Artificial Flowers
Page 31
BC could see that the lawlessness in the beauty had taken complete hold, and he wondered what she had planned.
Stepping out into the Parisian morning, they joined the human tourists who were doing the very same route. Within a minute, they had received a number of greetings, ‘Hi, Esme’ or ‘Good morning, BC’, from some Screenside couples. It was impossible to tell the difference between Humanside people and Screenside beings. Esme posed for some selfies with BC, in front of the cathedral, trying her best to ensure that she had real humans in the frame. She checked by shouting ‘good morning’ at some strangers that she could fit into her screen. A good ploy to check, as Humanside folks could neither see nor hear them. When she got a father, mother and two little children into the frame, she was satisfied, and clicked a batch of selfies.
At that point, a Screenside couple came forward and asked her, in French, if she wanted them to take a few pictures for her. “Yes, yes, yes,” she said, her excitement at being out on her first HLV jaunt clear to see. Her eyes shone brightly, and her parted lips sent out vapor, which in itself delighted her. “It’s done, BC, it’s done. Can’t you feel it?”
She dragged him here and there until she was satisfied, and then gave the go ahead to the male to take photos. He took many, and she quickly glanced through them, delighted. “With real people; with real people of Humanside!” She jogged in place in her excitement. “Where’s my family gang?”
She checked eagerly through the virtuality. “Not far ahead of us. Heading towards us. We’ll be able to see them soon. There they are!”
At that very moment, a mindless, horn blowing serial offender honked right behind her, making her leap out of the way. It was a North African male, smoking while driving his battered small car.
“Go back to Algeria,” shouted the outraged Esmeralda, at the oblivious human. “There are more people to kill there. And the law at home allows, honked before killing, not guilty. And don’t smoke, both of you. This is France. Smoker man and smoker car.”
But she gave up railing at the backfiring vehicle, in the excitement of seeing her mother and sisters. The three females were walking towards them, Diana on Jane’s arm.
“Look there.” Esmeralda pointed at a window of virtuality that she opened at just over the level of BC’s eyes. It was a full hourglass. “Noxi delivered, before dawn. You are to watch it, and warn me. We’ve calibrated the guardian! It’s a bump meter – for me!”
Esmeralda ran and skipped to her family, screaming, “Mum, Diana, Jane, I love you all so much! BC, start recording.”
And then the most astounding thing ever done in the known universe was done. A virtual being was able to make physical body contact, as she hugged and kissed a physical human being!
“Oh mum, oh mum,” and tears ran down her face, as every nearby virtual became alerted to the momentous occasion, and cameras and microphones came on, to broadcast by relay to a million joyful, instantly weeping beings, all immediately plotting their own contact, while murmuring ‘mother, mother’ in their native tongues, hearts bursting with joy at what the goddess had now brought into their lives, as they watched her holding hands and walking in step with her human mother, swinging her legs extravagantly and broadcasting a beam of delight while she marched smugly, taking time off to repeatedly kiss her mother, and pointing to her for the delighted Screenside witnesses, “My mum. My birth mother!”
BC, overcome with emotion at the sheer exuberance of his stunning girlfriend, kept an eye on the hourglass while continuing recording. She had beaten the guardian, for sure, but she had also opened a gaping doorway to togetherness, and he had a vision of a world glimpsed fleetingly, as he kept watch on the hourglass, for fear of something very bad being done to him by the beauty.
Esmeralda clearly fancied being inside her family formation, and grinned hugely for the camera, for the little while that she could hold her place in it, hand in hand with two at the same time.
Now, a small Citroen drove up from behind them, and stopped. It was John, the brother, doing driver duty, and his timing was excellent, as Diana had begun looking visibly exhausted.
The humans got into the car, Jane in front, and mum and Diana at the back. Esmeralda ran around to the driver’s window, through which she was able to lean in and plant a kiss on John’s cheek. “Love you, too, John!”
And then it was over, as the car drove away.
She was frantically waving goodbye, when she unmindfully drifted into the traffic lane, and was rudely honked by a driver, a serial horn blower, honking without reason. By chance, it was the same North African fellow as before, still smoking.
Esmeralda stamped her foot in frustration, railing again at the man. “Sent you back, did they?”
She then ran to BC, bubbling with unrestrained excitement. “Got it all? Everyone in the frame? Love them, love you, love this world.”
Esmeralda’s unbridled joy, and her indescribable excitement, made her run in place, with short quick steps, rubbing her hands in the vapor from her mouth. “We’ve done it BC, we’ve done it,” she gasped looking up at the sky. “Oh, BC, BC, BC, we’ve made it.” And she stood on his toes, planting kisses on his face. Then, guiding his hands to lock his fingers behind her waist, she leaned back. “BC, BC, BC, do you feel it?”
She leaned far back at the waist, hair falling to the ground, clear blue eyes gazing straight up at a cloudy grey sky, her arms flung out wide, as a hundred cameras and microphones broadcast to a million breathless beings.
“Oh, BC, it’s done at last,” she screamed, exultantly.
“We are people!”
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