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Andy was walking down the busy street; he was not really sure why he was in the city or even why he was on this particular street. He just knew in the back of his mind that he had to be here for some reason currently not known to him. As he walked along the side of the road he thought to himself that it was an odd reason to be somewhere. He never went anywhere without a reason, a meeting, a date, or any other myriad reasons. So why was he here walking down this busy road in the middle of the city. Come to think of it, what city was he in? It seemed familiar to him yet he could not place it. He dismissed the thought, thinking that when he got to his destination, assuming he actually had one, all would become clear and he would remember why he was in the city. He looked up at the sun high in the sky and was part blinded by it. It was a hot day and it didn’t help that it was busy. He thought that every person who lived in the damn city was out today it was that bad. The sunlight glinted of the mirrored walls of buildings and bounced off the passing cars, most of them taxis.
As he continued walking he started taking note of the people going about their business in the hustle and bustle of the city. He saw what looked like a tramp rummaging through a waste bin. He wore an old style cloth long overcoat. To Andy he looked like a cross between a monk and a Jedi. His stubbly beard was shades of grey, black, rusty brown and blonde. His hair had not been washed or brushed for weeks. Just as the man found his golden elixir a patrol car pulled up alongside at the edge of the sidewalk. Two police officers removed themselves from their car and then proceeded to place the old man into the car. Without any fuss and barely a mumble the old man disappeared into the horizon. Andy carried on walking, basking in the warm sunshine, trying his best to stay out of the way of the myriad of busy people around him. He got to a crossing in the road and as the traffic was coming through leaned against the traffic light pole waiting to cross. He looked at it and was marvelled by its red and white stripes. Without thinking he licked the pole. ‘Hmm strawberry and vanilla’ and then proceeded to take a bite out of it. The green ‘walk’ sign flashed and he along with a hundred other folk crossed the busy junction.
He started to look in the busy shop windows as he meandered his way through the city centre. All the big name companies were here selling everything from designer shoes, suits, handbags, lingerie and pretty much anything else you could think of. He imagined that Suki would love it here, whiling away the hours window shopping and looking for things. One window grabbed him as he went past, the selection of items too much to just walk by and not look. A shop mannequin, more real looking that he had seen before was modelling a slinky two-piece outfit with matching shoes. He imagined Natalia wearing it and smiled to himself. He set off again merrily as if he was in some sort of twisted Disney fairytale looking around from left to right at the sights.
‘Hey mister, watch it!’ He heard as he bumped into a man walking in the opposite direction. He had a gruff voice and it’s sounded gravelly as if from chewing too much tobacco. Andy spun around to catch sight of the man and saw that he was wearing cowboy boots, tight blue jeans, a thin white cotton shirt with waistcoat. ‘Sorry’ Andy shouted towards the man as he walked away. The cowboy whirled round, his Smith and Wesson moving from its holster to the man’s hand in a blur. He slowly lowered his weapon and with his free hand lifted up his Stetson. As Andy watched he noticed that the hat and boots were covered in dust. The man had an angular face and a small goatee. He eyed Andy for a moment, surveying him before slowly and carefully holstering his pistol. The man turned, walked away and was lost in the jungle of bodies.
As he continued along a large crowd on the over side of the street caught his eye; people were jostling for positions to get a better look into a shop window. He waited for a small gap in the traffic before running across the road to see what the commotion was about. He looked at the sign above the shop window which read Waterstone’s Bookstore. He managed to push his way towards the front of the crowd and saw a giant black and white picture of himself in the window display. In the picture he was kissing some fan on the cheek as he pretended to be signing a book for her. The girl looked a lot like Nat and she was smiling back. There were copies of the book carefully placed on a pedestal in the display. A banner read ‘AI, the Human Neural Cortex’ the new book by Dr Vincent out this Friday. Reserve your copy now to be signed by the author on Saturday morning.’ ‘Cool’ Andy thought and was tempted to go in and order a copy of the book for himself. He looked past the display and into the store and saw that it was full of people. He decided to come back at the weekend on the off chance they had some left and that he could manage to get a signed copy.
As he started to leave the crowd a robot walked up to him asking him for his autograph. Andy looked at the mechanical being and thought that it looked like an extra from the Star Wars films; was even gold in colour too. The robot was holding a large black permanent marker pen and held it out for Andy to take. It asked if he could sign its chest, and Andy being the gentlemanly celebrity he was duly took the top of the pen and elaborately placed his scrawl on the androids chest. It jumped slightly and offered Andy its most sincere thanks. ‘So, George gonna make a thirteenth film then?’ The android just looked at him and offered no reply. Andy looked into the sky and sighed and when he returned his gaze the android had gone.
By now Andy was feeling on the top of the world and without a care in the world also. Life was great and just couldn’t get any better he mused. He saw a cafe and decided to order some lunch. He sat down and waited to be served. While he was waiting he went back to people watching again, noticing an old couple walking along, doing their best to stay on their feet amid the bulging crowds around them. Andy watched as they hobbled along side by side, arm in arm. The man had his left arm around her waist to gently support her and was half heartedly using a walking stick in his right to help him balance. Andy just managed to see that the lady was holding his left hand with her right. Her left hand holding a small carry bag as it swayed with their walking. Andy thought they each looked about a hundred and eight as they slowly made their way along. The old lady stopped for a second and looked in Andy’s direction. For a moment they looked like his parents and Andy waved without thinking or hesitation. The old lady appeared to smile and weakly waved back before they too were lost in the crowd and gone from his sight.
