NOWHERE - 7 - at the muster station

Thus, after leaving that sort of ex-militarily area with huge pavilions displaying aquarium formats, I walk through the surrounding hills, then coming down, going across some meadows and abandoned farmlands, this is, talking to robotic scarecrows on the way, and well, as it goes, at some point, I actually come to see myself arriving at this sort of abandoned town, village, say, a town with old granite houses lined on the side of the road, all it’s doors and windows actually open, creaking, squeaking, and, also, I can glimpse huge spiders inside, apparently, injecting viscosities out here, and so, there I go, already running away from it, this is, as I move forward, at some point, I come to see myself in front of some kind of pavilion, actually an old style fire-brigade building, this is, a huge pavilion with corrugated metal walls, and well... surprisingly, as I stay here looking at it, I actually come to see some lightening inside, and so, by now, because I have nothing to lose, I decide to try my luck, I mean, in the meanwhile, there I go, already pulling a string on the side of its main door, a string that in fact makes a series of bells ring inside, and well, during some time it happens nothing, but then, actually, some dudes are already coming to see me at the gate, this is, some dudes with many eyes on the their face but actually no mouth, dressed as firemen. And, so, here they stand now, looking at me with their many eyes, intrigued, and, as it goes, I say something, this is, I make some signs with my hands, but, it looks that they do not understand nothing from the message, this is, they just roll their many eyes, and well, after a while, they are already bringing a bigger man with them at the door, and, despite this one having a big mouth just under his nose, he also doesn't speak, this is, he just babbles some sounds, but actually, as it goes, we manage to read each other's mind, and so, by now, I'm getting his message, thus, he’s actually asking from where am I coming, and, straight away “I’m coming from the Tauramataras” I manage to say. And he, well, surprisingly, by now he just tells me that he know very well where is that country is, the Tauramataras, and so, while we establish this kind of communication, those guys, I mean the small guys that before came to the door, here they stay, on our side, looking at us with their many eyes, this is, apparently amazed and bewildered at the same time, and then, there they go, opening their way to me in order to make me get in their palace. And so, here I’m now, going through this huge living-room sort of thing, a huge room decorated with some kind of ancient fire tools and also... some big photos, or portraits, like puzzles, of the mustached men that used to live here and fight the fires. And then, as we reach this other huge room, more like a pavilion, instantly, they make me sit on this big table, and they bring me food, drinks, strange fruits, quaint desserts, and well... I eat this and that, I try everything, and while I eat, here they stay, seated around me, staring at me, and here is also the bigger man, that we can call the translator, this is, the only one with mouth under his nose, and, by now, he's actually talking with them through his hands, this is, his voice comes inside my mind again, and, this is, by now he's actually telling me that at this point they are asking him who I am and what am I doing here. And so, still munching, I ask him to tell them that I’m some kind old-fashioned messenger, that is, I carry messages between different worlds, between the past to the future and between the future to the past. And the soldiers, intrigued with my exposing, now want to know more about these messages, but I say that all these messages are actually secret messages, I can’t expose them just like that, nevertheless, maybe I could give some personalized advice to each one of them here, and, then, as the transmissions man passes this comment down, again, I see their eyes getting bigger, rolling around their face, And so, in a while, we are already getting into a small room, this is, by now, just me and the transmissions man, that will translate my messages to them, and so, after saying my preys, I start to receive each one of them, individually, and thus, as it goes, to the first one that comes by, my I say that “You should completely change your life, leave your skin, leave yourself, leave this palace, coz danger will be coming soon.” And to the next one I say “Do not worry no more about what others may think or not think about yourself, do it as you please”. And to the next one I suggested “Be less arrogant with yourself and with the others around, and you will be loved again”. And to the fourth I say, “Go and look for God”. And the fifth, “Study the water and the sky” I say. And to the sixth I suggest “Pay more attention to your dreams, and you will see what is missing…” And to the seventh “The only true love is the love at first sight” I say. And to the eighth, I write a message on a piece of paper and ask him to eat it in order to understand its meaning. And to the ninth, “Stop eating bullshit” I say. And to the tenth I counseled some good black and white movies, like Tarkovsky, Bergman, Polanski. And in this fashion I followed, receiving one after another, and at some point, it was over, I have received and given advice to everybody... so, now, it was time to go up, to go up into the bedrooms area, this is, bedrooms with bunk beds where some other guys were already sleeping, and so, as we get in, now the transmissions man just tells me that, I can choose my bed, my bunk, reinforcing that, I can choose to lay on a top bed or on the bottom one, it doesn't matter, as I prefer, and of course, I chose one of the top beds, because… And, as I choose my place, he passes me a towel and tells me where the shower room is. And so, there I go, with my new towel under the arm, moving into the shower room now. But, once there, it’s very difficult to regulate the temperature of water, it gets a bit irritating, even so, after a while, I manage do it, this is, now I do not want to leave, I want to stay here forever, thinking about life, thinking about all this quaint people I have met until now, thinking about where should I go, and then, as usual, thinking about that desert from where I came, the sky falling over the dunes, falling over me, and me there... being absorbed by all that digital machinery. And then, as I'm actually done with this shower, I'm finally leaving this toilet and there I go, coming back to my bunk, this is, I put some pajamas that was already there waiting for me hanged in one of the bed's bars, and, as I lie down I try to sleep, but, I can't, I can’t coz there are some other guys whispering things in the beds around, this is, I thought that they couldn't talk, but now… as I hear them, I remember that times I have passed in that encampment under the bridge, this is, I remember the black brothers whispering non sense things all night while sticking syringes into their arms, and then I sleep. I sleep and I dream with my queen of none. I mean, here she comes, or, there she goes, actually running along some kind of white hall, one hand