The Hanged Man's Song

Hope *you* live long enough to find out. This was the best time to be alive, these past thirty years. What would I have done without computers? Say good-bye to Lauren for me . . . and if you don’t know who that is, you’ll figure it out sooner or later.
    By the way, I’ve appended a list of databases and filenames that would be of use to you. Good luck, friend.
    Bobby (Robert L. Fields, Jackson, Mississippi)
    I told Lauren about it that night, in our bedtime phone call. “You know who he is?” she asked. “He’s the Hanged Man. Remember those tarot readings, right at the start of everything, where the Hanged Man came up? You said it was somebody in a state of suspension, between this and that. Bobby’s like that. Dead, but not dead. Everything that’s happened was because he was gone, but not entirely gone. Like Janis Joplin’s song. And he’s still doing stuff.”
    I thought about it, and rendered an opinion. “Horseshit,” I said.
    >>> NOW, at this moment, unable to sleep, I sit in the near-dark of the motel room, with nothing but the blue glow of the computer screen in front of me. The All-Seeing Bobby Eye goes into operation.
    Bobby’s files need maintenance. If they’re not maintained, they’ll erode, as passwords and protocols are changed, as trapdoors are found and closed, as databases are discontinued or transferred.
    I don’t know if I should bother. Maybe I should just put the laptop in the garbage; or better yet, toss it in the river. But there’s so much here. There’s knowledge, there’s money, there’s power.There’s revenge. With those things, you can have almost anything else, too.
    What do I want? I always wanted to be a painter, and to do my work, and to be left alone. But with these files, you could change history.
    What do I want?
    I sit in the glow of the computer screen, and think, Time to find out.
    •  •  •
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
    John Sandford conceived and wrote The Hanged Man’s Song, but with serious help this time. The help came from Roswell Camp of St. Paul, Minnesota, and Emily Curtis of Los Angeles, California, who together provided geographical research assistance, filled me in on some technical aspects of computers and online life (Emily informed me that “online” is now officially one word, rather than “on line” or “on-line”), kept me straight on the logic of the story, provided editing and production services, and also provided the occasional adjective or noun where needed. In keeping with Strunk and White, most adverbs were eliminated.