The drumming of the high-frequency, low-bass, and high-pitched speakers drummed into my ears, free of charge, unlike the mandatory digital audition program by the government of Las Vegas, the least paranoid government of the free states of the West, the real West.

I turned to my left; hundreds of bodies danced at the rhythm of the ear-drilling speakers. Glasses on their hands and smoke between their fingers. I turned to my right and saw my group, still dancing under the heavy influence of Chinese Aerosol taken on one of Matilda’s old scarfs.

Matilda, Chien, and Harry were the selected few for today’s party. They accomplished well their functions, Matilda allowed our group to pass all doors, especially on days like today when all her clothes were mostly transparent. Chien gave variety, the kind of man who would speak to you out of the blue about some stupid realgame that he has been playing for years on end and will die playing it. Harry, objectively a boring man with a severe lack of spirit, had found a job that he had, reiterated through the years, to be his dream since little. The job, I kid you not, amounts to no more than a nine-to-five which allows him to go to one of those burger chains every day. Yes, he is fat, at one point he had been a jogger, but like every other jogger, he had ended up forgetting all about physical exercise.

The group, albeit their natural skills made them unable to be sufficient for any situation, when combined during these types of events worked wonderfully. This was true craftmanship, had I invited Pedro or Shamura things would not have gone so well, indeed this has been one of my favourite formations in years.

I smiled thinking about this, took a breather and looked at the open ceiling. How the ships and fliers flew harmonically leaving small gaps to gaze at the infinite outer space! What a genius I am! What a formation indeed! What a sight to see!

Sometime later, Harry waved us and began his discourse of leaving the party. How it played out was a masterclass on the power of dictatorship indeed. He said: ‘We should get going, it’s already 4 am! Plus, my wife is already getting ready for her shift, by the time we get there the place will be empty,” Matilda’s brows inclined just a bit. She knew that the pursuit of stay was fruitless. Most surely, she had eyed a couple, if not a dozen victims by this point, but Matilda being a seasoned actress in the art of hunting, bowed to the absolute power of he who granted the mattress. On the other hand, Chien has no will. I do believe that no man that dull and with such traditional objectives can have a conscience. The problem with this is that if I admit to that, humanity has no conscience.

Finally my turn, and I, being the mastermind of this party, my objectives accomplished – I already had some fun with a couple of girls at the beginning of the night, back when these lumps were putting themselves high – there reminded nothing but the act of absolute diplomacy: “Great idea Harry, let’s get going to your drive,” I accompanied this with a thud on his shoulder, he did not respond, but I saw all over his face how he had liked that. Of course, he had liked that, a man with no objective, no enlightenment, has but few pleasures. One of them must be sports; other, cheap entertainment, realgames for sure were always the first pick; and lastly, a way of showing his power, his influence, this has been accomplished by my acceptance of the greatness of his idea. What a damn fool.

As we were pushing our way through the people, sporadic liquids falling onto our coats – we have learned the hard way better not to inquire about the liquids - I came to the most massive and captivating thought: The Mega Mattress.

Yes, the last time that I had been in Harry’s house, I had seen four Mattresses in his basement. And, he had promised me, yes, he had promised me that next time we would all sleep together down there and watch some movies after partying. We would be able to sleep in a Mega Mattress. That happened around six months or so, but today, today was the day.

I will not exaggerate when I say that I had thought of the possibility of the Mega Mattress during the night. Imagine, we would push everything to the sides in that basement, the small cabinets, the pool table, the tools, all of it. The floor would then be covered with his cheap Moroccan carpets and then… and then we would create the Mega Mattress, imagine it, four king-size Mattresses together. An undertaking never seen before; a bed so big that we could roll all over it! And we are only four, it's perfect!

Suddenly we were getting out of the massively constructed structure that was the incarnation of all vices in this city, the Metallic Skeleton. We walked various streets before we got to one in which we were alone. The gutters in the decorative pavement of the archaic road were three inches deep. Matilda was jumping and walking from side to side turning herself viciously and dramatically, she was chanting something inaudible, probably a great hit. I found myself sipping more than I should from my flask, but how could I avoid such a misdeed, the great moment of the night, well, more like the event of the whole month, the Mega Mattress was incoming.

“How are you doing with your gal Seb?” I turned and walked backwards while looking at Harry, with his unshaven dancing dewlap disturbing my thought process.

“All well in that front, I suppose,” I responded turning myself and lighting a cigar after fumbling to get my flask into one of my inner pockets.

“No wonder you are about to mess it up, like you always do. I have never met a man so consistent and persisting in screwing up chats,” Added Matilda smiling with her red thick enhanced lips.

