Broken Humanity E-Book

Faissal Alchaar

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 325

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Captain John Cooper, a man who has survived a global nuclear disaster that happened in 2078, finds himself in another universe in a wondrous city called Nopoly. But Cooper's new life will be destroyed by a lady who has a plan to free someone important to her from Nopoly. The ones who are responsible for the nuclear disaster that happened in Cooper's world will appear, showing the captain the madness that resulted in having broken humanity. Death will reach many souls but it can never affect hope, which will always be the light that shines the road to a better future; the hope that can heal this broken humanity.

Leseprobe

Thanks

To everyone who encouraged me, especially my mom.

Table of Contents

I.

Nopoly

1- Just a Regular Day

2- A Secret for a Secret

3- For the First Time

4- A Week Before the Attack

5- Unusual Things Happen Usually

6- Something Impossible Leads to the Blue State

7- Finally, I Know Who That Lady is

8- Mission Complete

II.

Outside Nopoly

9- The VI

10- Poor Ones

11- Going Back in Time

12- The Small Changers

13- Losing Control

14- Different Perspective, Different Story

15- On Our Way to Nopoly

III.

Inside Nopoly, Again

16- The Bloody Path

17. Layers of Pain, End to the Brain

18. Unexpected Things

19. Fighting the Terrorists

20. Inside the First Building

21. A Little Hope

22. The End

1- Just a Regular Day

I’m chilling on my couch while holding a little baby to my chest.

“Where is your careless mommy?” I say to this baby who is eating my finger; it’s so sweet. I raise my head at the window in the room, and I realize that the sun is shining; it’s the sunrise. The glow starts growing stronger, and when the sky turns to a warm white light, I come closer to the open window to close it, but a blinding flash stops me. I try to protect my eyes with my hand from the harmful light; that light wakes me up to see that the sunshine that is hitting my face is the reason for that terrible dream.

It is Friday morning, and I gotta get up to welcome my new day with a smile while I’m seeing the sunlight come through my window. The view is so fabulous from my apartment, so I am used to going out to my balcony every morning to catch some fresh air before starting my day. It’ll be another nice day today; I can feel it in my bones.

Seeing the people walk with their nineteenth century fashion suits, with that classic music that is playing everywhere, makes me move like I’m dancing while I’m preparing myself to go out to my beautiful city, Nopoly.

I always start my day with a cup of tea before I go to work; the tea that comes from Idan country. Idan is so far away from here and full of demons, unfortunately, which makes things harder and full of danger for our Explorers Army. I have to stop thinking about that now and focus on the newspaper I am holding for a while.

The newspapers are always full of good news, which makes me feel safe to live here. Having the best industry and highly advanced health care are the main topics; and there is either a nice article or a short poem at the end of the newspaper, which is what really makes me read it.

Today’s poem is named “Well”:

“Well, everything is well

Very good buy for what you sell

Call us in a hurry if you feel so ill

Sing the song and repeat the tell

Pray for science, and break the bell

Remember that you always have the will

So, you are fine and free but still, so well.”

I don’t think my crazy dreams or the voice in my head are sicknesses, right? So, I don’t need to call anyone at this moment, but now it feels like I’m crazy to talk to myself.

“No, you are not, but . . .” I shake my head to avoid the voice and start to look at the incredible view that I see from my balcony. Such an advantage to live on the sixth floor in a wondrous city like this.

I’m taking out my clothes like a knight taking out his sword; it’s known that a man needs to practice his job before starting it. After a conversation with myself, I head to the bathroom to take a lovely warm shower before putting my clothes on.

My entertainment of modifying the “Well” poem to become a funny song with some editing from me, even though my voice isn’t particularly good, has stopped when I finish my shower. Good thing that my choice of clothes is better than my voice quality. I know that even without a mirror; there is no mirror in the entire city, but that’s okay because I dress just like the others; nineteenth century fashion.

I jump on my vehicle, which is drawn by a noble horse named Areo, to go to my workplace.

“I don’t think he likes to draw your heavy wagon.”

“It’s its job to . . . Eh, I’m getting sick of you,” I whisper, putting my hand on my forehead at the silliness of this conversation on this lovely morning.

“And it’s your job to be conned.” My talker brain starts arguing. This voice makes me feel I’m crazy, especially because it sounds soft and creepy.

