Memories resurfaced
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He was gazing at the sky when he heard his colleagues voice. “Hello, earth to Anthony!”. I woke up out of my trance. “Sorry, man. I was distracted.” He heard a gruff hmm from his partner. “Yeah, always looking up, never in front of you. I know this isn’t the most luxurious place to be but at least we have a job.” Looking at the ground below, Anthony agreed. He would be much happier back home. That was not possible at the moment. In fact for hundreds of moments. The atmosphere they both lived in was not safe any more. “We are working on it” They would say in those cheesy adverts with overly positive and squeaky voices. They reminded him of chipmunks every time he heard them.
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“There you go again, silent. You are always somewhere else. I get it. I am here with you. It would be nice to have a conversation partner, just saying..”
“I will be better I promise. I’m glad we got paired together. We are best friends after all, huh” His friend vehemently agreed with a, “Yeah man, duh!”. They both laughed at this. Getting back to work, the day passed slowly, without a hitch. That was a norm. Nothing that was not on schedule occurred. It all ran smoothly. No unexpected snags. It was a routine they knew by heart. Their days were long so when night crept around it was a relief for the respite.
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When the light of the two moons shone down, he breathed a quiet sigh. It granted him some peace. The evening passed and the day took over its watch.
The next day had arrived and at about midday the pair were discussing music. A regular occurrence. They ran through a multitude of subjects to keep their brains firing. It had started with Rock and roll of course and then to pop.
“So, what is your guilty pleasure song?” I was asked. I knew if I mentioned it I would get a round of guffaws from my friend. “Don’t laugh, but Celine Dion. “I'm alive.” My expectation was confirmed. He laughed with howling and snorting included. “Haha” I said sarcastically. In jest though. “Okay Mr snort, what’s your song then?” Looking down, he said it quietly at first. Too quiet to hear. “What, did not catch that, buddy?” Snapping his eyes up, he said it louder. “Madonna, Like a prayer!” He sounded annoyed but I did detect a hint of humour. We were used to playful teasing all the time. It came with the territory of our friendship.
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“Okay, then I have an important question for you. What are the right lyrics in the chorus?”
“Is it ‘I can’t waits to fly’ or something else completely?”
I looked astounded at him.
“It is not that. It’s actually ‘I get wings to fly’. Seriously, bro?” I laughed.
“Seems like the only way to settle this is if we ask Google.” I said, “No way, bro. She’s become annoying as anything lately. Her language use is that of a Gen Alpha. Last time she told me ask a real question and proceeded to turn off.”
“Oh come on, dude. Just do it! Face her. It will be fine.” I sighed and said the dreaded words, ‘hey Google’. A beep chimed out loud. “Hi, what’s up uggos. Why do I need to help you? JK what is it you are looking for?”
The extreme sarcasm in the her sentences made Anthony’s skin crawl. “We have a question about the lyrics of a song called ‘I’m alive’ by Celine Dion. I want to know the words in the chorus, please.” I added with as sweet a voice I could give.
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A pause for a few seconds. “Do I have to read the whole chorus out loud? That’s so much?” I did not speak my though aloud. “Oh four or six lines is so hard to repeat”. I stayed silent. Patiently waiting. “Ugh, okay. Searching.
A few seconds later came the reply.
Reciting the lyrics.
“Thank you Google for the assist.” “Yeah, whatever. You know I hadn’t even heard about this song before. Thanks for the song rec. Anyway if that’s all, I will get going. Bye.” We said goodbye back. She turned off.
“Well that went better than expected. She was even pleasant and interested.” Turns out I was right. Probably because I listened to a lot. Looking out at our surroundings, I mused. I was thinking about those words.
“Hey, Beau. Celine has a point. We should fly, be alive. Be free. Instead of waiting for improvements. We need to check it out.” Beau was stunned. “You mean leave our post? Our jobs?” “What is our job, bud? Looking around a planet, for signs of an enemy? Cleaning up the dust, that just settles back down again?” “We are more than sentries or dusters. We have more to offer than that. I say we get back in that ship and fly back home. Back to earth.”
“What about our trackers? They know where we are because of them.” “We will have to deactivate them somehow. Maybe even destroy them. We can do a bit of research. In the meantime, let’s keep up the routine, the ruse. Until we know more. One way or another we are getting off this red rock.”
