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It was a hot summer day when the stranger rode to Geektown. He was a corporate cowboy with slicked-back hair and a quick-draw briefcase loaded with business plans. Geektown was a small, out-of-the-way town with a big secret. The tall stranger was there to find out what he could about that secret. He parked his wagon on the outskirts and walked into town. Anyone could tell he didn’t belong by his suit and tie and shiny shoes, and even if he’d dressed like a Geek they would have known he was an impostor. He just didn’t look right.

The townsfolk of Geektown were polite to the stranger, but they weren't sociable. They kept to themselves for the most part... behind closed doors. The stranger noticed that most of the citizens that he did see were pale and many were unshaven. They didn't seem to pay much attention to what they wore and there obviously weren't many barber shops in town. And there were hardly any women. The other thing the stranger saw was a look, a look in the eyes of the Geeks, a look of knowing, a look of weight, a look of distance and mystery. He had no idea what was behind the look.

Geektown had no saloons, but the stranger noticed that he could get a soda or a cup of coffee just about anywhere. He stepped into a snack-shop and ordered a double espresso. He needed something strong. Standing at the snack-shop counter drinking a soda was a stalky man with a bushy mustache and long, receding, gray hair pulled back into a pony-tail. The overweight man was wearing a plain T-shirt, worn-out Levi's and moccasin-type leather loafers. He would have been almost unnoticeable if not for the look in his eyes. It was the Geektown look, but it was so strong that it was almost hypnotic. The stranger put his briefcase on the floor and made the first move.

"I'm looking for the town hall meeting. Do you know where it's being held?"

The long-haired Geek turned his head quickly and looked directly into the stranger's eyes. The two men sized each other up for a long moment and then the Geek spoke in measured tones.

"Town hall meeting? If you ask me, it's too darn hot for a town hall meeting. What brings you to Geektown?"

The stranger knew there was no sense in lying. He could see that the Geek was looking past his eyes and into his thoughts.

"I came here to learn more about the pipeline. I've heard about it and it sounds fascinating. I'd like to learn all I can."

The Geek looked further into the stranger's thoughts and he smiled, then his eyes lit up and he laughed in a hearty burst before responding with a big smile.

"Oh Yes! The pipeline. The pipeline of dreams! You've come to the right place to learn about the pipeline, my friend. Learn what you can and use it well."

There was a silence as the two men smiled away the separation of their two worlds and then the Geek continued.

"Right around the corner in the middle of the block, upstairs in the dance hall. That's where you'll find the town hall meeting. Good luck to you. Gotta go."

The Geek nodded to the stranger as a hand-shake and left.

The stranger slowly finished his double espresso as he thought about the Geek's words. Then he picked up his brief case and headed for the corner.

* * *

The stranger to Geektown had raised his hand in a staff meeting at his corporate headquarters. The director had asked for a volunteer to look into the rumors about the pipeline. Rumors had been spreading about gold, opportunity and new frontiers. Someone was needed to go after the facts, and his curiosity had put his hand in the air as the others in the room had raised nothing but doubts. And so he had set out on his journey to find Geektown and to learn the truth about the pipeline.

* * *

The Geektown dance hall was filled with a couple hundred folding chairs facing a small, empty bandstand. The stranger was early and took a seat in the back. About twenty or thirty Geeks eventually sauntered in displaying various degrees of facial hair, bad haircuts and mismatched outfits. There was one woman in a plain skirt and blouse. A couple of visitors wearing corporate cowboy outfits took seats in the back near the stranger. The atmosphere in the room was rife with anticipation. It was a small group, but the stranger noticed the seriousness of interest among the audience. The group seemed to range in age from about twenty to fifty.

The leader of the meeting walked to the front of the room and stood in front of the bandstand. He looked over the room and smiled when he saw the stranger sitting in the back. It had only been thirty minutes since they had shared caffeine in the snack-shop. The stranger nodded back the greeting and noticed that the Geek leader had "dressed up" for the meeting by putting on a drab, beige short-sleeve shirt over his T-shirt. The leader addressed the group.

"Hi. It's too hot to be having this meeting. But then again, it's too hot to not be having this meeting. The future of the pipeline is at stake."

