the Four Hundred

“For three months,” she said, scribbling on the notepad, “with the insulin shots, weekly blood-sugar testing, and prescription food, plus the four hundred forty dollars already sitting on the credit card from his initial tests...”

When the last name is mentioned in the company of Sinatra and Springsteen, the four hundred or so people in attendance cheer and applaud the local hero in their midst.

It was viewed as a major scandal, since she was a descendant of real estate magnate John Jacob Astor and niece of Caroline Astor, matron of the ultrawealthy family and leader of “The Four Hundred” club, a group of the most influential New Yorkers at the time.

“That’s right. I’m a virtual librarian. That means I live up in the cloud inside a computer—a computer connected to the four hundred and ninety-eight different security cameras currently operational inside this library. I’m also linked to the Web and know exactly how to send streaming video footage of you vandalizing that expensive equipment to the local and state police. It’s amazing what you can do when you share knowledge with others.”

Resolute in my decision, I did what any good homesteader must do: I took the four hundred dollars my parents had left me out of the bank and bought warm clothes and a twelve-dollar ticket on the Great Northern Railway.