Bennie Downloads Marya

by Hungry Guy

Table of Contents
Part 1 appears
in this issue .

conclusion

* * *

Their flight on board Virgin Galactic’s newest SpaceShipSix from New York JFK arrived in Warsaw after a grueling 35-minute flight. The captain came over the PA system with a thick British accent as they were taxiing to the gate, “Welcome to Warsaw. It is twenty-one o’clock and the temperature is a comfortable 20 degrees; that’s eight PM and 68 degrees to you Americans. We apologize for the delay, but we had to maneuver around some debris in orbit.”

“Oh, there’s always some excuse for delays, isn’t there Marya?” Bennie scoffed.

“It seems so,” she answered as they unbuckled their seat belts and pulled their carry-ons out from under their seats.

Bennie stopped at a currency exchange booth and traded some greenbacks for Zloty. Despite pressure from Italy, Poland was converting back to their native currency after the Euro debacle, as were other less-influential EU nations.

* * *

The next morning, they left their hotel and headed out into Warsaw to find Marya’s original.

“Here is,” Marya said as they stopped in front of an older apartment building.

“Here is what?”

“Where I live. With husband.”

Marya led the way up three flights of stairs to 3C and hesitated with her finger poised over the doorbell button. “I am scared, Bennie.”

“Want me to...”

“Do. Please!”

Bennie pressed the button.

A moment later, the door opened. The women standing inside the open doorway asked, “Co robi wy potrzebujecie?”

Bennie looked at Marya and the woman, expecting them to know each other.

Marya looked back at Bennie.

“We’re sorry to bother you,” said Bennie, “but we’re looking for someone.”

“Sorry. My English not good. Who look for?”

“We’re looking for, um, her sister,” as Bennie pointed to Marya. “She used to live here.”

“Know nothing. Move here five year ago.”

“Five years, huh?” Bennie glanced back at Marya, then back at the woman. “Do you know the people who lived here before you?”

“Oh no. Big news on tee-vee. Wife cheat husband. Husband murder wife. Think she get away by making copy herself.”

“I’m dead?” Marya gasped and grabbed Bennie’s arm with both hands.

“Zaden! You alive. Sister dead. New technology no good.”

“I see,” said Bennie. “Well, thanks.”

The woman nodded and closed the door.

“Where to now, Marya?”

“Maybe they have newspaper archive at library? We go there, no?”

“Good idea, Marya. Where’s the nearest library?”

“Follow me.”

* * *

The librarian handed Bennie a tray of news reels for the dates Marya requested. Bennie picked one up and examined it. “What the hell?”

“Watch your tongue!” Marya scolded him in a whisper.

“These look like spools of black plastic tape. How can data be recorded on this? Is this some new technology?”

“Is old technology.”

“Oh? You mean this is mag-tape?”

“No. Still older. Come.”

Bennie and Marya stared into the screen of the antique fiche reader while pages of newsprint zoomed by in a blur.

They stopped at a front page with Marya’s photo just under the headline. Assorted other photos of crying family members littered the page full of Polish text.

“I can’t read Polish, Marya,” Bennie whispered. “What does it say.”

“Shhh. I’m reading.”

After a few minutes, Marya whispered to Bennie, “It say husband murder me after I go home with copy of me.”

“So where’s your husband?”

“Shhh.” Marya kept reading. “Jerzy in jail. Life sentence. Forever.”

“So now what? Do you have family?”

“Yes.”

“Then we should go find your family next, right?”

“Yes. Wait! No. Family think me dead. Not put them through awful thing again with me show up now. Maybe find Marcin.”

“Who?”

“My lover.”

Bennie swallowed, and said, “Okay.”

* * *

The bus flew so slowly above the streets of Warsaw that Bennie wondered if it would be faster to walk. “Marya, do you think your husband killed the copy or the original you?”

“He not be in jail if killed copy.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Bennie whispered.

“Here!” Marya squeaked as the bus stopped at a street corner.

Jumping off the bus before it launched itself into the air again, they walked down the street and entered the lobby of a hi-rise.

“This is where he lives?”

“Yes, on 73rd floor.”

The turbolift door opened and they entered. Looking at the panel of buttons, Bennie asked, “What apartment?”

“This not turbolift. Plain regular lift. Press button for floor then walk to door.”

“I see,” Bennie said as he pressed the button for the 73rd floor.

Standing in front of the door, Bennie asked, “Do you want me to ring it again?”

Marya reached to the button, hesitated, then pressed it.

A moment later, the door opened.

“Marya!” the man stammered, glancing between Marya and Bennie.

“Ja przybywam,” a woman’s voice — Marya’s voice — called from inside.

Marya appeared beside Marcin inside the door. “My God!” she gasped.

Bennie said, “Hi. Can we talk?”

“Come in,” said Marcin.

The four of them sat inside Marcin and Marya’s flat staring at each other.

“Let’s start by you telling us who you are and where you came from?” Marcin suggested.

Bennie’s Marya spoke first. “I’m Marya — a copy of Marya.”

Bennie spoke, “I’m Bennie. I downloaded a copy of Marya from the Internet and made her. We’re from America. Now you.”

Marcin started next, “Marya is my lover. We would marry but marriage to a copy is not legal...”

“Same in America,” Bennie added.

“Five year ago,” Marcin continued, “Marya made copy herself to send home to Jerzy — her husband — and she made plan stay with me...”

