mirror of
git://git.9front.org/plan9front/plan9front
synced 2025-01-12 11:10:06 +00:00
153 lines
5.3 KiB
Text
153 lines
5.3 KiB
Text
.LP
|
|
.ce
|
|
.ps 16
|
|
.CW
|
|
DRIFT
|
|
.R
|
|
|
|
.ps 8
|
|
.CW
|
|
tags: 1951, 2026, pink_floyd, tab1
|
|
.R
|
|
|
|
.PP
|
|
.ps 10
|
|
2026.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.ps 10
|
|
The sunlight fades and I wonder after my satchel. It's here, buried
|
|
somewhere under the snow. Wearily, I prop up both of my arms and thumb
|
|
through the entries on my leaf.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.ps 10
|
|
I stumble upon a decades\-old post.
|
|
|
|
.fp 1 R H
|
|
.fp 2 I HI
|
|
.fp 3 B HB
|
|
.fp 4 BI HM
|
|
.QP
|
|
.ps 8
|
|
1951.
|
|
|
|
So, I was laid out on the couch (free), face pressed up against my
|
|
camo pillow ($123.67), wondering if I should pick the dead pill bugs
|
|
out of the fibers of my bath robe, when a garish advert for a new Pink
|
|
Floyd "greatest hits" collection ($2999.99) ran across the display of
|
|
my telescreen:
|
|
|
|
.I
|
|
Order ECHOES\f(CW™\fI now and we'll include blah sqwak blah niner foxtrot
|
|
delta sqwak blah sqwak blah
|
|
.R
|
|
|
|
My attention span waned and I lost the rest of the advert to random
|
|
static generated by a mild migraine headache (previously acquired),
|
|
but the damage had already been done. Slowly, the new information sunk
|
|
in.
|
|
|
|
Within a couple of hours I had stumbled into the bedroom. I stood
|
|
fondling the jewel case of a 2\-disc collection of my own original
|
|
music (entitled:
|
|
ECHOES\f(CW™\fR),
|
|
desperately trying to figure out how Pink
|
|
Floyd's handlers had managed to bug my home.
|
|
|
|
Motherspammers.
|
|
|
|
I took a swig of apple juice from a glass tumbler on the dresser,
|
|
then spit it back out again when I realized the surface of the drink
|
|
had been blanketed by a layer of dust. I needed to stop leaving those
|
|
things laying around where anyone could find them.
|
|
|
|
I resumed staring at the jewel case. The artwork was superior to
|
|
what I had just seen on the telescreen. Fucking Pink Floyd. What did
|
|
I ever do to them? (Besides torturing that girl in the Pink Floyd
|
|
t\-shirt at DENNY'S\f(CW™\fR.)
|
|
|
|
There had to be a reason why they had selected me.
|
|
|
|
I glared at the tumbler for a couple of seconds, then back at the
|
|
jewel case in my hands. I downed the entire glass without tasting the
|
|
dust. Apple juice doesn't really ferment, but at this point my
|
|
migraine had wedged itself in\-between my frontal lobe and another slab
|
|
of gray matter I wasn't able to identify, resulting in a significant
|
|
impairment to my decision making faculties. Somehow, I kept from
|
|
vomiting.
|
|
|
|
Before long I detected a handful of splinters in my hand, and came
|
|
to the slow realization that I'd squeezed the jewel case into several
|
|
pieces. The dust flavor returned to my mouth, resembling the
|
|
sensation of pushing my tongue through ungroomed tufts of fur. I threw
|
|
the tumbler down and stomped back into the living room.
|
|
|
|
The advert was on again. This time tracking a sequence I hadn't
|
|
noticed during the previous playback. The message ran at ten minute
|
|
intervals, but I had yet to see it all the way through. The visual
|
|
rhetoric was contrived, but would probably prove effective. They'd
|
|
likely sell a billion copies.
|
|
|
|
I swallowed an over the counter pharmaceutical designed to combat
|
|
dizziness and resumed my seat on the couch. Staring at a spot two
|
|
feet above the telescreen, my mind began to spin down, drifting to
|
|
other concerns. My next shift at my corporate front\-job was scheduled
|
|
to begin in just under five hours. Still tasting apple dust (maybe it
|
|
wasn't really apple dust, after all), I chewed at the air with my
|
|
mouth and then dozed off, resigned to whatever dreams might come.
|
|
|
|
Approximately two\-hundred forty minutes elapsed.
|
|
|
|
I woke up. Two more pill bug carcasses had embedded themselves
|
|
into the folds of my robe. They no longer seemed to be the most
|
|
likely vector of leaked intelligence. In point of fact they appeared
|
|
organic. Quite simplistic. This new\-found lucidity intensified as I
|
|
painted shaving cream onto my chin and then accidentally sliced the
|
|
skin between my nostrils.
|
|
|
|
It occurred to me that Pink Floyd might not really be ripping me
|
|
off. They were probably capable of coming up with such an obvious
|
|
title as
|
|
ECHOES\f(CW™\fR
|
|
on their own. Their boxed set was probably being
|
|
manufactured even as had I decided on the title of my own collection.
|
|
Still, the overlap rankled.
|
|
|
|
I guessed that it must have been a case of Steam Engine Time.
|
|
|
|
For posterity's sake, I will note here that my own
|
|
ECHOES\f(CW™\fR
|
|
collection may be sampled at the following address:
|
|
.ps 10
|
|
.R
|
|
.LP
|
|
.fp 1 R GA
|
|
.fp 2 I GI
|
|
.fp 3 B GM
|
|
.fp 4 BI GMI
|
|
.PP
|
|
.ps 10
|
|
And here I had inserted a hypertext link. A pointer to some old,
|
|
half\-considered project of mine from my early years trying to break
|
|
into the music industry. I wince at the memory, irrationally certain
|
|
that this will be all they'll find when they finally dig my starved
|
|
body out of this house and this snow drift and begin to piece together
|
|
the circumstances of my disappearance.
|
|
.I
|
|
Decorated Agent Leaves Behind
|
|
Rough Draft Of An Early Internet Posting. Family Denies Any Knowledge
|
|
Of Agent's Artistic Endeavors.
|
|
.R
|
|
.PP
|
|
.ps 10
|
|
I lean back my head against the exposed boards of the attic floor
|
|
and observe as small flecks of snow float in and out between the
|
|
cracks in the roof. My fingers have become useless now, and I suspect
|
|
that I'm too weak to kick through the tile shingling. Troubling, to be
|
|
sure. As if to underline the point, I make an attempt to stand up and
|
|
one of my legs cracks and falls off onto the floor.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.ps 10
|
|
Well, so be it. Another opportunity to reflect on my past.
|
|
.PP
|
|
.ps 10
|
|
Reviewing this material I have to admit, I've had a good run.
|