She was standing on the shore of an endless ocean. Literally. The ocean had neither beginning nor end. Though, a beginning it had to have had. Otherwise, there would be no shore for her to stand on. But. But. She felt as if the ocean was beginningless, just as it was endless. The milky white water seemed to seamlessly melt into the milky white shore, thus having no clear beginning.
The shore, too, seemed to have neither beginning nor end. It stretched into the horizon on either side of its seamless transition with the ocean. Behind herself, she couldn’t look. She couldn’t turn her head. Doomed to endlessly stare at the endless ocean, catching glimpses of an endless shore stretching out in either direction.
So she stood there, watching, or rather, sensing how the water ever and ever more slowly reached more and more height with every passing wave. At first, it had only been her toes touching the water. Now her skin up till her knees felt all prickly from the sensation of salt covering it. Would she eventually be completely covered by it? Drowned in the water, still unable to move? If so, why did the thought not frighten her?
Then suddenly, thunder clapped, and in the blink of an eye, the horizon turned dark. And a bang and another bang and another. The clouds began to vibrate and deform with every coming thunderclap. They seemed to form a rhythm. They seemed to form a beat. And then a deep bass began to shake the earth.
“What the…?”
Lina woke up. She stared at a white ceiling next to white walls and a white floor. The bed she lay on was also clad in white, though the linen and the pillows had a deep shade of red. Next to her bed was a large desk and a swivel chair. The desk was also white. And the chair was, well, red. You couldn’t help but notice the colour scheme going on. There was an open notebook and a collection of trinkets and funny-looking instruments splayed upon the desk, though she couldn’t see that from the bed. But she knew they were there. She had placed them there, after all.
Next to the bed on the nightstand, there was a picture of her and a girl clad in a poncho made out of countless patches stitched together. She had not placed that there but eventually gave up on removing it since it always found its way back on her nightstand. There was no closet in the room. Instead, the room had two oval doors, one leading to the hallway and the other to a dressing room equipped with a sink and a shower. There also was a proper bathroom elsewhere. But it certainly was nice to have the option of not venturing out without having showered.
The room was illuminated by a blue light on the ceiling. The emergency light. It couldn’t be turned off. Otherwise, you’d be left alone in the dark even during an emergency, of which there were enough, and that would defeat its whole purpose.
“Good morning,” Lina said. She felt the corner of her mouth twitching. She felt ridiculous speaking to hot air. But then again, the air did respond, so maybe she really shouldn’t feel stupid about it.
“Good morning, Kiddy and a wonderful morning it is!” A soft-spoken and so clearly artificially generated female voice answered her, and the lights in the room turned on.
“You’ve been sleeping quite fitfully. Did you have a nightmare?”
Busybody. She thought back on her dream. Would that really count as a nightmare? If she imagined having a nightmare, it would be more… She stopped that thought. Going down that lane wouldn’t do her any good. Then she thought back on the thunderclaps. The source of that phenomenon had become quite clear.
“It was a wonderful dream until a certain someone had decided to cause a ruckus,” she instead answered.
“What’s she up to anyway?”
There was a moment of silence.
“She appears to be playing with the controls. Should we make your room more soundproof? It is currently following the standard soundproofing guidelines. However, should they be insufficient…”
“It’s fine,” Lina interrupted.
“She made them like this in case of emergency. It’s probably better to leave them this way.”
“As you wish.”
“I’m going to tune down the origin of the noise instead,” Lina added off-handedly. They both knew it was quite pointless. The girl couldn’t help causing a ruckus during every waking moment. Nothing could be done about that.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“An excellent idea,” the voice in the ceiling answered, sounding genuinely delighted.
At that, Kiddy got up from the bed and, with graceful movements, like a dancer dancing across the stage, like a cat, every movement precise, moving to an invisible beat, she moved to the dressing room. The doors automatically opened and closed as she moved her hands across the sensor, another precaution in case of emergency.
♫
“Dah-dah. Da-da. Dah Dah“
Lina was welcomed by the sound of someone enthusiastically singing to the beat of the drums as she entered the bridge.
“Daa-daa-daaa-da-da”
It sounded pretty stupid, but she knew the other girl didn’t give a damn about other people’s opinions.
“You’re noisy. You’re loud. And you’re off-beat.”
The girl turned around in shock.
“I’m what? That can’t be! I’ve got a knack for stuff like this!” she shouted desperately.
It made Lina smile
“Ahhh, whatever.”
The girl threw away the drumsticks she had been beating on the controls with.
