Hey Nostradamus! By Douglas Coupland (P.189-228)

As the third chapter comes to an end, we realize alot about Allison along with her true motives. We learn that Heathers despracy persists further, and ends up costing her 7,000 dollars. The once innocent Allison ends up turning into a wretched greedy monster, that milks Heather for almost all she's got. Allison charges Heather for the cost of fixing her car which finishes at $2000, in additon to $5,000 cash just for a measly message! The desperate Heather ofcourse pays forth the money to recieve emotional, as well as psychological relief. After paying forth the money, she follows Allison to her car and gets her license plate number which later on through contacts allows further information about Allison including her home address. Heather goes to Allison's home the same night, and she learns that Allison's name is in fact cecilia, and that she has a daughter. Heather follows Allison's daughter the next morning. The two of them meet and speak, where Allison's daughter informs Heather that Jason had contacted Allison a year prior to his disappearence. We learn that Jason had visited Allsion and payed her 500 dollars and given her a note with all the inside jokes that Jason and Heather would share. Allison's daughter also provides the reason as to why Jason did this when she says "He gave my mom 500 bucks and told her that if he ever went missing, then she should contact you and tell you these things as if he'd spoken to you from the dead- or from wherever it is he's gone to. He wanted you to be happy."(P.219).

This chapter was somewhat aggrevating. I thought that Allison was pure and true because she didn't want anything in return. As I read on I came to realize that this is not the case and that Allison is corrupt. I suppose money has a way of identifying people or corrupting people, im not quite sure yet. Psychics are good con- artists. They touch on sensitive and specific points that apply to almost everyone and know when to strike. I suppose if they could actually apply this talent to society in more significant roles they could be successful in interacting with other people as good communicators. Unfortunately they chose to do the opposite and use this talent for bad. But something seem's to bother me in this chapter. I learned towards the end that Allsion lost all her savings in some stock and I suppose she did need to fix her car and support the mortgage of her house in some way. So to an extent I guess she had the right to do so. Although she could have just sold her house first, and moved to a smaller, more convinient 1 bedroom apartment. Then used the money to fix her car and could have done small time Psychic acts to nickle and dime her way through her remaining years. But she decided to be gluttenous and make real big bucks, so I guess ultimately she is a bad person since she was not willing to compromise. Since this talent of communication was used in corrupt ways, I wonder if all the other talented people in our society could be corrupt or be corrupted at the cost of $7,000 or more. I understand that there are laws and specific beliefs that bind this terrible freedom of corruption but I wonder if thats the only case. It would be upsetting to understand that people act moral only because they have to.