“Conned? I really want to smash you.”

“Do it!”

“The thing is I don’t want to break my beautiful Roman nose; so, no . . .”

The freshness everywhere with all these colors on buildings and the positive energy in the atmosphere make me feel good vibes I want to share with my lovely neighbor, who is passing by with so much joy on his face.

“But wait, doesn’t that sound silly?” That voice comes into my head again.

“Do not start bothering me now. Let me have some peace and quiet today without your babbling!” I whisper to myself while covering my mouth with my coat.

“Okay.”

I try to consider the beauty in this city and salute the walkers, the sellers, and the other riders on the street to ignore my talking brain. The impact of my talker is following me even when I sleep.

Every day I see dreams and I can’t remember all of them, but the effect of them is still circling inside my head somehow. I remember one of them was about the war that started in my country; I saw dead bodies everywhere, and a large number of crying kids were creepily standing around me. That night, I woke up terrified by the nightmare with a racing heartbeat and sweaty body.

The police station is getting closer, and as soon as I arrive, the officer says to me:

“Good morning Mr. Cooper.”

“Good morning.”

I get in the building, and Marsen is standing outside my office, as always.

“Good morning captain. All papers are on the table.”

“Thanks, go back to your work,” I reply.

All the papers are full of information about how the police catch the sneaky demons who are trying to harm the people here; “our people.” I raise my voice as an effective way to convince myself.

“Our?!”

“Yes. I live in this world, which means I live here with the rest in this city, so what’s your problem?” I freak out at myself.

I do love this job, but it’s quite boring to just sit in the office and sign for papers rather than explore this new world.

sty“One day, I’ll be one of the Explorers Army to discover what could be outside the city and probably cut off some nasty demons’ heads.”

“Why all of this hate?”

“Because they are the enemy here,” I answer my stupid head thinking about the demons, but I really feel safe living inside the city because everything is fine as long as we follow the law.

Every time I look at the horizon of Nopoly, I see the Plonsters at the top of the wall on the city’s border. When I read about the Plonsters and how they appeared in this advanced city, I felt so grateful. They are the golden-winged guardians who are the sacrificed forms of all the gods in this universe. These gods decided to be inside seven Plonsters standing around Nopoly, and they have one job: to protect the city if the police and the army can’t stop an attack from outside.

“This is the place of goodness and peace that I was looking for a long time . . .”

“It seems that you are happy here, more than in your previous life,” my brain replies.

“It fits my thoughts and my personality, so yeah.”

While I was trying to stop the conversation, a knock at the door did the trick.

“Come in,” I reply.

“Excuse me, sir, General Charles D. Paul wants to talk to you,” Marsen says.

“Yeah sure, let him in.”

“Hello Captain Cooper, how are you my old friend?” the general says with a cigar in his mouth.

“Haha, old friend?! I’m good. What about you, general?”

“Good,” he responds in his gruff voice, and continues, “I need backup for our army whose numbers were reduced after taking a bunch of my men to the Explorers test.”

“Recruits for ExA are needed, right?” I ask hastily.

“Well, yes . . . They discovered a place full of energy that we need for our city, and they have a lack of explorers’ numbers until now; that’s what I heard. I came to you because you already have a good number in your service now; plus, it will be easier for a police officer to become a soldier rather than a civilian.”

“And how many do you need, general?”

“Two hundred persons are all I need; is it okay for you?” He asks as if he already knows my answer.

“Sure, they are yours.”

Now he is leaving with a smile on his face, a smile for our city and our future. After his departure, I consider the need for more members of the ExA; it could be my opportunity to be one of them, so I decide to write a letter to the commander of the Explorer Army telling him that I’m interested in joining the ExA.

After finishing the letter, I turn to see the lively city through the window, and then I switch my sights to the calendar while I grab a cigarette from my pocket; it’s the sixth of August 2080.

A tapping on the door interrupts my conversation with my head that I’m having about the fashion the people have in this universe in 2080.

“Come in!” I shout.

“Sir, a guy has been caught trying to get out of the city,” Marsen says.

“Bring him here and leave, please.” The officer nods and closes the door.

Two minutes later Marsen returns with the guy. I look at the skinny man, raising my eyebrows, and ask him:

“What’s your name?”

