Escape from Paradise

Chapter 12: The Unlikely Reappearance

Larry lay in his bed peeking at the rainy sky. Every now and then the verse from the desolated building uncontrollably rang in his head.

"Do not trust your eyes

for they deceive.

Believe nothing. All things

in Paradise are not as they seem.

The world is twisted by four monsters

who now sleep. Wake up, you little thief!"

Larry realized that the verse might have been a lie but it appealed to him so much that no matter how objectively he attempted to view it, it scratched into his mind as an undeniable, unshakable truth. Questions asked in the verse or derived from it, it seemed, had answers which appeared so close yet so far away.

He had not told a single word about his discoveries to Diana who had left his apartment an hour ago. She was open-minded and intelligent but difficult to persuade without proofs or hard data. Even if Larry had told her about the incident with the robot, about Sully's blackout and about Fiderscolch she would critique his facts and attempt to pull apart his theories by transforming them into simple, bizarre statements which sounded dull and stupid. If he had told her of the robot, she would have explained that the thing had simply malfunctioned, perhaps robots are capable of such obscure errors, perhaps such incidents had happened before; how would they know? He will discuss his findings with her in the close future when he gathers more evidence and builds a solid theory.

Larry found it difficult to get up not because of his laziness or softness of his bedding but because some instinct or subconscious thought in the back of his mind pulled him down in attempt to prevent him from visiting the Project Funeral. Perhaps it was the fear to learn the truth, perhaps it was the fear of the unknown, or perhaps it was a manifestation of a yet unspecified basic instinct distinct to the inhabitants of this strange world. It was a similar sensation to the one he had while sitting in the chair in the former Jessie's house, with invisible weight preventing him from getting up; only this time the weight proved to be much weaker because when the clock struck nine, his mind became blank and he jumped to his feet in the fashion of a common reception robot which woke up from his sleep whenever the front door opened.

Larry entered the gloomy streets holding a dark yellow umbrella matching the color of his clothing and saw the emptiness common for every rainy day of any season. On the way to the train station, he did not find the pigeon lover Jim sitting on a wet bench, nor did he meet Silly Sam who, Larry imagined, on his free time ravaged the streets in search of Larry for an opportunity to greet or encourage him. Fast moving lines of people with wide gaps in between them moved along the edges of the streets in the cover of the always changing rooftops constantly moving their umbrellas up and down as they crossed one other. Few walked the central path of the avenue in between the two lanes of trees where the high wind carried raindrops that dodged the cover of umbrellas, and where heavy droplets sliding off the tree boughs splashed the freezing mixture of overflowed stream and rainwater onto the shins.

The pouring rain soothed the city into a sleeping, vegetative state putting it on a life support level. Larry had no logical explanation for why people found it so difficult to get out when it rained. Were they afraid of water or of getting wet? Was the city unattractive and unworthy of adoration without sunlight lighting its shiny windows, reflecting off the polished rooftops and brightening the otherwise bleak colors? Was the sound of water splashing against the wet ground that annoyed them? Or was the rain only a convenient excuse to cover up laziness?

Walking at a slow and steady pace, Larry passed another rain lover turtling through the rain, watching the miraculous all-engulfing shower. The man's weary face with two dark coals for eyes was weathered and puckered, with a slight resemblance to the faces Larry had seen in "After The World Ended". In other circumstances due to his common stature, standard facial features and build, this man would have been indistinguishable in the crowd, just another face in the sea of people but here alone in the rain, he appeared special and interesting. During the brief meeting of their thoughtful eyes, they exchanged understanding and sympathy for one another, in the fashion of two old friends who met every day and could tell page long stories with short subtle movements, who had the power to end each other's sentences and read the thoughts of the other. The stranger carried a rare peace and intelligence in his calm, sparking, lively eyes and for a moment Larry imagined that he saw his copy in a different shell. After they passed one another, Larry wondered if he should have said anything. Perhaps not, because saying something would have spoiled the magic of the moment and of silence; the magic of the falling rain surrounding them with the peaceful white noise.