A pretty young waitress arrived and asked him what he would like. He ordered a marshmallow coffee with strawberry cheese on toast. The waitress looked at strangely but then vanished back through the door to the cafe to get his order. Just as she entered he saw and young couple exit the cafe. They looked in love and the man was holding the left cheek of her rear in his hand. She gave him a playful slap on the chest and they skipped off down the road, he was sure he could hear ‘Zip a Dee Doo Dah’ playing somewhere far in the distance and he hummed along to the tune in his mind. While he was still humming the waitress resumed her position in front of him and she placed his drink and meal on the table. He paid her and off she went. He had never had the drink or the meal before and was not really sure why he had ordered them, but he was hungry and he slowly ate, savouring the strange taste. Once he was done he finished up his coffee with a big ‘aahhhh’ and then wiped away the frothy marshmallow from his upper lip. He reached in his pocket for his cigarettes and then remembered that he had quit after constant nagging from Suki. ‘That was why he was in the city’ he shouted, a stray dog waiting for scraps looking at him with a perplexed look on its face. He was to meet her here so that they could look at new drapes for the cellar. Why she wanted drapes for a house she had never seen, or for a room that had no windows he was not sure, but at times it best not to ponder on these things. That’s what she had wanted so that’s what he shall help her do.
Andy jumped up to his feet with renewed energy at finally recalling why he was here. He looked down at his watch but the candy stick hands had fallen off. ‘Bummer’ he moaned and then nibbled at the edge of his watch for something to do while he thought. It tasted like oatmeal, which Andy thought was a little dry without milk or water. He asked some passers by what the time was and was met with a variety of answers from two, to four, to nine o’clock. Agitated at wasting his time and the stupidity of the people around him he began walking along the shopping front again in the hope of spotting a clock. Eventually he found small watch makers and opened the door to go inside. An elderly gentleman with rosy cheeks, a Victorian mustachio and little round glasses perched on the end of his nose looked up at him and asked if he could help. Andy asked him the time and the old man just shrugged his shoulders. Every clock and watch in the shop was missing its hands. ‘Well that’s just bloody marvellous’ he thought and walked through where the window should have been and back onto the grassy field.
The sun had gone now and the wind was picking up. Andy wondered if the storm was coming back and headed for the trees and the safety of the forest. Once inside they did a good job of shielding him from the weather and he continued with his rambling. From behind him he heard a rumbling and a snarl, followed electrical sparks and other noises. He looked round and saw nothing but binary code. The forest looked like it was part of the film set they had used in the matrix and the sounds got closer. Andy ran. He ran for his life as the sounds of electric came closer. He could feel the ones and zeros of the binary clawing at his ankles, trying to wrap around his wrists. He saw a door and ran for it as fast as he could. He got there, opened the door and stepped through closing it behind him with a firm thud.
Andy walked out of the cafe and sat down back at his table. Once he was done he finished up his coffee with a big ‘aahhhh’ and then wiped away the frothy marshmallow from his upper lip. He needed to get going so left his tip on the table and went on his way. He hated city life, everything was always so rushed, people were always in a hurry to get somewhere and do something. No one ever took their time anymore to appreciate what was around them. Andy did though, today he was as cool as a cucumber. Nothing was going to make him rush around and tire himself out. As he walked he saw Dave spanking Charlize outside the church. This made Andy laugh, the irony of it and half expected to see the two cop dudes again pull up in their car. Charlize squirmed and squealed, saw Andy, winked, and then went back to her squealing. Dave noticed Andy and hollered over to him with a wave. Andy thought he looked a little like the waving statue with the big axe, only, this time with a woman on its lap. He shook his head and when he looked back they had gone, replaced by business men in their suits rushing around, after the tube, towards a meeting.
‘Hey handsome’ he heard someone shouting.
He looked around and saw Natalia trying to get his attention from the other side. She was stood near a huge skyscraper which seemed to go upwards forever. He shouted back to her and ran out into the busy street to meet her, not noticing the old dusty pick-up truck heading for him. Andy froze like a deer caught in lights; he could see Nat shouting but the words were just a jumble in his head. It was like the whole world had suddenly stopped with the exception of the truck which was now just a few feet away from him. Time stood still as Andy waited for the impact. Andy reached down deep inside and found the will to move and made a dart to his left. The truck driver who had been oblivious to everything else on the road suddenly looked up, saw Andy and grabbed the steering wheel to swerve. The trucks bumper missed Andy by a hairs breadth as he dived to the floor to avoid the impact. Andy looked up and around, only to see the truck mount the kerb, demolish a parking sign, continue up a couple steps and drive straight into...
Andy shouted as loud as he could but no sound came. He scrambled to his feet as he saw bodies being flung in all directions, glass was smashing and the sound of cries and screams was almost overwhelming. He started to run towards his beloved Suki and caught site of Natalia furiously pressing at her mobile. Just as he got to the other side of the road a payphone started to ring. The ring seemed deep inside Andy’s head, almost vibrating his brain against his skull. He put his hands to his head then slowly reached for the shiny black plastic of the receiver. The ringing stopped and he placed the receiver to his ear.
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Did you miss your activation email? February 08, 2010, 10:17:31 PM
Did you miss your activation email? February 08, 2010, 10:17:31 PM
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