holding the tail of her ragged and rumpled wedding dress and the other blustering in the air, like... well, as she advances, at some point I actually come to see her trying to open this and that doors on the way… this is, in the meanwhile she actually sticks her head inside this and that room, I mean, only the head not the rest of the body, and, as she does that, she's actually screaming some interjections at the doorway, this is, some kind of non-sense stuff, and then, there she goes, advancing through the corridors again, slamming door after door, until that... she stops again at the threshold of a certain door, and now, this is, now as she opens it gently, she walks inside on her toes. And well, as I see her advancing, we can actually see the insides of that room, I mean, the light is dim and flickers, this because, apparently, a soft candle-lamp is actually installed in the middle of two unmade beds, and so, while she actually turns around, we can already see a body in a corner, I mean, a shrunken body in a fetal position actually shaking and making a humming sound... but, she don't turn to it, by now, she rather approaches the unmade beds, she smells the sheets, and then, already looking under one of that beds, she actually whispers words like "I've arrived, my love, I've come to pick you up… our vessel is ready, let's go now..."; and in the meanwhile, "Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiu!” says a voice under that bed. Therefore, after this, there she goes again, again running through another corridor, turning right, turning left, climbing another flight of stairs, getting into another corridor and then entering another room. This is, once inside this room, it’s the same picture as before, just this time the beds are occupied and their occupants are actually having some kind of small talk about feelings that goes more and less like this "hate… well, hate is some kind of bug… some kind of bug that some of us have in the stomach"; and then, "Incorrect!” says the other one, “It's not in the stomach that hate is lodged, it is in the endocrine gland, actually"; "no, no, I already had it removed, and the doctors said that it was taken from my stomach"; "that's what they told you but…"; "but I also have seen it…"; "you have seen it… oh so, which was its color?"; “I guess it was some kind of dark magenta…", "Magenta! That is not a color, dear… that is a fruit… a rotten kind of fruit it is…” and here our queen of none intervenes "I bring you the good news, my friends…"; and one of that guys says right away "we already know that you are going to marry today, and at this point, you must be looking for your broom, again, but, we told you already that, we haven't seen him for a long time… we know nothing about him, so please, leave us alone!” And so, then, there she goes, with her ballerina shoes sliding along the corridors of this sort of hospital, going up another flight of stairs, turning right, turning left, already getting in another room where the two beds are empty, perfectly arranged, and everything in the right place. And so, there she goes, now searching inside the wardrobe, she opens the dresser, she looks under the bed, this before leaving and entering another room just on the side of the previous one, and here, there is someone seated on the bed actually, smoking, and so "What happened to those who were in the room next door? Were they discharged?", she demands, "perhaps they have turned into flies and fled through the window", answers a very dry kind of voice, the voice of a man with no face, actually. "And, didn't they take you with them?”; "Why should they do that to me?" And here, again, there goes our ballerina, our queen of none, running towards the stairs, through the corridors, and then, she just gets in another room. And so, here now, there are fishing lights by the head of one of the beds, and so, we can see, two individuals rolled up in wrapping paper, jumping on the bed, this, while making some animist cries. And so, "What's going on here?"; she demands, "Today is St. John's night", "St. Anthony's night" corrects the other. "St. John," insists the first. And so, then, slowly, I mean, in slow motion, we see our queen of none making her way out, this is, running through the corridors again, coming back to the stairs, and then, there she goes, approaching another room, and as she tries to open the door, it doesn't opens straight away, it looks blocked by some object inside, and so, our queen of none force it a bit more, and then, when finally she can open a breach of it, there are some sort of robotic voice coming from inside, a voice actually saying "you're too late, my queen, your fiance is dead, I mean, he was becoming very nervous because of the marriage, and so, he had turned dangerous, and actually, we had to kill him in order to…” the voice says as we actually can see some kind of giant spiders turning around, and then, I also see, a naked male body stretched out on the bed, motionless, and, as our queen is already going for it, I wake up hearing a siren buzzing wildly, and thus, again, I come to see myself lying on the top of this bunk bed, this is, apart from this siren sound, I can also hear the other sounds of men running around, stuff being moved, and so, in a while, I’m already being dragged out of this bed, carried away from this room, being dressed in overalls, like the others, and in the meanwhile there we go, already entering some kind of fire-brigade truck, and this is, as I get in, now I can already recognize this figure here on the back of the big wheel, say, it’s actually I the translator that received me on the entrance of this fire brigade, actually the only one with a mouth under the nose, here he is, smiling at me, and the other mouth-less dwarves around, also dressed as fire-fighters, making a fuss now, this is, playing with their helmets and their hatchets, touching each others, touching my hair, giggling, and so, at some point, as we go uphill, we can already smell the fire and actually envision the clouds of smoke coming down the mountain, and then, the flames raging through the slopes, this is, many fronts of fire ploughing through different mountains around, and, well, as we behold that, the dwarves in the back are actually getting all excited with this sighting… and, this is, as we actually go up, the road is getting more and more contaminated with smoke, and so, at some point, we can't go any further, thus, we have to spot, this is, in the meanwhile, the driver finds a way to park the car on the hillside and there we go, already leaving with our smoke masks on, this is, all moving to the back of the truck now, and straight away, here they are, already unreeling the hoses, avidly pulling them, extending it through the fields, and me, well, I actually help them pulling the nozzles closer to the fire front, but then, there I go already running away from it, this is, going down the slope filled with scorched boulders, and then, following through some kind of valley actually covered with puffy ashes, say, a valley that takes me directly to the sea coast, and so, in the meanwhile along this coast I walk, I run, while actually reading the messages on the huge clouds of smoke over me.