Chapter
13
A Serialized Story of the
Not So Distant Future
May 15, 2005
Part Twenty Eight
Sam just watched as Misty got up and walked towards the glowing EXIT sign at the far end of the bar. He felt extremely awkward getting up as well, Stubs just looked sidelong at him and Fix smirked.
The crowds were thinner towards the back, Sam followed Misty's lithe form as she manuvered her way between people coming and going from the rest rooms. At first he had thought she was wearing a skirt, as he followed her he realized that she was wearing black pants covered by an oversized shirt. Over the shirt she had a netted shawl which gave her a very flowing look when she walked.
Misty held the door for Sam as they stepped into the cool night air. Sam was actually grateful to be outside and away from the music.
"That's better. I get a little overwhelmed by the crowds." She said.
"What's this all about?" Sam asked. They were standing in an alley on the side of the building, there was a dumpster behind Misty, and there were noises coming from inside it.
Misty took out her PDA. "Much to the chagrin of our associates, I have a wireless connection. This is you, isn't it?" She handed Sam the PDA.
Sam looked at the screen, it was a newspaper article from the Bensonhurst Courier: "Local Man Awakens After Decade Long Coma" It didn't mention his name, but it was clearly about Sam.
"Wow, I'm surprised my Mom didn't find this."
"The article says that you were declared dead."
"Yeah, I was gone for 7 minutes." Sam said.
"Wow." Misty looked down at the ground. "I was gone once too... I almost drowned when I was a kid. I was on the other side, I was so happy then - I really want to go back."
Sam was taken aback, he didn't know what to expect from this girl, but this wasn't it. "I remember it too. I don't think there's any words to describe being there; I didn't want to come back either."
"So why did you? Why do you stay?" Misty asked. Sam could see tears ruining her mascara.
"I've got, well I believe that we come back for a reason." Sam didn't feel comfortable sharing his non-physical experiences with anyone.
"Yeah. I used to believe that as well; but life is so pointless most of the time. Have you had any visions?"
"Visions? No, nothing like that."
"I have. Visions of death, I'm walking through the streets and there are dead people everywhere, it's like Stephen King's 'The Stand.'"
"Geez." Sam said, "is there anything you can do to prevent it?"
"I doubt it. All I ever see is the death, I don't know how it happens and even if I did, what then?"
"Good point." Sam said, "but I've got to think that there's a reason your having these visions."
"Yeah, too many horror movies." Misty said smiling weakly.
As if on cue, the noises inside the dumpster suddenly got very loud. It sounded almost as if someone were fighting to get out. Misty jumped away from it and Sam stepped forward. He was going to lift the top when his vision shifted and he could see the colorful outlines of two small figures inside.
"I think it's a couple of cats." Sam said. Just then, one of the cats howled and banged against the top of the dumpster. Sam lifted the lid up so that they would be able to climb out.
At the same time, the back door opened and several people stepped outside to smoke cigarettes.
"We should probably go back in," Misty said. "Baker is my ride, I don't want him to think I left."
"Yeah, sure." Sam said.
"Hey, thanks for listening." Misty reached up and kissed him lightly on the cheek.
"Any time." Sam said. They walked back inside the bar, there was no music playing but Sam could here Dawn's voice speaking into the microphone.
"I want to thank everyone who came out last week, especially those of us who got arrested." There was a small amount of applause and cheering from the crowd.
"We're planning another one soon, remember the right to assemble is in the First Amendment. If you don't stand up for your rights, you might as well not have them." The band started up softly as she spoke and they broke out into a new song.
Sam and Misty returned to the table, Dodge looked a little sullen and Stubs said something, but Sam couldn't hear it over the music. Sam picked up his glass and tapped it, getting drink orders from most of the table.
He went up to the bar and ordered those he could remember. "Do you know what Dodge and Misty are drinking?" He asked Dave the bartender.
"Oh yeah, here ya go." Dave said. Dave was incredibly thin, he was bald on top with a long ratty pony tail behind him. Sam could see a faded military tattoo on his arm showing just below the arm of his t-shirt.
"By the way, I'm Sam."
"I'm Dave. I own this place."
"Cool, I think it takes guts to run a place like this right now."
"Yeah well, I gave eight years of my life supposedly fighting for freedom, while the country I was fighting for went down the toilet." Dave said.
