Page 58 of Preying Heart
“I don’t have morning sickness, at least not yet.” I worry that my pregnancy hasn’t taken hold because of the IUD. “When am I supposed to get it?”
“Not everyone gets it. Usually it starts around six weeks and ends by twelve weeks, but everyone is different. Based on your dates, I estimate you’re around six weeks pregnant.”
“I’m feeling fit as a fiddle.” I meander around the kitchen while she and Heath put things away. “Anything I can help you guys with?”
“We’re good,” Heath says. “Lucy wants to see your NFT collection. I told her about your lioness-headed avatar and she wants you to draw her one.”
“Yes, I want one with my trademark pink bandana and one hoop earring.” She points to the silver hoop dangling from her left ear and the pink bandana she uses as a sweatband rolled around her head. Her dark curly hair sticks out around it, and she has a beauty mark on the right corner of her lip.
“Okay, I can make you one. Do you want to join my lioness club?”
“You should create a lioness club and make NFTs out of them,” Heath suggests. “I’m seen collections with apes, robots, koala bears, penguins, dogs of all kinds, even bearded lions who look delinquent.”
“Yeah, how about Lucky Lioness or Lusty Lioness?” Lucy suggests.
“Loud Lioness League.” I scribble the name on a sheet of paper. “I can whip these up even faster than the fantasy fashion pieces.”
“Can I see what you have?” Lucy rubs her hands together and heads for the office. “I will definitely buy a Loud Lioness named Lucy.”
“See? You already have a fan,” Heath says to me as he unlocks the office.
It’s hard to believe Lucy would be so supportive. But I’m so excited about my ideas, I get out the drawing tablet and design Lucy’s lioness avatar while she sits across from me. I create the basic lioness cartoon head shape, then add on a fringe of black curls underneath her pink bandana headband. Her large gray eyes are made suitably feline with curly black eyelashes. The hoop earring and beauty mark is put in place, and I add a pierced eyebrow bar.
“Do you want anything in your mouth?” I ask her. “I can dangle a cigarette but that might not be good as a doctor.”
“How about a pen?”
“Do you want her smiling or snarling?”
“Smiling, and can you add a stethoscope around her neck?”
“Sure, what kind of blouse or dress is she wearing?”
“My usual checkered Dickie’s shirt will do,” Lucy replies.
I whip it up. It’s just a simple cartoonish avatar but she would own this image exclusively on a native cryptocurrency blockchain. Some of the most popular avatar NFTs sell for mid to high five figures. Most are initially auctioned off for a few thousand dollars but if a collection catches on, the gain could be incredible. Ten times or even fifty times the initial price.
Since Lucy’s NFT has a ton of bling, I add more to mine, Loud Lioness Lokelani. I give her a headband of flowers and a lollipop dangling from her teeth.
Heath hands me a folding piece of metal with buttons and a small digital screen. “This is your hardware wallet. It is your key to the blockchain. I’ll seed your account with the crypto you’ll need to mint and list your NFTs.”
“You’re giving me an account?”
Heath and Lucy exchange glances. I wonder for a moment what they’re really up to. Can I trust him to handle my crypto? Well, technically, it’s his crypto since I don’t have any, but I’m the one earning it with my artwork.
“I’ll set it up, but you have to follow the rules.” His expression grows stern. “Always use VPN. Never share your location. Don’t contact anyone you know from your past, including your online friends, classmates, and accounts.”
“But I have money in those accounts. Shouldn’t I be able to transfer it to my crypto wallet?”
“No. It doesn’t work that way,” he says. “In order to protect your crypto identity, you cannot let it be associated with any physical or virtual identity you’ve had in the past. Once you do that, you bridge the two worlds and someone can find you.”
“I’d like to get my money eventually. I also have clients and other things I was doing.”
“You’ll have to leave all that behind,” Lucy says. “Otherwise, we’re putting ourselves at risk by dealing with you. If Heath transfers crypto to your wallet and one day, your wallet gets found out, then someone can trace the real world you to your crypto wallet to Heath’s crypto wallet. It’s one more link to the chain.”
“Okay, but Heath is already connected to Big Dude since he received Bitcoin from him.”
“True, but they don’t know that address was Heath,” Lucy says.