“Good morning, my love!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Lina waved her hand uninterestedly as she sat down on the chair next to Neeve.
“So? What have you been up to?”
“Hmm” Neeve turned her eyes in thought
“Making music?” She finally decided as she looked back at Lina.
“Aha?”
“Beating the rhythm.”
“Drumming the beat.”
“Hitting the drums.”
“I got it, I got it,” Lina remarked, annoyed.
Though it didn’t really bother her. She had already let it go.
“Same as every day,” she muttered.
“Huh? What did you say?” Neeve cocked her head
“Hah,” Lina sighed
“Nothing. Where are we headed, anyway?”
She looked at the map though she couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Neeve had tried to explain it to her before, but she couldn’t say she had listened. She could drive a car. That ought to be enough. She didn’t need to learn how to fly a plane or a spaceship.
“Hmm,” Neeve thought again.
“How about this way?!” and hit a button.
Lina chuckled. The girl really was fickle.
“Same as every day.”
While Neeve busied herself setting the coordinates, Lina looked at the playlist on the music player. What had the girl been listening to this morning that had invaded her dreams?
♫
She stood on the shore overlooking an endless ocean. The same ocean as always. The same shore as always. The same dream as always. She knew by now that she was dreaming. Though that didn’t mean she was able to move. She still could only stand frozen on the shore, sensing how more and more of her body was being hit with every coming wave. Until she would eventually drown. Though she had never drowned. She’d always woken up way before that. She’d always been risen from her sleep.
Again, thunder clapped. The sky turned dark, and the clouds began to turn purple. A dark shade of purple. And then, noise. Voices rose as two figures emerged from the clouds throwing fists, ripping out pieces of the clouds around them and throwing those pieces at each other. And the earth shook. Something fell and shattered.
Lina woke up. She stared at the same white ceiling as always. The same room. The same half-closed notebook. The same broken instruments on the desk. The same picture of a girl with golden hair, a man with dreadlocks and herself, all clad in similar-looking ponchos.
She got up.
“Seriously?”
Silence.
“Good morning Kiddy. I’m afraid so,” the voice in the ceiling answered. It sounded exasperated.
“Aaa,” she let out a sigh. Then she jumped to her feet. No point in getting upset by herself.
With the same graceful movements as always, she headed to the dressing room.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” she told the voice before the door closed on itself.
“That would be for the best,” the voice said.
♫
“IT’S YOUR FAULT!”
“IN WHAT WAY IS IT MY FAULT, HUH? YOU BROKE IT YOURSELF!”
“BECAUSE YOU PUSHED ME!”
“THAT’S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU SPACE OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HALLWAY!”
“THERE WAS NO NEED TO PUSH ME!”
Today, too, she was greeted by the familiar sight of two people busting their heads in. They didn’t even take notice of Lina approaching, lost in their screaming match.
“WHY CAN’T YOU JUST APOLOGIZE! YOU’RE CLEARLY IN THE WRONG!”
“I DON’T NEED TO! I’M NEVER IN THE WRONG!”
Lina shook her head at the sight.
“Good morning Kiddy” a robot reminding of an oversized vacuum cleaner greeted her in a solemn voice. Neeve had built its body out of spare parts. From a vacuum cleaner. Lina was convinced of that.
“Yeah, yeah. Wonderful morning” Lina muttered.
“Will you be taking over? I must admit this is quite too much for my circuits while dealing with the noise simultaneously….” It had been connected to the ship’s controls but gladly retreated at Lina’s sight. Another everyday occurrence.
“I guess I will,” she sighed as she took control of the ship.
She looked back at the siblings. Asking for directions was probably pointless.
“Well then,” she said, “let’s head wherever” and pushed a random coordinate on the map. Flying a spaceship on auto mode really wasn’t all that difficult.
And lastly, she hit the replay bottom of the music player, wondering what the girl could’ve been listening to this morning.
We live through every day
A push, a pull
The tide
We sway
Motions on repeat
Drumsticks to a beat
Everyone has somewhere to go
Where I’m headed, I do not know
Just randomly pushing buttons
Whatever happens, happens
No use to fret about the noise, the sound
We all live in the crowd
Don’t need no compass
Need no map
Things just come and go like that
No one really is on track
Life is an unknown course, they say
No use in fretting anyway
We’re all standing on the shore
The tide will sweep us away one day
For what I’m here
For what I stay
I cannot say
Cannot move until that day
世界が終わるとしても
変わりやしないんだろう
世界が終わったとしても
みんないつか死ぬんだろう