29
Blue Pulse

The blue grew orange and purple as it tried to break through the curtain. The wind tried to help it to no avail. The piece of fabric that separated the room from the outside world is resilient. 

The calendar creeped up on September. The red date line broke the border and exited August. It almost like everyone is looking at the marker all at once, as if it determined life and death. 

Alex kept looking at the calendar. From the one single strip that marched left as the days moved on. To the single sheet that marked all the days of the new month. 

He placed his eyes on his girlfriend. It had become routine. He observed as her head made a crater in the pillow, as she had just turned away from him in her sleep. 

He didn’t want to touch her. Even as the alarm rang inside his ears. 

The tin got its little lid flipped up. Fingers went across its surface as it got applied. He got up from the bed, step-by-step, stopping every two seconds to check if she took note. 

Oh how precious she looked. What is she dreaming about?

He looked at the far wall with the spring-loaded hook that hung his windbreaker next to the bathroom. He didn’t remember it being hung. It was cast on the bed when he was playing a game off of the metal cube while waiting for her to return. 

Alex didn’t know how it ended, but he woke up to his girlfriend next to him.

Eighty-six degrees said no to the windbreaker. He slowly opened the door to the bathroom.

The razor was kept on its holster next to the wall, the cream untouched. The toothbrush went faster and gritted harder on his teeth. The solution next to his cup of water sloshed onto his gills. The instructions that were on the film said fifteen seconds, he was done in seven.

He looked at himself in the mirror, ignored the news ticker that went above his face, and left the entire bedroom.

The metro moved him to a small store at the East end of the District Mall. His feet moved quickly to reach a store.

A white long hallway shone at his feet. It was a series of booths, with their tall doors and the one-foot gap between the foot of the panel and the ground. The tops shone a color based on their vacancy.

Alex took one of them in green. He passed his print to the sensor to the right of the door, and it slid open to a small plush chair and an inset display. The door shut itself and a wrap noise can be heard to keep it locked as soon as he sat down.

The screen came to life.

Place palms at space beneath display.

He obliged.

By using this booth, you agree to allow your vital data and memories be accessed for the duration of this session. Please keep your hands on the sensor.

Basic vital checks - Complete
Dual-Level Memory Read - Complete
Checking for a current concern…

He can feel his heart pumping through his shirt. His eyes closed up. The sensor sent pulses to his palm. As his breathing stilled, the pulses stilled with him. 

Open your eyes.

He read the screen as it scrolled and the pulse put force on his hands before receding back into the wall.

This kiosk is designed to give you an answer based on the multitude you want it presented. Which answer will you like, Alex?

Cold truth.
Balanced right down the middle.
Something to make you feel better regardless.

His finger drifted between the first and second options before he made his head jerk and the machine selected the second option for him.

No, she isn’t mad at you. She honestly finds you okay.
Just a little odd, but she knew that right from the start anyway.

Truth be told, nothing to worry about.

This message is generated through the data in the Collective. 
Learn how your data gets used.

I’m done with this session.
One more question.

He stood up from the chair, and left the booth. He made a beeline through the crowd, moved into the empty pod line, and took the next Taxi home.

The breakfast car rolled in twenty minutes ago and Irene divided up the boxes in tow. Alex walked up the staircase as the craft landed, through Kevin crunching on some crosscut fries.

He stopped in front of the door to their bedroom. He hasn’t heard a call. He hasn’t heard anything, to be honest.

Irene looked at him from the table, but his face was onto the texture of the door. He doesn’t know.

His hand was on the handle, and he opened a slit just big enough for him to fit through. The hand shut the door behind him.

Angel rushed through the bathroom door to hold onto him.

“You look like a wreck. Where are you?” She mouthed quietly into his ear. “Hey, syrup.”

There was a chuckle from him, and he laid his head on her shoulder.

“Um, we can, uh, skip lunch if—“

The kiss silenced her. He pulled away, looked down in front of her.

“That’s a terrific skirt.”

“We’ll, uh, looked for one. Took a lot of spokes for us to find the one— Glad you liked it.“ Angel can’t hold her smile in. “Tell me, Alex, what’s wrong? No one can hear us.”

“You have any knowledge on who are we serving?”

“She’s from that family in New—“

He stared at the door.

“I thought you didn’t want me to know about it. I understand that, Alex. I, um, don’t think that’s a problem.”

He looked at her.

“Irene— did she talk—“

“We haven’t spoken since yesterday afternoon. Is there something I need to know?” Her secretarial instincts kicked in.

“No.” He chuckled to himself and went for the embrace again. “Nothing at all.”