“Cason Baker,” he answers immediately while I put the cigarette on the ashtray.

“Cason, why would you go out?”

“And why wouldn’t I?” he answers politely.

“Don’t you know what happens when someone goes out?”

“I know, but it’s my life, my freedom, and I’ll take the responsibility for my own choices. It won’t affect anyone if I take the risk to go out!”

This man is starting to bother me, but I have to calm down and play the role of the captain.

“Don’t you understand that there are millions of demons outside this damn city?” I continue.

“I know . . .”

“Haven’t you seen them?”

“I have, but my . . .” and he stops talking.

“Look, my family, my friends, and my only love are outside, but I decided to leave them and live here; I would never go out to search for them because death is waiting for me if I think for a moment that I’m brave enough to show my face to these creatures.” I say this, and I know deep inside me how much of a liar I am, thanks to my brain.

“But why do we have these things in this world?”

“This is their role in this life: to be murderers and kill us because we refuse to become just like them, so they’re always waiting to take off . . .” and I pick up a horrible photo of a demon trying to take off someone’s face. This is a picture I found in one of the books that I read from time to time. But the guy doesn’t even react when he sees it! Even I can’t stare at this photo like he does!

“What are you made of? Are you even a human? I know how I can fix you,” I reply, and I open my mouth to shout to Marsen.

“That picture is from a book called Innocent Sins, and that’s my brother who is in the picture, and . . . and to be honest I wanted to go out to find him because I miss him so much,” the man says with a broken, sad voice.

“I understand your feelings, I’m sorry to hear that, but I think that he is ninety percent dead.”

“We have the science, the power, and all the advantage to face these demons. Why do we have to just sit here without doing a thing, or to, at least, understand the reasons that make them do that?”

“We are doing our best,” I interrupt him, then I call Marsen.

“Yes sir.”

“Take him to Doctor Diana and let her help this guy.”

“I don’t need a doctor; I just need a hug maybe.”

I stand up and come slowly to him with cold eyes, and I give him a hug.

“Go now with Marsen. I hope you will be fine, Mr. Baker.”

“Thanks, sir.”

I can see the confusion in Marsen because of what I’ve done, which is uncommon here, I think.

They are both leaving now, and I feel so itchy in my head.

“You knew that you lied.”

“I had to,” I try to convince myself.

*

The person who I exchanged lives with was a captain in the police, and the police’s job here is to protect the people from any danger and stop them from doing things that may lead to forbidden acts. That’s why they bring to my office the unusual people who come up with forbidden ideas, like getting out of the city or trying to fly in the city, which are forbidden for civilians for security reasons.

“You are doing a pretty good job, I suppose.”

“When a man like me wants to live his life and never give in to death, that man will do whatever it takes to live with the new situation,” I respond to my talker.

I finish my workday and head to my horse, which is waiting for me.

“Hungry huh? I’m starving buddy, let’s get home fast so I can feed you, Areo.” And I hit it with the whip.

“Feed him? Say that you want to eat and you need him to take you home, otherwise you’ll be hungry. And that whip is hurting him . . . you know.”

“I’m hungry, and guess what, I’m super selfish. It’s just a horse, come on!” I scream in the middle of the street.

“Yeah, and you are just a doll.”

“Can you stop, you troll? Because if you won’t I’ll go to Doctor Diana to fix you.”

“Yeah, the doll needs to be fixed.”

Riding among the colorful buildings that are like a rainbow and ignoring my talker makes me feel so good. I see the boys playing hopscotch on the sidewalk and laughing wholeheartedly.

“Don’t you think you have to have a child though?”

“Who needs a child when the man has everything in this life, money, food, drinks, and sex?” I ask myself.

“Who said that?”

“This how it works for me here, so can you stop talking?”

On Sunday I’ll go to the Temple of Science because all the people here do so. They go there to clean their brains, and that makes them impermeable from being affected by the demons’ black magic. That’s written in the White Night Book, which I read the first day I came here. The book gave me more knowledge of the way of life here and how the humans had lost most of the surface area of this Earth because of the demons, but Guider Dinis had saved humanity by building this city with the sacrifice of all the gods.