The Geek leader was not a public speaker. He talked quietly, fidgeted, looked down often and he spoke as if his audience already knew what he was talking about. He talked briefly about how the electronic pipeline had been set up originally by the government, universities and research facilities to exchange information, but that it had grown and spread to Geektown. Someone in a foreign country had developed a way for different pipelines to connect with each other and then two Geeks in the Midwest had developed a way for anybody to use the pipeline with both pictures and words. Now, the pipeline made it possible for everyone, anywhere in the world to exchange massive amounts of information, almost instantly and for pennies. There were already hundreds of Geektowns all over the world and now the rest of the world was finding out the secret of the pipeline and the secret of the Geektowns. Freedom. Freedom to know. Freedom to tell. Freedom to show.

The stranger was spellbound by the impact of what he was hearing. It was clear to him that the rumors were all correct. The pipeline was an information revolution, a revolution promising gold, opportunity and new frontiers. The pipeline could unify and raise the consciousness of the world through common access to information. The potential was awesome. The stranger realized that his corporation would need to move quickly to capitalize on this new way to reach customers.

The Geek leader paused. He looked down. He looked over the room.

"There are some very important issues that we must understand... issues that are fundamental to the future survival of the pipeline."

The stranger opened his brief case, took out a note pad and began to capture the key points of the Geek leader.

There are those who want to control the pipeline. The government tried and couldn't. Some of the bigger Geektowns are trying. They are wrong and they will see that. Others with power will come along and try. They will fail. The pipeline is freedom. It cannot be controlled.

Business has found the pipeline. They will come in huge numbers in a great gold rush. This is inevitable and it will test the strength of the pipeline.

The gold rush will push the pipeline to its limits and we must begin now to strengthen it so that it will not break from the strain of massive traffic.

The pipeline is for giving and not taking. Those who do take, must give back.

The stranger stopped writing and looked up at the Geek leader. Their eyes met again and for the last time. Something passed between them, unspoken... and time stopped. Then the stranger looked down at the last note he had taken. By the time he looked up again, the room was emptying for a break.

The Stranger walked out on a balcony into the hot summer day to have a smoke. He gave a light to another corporate cowboy who shared the balcony. The two men engaged in small-talk without showing any of their cards, but they both knew why the other was there. Suddenly a cool wind came up. It came from the hills to the west and from the sea beyond and it stopped the small-talk of the two men. As they faced the cool and soothing wind in silence, the two men in suits and ties and shiny shoes were alone in their thoughts and naked in their innocence. No board room braggadocio. No scotch on-the-rocks to taut the big deal. No perfect smile to ease buyer's remorse. Just the cool and soothing wind caressing their faces and blowing their minds to private thoughts of things past and things to come and finally to the ultimate peace and silence of the moment. Something very important was happening in the world, something beyond understanding, and somehow, the cool wind freed them from the weight of this realization, if only for a moment. The stranger lingered alone on the balcony for a moment after his smoke, thinking.

The pipeline is for giving and not taking.

He returned to the rest of the meeting where several Geek speakers gave impressive statistics on the current usage and future growth projections of the pipeline and discussed numerous technical issues. When the meeting was finished, he had most of the information that he needed to take his business case back to the corporation. Then, on his way out of the dance hall, he noticed a note tacked to a bulletin board.

I'll put your store on the pipeline cheap!

P.J. Mordecai, Last house before the west fork - on the left.

(Ring the cow bell on the porch)

The corporate cowboy parked his wagon in front of the dusty front yard of the small one-story house. He walked up to the wooden porch and rang the cow bell. No response. He rang it again. Still no response. He was heading back to his wagon when he noticed a small wooden shed at the end of the driveway. He took a chance, walked up to the shed and knocked on the door. He could hear some crashing sounds inside and then suddenly the door swung open and a thin man in his thirties with a pale complexion, shaved head, and one small diamond earring stood before him. The Geek was wearing a T-shirt, cutoffs and sandals. He squinted at the stranger and looked him up and down.

"Business?"

P.J. Mordecai was a man of few words. After the two men introduced themselves, the corporate cowboy went straight to the point.

"Can you put a store front on the pipeline for my corporation?"

"Sure can. Come in."

They entered the small shed. It was dark. Screens and tiny lights glowed from the machines that filled tables along the walls. Mordecai whispered a giggle when the stranger tripped slightly over a wastebasket. Then the Geek moved around the shed pressing buttons on various gray devices. The screens flashed and beeped as pictures appeared of company names and slogans. Mordecai smiled at the stranger.

