Another story continued/Pandemic reloaded’22

 

<why> her finger slips 

….before she has the chance to finish writing the message 

as she had paused to think but, too stumped on what to say, sat staring at the phone keyboard screen till her finger slipped 

<why?> comes his answer 

“Shit….” she whispers aloud to herself 

<….why didn’t you tell me?>she replies 

But she turns the phone face down and looks again at the white-noise of the runway 

She thinks again about their ongoing almost “V for Vendetta” dialogue over the last three years 

you know, in the film…. 

where she’s half dead and he’s fucking with her and pretending to be a cell mate beside her ….

why does she think of that now? 

so what does she know of him anyway except —what he wants her to see

That and …. those accidental things he shares …. his reactions to her thesis’s sometimes are obvious but ….what does he ever  really expose? 

Still…. The truth is—she has wanted to know him in ‘real time’ 

no, does she mean ….

‘3-d’? she taps her finger nervously wondering why she wants to run …. run to the toilet to vomit …. actually but…. to flush away three years? seems extreme and excessive as running away now would be like burning bridges wouldn’t it? 

It all started with an article she had written covering years of research on a topic not too many people really know about. So, it was like finding a needle in a haystack when someone there being anyone even slightly aware of the subject and… . Over time she noticed 

his location and the IP address popped up in other places of her work as time went on when she was going through her old research online but, the weird thing was it was like his thought patterns 

….always triggered ideas by where he decided to search in the archives

 ….like that story all written in letters between Griffin and Sabine; her first letter appears as a stranger to him. As she saw his drawings appear as he did them —and when he changed them ….from a far away island as he drew

What does he even look like? Beth nervously looked around the airport filled with masked faces 

well…. she has seen his photos and some live footage of some interview he did; it was for the auction when she first stumbled upon him on Reddit 

….they never did FaceTime nor zoom ….. either he sensed she didn’t want to or he didn’t …. hologram, virtual conversations. so nauseating. she always felt—watching some freak gremlin version of yourself in hi-glow, migraine HD blinding tones and find the one you converse with looks even worse but technology is all anyone eats, sleeps and thinks about but this is the 

surreal …. Pandemic life …. faceless faces of society hidden behind masks. 

And how removed anything real has now become 

but what is real?

there is nothing real; real is relative and she thinks of that song by Radiohead, Fake Plastic  Trees 

Yes, she thinks looking around the airport …. it is life today, there are no more trees so we are left with tons of plastic instead ….

Her phone alerts a message 

She turns over her phone 

<look behind you>

At first she freezes. Then she replies:

<how would you know what I look like?>

<you showed me that one of a kind Nepal bag when you got it. Turn around….>