Nopoly exists to contain only the pure brains of people who believe only in science and nothing else. The amazing thing is that everyone loves each other here, and the only thing we hate in this world is demons because they are the first threat to the humans here, and everything that happens outside of Nopoly is because of the religious people who released these nasty monsters to kill those who don’t agree with them. But they will never get us because we have the Bezman ideology, and that’s why we practice our methodology in the Temple, which is a perfect place to make the brain feel better and stronger. All of this is recorded in the White Night Book, so I completely agree with it.

“What if—”

“No. You know, you are the second thing I hate after the damn demons.” I shut my brain down.

What makes the Nopolyens see the demons is that they consider themselves followers of Bezman, which sanctifies the science that the demons hate and cannot stand up to. When one of those nasty demons is caught, by the police or soldiers, the demon become part of the circus after the chains are put around its neck, or the government takes it to be dissected to know more about these creatures and find a way to eliminate them forever.

Now I’m home, and I take Areo to the stable to eat some hay and drink water.

“That’s my little big dude,” I say, touching him.

I do care for Areo by myself because everyone is responsible for what he or she has here.

I finish my delicious meal, but my brain can’t stop talking; it’s going to be a long night.

2- A Secret for a Secret

Saturday is my favorite free day from work, but my brain doesn’t understand that and keeps working still, so I try to keep it busy while I prepare breakfast.

Now I’m taking a cup of tea out to my beautiful balcony that is full of colorful flowers.

“What a lovely smell on the morning . . .”

“You have to love the smell of thinking critically as well!”

“I do. Why would you still be babbling now if I didn’t?” I guess that I made it obvious to my brain now.

“There is a big difference between the brain that does the habit and the one that is thinking and arguing, right?’

“It feels so crazy to talk to myself!”

“No, it’s not, Harley.”

I open my eyes wide while the hot tea is spilling on the floor. I’m so shocked by what my brain called me, because I remember now that I had a dream about someone taking me to a dark scary place, in my destroyed world, to take off my face. I was screaming and begging them to stop this, but this person said:

“See you, Harley.” And I went blind.

Anyway, I’m not Harley anymore, my name is Cooper in this world, “COOPER,” I shout.

“Maybe.”

“From tomorrow, you’ll never bother me,” I reply to my brain while drying the floor.

I read a lot of books just to understand who I am and what my mission is in this world, and today I’ll start reading a book about the fifth universe and how this universe formed, so I grab The Creator could be Created by Allen Woolmstek.

I sit on the couch and open the book keenly.

“The unlimited universe begins with a limited big bang, the stars created from the dust in the space. Comparing the universe with dust leads to our belief about the city. A single human can create a whole world in his mind, and configure it in the real life too.” Well, it sounds interesting, especially because the author believes in the big bang theory too.

After a half-hour, I decide that it’s time to change the book and know more about how I got here to this multiverse, so I grab another book from my library called Another Chance by Martin Hewman. I think this one will do the trick.

The first chapter is named “What are We?” which I decide to start with, so I sit on the couch and start reading.

“When it happens that two persons are living in different universes but are so similar in personality, beliefs, thoughts, and age and they die at the same moment, they will exchange lives and only the best will continue living while the other will simply disappear,” I read aloud.

“I really feel bad for the man who I exchanged lives with. Sorry for being better.” And I start laughing.

“Do you really think that you are better?”

“At least I’m good enough to be alive, otherwise you and I would be nothing,” I convince my talker.

Two hours of reading has passed, and I know a little more about my life here, and I know that I was so lucky the first time I died, but this life I exchanged with would be my last chance to live a normal life before I become nothing after death, because I don’t think the life-exchanging will work again. I also read about this Nopoly, which has been built for the people who don’t want to deal with the evil in this universe and all those creepy creatures out there who are the enemy. And the warlocks who are living with the demons have chosen the wrong side; their spiritual beliefs make them think that the power of being a demon can beat all humanity; well they are wrong, totally wrong.

I’ll admit that I like these two books more than the first book I read, what was its name . . .? Oh yeah, The Start of being Extinct; that book claims either humans or demons will be erased. For me, I won’t stop the fight for our race.

I put my fancy clothes on to feel smooth, or maybe to make the ladies dance with me at the party I’m headed to.

“All the ladies will have no chance against this charm,” I compliment myself smoothly.

“Shame on you.”

I raise my head, giving up dealing with it, and make my way out.

