City of Stars

one

one

BEFORE WE START our story, let me introduce myself. I am time.

Merriam-Webster defines me as "a nonspatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through the present to future". Albert Einstein meant that time is relative and flexible, and the dividing line between past, present, and future is an illusion. So, reality is ultimately timeless.

I could go on and on trying to give a clear definition of who I am but for now, I will describe myself as your humble narrator.

And this is a story of a man and a woman who find each other bending the dimensions of time, breaking the laws of physics. After all, what is love if you don't break the rules?

Let's get started, shall we?

It is the year 2066 AD. 2066 years after the death of Jesus Christ. I find human beings both smart and adorable. It amazes me how they have managed to classify time in various ways. I am measured by years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds, microseconds.. wow. I adore human beings.

You see, I am nothing but a function of the expansion of the universe. I keep growing as the universe keeps expanding. But what happens if the universe stops expanding? Does that reverse me? Do I die? Will human beings start aging backward like Benjamin Button? Forgive me for the reference, I am a movie geek myself (like our protagonist). It is astounding to see men make movies about me without really knowing me. As I said, I adore human beings.

I realize I lost track of myself. See what I did there?

Right, where were we? It is the year 2066. I do not know if you are from the past, present, or future so I will spare the details about what life is like this year. Certain things are better left unsaid. You know exactly what you need to know and if I tell you what your future is going to be like, it will ruin the excitement of looking forward to things. It ruins my sole purpose.

I will just say that technology takes over humanity. Albert Einstein once said, "I fear the day when the technology overlaps with our humanity. The world will only have a generation of idiots." I realize I quote Sir Einstein a lot. He is one of the human beings who really understands me. And who does not like being understood?

Vincent Karter was born in the year 2040 AD in Reading, Pennsylvania. He was conceived in his father's living room. His father works a normal 9 to 5 job for the sake of making a living for his family. He loves his family and he loves the time he gets to spend it with his wife and son. If there is something he loves more than his family, it is the great artist Vincent Van Gogh. He met his wife at an art store when he was looking at a painting of Sir Vincent. His son Vincent kicked his wife's stomach for the first time when they were looking at the infamous 'The starry night'. That is how our protagonist got his name.

Vincent's mother is your typical mother - strong, determined, and loves her family more than anything. But my friend: death, liked her so much, he took her away on her son's fifth birthday. I do not like death very much, but in order to maintain balance in the universe, I learned to co-exist with him. Unlike me who is a function of the universe, he is a function of myself. I pitied death for a while for his hunger for life but it turns out he only wants friends. He always chooses the brightest ones hoping they would bring color to his empty life. Death gets lonely too.

The death of Vincent's mother affected his father in ways he could not imagine. He lost hope for life and the only thing that kept him going was his son. I have watched Vincent grow from a tiny little baby to a tall, handsome, good-natured man. One of the many things his father taught him was to treat people with respect and kindness. Unlike most fathers, he also taught him how to dream.

Our guy (I have learned colloquial terms to keep my narration interesting, I hope it is not very cringy - apparently this is how people talk in the year 2066 AD) Vincent loves movies. I cannot put in words to explain the passion he has for cinema. Movies were the only thing he loved after his mother died. He grew up watching thousands of movies online (on this internet website called Netflix) and he would watch his favorite movies thousands of times until he would get bored of it. He knew exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up, he wanted to make movies.

To be honest, he never really liked the idea of online streaming platforms. Yes, they were convenient and comfortable but he loves going to the cinema with his parents where his dad would buy him a bucket of cheese popcorn and they would watch the movie together. In silence. To him, that is how a movie should be experienced. Not by cocooning yourself in your blanket in your bedroom with a bag of chips. He finds it disrespectful to the art of cinema.

As I said, technology is taking over humanity. People barely go out anymore. He has a lot of friends but he has not seen them in person for ages. He works as an assistant movie director and he has gained the wonderful experience of working with Damien Chazelle, his guru.

Not as an assistant director, but as a crew member but he does not complain. 

His ambition in life is to make a movie and show it in actual cinema theaters and not on the internet. He wants families and friends to come together and buy popcorn and watch his movie. That is his goal in life.

He calls himself an "old soul". I do not know the significance of the term as every soul is just a soul to me irrespective of time. You see, I'm all three combined - past, present, and future.

He feels like he was born in the wrong era and he wishes he was born in the 2020s AD, mainly because it was the golden age of Hollywood when cinema was at its peak and also partly because Florence Skye, one of the greatest actresses of all time who was also a two time Academy Award winner was part of it.

Vincent was never the type to have celebrity crushes, let alone have one on an actress 46 years into the past. He does not like to call it a crush. He calls it a huge admiration and appreciation for her as an artist.

He has watched all of Miss Florence's 14 movies, all good and bad. He thought she was amazing in every single movie. There was something about her that captivated him. Was it her classic American beauty? Was it her passion for acting? Was it her talent that glued people to the screen when they watched her movies? Was it her ability to be herself when the media scrutinized her every move? He could not tell. All he could tell was that she was "one hell of a woman". 

She reminded him of the wonderful Miss Marilyn Monroe - breathtakingly beautiful, unapologetic, and scandalous. 

 If he could go back in time to tell her how much she has inspired him as an artist. If only he could watch her perform on set. If only he could meet someone so beautiful and yet so full of passion and talent.

If only.

And, this, my friends, is where I play my part.

***

A/N: Heyyy you wonderful human! If you're reading this book, just know that I love you and I thank you so much for choosing to read my story.

How do you like the book so far? I'm so excited to write this one! It will be an easy read and if you love movies like I do, you've stumbled upon the right book. Don't forget to vote. 

Spread love, Nova x