have taken into my own home even though it was not available in 1600 Japan – then the plumbing works. It's really quite nice here."

"Do the houses come with mortgages?"

"There is no need for money here because there is no limit to products. You may pay for your drinks at the bar, or not. There is no local currency and all forms of payment are possible, but none is actually needed."

"So I could live in one of those castles if I wanted to?"

"Yes, they are usually lived in by newcomers. After a while you learn that things aren't important here. When everyone can have everything, the things suddenly lose all their value and there is not any real need to possess them. Many newcomers start with a castle and end up with a modest space that feels comfortable rather than a showy and uncomfortable heap of worthless stones. But right now, create whatever type of house you want and you can change it at will, later. Then you can see for yourself what will suit you best."

Cassie sat on the ground and looked at a space for a few minutes. Her ideal house began to form as a picture in her mind and she adjusted it slightly. "Yes," she thought, "this is where I will live."