"Take a look."

The stranger had come to the right place. He saw gold on every screen.

"How much do you charge?"

"Depends."

"I'll have to go back to my company and work out a plan. I'll get back to you when I have some details."

"I'll be here."

Mordecai's face twitched a few times as they shook hands and the stranger headed back to his wagon. The stranger looked back and saw the door to the shed swing shut.

* * *

The corporate cowboy had no trouble selling his plan to put a storefront for his company on the pipeline. He worked out a deal with Mordecai that only cost pocket change as far as the corporation was concerned, and the stranger and Mordicai spent many hours in the tiny shed building the prototype. There were many doubters back in the board room, but what did they have to lose. And as months went by, the doubters became believers one-by-one as they saw the many benefits of displaying and exchanging information on the pipeline. As new customers flocked to the storefront on the pipeline, gold fever eventually hit the board room and the one-time doubters started to hail their own wisdom and take credit for finding gold. They all patted each other on the back and the corporate cowboy eventually had to step aside as the stampede for gold grew.

* * *

The stranger that had ridden into Geektown went on to other jobs for his corporation, but he couldn't get Geektown out of his mind. He remembered the eyes of the Geek leader and the words that had been spoken at the town hall meeting - words that stood out more and more as the gold rush grew.

The pipeline is for giving and not taking. And those who take must give back.

Over a year had passed since his last visit to Geektown and to Mordecai's shed. The corporate cowboy felt drawn back. He climbed into his wagon and rode. As he approached the far outskirts of Geektown he had his first shock. Mordecai's house and shed were gone. A massive construction project surrounded the site where Mordecai had lived. A sign proclaimed, "Coming Soon - Big Time Productions". The stranger rode on. As he rounded a hill to reach what had been the near outskirts, he was overwhelmed by what he saw. The Geektown he had known was gone. In its place sprawled giant modern buildings, wide boulevards and countless construction projects. As he inched forward in a horrendous traffic jam, he saw a large sign that said, "Welcome To Golden City - Your Future Is Here!", and at the bottom of the sign in small print, "Visit Historic Geektown". The corporate cowboy slowly made his way through the heavy traffic to the old center of Geektown and parked his wagon in a multi-level lot.

Crowds of tourists, workers and street vendors pushed and shoved on the streets and sidewalks of the preserved area of town. The stranger worked his way through the crowds to the old snack-shop. The snack-shop was now a T-shirt store. A sign out front said, "Authentic Geektown T-shirts". Displayed in the window were T-shirts with renderings of bearded Geeks and phrases such as, "Geek Power", "Have You Hugged A Geek Today" and "Pipeline Fever". The corporate cowboy walked around the corner and at the middle of the block, he started up the stairs below a sign that read, "Everything You Need For The Pipeline - Discount Prices". He looked inside the door to the old dance hall and saw dozens of booths with colorful signs and smiling, sweaty barkers beckoning the crowds that filled the narrow aisles. He didn't go in. Instead, he walked back down the stairs and looked for a quiet place to sit down.

The stranger found a tiny, grassy park with a fountain in the center. Sitting on the edge of the fountain was a pimple-faced, long-haired teenager with a briefcase-size machine on his lap. The stranger approached the teenager.

"Mind if I sit with you for a bit?"

"No, sir."

"Things sure have changed around here."

The teenager laughed sarcastically, and the stranger went on.

"Where are all the Geeks?"

"They're gone. A lot of them went to work for the big companies, but most of them headed for the hills. They didn't like what they saw happening."

The stranger nodded his head in understanding. He felt sad and he let the feeling of sadness linger for several minutes. His sadness gave value to his thoughts. Suddenly a cool wind came up and touched his face. He looked up as if to see who had touched him. The cool wind was coming from the hills and from the sea beyond, and the stranger wandered in his mind as he had that day on the balcony of the dance hall. Finally, he stood up and said to the lonely teenager,

" Thank-you, my friend. Good luck to you."

The stranger went back to his wagon. He worked his way slowly out of town to where the last house on the left had once stood before the west fork. The corporate cowboy, the one time stranger to Geektown, took the west fork. He headed his wagon toward the hills, and to the sea beyond.

Sites of Related Interest
Dan Kegel’s ISDN Page

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