"I hear ya." Sam said. He took the tray of drinks and carried it over to the table. Misty gave him a little smile as he gave her her drink.
The band finished and the crowd began to break up a bit. Dawn came over to join the crowd at the table.
"Hey Sam, are you going to join us on the front lines?" Dawn asked.
Sam hesitated, "I don't think I'm up to being arrested just yet. Maybe in a few weeks."
"I can see that."
"So where did you two meet anyway?" Stubs asked.
"I saw Dawn getting arrested on TV last week, and I bumped into her when I was bike riding the other day." Sam said.
Misty shot Sam a little look, but she didn't say anything.
"Yeah, I feel like a celebrity." Dawn said.
"I got a question," Sam said. "If you invite everyone to these protests, how come the cops don't find out about them in advance?"
"Oh we have a tight screening process." Dawn said. "Everyone goes to the same address, but that's only to be given directions to the protest. Anyone we don't trust gets sent to a decoy area."
"The news said there were five protests that night." Sam said.
"Yeah, that was sweet, our numbers are really growing lately." Dawn said. "Actually, I led the decoy rally, along with a few other more colorful people. When people saw us, they believed that they were at the real rally, we had the Hoser's totally fooled."
"You stopped traffic though." Sam said.
"Yeah, but for like 5 seconds, the other rallies lasted 15 to 20 minutes. It was worth getting arrested in order for the others to succeed."
"So does everyone here participate?" Sam asked.
"Nah," Dawn said, "at least not in the protests. Fix does though, so does Baker and Dave. They brought a lot of veterans into the movement as well; there are a lot of little groups like us all over the city."
"Cool." Sam said. "Is there any other ways to get involved that are less confrontational?"
"Hell yeah." Dawn said. "There's a lot of behind the scenes organizing to do, phoning people, making signs and banners. All kinds of stuff."
"I could help with that stuff." Sam said.
"Excellent. Did you bring a PDA?"
Sam put it on the table and Dawn lined it up with hers and started beaming over files.
"Sam, remember to install that protection disk before you hot sync." Stubs said, "otherwise all these files are going straight to the Hosers."
"They probably get them anyway." Fix said, "there's always spies in these places."
"Yeah well, we shouldn't make it easy for them." Stubs said.
The rest of the band started loading up their equipment, and Dawn went over to join them.
Baker and Eve had their arms around each other, and came over to tell Misty and Dodge that they were going.
"I should probably get going as well." Sam said.
"We'll be seeing you around I'm sure." Stubs said, offering his hand.
"Yeah, I'll be back." Sam said.
"That's what Arnold said, before he was impeached for sexual harassment." Fix joked.
"Oh yeah, I forgot he was the Governor of California. People thought he would run for President in 2008."
"He would have," Fix said, "but Daddy Bush likes his empire, so they set Arnold up."
"One week ago, I would've thought that was just paranoia." Sam said.
"Don't get him started," Stubs said. "He's convinced that they've got Nixon's head in a jar and he's secretly running the country."
"Cartoons don't lie." Fix said.
"Have a good night." Sam said. As he left the bar, he saw Dawn and the rest of the band loading their equipment into an old Chevy Van.
"Goodnight guys, you were really good tonight."
"Hey Sam, where do you live anyway?" Dawn asked.
"72nd and 11th." Sam said.
"How are you getting home?"
"By train and bus."
"At this hour, in this neighborhood? Come ride with us, Toke lives on 5th avenue, so he's right in your neighborhood. You don't mind, do you Toke?"
"No, it's cool." Toke said.
"Thanks." Sam said. He hung out as they finished loading the equipment into the van. Sab and the Daniela had their own car, so they said their good nights and went on their way.
Toke and Dawn got into the front of the van, and Sam sat on the back bench, next to Dawn's guitar case. He was directly behind Dawn, and found himself staring at the back of her head. There was something about a bald (or mostly bald) girl that he found really unnerving. He had gotten used to looking in her eyes when he spoke to her, but from this angle, he couldn't help but focus on her head.
"So do you guys have any albums yet?" Sam asked.
"Albums?" Toke said, "nobody bothers to make them anymore. Everyone just puts out singles and sells them on the internet."
"What about the record companies?" Sam said.
"The big companies wised up a few years back, and learned to put singles out for sale very quickly. This makes them some flash cash before everyone starts passing around copies. They don't care about talent though, just whatever piece of fluff they can force on the public. They make more money through the concerts and the merchandising anyway."