*

While I’m walking, I hear the birds sing to me, and the green trees are calling me to sit under one of them to enjoy the view of the local park. The park is full of colorful roses, which it is banned to touch. I sit myself on the ground, but when I lie against the tree that I chose to sit under I get a feeling of coolness from the tree, which feels so weird. But I ignore that and start staring at the clear sky that is carrying the flying birds. Luckily, it’s not common to face demons on holidays, which is perfect because the police station is closed on Saturday and Sunday.

After a few minutes I change my mind and go to the café to sit there instead. New Fox is my favorite café for having the best chai latte in the whole city. I sit out to drink my coffee in the fresh air while I see all these people who are walking in their fashionable clothes. Some of them walk alone, but most of them are couples or with the whole family, which is so cute. The most remarkable thing in the atmosphere is their smiles and laughs in this colorful city.

“Look at this lady who is sitting in front of you!” My talking brain interrupts my positive vibe.

“Beautiful! But no, no, no,” I reply.

“You can’t forget her, can you?”

“Her? No, I don’t . . .” I raise my voice a little bit, but luckily enough no one pays attention except the lady my brain was talking about. She looks straight at me while she drinks her coffee before covering her lower half face with the newspaper she is reading.

It’s the first time I’ve seen this lady in New Fox café. I don’t know, but I feel something special about her. Maybe because she seems unhappy, unlike the others in this city. But anyway, I’ll get to the bottom of this by any means necessary.

She finishes her cup, but she continues reading the newspaper with great concentration, and that provokes me to go and ask her what newspaper is this she is reading? Because, as I know, there are no newspapers on holidays! But as soon as I stand up to go and talk to her, she closes the newspaper and puts it in her little bag, walking away with her sad face.

I sit down again while my brain tells me to follow her and ask her if she is alright.

“No, there is no way to follow her, because she saw I intended to talk to her and she walked away immediately; maybe she doesn’t want to talk with anyone.”

“Maybe,” my brain responds.

“I’ll never listen to you again, stupid.”

I finish my chai with regret for what I did before.

“I hate to be ignored . . .”

“I thought you just hate demons.”

“And you,” I add.

I decide to do something else to change my mood, so I opt to go to the movies to see something interesting.

On my way, I can see the circuses everywhere in the city and the boys laughing at the locked demons who are getting shocked by the electricity to dance and hop like crazed monkeys. Another group of demons are standing in a stupor, and the boys are trying to hit them with stones to win prizes. And in the corner, there are more demons going left, right, left, right to avoid the buckshot, which is only allowed for the adults.

“Congrats!” I shout to the one who gets ten demons in a row.

“What a noble act!” my brain comments sarcastically.

“Against the demons? Hell yeah!” I insist.

“He’s doing it in front of kids!”

“It’s normal here, like when we take a shower at the swimming pool. People are showering in front of their kids and others’, and no one looks at each other there in a bad way; and . . . and the kids know that thing is right against the demons.”

“What thing? Say it!”

“Shooting the damn demons, okay?” I shout so loud that someone looks at me with confusion at hearing me talk to myself.

“I get excited, haha.” I pretend I am with the crowd who are shooting.

“What gives them the right to . . .?” I calm myself down and say:

“Because it’s the right thing in this life.”

“Thing?”

I will just ignore this freaking talker.

Now I’m buying some donuts with chocolate; this is something I adore.

“Shall you eat all this chocolate alone? That will not be healthy for you, will it?” A dainty voice comes from behind me; it is the lady I saw in New Fox café. I can feel my fast heartbeat up in my throat.

“Ahaha, yeah. I like chocolate. Do you want some?”

“I can buy it myself if I want to, thanks,” she replies nicely. I try to play it smooth and confident.

“I mean, what do you like to eat on such a beautiful day as this?”

“Let’s see, hmm. I’ll take cotton candy, thanks,” she orders from the shop.

“So, you like to color your teeth. Interesting!”

“Yeah, I like to make an art party in my mouth,” she says, smiling. “I can’t hold myself from asking you this: why were you staring on me in the café?”

“Oh, no, no! I was looking at something else. But regardless, looking at a beautiful lady like you doesn’t mean someone deserves to be frowned upon, haha.”

“Who was frowning? Me?!” she asks with a small laugh. “No, I was just focusing on the news in the newspaper.”

