Winston and Madonna walk past the bidding crowd into the narrow street. A single person can walk through this street at a time if someone came from another side, they have to walk brushing their bellies and nipples to each other.
A man wearing a ragged cloth was walking from another side, Winston was already puzzled by the idea that how they will cross each other? This was a daily business for Madonna so she just swooped through the gap that she found. While Winston and a man dance for a few seconds left and right. A stinking smell clouds inside the Winstons' nose, making him feel unbearable to stand in front of that man. Finally, the man pushes Winston, rubbing his whole body against Winston and walks away. It takes a few seconds for Winston to get over what just happened. In his mind, the memories keep flashing, again and again, the touch of his beard against his face and rubbing of the penises against one another.
"Come on, you'll get used to it", Madonna said, laughing at his discomfort.
Winston couldn't believe that this is happening, and his cat advising him is something hard for him to digest. He tries to wipe the smell from his suit with his hand and keeps walking.
They reached the old and crumbling building that seemed like it could collapse any moment. Madonna walks inside, and Winston was terrified with the question that what if the building collapsed? But he doesn't want Madonna to see him being terrified so he just keeps walking without letting his worry reflect on his face.
The building has small apartments made of 3 and 4 rooms. Most of the doors to the apartments were closed, some were open. Winston noticed people and animals lying on the floor, as they have no life left in them. On some faces, you can see the pain of life after death, the pain of waiting for better, the pain of walking through an unending cycle, and especially the pain of non-acceptance.
Looking at their faces Winston feels pity for them in his heart. And in his mind, he started to feel a sense of the unfamiliarity with his memories, as if they are not his, but of someone else's. You cannot become courageous without being afraid. Winston always acknowledges his fears but not to this extent, where he has started to feel like someone else. It's scary when the world around you is unfamiliar but it's terrifying when you see this unfamiliarity with yourself.
They stop at a brown door, the colour of a door has started to fade away and so does the wood. Madonna struck on a door twice with her palm, Winston noticed her sharp nails while doing that. Again the silence fell around them, and within a few seconds breaking that silence, the door opened, making the sounds that come from a door in horror movies when the actors entered the newly bought house in the jungle.
a woman's head appeared behind the door, a beautiful woman. She first looks at Madonna and then at Winston, and then again at Madonna, like she was asking something with her look.
" He is an old friend", Madonna said, understanding the question in the woman's gaze. The woman looks at Winston upside down, a sudden craving of being likeable runs through Winston and he tries to make his tie proper and drift his finger through his hair. Winston has no idea why he did that.
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"He looks like an idiot", the woman mumbled and opened the door wide. Madonna entered the apartment, Winston followed her, the woman was staring at him with suspicion in her eyes. Inside there was an old white dog with black dots on it, lying in the corner. Besides the dog, there was a pig, the same size as a dog lying down.
As Winston entered both of them stood up and came towards Winston. Madonna starts introducing everyone.
" Guys, this is Winston, an old friend and Winston, this is Silvia, Tobie(dog), and Ranger(pig).
Winston greeted them nervously, Tobie shook his head in reply, while the Ranger come further and hug Winstons' leg,
"Finally someone who can match my style, these old people are so boring, all they do is lie in the corner talking about miseries and losses", the ranger said while rubbing his stomach on Winston's feet.
Winston didn't say anything, but he was happy that someone liked him.
The room has blue shades on the wall, the colour has almost faded away. There were other rooms inside, so to reach there it had a small hallway. Outside every room, there are small arcades who were offering the visuals of the street and other apartments.
" Where is he going to stay? We don't have any more rooms left", Silvia said.
"It's fine, he can stay with me", the Ranger said, looking at Winston and blushing with his mouth open wide.
Silvia makes an annoying face and walks inside, vanishing inside the dark hallway.
" I don't think she likes me at all,'' Winston said as Silvia left.
"Silvia doesn't trust people easily, she follows her trust no one's rule", madonna said
"trust is hard to find here, you will know that with time", Tobie said while sitting back in the corner, where he was sitting before.
" told you, all they could talk about is misery", Ranger said, with a tiring voice.
"Don't worry, I will show you your room", Madonna said, reading the puzzled face of Winston. They walk towards the hallway, Ranger lives in a second room after Tobies. The Ranger opened the door to his room, it was filled with old and rusty things. There is very little space that was not occupied. " Welcome to our room,'' the ranger said, making his voice a little dramatic.
Winston takes a look at a room, " where do you sleep", Winston said while noticing the little space inside.
Before Ranger could answer, Madonna said, " we don't sleep, no one sleeps here".
" What do you mean?"Winston said with a puzzle in his eyes.
"We are dead Winston, we don't have a body, which needs rest, we are just a form of energy that is waiting to obtain some physical self", '' Madonna said with a heavy voice and left.
A silence fell all over again, and his mind started wandering again, he entered the room. " hey" a voice came from behind him. He turned towards the voice. It was Silvia. She gave him a small bottle containing the nectar, and said, " this is very precious, I hope you will prove me wrong", and left.
" This is nectar, you need to take it every day, so you can't lose your memories and yourself, and eventually degenerate into lower species", Ranger said walking towards the gallery.
Winston followed him. Outside on the street usual things were going on.
"You should take a drop from it, you already look confused, your memories must have started to feel like an unknown to you", Ranger said while looking at Winston's face.
Winston opens the seal and drinks a drop from the bottle. It tastes like cough syrup. As it went down inside him, a sense of fulfilment juggle through his mind. Suddenly, he felt like his mind stopped wandering, and everything started to make sense again. A sense of unfamiliarity started to fade away, and his memories fell back in order. Confidence rose inside him and with his confidence, his fear fell back, as darkness fell to the ground with the arrival of the light.
Moon was going back to his shack, the colourful sky was turning towards darkness, letting go of his light with every moment. Ranger and Winston were lying on the floor, looking out at the passing moon.