Chapter Twenty-two
As he stepped out of his apartment door into the corridoor for the second time that day, Jay was suddenly struck with fear. Stopping to catch his breath, he closed the door to his apartment and turned his back to it. He stared out and down to the tunnel below. The advertisements on the walls were still going full force. ‘Did they ever stop?’, he wondered. Probably not. They seemed to have changed though. Now they showed different products: cigarettes, bars, restaurants, the latest cinema releases, discos. They were advertisements for a world that was totally alien to Jay, and he stood mesmerised in front of their claims, and the flickering lights on the full length glass plate windows of the passageway.
Jay stepped nearer the window and peered down at the tunnel and the traffic below. There were hust as many bubble cars as earlier. Where were these people going? What were they all doing at this time of night? Going out to meet other people? This concept was also unfamiliar to Jay. Could he ever get used to that? It would take him a long while, he supposed. But despite his underlying fear, he was anxious to reincorporate himself into this life, to find out what he had been missing. To see if it was really worthwhile.
Jay started to move forward, slowly. Did he think he could pull it off? Yes. He felt different that evening to when he had looked out over the same spot earlier that day. Wht had changed? This time, he seemed to feel strength in his solitude. Was it that? Or was it another feeling altogether? He was able to walk calmly down the passageway towards the lift.
Outside, the sound of a siren penetrated the thick glass barrier between him and the rest of the city. He didn’t look for the source of the noise, concentrating instead on the sounds from inside the building: the constant underlying hum of the heating system. Too soft to notice normally, but always there underneath the other sounds. A buzzing of the overhead lights. The constant sounds then punctuated by other sources of noise that changed as he walked further down to the lift. The sound of people talking on the radio from the first neighbour’s door. Mixed in with that, a baby crying, and then the murmur of the baby’s mother comforting it. From the next door, the television was on, and Jay caught excerpts of a game show. He didn’t know what, but he heard figures, drum rolls and an audience appplauding. Then the voice of another slickly stupid presenter no doubt offering someone the chance of his or her lifetime in exchange for some minor humiliation or display of pointless knowledge. The next door? An intense battle was raging no doubt on the video wall as two spaceships fought it out for supremacy. Mingled in with this was the bleeping of the scoring sysatem, chalking up the kills or the mileage. Underneath all this was the sound of heavy metal music, spurring the players of this computer game on.
The sounds of machines, rising beyond their surface role, rising to play a greater part. Keeping the people happy to be inside while simultaneously transporting their minds away from their same apartments.
Jay shook his head and switched his concentration to outside. He looked out the window again, at the scene below, trying to discern the noise of the street. It was difficult. He was about to move on further down the passageway when he caught sight of the space where he had seen the man being attacked earlier that day. There was something down there inbetween the buildings but Jay couldn’t quite work out what it was. His memory brought the image of the beating back to his brain. His imagination pictured a body, lying below. Lifeless, battered. But it was more probably a discarded box. The unwanted packaging of a newly purchased machine. Well, he could find out if he wanted. If he made it down there. That was the plan, wasn’t it?
682 words
14694 words in total
35,306 words to write
12 days to go
= 2942 words to write per day if I want to finish on time
What? Am I kidding myself? Do I really think that I’m going to be swept up by a late wave of inspiration and end up writing this much? Funnily enough, I still think it could be a possibility. Or more likely, that I pull an all-nighter and end up writing 15,000 words to be able to get back on track!
Jay stepped nearer the window and peered down at the tunnel and the traffic below. There were hust as many bubble cars as earlier. Where were these people going? What were they all doing at this time of night? Going out to meet other people? This concept was also unfamiliar to Jay. Could he ever get used to that? It would take him a long while, he supposed. But despite his underlying fear, he was anxious to reincorporate himself into this life, to find out what he had been missing. To see if it was really worthwhile.
Jay started to move forward, slowly. Did he think he could pull it off? Yes. He felt different that evening to when he had looked out over the same spot earlier that day. Wht had changed? This time, he seemed to feel strength in his solitude. Was it that? Or was it another feeling altogether? He was able to walk calmly down the passageway towards the lift.
Outside, the sound of a siren penetrated the thick glass barrier between him and the rest of the city. He didn’t look for the source of the noise, concentrating instead on the sounds from inside the building: the constant underlying hum of the heating system. Too soft to notice normally, but always there underneath the other sounds. A buzzing of the overhead lights. The constant sounds then punctuated by other sources of noise that changed as he walked further down to the lift. The sound of people talking on the radio from the first neighbour’s door. Mixed in with that, a baby crying, and then the murmur of the baby’s mother comforting it. From the next door, the television was on, and Jay caught excerpts of a game show. He didn’t know what, but he heard figures, drum rolls and an audience appplauding. Then the voice of another slickly stupid presenter no doubt offering someone the chance of his or her lifetime in exchange for some minor humiliation or display of pointless knowledge. The next door? An intense battle was raging no doubt on the video wall as two spaceships fought it out for supremacy. Mingled in with this was the bleeping of the scoring sysatem, chalking up the kills or the mileage. Underneath all this was the sound of heavy metal music, spurring the players of this computer game on.
The sounds of machines, rising beyond their surface role, rising to play a greater part. Keeping the people happy to be inside while simultaneously transporting their minds away from their same apartments.
Jay shook his head and switched his concentration to outside. He looked out the window again, at the scene below, trying to discern the noise of the street. It was difficult. He was about to move on further down the passageway when he caught sight of the space where he had seen the man being attacked earlier that day. There was something down there inbetween the buildings but Jay couldn’t quite work out what it was. His memory brought the image of the beating back to his brain. His imagination pictured a body, lying below. Lifeless, battered. But it was more probably a discarded box. The unwanted packaging of a newly purchased machine. Well, he could find out if he wanted. If he made it down there. That was the plan, wasn’t it?
682 words
14694 words in total
35,306 words to write
12 days to go
= 2942 words to write per day if I want to finish on time
What? Am I kidding myself? Do I really think that I’m going to be swept up by a late wave of inspiration and end up writing this much? Funnily enough, I still think it could be a possibility. Or more likely, that I pull an all-nighter and end up writing 15,000 words to be able to get back on track!
posted by blog-efl at 18.11.04
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