ravings of a lunatic: Control

Control

Sunnudagur, 23. apríl 2006

Nú hef ég endurskrifað fyrsta kaflann. Hér er afraksturinn. Það breytist ekki margt.. en eitthvað. Eins og t.d. kemur nafnið hennar Hope fram strax. Eina ástæðan fyrir því að það kom ekki strax fram var einfaldlega sú að ég vissi ekki hvað hann ætti að heita. Ég segi hann.. því þetta var hann alveg þangað til þetta breyttist í hana þegar David segir að hún sé insane.

hehehe

IN CONTROL, it read. David mustered a smile as he read the newspaper on his way to work. The article was spread across the front page and it was about him. His team and the way he had handled the recent universal crisis. He filled his lungs with fresh air and let out a satisfied sigh. Yes. He was an efficient Y-cell. No doubt about it.

David's headquarters, the damage control center, were located in a building raised on top of a hill overlooking the valley of The Core. It was only a brisk seven minute walk from David's apartment. Every morning he would start his day at the office by reading the morning paper, enjoying a tall glass of water. On a slow day he sometimes took a nap in his chair but on a hectic day he was busy giving orders to his officers located all throughout the universe. He was in charge of damage control for the whole organism and he had managed to land that position without ever going into the field. Not once. That thought always made him grin.

When David opened the door to his office that morning, he was thrown off by the sight of a young X-cell sitting in the chair in front of his desk reading a piece of paper he had left there the day before. It was a note from the waste disposal unit. The memo was of no importance but clearly indicated this was the worst kind of X-cell there was - a curious one.

"Did you find something interesting?" he said in a dry manner as he entered the room. The X-cell looked up at him, returned the note quickly to his desk, and ignoring his remark completely, stood up and smiled.

"You must be David", she said and extended her hand for a handshake, "I'm Hope. The new Creative Thinking Sergeant."

David shook her hand somewhat reluctantly. A new Creative Thinking Sergeant?

Crap.

"What happened to Paul", he asked, sat down in his chair and placed the newspaper on the desk - front page up.

"He decided to retire. He didn't tell you?" she replied. Her eyes wandered curiously around the room.

"No". David was not amused. He liked Paul. Mostly because Paul was old and uninterested in his job. Also because he did everything David told him to do. Getting someone young and vital for the job was not in David's favor. Getting an X-cell was a disaster.

After scanning the room with her eyes, a small snow dome that was sitting on David's bookcase caught Hope's attention. Inside she was able to see a small mansion and when she shook it, little bolts of lightning whirled in the water all around it. It was a rare conversational piece David treasured and the thunderbolts seemed almost real, giving off sparks as they were hit by the daylight.

"Oh how beautiful", she said with fascination as she watched the sparks fly inside the dome. After she had marveled on it for a while, she walked over to a large observation window, overlooking the valley of The Core.

"And these are the walls", she said absent mindedly, shifting the snow dome between her hands as she studied acres and acres of tall sturdy walls stretching as far as the eyes could see.

"Yes." David forged a smile. Watching her throw the dome around like that agitated him and he wished she would just return it to where it belonged, but he was proud of those walls down in the valley. They were a much needed shelter he had constructed for the protection of The Core and he liked studying the impact they made when someone saw them through this window for the first time. This particular observation window was the only one that really did justice to their splendor.

She stood there for a while looking out the window before she sat down again and placed the snow dome on his desk. In David's opinion, just a little too close to the edge.

"I'm surprised Paul didn't tell you he was about to retire, he has a profound respect for you", she said and smiled. David had no doubt she was telling the truth but his eyes were on the snow dome.

"I didn't get much time to settle in and there is very limited information on file regarding the Creative Thinking Sergeant's duties", she added, "and since we will be working together, I just wanted to introduce myself and perhaps get more information from the chief cell in charge", she sounded very sincere.

He wasn't surprised she hadn't found much on file on the subject. David liked taking naps in his chair but Paul had turned it into an art form. He leaned back in his chair and ran the hand across his chin - trying to give an impression of authority.

"Well.. ", he said and gave the snow dome a quick look, " there is only one thing you should keep in mind. Little innocent ideas, like the one Paul had recently about the universe getting a dog. Ideas like that can lead to all kinds of trouble. In that particular case we found the universe had a bad reaction and we are still working on a wall to prevent a code red alert caused by the disappointment", he paused briefly, "you can read all about it in today's paper."

