My mouth froze, together with the rest of my body, and I couldn't utter a word. My panic levels kept rising. I was completely stuck here in this otherworldly bar ,where another human would talk to me, and there was nothing I could do to escape her. That was too much.

I desperately wanted to leave, to get out of this place, to go home where I had no-one who would bother me. But it was clear that the woman standing in front of me wouldn’t just just let me go, and if I was really unlucky she'd even alert the others here of my presence. But I had to go on. It took all my power to keep on walking.

When had I become so afraid of my own species? There was nothing to fear, it was just another person in front of me.

The world seemed stuck in slow-motion, aware of every detail of my own movements and her reaction to it. As if nothing had happened I walked on, trying to ignore her, but she was blocking the exit. Her presence filled up the whole hall that was otherwise rather empty except for an AC42 vending machine and a plastic ornament that vaguely looked like a plant from an old movie.The music in the background was becoming louder again, and had a certain threatening quality to it. I was walking to the door. I had almost reached her. I wanted to look away from her but I couldn't. She looked very real, very human, very impressive, even though she was smaller than me and probably a bit younger too.

Naively I hoped with all my might that if I ignored her hard enough that she would give up. But as I had feared she wouldn’t let me ignore her: the very moment when I came close eneough she touched my shoulder, very lightly. I hardly felt it, and yet it completely stopped me in my tracks. I completely froze up again, turning my face towards hers.

I suddenly realised that I couldn’t remember how long it had been since someone else had touched me at all.

‘Are you really sure you don’t want anything?’

She asked her question again, keeping me captive with her eyes. I could see that her irises were almost like gold in this light.

‘Leave me alone. I don’t need any of this, of whatever you do in this place, in this cursed district. I just needed a drink.4 I mumbled, staring back into her eyes, until for a second I seemed to connect with something there, and then I looked away, ashamed, and muttered ‘And I’m not even sure that you are human. What do you want from me?’

After a timeless pause of furiously and explicitly looking away from her I added. ‘Or maybe you are, and it’s me that I’m not even sure about anymore.’

‘Giving you a drink is my job. Even though you can perfectly bypass me indeed, and take it directly from the machine.’ She nodded to the vending machine and then caught my eyes back with hers.

‘And at least I like to think I am human. Or I used to be and it is coming back. But sometimes I don’t know either, but I guess we’re both Homo sapiens and not AI’s, and even that if the Mayaists are right on this at least we both are real avatars, not just game-generated characters, even though our species itself might be getting rarer and rarer in this ghostified city.’

Mayaism? Wow, how long had it been since I had talked philosophy or religion with anyone at all? I hadn’t seen any of it on my infoscreen for ages, and hadn’t talked with many humans or anyone at all anyway lately. Not even in years. Even e-contact through the screenphone had faded in the years. For the first time I realised that I was all alone, and had been for a long time, and that I hadn’t realised it nor cared about it. Ironically this also was the moment that I was closer to any other person of my species in ages.

‘Let’s go outside for a while. The music is too loud’ Shesaid, but she backed off when she opened the door and the cold came in. ‘Oh, I forgot. Outside weather is bad right now, it’ almost winter, that’s what you get when you don’t leave the building enough.’

I stared from the icy world outside to the girl dressed in rather light clothes in front of me.

‘This isn’t working, is it? You win. Let’s have a drink together inside, as people do in the stories when they meet other humans.’ A few seconds later I added. ‘Don’t you have any more clothes to wear? You’re shivering from that icy wind.’

She nodded no. ‘Backstage or upstairs I’m afraid, can’t get them now while there still are shows on.’

I thought for a second. ‘Come, take this sweater for now.’ I took off my own woollen sweater and handed it to her.

She stared at it for a few seconds without moving, and then put it on as if it was a jacket. ‘Wow, this is really antique. Knitwear with actual wool!’

‘Yes, it’s a family heirloom from when I was young, I wear it every winter because it’s warmer than those real clothes I can buy now.’

She looked at me, investigating. ‘Definitely an avatar, not a game-created character.’ She mumbled to herself and got back to me. ‘Come, sit with me here at the table, I know you don’t like the live shows, but the antique holographics with music that we play in between are probably unique in the whole City. I don’t think I’ll do that much work tonight and I want to talk to you.’

I didn’t answer in words but finally I nodded yes. I had given her my sweater, so running away wouldn’t be an option anymore in this weather.

Human contact was what I’d get tonight…