“I admit that I tend to overreact to these situations.” After all, how could these people that I call friends, who were mostly dead inside, with no expectations in life, living for the monthly paycheck? How can they, under such a life that every decision puts them into a collision course with mediocrity? No, no, no, they never, not in a million years, would understand my greatness, the greatness of existence, true existence, not existence for enhanced lips, misty nights among circuits, and mindless pondering from burger joint to burger joint.

Under this state of mind, we arrived at Harry’s flier, a deep red, aesthetically pleasing, with no décor-wheels that used a hundred per cent magnetism – as he has been kind enough to tell us on countless occasions. I dropped myself on the front copilot seat, fastened my seat belt, and popped another cigar.

“Drop that Seb, I told you that Anna doesn’t like that smell in here.”

“She is getting you into a tighter leash, Harry. I can’t believe we cannot even get a smoke in here anymore. We used to only smoke in here!”

“Drop it, Seb. Keep at your flask and be done with it,” I complied with him and sipped from my flask a couple of times in a row, it was so painful to see the old concrete die by the weakest of erosion.

The flier vibrated slightly and, in a second, we were elevated in the air two hundred feet inbound to the outskirts of Las Vegas Suburbs, around a hundred miles away. I fought viciously against sleep with the same resistance and zealousness as those knights of old fought for their holy lands. Outside of my struggle, Harry was speaking over his shoulders to Matilda and Chien about something quite unintelligible over the loud psychedelic-pop-electronic music, the one that he listened to. It was very common for him to tell us how proud he was of listening to music for junkies. Now, of course, he was better than them, since he did not do those drugs. And once again, his capacity to feel his use of power was realised and a wide smile painted his rounded face.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Normally I am not this condescending towards others, I tend to be more understanding of their own foolishness; after all, they are not stupid out of their willingness, they simply don’t know any better.

Look at Harry, he grew up amongst stupid fellows of the less disadvantaged neighbourhoods of downtown Las Vegas. Still, all their families were middle-lower class, they never scrapped for food, low enhancements, or desalinated water. Every single one of his friends wanted to be something simple, vane, unsuccessful. Something that allowed them to get some cash in and turn it into immediate amenities. They were not the lowest of the low, for they kept their cash for more than a week; however, they spent it all at a concert in Luna or something. From my point of view, that is just the same as living for a high, the bloody same.

Harry at least went to Uni, for an absolutely mediocre degree, but even there greatness could have been cultivated. I was able to do so, in that degree, we were classmates. But his course was already set, no matter how much I tried to steer him, he was bound for nothingness, and at that point, he knew nothing else than nothingness. Thus, it is pointless to blame them for their own mediocrity. If we were sixteen again, I could have said something, but not now, not at this point, they were set, cast weapons of unreliable hardness and utility.

And even though normally I understand this, that day I was so wasted that my filter had turned off. My endless thoughts that amounted to a hundred lives of Harry were overflowing me, and controlling my speech became a real problem. I thank whoever is out there, looking after me, God, Spirit, or Saint, that that day the air traffic was empty. We made the hundred miles at record speed. Another second in that flier and I would explode to those losers that I had for friends.

The flier dived down with great speed and slowed down seamlessly in front of Harry’s house, a pink old-fashioned suburb three stories house. Harry parked the flier in front of the door and violently shook the key off the ignition.

“Let’s go, remember, no noise till we hit the basement.”

“Yes, yes, no waking up your fish.”

“They are not mine Matilda, for Christ’s sake do not make any noise!”

We all grumbled out of that situation and followed in Indian file Harry as he parkoured through the rock trail that was placed on the perfect green grass. Only God may know what would happen to us if we were to step on that grass.

The door recognized Harry, unlocked itself, and a very dim light illuminated the wide hall of the house. We shook our boots lightly in the floor indentation, left our clothes, and began to, sneakily, direct ourselves to the basement. With utmost care went down, our steps being cushioned by the carpet that covered from the entrance to every other part of the massive house.

The lights inside the basement revealed Harry’s basement, one which I would have been able to navigate blindfolded, drunk and lacking a leg. There were some changes down there though. The all-knowing old-fashioned clock, made in the old French sector of the European Union was ticking, thus defeating all purpose of calling it all-knowing. All around us, there were many toys of complex nature and forms. I had to navigate them carefully as I assessed the future real state of the Mega Mattress, It did not down on me the possibility of these toys, some of them modular and put together with great care, affecting the overall goal of the night: the construction of the Mega Mattress.