David deliberately neglected to tell her the dog had been his idea. All hell broke loose a while back when the universe fell in love, not his idea, and when the love thing didn't work out - David had been up to his eyeballs in all kinds of travesties. He was still convinced the dog would have done the trick, but the universe turned out to be allergic. He didn't understand this strange urge for companionship and affection most universes shared, he found it completely unnecessary.

Hope remained silent for a while and David's eyes wandered back to the dome.

"I understand", she said, "well, I should be getting back. See if I can find some more files. It was very nice to meet you and I'm really looking forward to our collaboration."

David nodded politely in acceptance but her going through Paul's files made him a little uneasy. He had no idea what sort of crap Paul had been writing down in his reports, nobody ever read them.

Hope rose from her seat, grabbed the snow dome and walked over to the bookcase in order to return it, but it slipped from her hand and fell to the floor with a loud crash as the glass shattered into million pieces.

"Oh!", she cried out, "I am so sorry!" She knelt on the wet floor and started picking up pieces of glass and little thunderbolts murmuring apologies as she placed them in her hand.

David closed his eyes for a few seconds. "Never mind, just.. just leave it." He made no attempt to hide his frustration.

"I'm really sorry", she said again, placing the lightning bolts on the shelf, "I really am".

"Forget it", David said and frowned.

Hope gave an apologetic smile before she left.

When David had closed the door behind her, he walked over to the broken snow dome and picked up the foundation. The mansion looked intact.

"Vandalism", he said quietly. How the hell he was supposed to work with a mutilator like that was completely beyond him. He'd have to find a way to get rid of this albatross.

He threw the snow dome in the bin on his way back to the chair and meditated on how much liability she might turn out to be. How much damage she could cause. David couldn't find peace of mind until he returned to the article about him in the newspaper and was once again reminded of what an efficient Y-cell he was.

No doubt about it.

That day was a slow one and David got his usual nap. Later, his deputy Ed, brought him the afternoon paper and David leaned back in his chair, reading the newspaper with a big grin on his face.

DEFCON 1 ABORTED - was plastered across the front page in large bold and black letters. "A fatal nervous breakdown, due to severe disappointment in the recent dog allergy situation, avoided. Damage control is building another wall around The Core and all residents are safe according to the unit officer".

He lowered the paper, gave the ceiling a proud glance and thought about how efficient he was - again. He continued reading the newspaper, not really taking any of it in, still thinking about how he made the headlines again - until he reached the back page.

"PET PROJECT TO REPLACE PET"

What the..

"The new Creative Thinking Sergeant has made a suggestion believed to replace the pet dog. This suggestion has been approved by the universe."

NO!

David jumped from his seat, his hands were shaking vigorously.

"No! NO! She simply cannot DO THIS TO ME!" he shouted and grasped his forehead. At that very same moment Ed, David's deputy, entered the office.

"Uh.. sorry sir, is everything all right?", he had heard David shout and was a little startled.

"NO", David thundered, "everything is WRONG! That blasted terrorist, have you seen THIS?" David threw the paper on the desk, and as if for some cosmic guidance it landed in a perfect position, displaying the article in question. Ed read it and sighed.

"EXACTLY!", David screamed even louder than before, paused and cleared his throat of mucus induced by his screaming.

"This is awful sir", Ed proclaimed, "just terrible. What are you going to do sir?"

"I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I will go up there and put an END to whatever it is this treasonous tramp has come up with. How did she find the TIME to dream up CANCER like this? Just another ridiculous catastrophe we will have to clean up once it blows up in the universe's FACE!

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M SAYING DEPUTY?"

"Yes sir."

"AM I MAKING MYSELF CLEAR?"

"Yes sir."

"YOU KEEP BUILDING THAT BLASTED WALL!"

"Yes sir."

"IT'S OUR TOP PRIORITY!"

"YES SIR!"

"I'm going to crush this proposal, RIGHT NOW", David shouted, grabbed his coat and stormed out the door, leaving Ed behind. As the door slammed shut, Ed glanced at the newspaper again, closed his eyes for a few seconds and gave a dreary sigh.

| anna | 10:45 |