“Yeah, and this is what I was looking at; I was about to ask you: do you read yesterday’s newspaper? It will be old news if you read it today. Just wait till Monday and you will get all the news about today and tomorrow.”

“So, what is the difference if I read yesterday’s newspaper or Monday’s one; aren’t they always positive?” She takes her cotton candy.

“Wow, you remind me a lot of . . . Eh, never mind . . .” I stop before I get myself in trouble.

“Okay, plus it’s not yesterday’s newspaper,” she says grinning.

“What was it?”

“News from the future, by me . . .”

“Oh, really? Are you a hex? You know it’s illegal to work like this, haha.” I pretend I am calm to hear more from her.

“No, I’m not. I bring this news from the tears that can open gates to any dimension in any period of time, and then I write all the information with what I think and believe about them.”

“Haha, another illegal work. It’s banned to trade in news if it’s not from the government here; don’t you know?”

“I don’t sell them, I just read them to myself,” she replies.

From the first moment I met this lady, I felt something change in me, and I don’t know what is happening with my stomach now. But I’m sure that this lady is very different from the others.

“But what’s the point of writing the events you see if you have already seen them? Unless you sell them secretly,” I accuse.

“I’m not professional in dealing with the tears, yet, and I like to write because the new livers in Nopoly get some sort of amnesia.”

“Amnesia?! I’ve never heard anything like this before,” I say in a low voice. She looks at me saying:

“So, you are the newest here, I see . . .”

“What’s your plan for today? Do you want, maybe, to go to watch a movie?” I try to change the subject, “and by the way, I’m John Cooper.”

“Jolly Wood.”

I give her a smile while we’re shaking hands, and my eyes are staring at her. I blink quickly, wondering if she will accept the cinema suggestion . . . Such an embarrassing situation.

“No, thanks. I’m not a big fan of cinema.” She gives me a nice smile.

I knew it, she isn’t interested. And that accordion guy on the corner makes me feel even madder.

“I just like to visit the tears; do you want to go there someday?” she adds.

“Aah . . . yeah sure! It will be the first time for me and a new experience.”

Jolly starts spinning the candy’s stick before she says:

“Don’t worry, I know that you’re not from here.”

I’m shocked, and silence takes over me.

“Don’t worry, I’m a person of secrets, and I won’t let anyone know about you,” Jolly whispers, smiling. “And I know a lot of the different universes.”

“How do you know all of this?”

“Did you forget the tears that I told you about?” Jolly looks at me, wondering.

“Ah, sure. Well I actually read about these tears in WWIII in the Seventh Universe. Hmm, let me remember the chapter’s name, yeah it’s ‘The Reality is Insane.’”

Jolly raises her eyebrows, and then she asks:

“You are the one from the seventh universe, right?” And I nod yes before I say looking at the floor:

“The seventh universe, which is the lowest unadvanced universe according to the historian Roslyn Polman. I came here via the life exchange because, in my world, a horrible attack destroyed the cities and probably the whole planet.” Then I look at Jolly continuing, “Do we need to make a promise not to tell anyone about our hidden parts?”

Jolly shakes her head. “I don’t think we need promises that can be broken by the time, but we can trust each other instead. No one in the city knows about you and they won’t. People here believe that there is something called life exchanging, but they don’t know that someone can come here in this way, because if they did, they’d inform the government, and the government in turn would have the pleasure of inviting you to the laboratory; and you know what could happen there.”

“You’ll be the first one I trust in this universe. You know, I read that the tears are available only to a few visitors who work in the polity; you should be an important person in this city, aren’t you?” I say looking at her humble outfit.

“Some people don’t need to follow the rules, and we are an example of that,” Jolly says, laughing.

“So now it’s secret for secret, I like that . . .”

“Kind of.” And then she puts on a serious face. “You mentioned the attack on your country; I haven’t seen that attack and how it happened yet.”

“We can visit the tears you’ve talked about? I have no idea how the tears work, and no book talks about it, so it would be nice to have a new experience with you, Ms. Jolly.”

“Let’s figure out what just happened in your poor world. And call me just Jolly. Let’s go.”

I nod while I’m thinking about using this device to see what happened to my family and discover many other things I’ve always thought about.