"Like Teenie Marie?" Sam joked.
"Don't even get me started, I can't even have her on my TV screen." Dawn said.
"So how does a real band make it big?" Sam asked.
"Most don't." Toke said, "those who do end up selling out along the way. Personally, I don't ever want to work a place that holds more than 200 people, after that the scene just gets ugly."
"The internet makes it weird though," Dawn said. "We can put our songs up for sale, but displaying the lyrics qualifies as Sedition. Fortunately, the courts ruled a few years back that songs are protected free speech, otherwise we could be arrested for performing them."
"Yeah, but we have a fan site in Australia that displays our lyrics, so more people overseas know us than they do here in the states." Toke said.
"What's the deal with that anyway?" Sam asked. "How come I can only go to sites with .us on them?"
"Oh, you missed the whole Internet Insurrection." Toke said, "it started in 2006 when control of all intenet routing was turned over to the United Nations. U.S. companies were pissed off of course, but nobody expected that the Bush would use it as the leverage to pull the US out of the UN."
"Right after that, came the digital Berlin wall." The US had to list all of it's own domains with .us, so that no country could have .gov all to itself. The US then blocked all routing traffic that didn't originate from within the US, they claimed it was because the of foreign viruses hurting the economy. The Chinese have done the same; but as far as I know, the rest of the world is still connected."
"So there's no way to connect with the rest of the world?" Sam asked.
"Oh yeah," Dawn said, "but it's expensive. You have to set up an International access account with WOL, and there's no broadband, just dial up."
"What's WOL?" Sam asked.
"Sorry, World On Line, they're the international half of AOL now."
"We're here Dawn." Toke said as the van pulled up in front of her apartment building.
"Sam could you pass me my guitar?." Dawn asked.
Sam slid the guitar case forward and Dawn guided it between the front seats.
"Thanks, have a good night." She said.
"Why don't you move up to the front Sam?" Toke said.
"Sure." As Sam got out, he could see Dawn entering the front door of her building. His vision shifted again, and he could see a second figure just inside the doorway. He paused, afraid that she might be in danger, but then he saw the uniform of a security guard and relaxed.
"So, I take it Sam is your real name?" Toke asked.
"Yeah, I assume that Toke is a nickname?"
"It's not what you think," Toke said. "My parent's named me Tokyo, they're fourth generation Americans and are trying to feel more connected with their roots. Kids were calling me Toke since I was five, long before I knew what the word meant."
"So, what really brought you out tonight?" Toke asked.
"I don't know, curiosity I suppose. Sam said.
"Are you sure it wasn't Dawn?"
"Uh, no, not like that, besides I thought you two..."
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no." Toke said. "Me and Dawn are strictly friends. Actually, she helped me come to terms with being gay, so we're very close, but not romantically. I think she likes you though."
"Come on, we barely know each other." Sam said.
"Yeah, but I know Dawn pretty well, and I can tell when she likes someone, and believe me that doesn't happen very often."
"Well, I can't say I'm interested in anyone right now. The world has been moving pretty fast since I woke up, I don't really feel ready to be involved in a relationship right now."
"Well you've got to take care of yourself," Toke said. "but if opportunity knocks, you'd be a fool not to answer."
"That's true I suppose." Sam said.
They turned onto 72nd street and Toke slowed down. "Which house is yours?"
"It's about half-way down the block, the one on the right with the porchlight on."
"Uh oh, looks like someone waited up for you."
"Yeah, I probably worried my mother." Sam felt a little embarrassed.
"You don't have to tell me about mothers" Toke said, "if I didn't move out, mine would still be giving me curfews."
Sam laughed a little. "Yeah, I hope mine doesn't ground me. Thanks a lot for the ride."
"No problem," Toke said.
Sam came into the house, hoping his mother would remember that he was thirty years old now.
"Thank God you're home Sam! I was going to have Robbie go out and look for you soon. You could have at least taken your cell phone."
"Sorry Mom, I'll take it next time." Sam said.
"You know Sam, I'm only worried because of your health. What if you collapsed somewhere?"
"I'm ok Mom, I really don't think that will happen."
"Maybe not, but I still worry."
"Yeah, I know. I'll call next time."
posted by John at 1:16 PM | link |
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