Singing Snowberg
Chapter Two
Morph <2>
Chros©
The little world outside that glass window started to glow, the machines weren’t work anymore, then I realised what I saw is fire, in the warehouse. Like an apocalypse, fire was burning up and dropping down. I didn’t think I could save all this, sitting there behind the glass wall. The dashboard was burning too, so I left the room through the stairs. I heard explosion behind me, fire balls falling from the sky, I thought they were satellites. I don’t know why the panic wasn’t in me, as if I knew it will come. All I cared about was the music gone. I want to explain to you all in a sensible way, but I wan’t sensible at all. Somehow I was pleased, and there was a person as bizarre as I was. He was playing guitar on the streets, though I couldn’t hear his voice, but I clearly saw his joy.
“What's this song?” “I don't have a clue. Why don't we dance?” She holds my arms, leading me to a clear ground, “shine shine, my pretty boy. Look at me.” I'm feeling dizziness, but the spinning is delightful enough, I look at the ceiling, blue-grey.
“This is it, enough Mrs. Grace, I am really tired.” “Sleep tight, don't forget cleaning yourself!”
The pictures still flash through before my mind eyes, mingled with the forgotten music. I think the sickness is catching me, I let off most of the food in the toilet, did I spin too fast? Maybe something else. My thoughts are jumping as I look at the blank ceiling. I will need a player.
The next morning I get up really early, I need to go around. The Sunday morning isn't very pleasing here, everyone seems to hide in their legume pod. Hope the stores are still open. At breakfast I didn't see Lucy. The portions were placed on the table, I will need to heat it. Oh I miss the microwave oven.
After breakfast, I checked every corridor for a store but failed, only vending machines on the corners. Oh my holy God one bag of instant noodles costs 800 Credits, a bottle of juice costs 1200! I want to get back to La Plata!
At the bus station, I checked the map. From here to the nearest shopping mall, there're one station between them. From any station to the adjacent stations costs 100 Credits, so it will cost me 200 to get to the shopping mall. I checked more: in the opposite direction, it takes 10 to get to the frost forest, and 15 the deposit centre. Now I only have 219 Credits, if I take the bus I will have to walk back. Instead I could rent a bike, 400 per day, relatively speaking, this is a more acceptable one. But I decided to walk.
In the tunnel, I can see another tunnel that's paralleled to this one. It's broader and higher, I was in there yesterday. The tunnel I'm in has three lanes, two for the bikes and one for the foot passengers.
The weather is far more better than yesterday. Though I can’t see it clearly, but it precisely reminds me of the sky in that movie. The blue, the passing clouds, the changing beams of light, travelling winds. Suddenly I realised that this scene was in my Uyuni. The movie, the Uyuni dream, both could be true, but at the same time both are partly surreal. Until, finally one day I will mix them and treat them the same as for this stupid world. This could be hard as first, indeed, drove your mind into chaos, but I don’t care now. Because I want to hide, to be invisible, to be mute, even blind. So for now, I really couldn’t tell whether the thing happened after I saw that scene was from the Uyuni dream or from that movie. The thing happened was only the sky itself, it changed. Now I can’t tell it is this moment before my eyes or the dream before or the movie scene long before, what I care about is the sky.
The blue behind the clouds is burning, the gold-white is flowing in threads, radiant with eye-blinding glow. I could feel the heat on my skin. Then there’s fire blooming, clouds caught the flames. Fire in the sky is good fire. I feel really good, this is the time I could walk and see, no obligations to do anything. I ask myself, is this how we live in this world? Walking and witnessing.
I arrived at the shopping mall one hour after the departure. The building is a pyramid covered in glass, looked fragile. It has everything, I have confidence it’s more plentiful than any other Argentinian malls. Everything with every colour and pattern. But I'm looking for a player.
I found the only digital store on the second floor, and there's only one type of player, just like Lucy's. It's two hundred thousand Credits.
“Don't go Sir, please let me explain. You know they have to redesign every component because eh... the plague. Most advanced Chinese technology, and we only have two devices left.” “Sorry I don't have enough Credits.” “You can pay in instalments, you will only have to pay 200 in advance and therefore 2000 a month.”
Now I’m thinking, seriously. I’ll earn ten thousand by the end of next month, this is affordable after all.
“How can I download the music?” “Don’t worry about this, Southpole has the best database in the world, just go to any scanner, plug in your device and speak out the song you want.” “Are they free?” The lady smiled, “no, you have to pay.” “Okay, do you have any downloadable?” She smiled again, “of course no, this is illegal.” “Then I’ll go.” “Oh wait,” she calls after me, ”this device has 1000 songs pre-downloaded. And a set of earphones.”
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