3- For the First Time

I’m shocked! Because today was a crazy day . . .

I was with Jolly all day. It all started when I was in New Fox and I met that lady. When we decided to go to visit the tears, I thought it would be a fantastic adventure, but it turned out not to be.

“Let me remember everything that happened and write the important events,” I say while holding a pen intending to write:

“I asked Jolly if she wanted to ride the vehicle with me, but she turned it down and just continued walking.

‘Don’t you want to ride the vehicle? Okay then, just wait for me!’ I said to her.

‘Don’t let the dust hit your face,” Jolly responded, giving me a cold smile.

‘Nice one; you have sense of humour. By the way, your sad voice gives me the feeling that you are not quite happy even though you’re trying to cover the sadness you have with some smiles and laughs. What can possibly bother you other than damn demons?’ I went silent for a moment before continuing, ‘In the end you belong to this city, not like me, an . . .’

‘Immigrant,’ she completed my sentence.

‘Yeah, an immigrant.’

‘We are all immigrants somehow.’ She was trying to be nice to me, but I showed her that I am satisfied in this life.

‘But because I have only one life, I need to live my life having a good time as much as possible—’

‘One life? Are you sure?’ Jolly interrupted me.

‘Yeah, because having a chance at another life exchange is quite impossible; don’t you agree?’

‘I don’t think there is any woman who resembles me in all the universes.’ Jolly looked at me sweetly.

‘It’s unfortunate, but you have to change your mood from time to time, you know; having a good time is required.’ And, here, she turned her head down again, asking an unexpected question:

‘Have you forgotten her?’

I got an instant headache when she threw that question at me.

‘Who? H . . . How did you know that?’

‘I’m just guessing because a man like you can’t be single without a lover. Did you find another one to love in this universe?’

‘What a smooth compliment, haha. No one compares to her, no one deserves my love after her. All the ladies I know here are dolls with a perfect body like carved wood meant for a one-night stand. But my love in the last life was a unique one, so I would never forget her.’

Honestly, I can’t remember her face nor her name, but all I know is that I had strong feelings toward the one I loved in the seventh universe, and I loved her with all my heart.

‘May I ask her name?’

I couldn’t say that I forgot her name, because it would be so awkward.

‘Jo . . . Joll, her name was Joll, and yeah it’s a weird coincidence, right?’ I was blaming my stupid head because I knew that she wouldn’t believe what I said, but she should know that I was honest with my feelings especially because I expressed them with wet eyes.

‘She had a nice name, and sorry for what happened to her.’ Jolly tried to show me empathy by pretending to be nice.

‘No problem, at least you smiled again when I told you her name. Now you tell me, are you married?’ I asked her to avoid any other questions about my past, which I had forgotten most of.

‘Take this first and get me some photos in this beautiful weather.’ She gave me a camera that was in her handbag and continued, ‘Be nice with the camera; it’s not from here!’

‘From one of the places you visit, right?’ And she nodded yes.

‘His name was Harley,’ she said before I dropped the camera, which broke into many pieces, and I felt my pupils open wide when I remembered what the talker called me in the morning before meeting Jolly; what a weird coincidence!

‘Sorry, I’ll buy you a new one,’ I said, while she was smiling again; a cold, calm smile.

‘It’s okay; it’s just a piece of plastic. I have lost people who were more important to my broken heart. My husband is one of them, who is gone for almost one year.’

‘Sorry to hear that,’ I responded.

‘It’s okay . . .’

‘I believe that we all have more than one life . . .’

I wondered, what if I was the one I exchanged lives with; would she be angry at me in that case? Would she exact revenge on me? Or maybe she would consider me as her lost husband; that was what was in my mind.

We continued walking in silence, while I was throwing a look at Jolly from time to time without letting her notice. She had soft brown short hair in an old-fashioned hairstyle, which was covered with a black hat, and big, beautiful hazel eyes. She was wearing a dress the like of which I hadn’t seen before, so I said:

‘Weird question, what is your style?’

‘I dress up in eighteenth fashion because I like this style more than the nineteenth.’

‘It’s quite elegant,’ I said, trying to be nice.

‘Thanks. Nice costume, by the way. The person who chose it for you must be so elegant,’ she said, smiling.

‘Thanks for the compliment. I did, actually, because as I said I’m lonely here.’