“We figured out that much,” Bennie added again.

“But Jerzy wise to her’s plan, and waiting when both them come home after make copy. He shoot her. Bang! He think he shoot copy, but shoot real Marya.”

Marcin started to cry. His Marya handed him a tissue.

“I’m sorry,” Bennie whispered.

“How I get on Internet?” Bennie’s Marya asked.

“I don’t know,” Marcin and his Marya answered together.

“Real Marya had CD disk,” Marcin’s Marya said. “Lots confusion. Police. Paparazzi. Ambulance squad. Crowd. Flashing lights. Happen so fast!”

“Do you remember anything?” Bennie asked.

“I remember seeing real me dead on floor in hallway. Blood everywhere. Police come. Put me in jail for evidence...”

“You mean as a witness?” Bennie asked.

“No! I am evidence, not witness!” she insisted and started sobbing along with Marcin.

“I see,” said Bennie.

“The police,” Marcin said, “kept her as evidence until Jerzy’s trial. They would have disassemble her, but I claim her as my property. Lots paperwork, too! I forget all about disk until you two arrive here few minute ago.”

“Then who has the disk?” Bennie asked.

Marcin shrugged. “No way to know. Maybe police evidence too. But too long ago.”

“Okay,” said Bennie. “Maybe we can go to the police tomorrow.”

“Where are you staying?” Marcin’s Marya asked.

Bennie told her the name of their hotel.

“No!” Marcin’s Marya said. “Stay with us.”

“Uh, we don’t want to be a bother,” said Bennie.

“No bother!” she insisted.

“We have an extra room,” Marcin said. “Please stay.”

“Okay,” Bennie’s Marya said.

* * *

The next morning, Bennie and Marya were in the foyer of a local police station filling out a pile of evidence return forms — each in triplicate.

After submitting the stack of paperwork, and waiting for several hours, the desk officer called them over.

“I’m sorry,” he said in clear English. “No such item as the CD disk you described was found on the victim’s body or admitted into evidence.” He slid another form across the desk. “Please sign here.”

* * *

“You copulating bitch!” Jerzy sneered at Marya through the reinforced glass that separated the inmates from the public in the prison visitor’s room. “I should have shot both!”

“Just tell us where the disk is!” Bennie demanded.

“I don’t know about disk!” he insisted.

“After you shot Marya, you didn’t see a CD disk anywhere?”

“No! Police took her to morgue and me to jail. Never see disk.”

* * *

“Five years ago,” Bennie said to the clerk behind the window at the Warsaw morgue, “a body was brought in.” Putting his hand on Marya’s shoulder, he continued, “It was her twin sister. Do you remember?”

“I not here five year ago. Neha was. Neha!”

A young anorexic woman with east Indian features, but skin as pale as Bennie’s, and the most striking brown eyes, came up to the counter from behind a stack of old gray filing cabinets. Wearing a black Eternia Mortis tee shirt, she had a CD player hanging from her belt and was bobbing to music through a set of ear buds.

The woman removed the buds. “You want me?” she asked in an accent that was a cross between American and east Indian.

Bennie asked, “Do you know anything about a body who came in about five years ago? Marya’s sister here. Did you happen to find a CD on her?”

“CD? You think I remember CD five year ago?”

“You might,” said Bennie. “It’s very important.”

“I can’t — eh — wait! I did find a CD behind filing cabinet about five years ago. I didn’t like the music on it.”

“Just music?” said Bennie, “Damn!”

“Not just music. It had some huge file on it, too. About 25 petabytes.”

Marya gasped as she and Bennie locked gazes.

“Wow! Uhm,” Bennie stammered, “do you still have that disk?”

“I use it to swap music on Napster.”

“So do you still have it?”

“Sure.” She reached under the counter behind the window and pulled a CD case out of a small knapsack. Pulling a CD out she handed it to Bennie.

“I’ll give you a hundred Zloty for that disk.”

“Here,” Neha handed the disk to Bennie. “Keep it. No charge. My dad’s a computer nut and I can get as many of these as I need.”

“Thanks!”

* * *

Back at Marcin and Marya’s place, Bennie and Marya put the CD into their PC and loaded the file into a Photoshop-3D.”

“That’s me!” Marya gasped when her static image appeared inside the monitor.

Bennie shut the program down, removed the CD and held it his fists as it about to break it in two. “You want me to?”

“Yes!” said Marya.

He slammed the CD down onto his knee, shattering the disk in two.

“What about me on Napster?” she asked.

“No problem!” Bennie said and went to Yahoo to create a free email account. He quickly drafted an email to the Napster webmaster claiming to be a lawyer from Nigeria stating that download #33687 is under 18 and should be removed immediately.

* * *

Marcin and his Marya served beef lo mein on pizza, a dish that had become known as a Polish favorite that year.

“So now what?” Marcin asked Bennie and his Marya.

Bennie shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I go back to America now.”

“And you, Marya?” Marcin’s Marya asked.

“I go where Bennie goes.”

“Marya,” Bennie stammered. “You don’t have to go back to America with me. You can stay here with Marya and Marcin if you want.”

After a pause, Marcin’s Marya said to Bennie’s Marya, “He cares about you, you know.”

“He did a lot for you,” Marcin said.

“Yes,” Marya said, taking Bennie’s hand in hers. “Bennie is good man.”

The fireworks that night inside Bennie and Marya’s guestroom were more magnificent than those of any football victory.