She was out of breath. It hurt.
‘Why do you think that? Why would I have brought you along if I planned to do such a thing?’
‘You’ve diverged from your original plan. Things have happened that you never predicted. Besides, the people from your planet hate me. I’m not needed. I’m excess baggage.’
Emma was now totally convinced that something toxic was being mixed in with her meals and medicine. And Sol was letting it all happen. It was now beyond her to try and think about things from his perspective or about how he might be feeling.
‘This is probably the last time I’ll come to see you,’ he said suddenly.
Summoning all the strength she had, Emma sat up.
‘Has your time come?’
‘I don’t know.’
The air between them was stifling. Emma switched on the radio. Even if they couldn’t pick up any broadcasts from Earth, they might be able to tune in to a relay station or the Spaceship Broadcasting Corporation’s pirate reports.
There was no news on the radio – it was all music. ‘Love Potion No. 9’ began wafting through the empty space.
‘So, this week is sixties week! We’ve been flooded with so many great listener requests, I want to play them all. Next up is “Satisfaction”. You all heard this one, by any chance? It’s by a group called the Rolling Stones…’
‘I can’t get no satisfaction…’ Emma sang along weakly with Mick Jagger. Almost immediately, she felt out of breath. I’m going to die, she thought, and soon.
‘Okay, and next up is… What the…? Bessie Smith? Look, first off that’s the wrong decade, and just because something’s old doesn’t make it good, you hear? I hate to see the evening sun go down, says old Bessie. Oh well, I don’t care, maybe I’ll play it anyway. Man, I’m definitely going to be out of a job…’
The disk jockey’s chirpy monologue continued for a while, then ‘St Louis Blues’ came on, but it wasn’t Bessie Smith singing.
‘You said you’d never forget. Is that still true?’ Emma said.
‘Forget what?’
Sol’s eyes were hollow. He could easily have been a patient in a psychiatric ward.
‘What happened between us. The things you said.’
Sun Ra’s ‘Heliocentric’ came on. This playlist is all over the place, Emma thought, and snapped off the radio.
Sol stretched out his neck and looked at Emma with an expression she’d never seen before, one she found impossible to read.
‘Or have you forgotten after all?’
Silence tumbled in on them like water flooding the room. Sol remained silent.
‘Say it!’ Emma said, her voice forceful.
‘I’ve forgotten,’ Sol said. A burst of clamorous modern jazz went spiralling around in Emma’s head. She let out a long sigh and dropped her hand to her side.
That night, Sol’s last thoughts entered Emma’s consciousness. And come the morning, he was gone.
There was no intergalactic war, just a minor skirmish. Six months later, Meele became a colony of Earth.
TERMINAL BOREDOM
HE was standing on the other side of the turnstiles. Duded-up as always in some ill-fitting clothes that all probably belonged to HIS dad. The trousers in particular were way too baggy. HE gave a little wave with one hand, not even bothering to peel HIS back off the pillar HE was leaning against.
I inserted my ticket into the slot and waited for the metal bar to move out of the way. The boy behind me plastered himself to my back and followed me through. He probably couldn’t afford a ticket. Once we were on the other side, he mumbled something that might have been ‘Thanks’ and slouched off.
‘What was that?’ HE asked, smirking.
‘Same thing you always do.’
‘All the heads who couldn’t make it through are grouping up.’
‘What’ll they do? If they miss the last train, I mean.’
‘Just get thrown out.’
‘Yeah? I thought they could spend the night if they didn’t have anyone to vouch for them.’
‘That’s ancient history. The population’s got too big, they can’t accommodate everyone anymore.’
We leaned against the pillar side by side. My legs got tired pretty much right away, though, and I got down on my haunches.
HE crouched down beside me. ‘Wanna go somewhere?’
I sighed. ‘Sure… Aboveground, I guess?’
HE sighed too. Then, with an exaggerated air: ‘We do the same thing every time we hang out. I thought we were supposed to be madly in love.’
I rolled my eyes. We were similar, that’s all it ever was. Two years ago I’d been happy about it. Not only did we have the same sign and the same blood type, but we were even the same height and weight. Now I’m an inch taller, though.
‘Good grief.’ HE stood up. ‘Even moving around like this, I feel like I’m gonna drop dead. Why do I feel so sluggish?’
‘Have you eaten?’
‘Oh, there you go. Slipped my mind.’
‘I’ve been trying to eat before I go out. I keep on collapsing. You need to eat a couple of times a day, apparently.’
‘I wonder why,’ HE mused vacantly. I had always assumed HE was doing an impression of a moron, but sometimes I wonder if HE isn’t simply stupid.
‘It’s probably the boredom. If you’re not doing anything…’
‘Yeah. You must be right.’
There were a bunch of young men and women (aged from twelve or thirteen all the way up to thirty or so) sitting around next to the stairwell up to the surface. Not a job between them.
‘How about we head to the unemployment cafeteria?’ HE suggested over HIS shoulder.
‘No way. That’s where all the gangsters hang out. If they snatch my ID card, I’m screwed. They’ll sell it on the black market.’
‘But you’ve got me to protect you.’ HE burst out laughing. I gave HIM a look that made it clear I wasn’t amused.
Aboveground, the sun was beating down on the filthy town spread out before us. Unfettered spaces scare me. I’m not used to scenes that aren’t in a frame. Looking at a picture inside a border always calms me down, whether it’s an ultravista or the real thing. It’s probably from all the TV.
‘Maybe I’ll do a little shopping.’
‘I don’t want to be involved. I’ll wait outside.’
‘It’s more fun with a co-conspirator. Maybe not you, though, you seem like you’d blow it spectacularly.’
HE prides himself on the fact that HE’s never been caught shoplifting. HE tells me the trick is to target the security cameras’ blind spots.
Walking towards the plaza, the one with the fountain, HE scoped out the stores lining either side of the street. Abruptly HE turned into a pharmacy. I just kept on strolling along. HE caught up to me again almost right away. After walking in silence for a little while, HE turned into a small alley. Probably going to see HIS fence.
After a minute or two HE came down from the second floor of a building with some cash in HIS hand. It wasn’t much. ‘Here,’ HE gave it to me. ‘Not my best work. The clerk was super intense, he was giving me the eye the whole time. Probably didn’t want to lose his job. So I had to settle for stuff that wasn’t worth a whole lot.’