Receiver, New Part...
This is part three that I’ve posted, right? Not in order, of course. I think it’s becoming a play. I dunno. Two-person plays are hard to sell, I think. Advice over on dead-horse, please…anyway, a bit more…although this part feels rougher than the other two…
---
“I had a dream last night.”
“Good for you.”
“No, I don’t think you understand. Sleep is usually eight hours of static for me.”
“Turn off, tune out, drop…something.”
“Sure. Anyway, you were in my dream.”
“Did I touch you in a bad way?”
“We were in Puerto Rico. The Arecibo Radio Observatory.”
“The big satellite dish in the forest?”
“Yeah. You had flown me down there and were trying to convince me to climb out onto the scaffolding in the middle.”
“I flew you down there?”
“Yeah, on Eastern Airlines.”
“Why didn’t we take People’s Express, or Ozark?”
“They were all booked.”
“Figures.”
“Anyway, I eventually did climb out onto the scaffolding with you right behind me.”
“I’m afraid of heights.”
“So you said. In any event, when we got to the center, I went into some sort of trance. I could hear cosmic rays, and neutrinos, and all of them being projected up to collector array.”
“And did you get a message.”
“Yes. I did. But first my eyes started to bleed. And then my ears. You told me you could hear my skull grating along its seams. It felt like a thousand points of light, all in my fucking frontal cortex. Just when I knew my head was going to break, I heard the voice.”
“The voice?”
“Yeah. It sounded kind of sad. It said, ‘Thanks for sending Voyager 2. The gold record was nice. We really liked the “sounds of nature” part. You know, we’d really like to come visit…and help out…but…’
“But?”
“’We’re just as fucked as you are,’ he said. ‘Sorry. We’ll put the thing back in space for you…’”
“Damn that’s cold.”
“I know. Did they really have to tell us? Couldn’t they have just let it be?”
“Maybe they just wanted us to know we’re not alone.”
“Or maybe misery loves company.”
“Yeah. That was pretty rude.”
“We don’t need them, anyway. They sound like a bunch of asshats.”
“Asshats, indeed. I need another coffee.”
benjamin sTone
1:45 am
Urbana, Illinois
Current Music: The Queers “Burger King Queen”
Current Book: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Last Movie: Full Metal Yakuza, directed by Takashi Miike
---------
compositemolecules@yahoogroups.com is where my hypershort fictions (and commentaries) go
---------
Also visible, with a few exceptions, at www.livejournal.com/users/benchilada
---------
---
“I had a dream last night.”
“Good for you.”
“No, I don’t think you understand. Sleep is usually eight hours of static for me.”
“Turn off, tune out, drop…something.”
“Sure. Anyway, you were in my dream.”
“Did I touch you in a bad way?”
“We were in Puerto Rico. The Arecibo Radio Observatory.”
“The big satellite dish in the forest?”
“Yeah. You had flown me down there and were trying to convince me to climb out onto the scaffolding in the middle.”
“I flew you down there?”
“Yeah, on Eastern Airlines.”
“Why didn’t we take People’s Express, or Ozark?”
“They were all booked.”
“Figures.”
“Anyway, I eventually did climb out onto the scaffolding with you right behind me.”
“I’m afraid of heights.”
“So you said. In any event, when we got to the center, I went into some sort of trance. I could hear cosmic rays, and neutrinos, and all of them being projected up to collector array.”
“And did you get a message.”
“Yes. I did. But first my eyes started to bleed. And then my ears. You told me you could hear my skull grating along its seams. It felt like a thousand points of light, all in my fucking frontal cortex. Just when I knew my head was going to break, I heard the voice.”
“The voice?”
“Yeah. It sounded kind of sad. It said, ‘Thanks for sending Voyager 2. The gold record was nice. We really liked the “sounds of nature” part. You know, we’d really like to come visit…and help out…but…’
“But?”
“’We’re just as fucked as you are,’ he said. ‘Sorry. We’ll put the thing back in space for you…’”
“Damn that’s cold.”
“I know. Did they really have to tell us? Couldn’t they have just let it be?”
“Maybe they just wanted us to know we’re not alone.”
“Or maybe misery loves company.”
“Yeah. That was pretty rude.”
“We don’t need them, anyway. They sound like a bunch of asshats.”
“Asshats, indeed. I need another coffee.”
benjamin sTone
1:45 am
Urbana, Illinois
Current Music: The Queers “Burger King Queen”
Current Book: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Last Movie: Full Metal Yakuza, directed by Takashi Miike
---------
compositemolecules@yahoogroups.com is where my hypershort fictions (and commentaries) go
---------
Also visible, with a few exceptions, at www.livejournal.com/users/benchilada
---------