We were well past the tipsy face, Matilda dropped herself on top of one of the mattresses which was on the left-right corner. Chien took possession of the brown couch that had broken down several years back. It was a group dream to restore it to its original glory, it used to shape to any size and comfort that we required. In the end, what my father had said to Harry turned out to be true: ‘No matter the level of advancement, complicated and complex technology always breaks down sooner or later. That couch of yours will last for no longer than a year.’ It lasted seven months, sixteen parties, and one wedding.

I rapidly, seeing the overall direction of my friends’ actions, grabbed Harry on the shoulder and turned him to talk. He looked tired.

“Hey, I can’t see the other mattress, you know, the fourth one that came on fliers from your uncle’s.”

“It’s right over there, under the physical cooking books in the far end, you know that she really likes her books on paper. I would never understand. No comfort no nothing,” said Harry.

I could have inserted a comment on how he didn’t even read, he only pretended to do so on Sundays to play the role of an interesting person. But I needed him on my side for the Mega Mattress, no reason to antagonise him.

“I see, let’s get to build this thing then,”

“Sure. You wanted to put all of them on the floor, right?”

“Yup, it should be easy enough, I’ll get these two up and going while you get the toys out of the way. For some of them, it will just be easier to push them to a corner.”

He nodded and began to work.

I moved vigorously towards Chien, he seemed to be asleep.

“Chien, get up we need to push the mattresses, we are going to sleep all together in the middle.”

“Whhhyyy sssooo…” And even more incomprehensible gibberish came out of his mouth.

“Let’s get this on the move come on.”

“Just leave the dog alone Sebastian for Christ’s sake, this is hardly the time for one of your stupid shits,” I turned and looked at Matilda, dumbfounded by her harshness.

“What do you mean by that?” I managed to inquire dropping Chien’s hand.

“We are all wasted and here you go with another one of your tantrums about life and stupidity being the greatest bliss and whatnot.”

“Come on Matilda, this will be done in a matter of minutes, I know you, and Chien, hell even I am wasted, but we need to get this done! When will be the next that we will all get the chance to be here together? Fighting for a new destiny, for the greatness of our group, in a sense commemorating our roots!” I knew instantly that I had messed it up, I heard that Harry had stopped gathering up the different stupid toys that his kids played with.

“Come on, let’s try it, I promise it’ll be quick, tis’ a matter of putting them together in no time.”

Harry by this time had already dropped the last toy he had grabbed onto; the dream was dead.

“She’s kinda right you know Sebastian, and we could…”

I just stopped paying attention, there was no point in hearing what he had to say. He would begin to label both points of view, almost in a sense in which I would need not get worried about the project completion. But slowly he would begin to demonize it, surely, he would, I am sure. And slowly he would moralize his point of view and create a demonized version of my project so that it would be lost. He would say things like: ‘Putting four Mattresses together, come on, it’s not a bad idea, it’s just pointless…”

Pointless.

That was the problem with these friends of mine, they never did anything that was not useful, they had perfected the art of avoiding pointlessness to a degree that if this was a sport, they would compete against the Southeast Asians and the Parisians for the gold, and which is no small feat.

My body was losing most of its thermic power just hearing the light echo that Harry was transmitting. I glanced to my right, Chien was already asleep, and I turned violently seeking Matilda who also was sound asleep. Tomorrow she will go back to her life again, to work for that boss of hers. To go back to that sexual impasse that had been going on for years, and that most likely will end up in a marriage or a catastrophe.

Suddenly I became very, very sad, I looked at Harry, who by this point had convinced himself that the act of righteousness was that of not building the Mega Mattress, and spoke to him with the last of my strength:

“You seem to be right again Harry, I can’t never figure out how you always get it,” It was no surprise if the solution was the death of liberty and intelligence, he would always find fortune by his side, “I’m going to have a smoke outside for a little, I’ll come back to sleep later.”

“Okay buddy, don’t worry, we’ll do this Super Mattress next time. I’ll even convince Pedro to come with us!”

I nodded and patted his shoulder. The padded stairs and hall did not soften the heavy steps that my body took as I dragged it outside, silently, as there was no need to wake the fish. Outside I gazed at the sky, it looked so beautiful. Massive ships sailed in it as hundreds of fliers flew under them. I wondered there, once again, why I had decided to stay in Las Vegas. Why had I decided to stay on Earth? If I was so different from these people that I called my friends, why I was still hanging out with them? Why was my life a replica of them? Why was I then earning the same and having the same problems as them?

I lighted the cigar, puffed it, and looked at the sky in such a determined way that if a movie was being filmed, that would be the end credits of a tragedy.