the-city

[the-city]

Telephone Call

(Ringing)

"Hello"

"..."

"Is anyone there?"

"..."

"Okay then, have a "

"Oh sorry, Am I speaking to Mr. Cosborn?"

"Yes Ma'am"

"We have heard some disturbing news from your neighborhood."

"So have I"

"I am wondering if you would like to, you know, shed some light"

"Who you might be?"

"Paper"

"paper?"

"The Paper"

"..."

"The Paper - newspaper"

"Oh. But we don't have paper no more in the city."

"It's a nostalgia thing. Can we talk about the strange occurring from your neighborhood?"

"Yes, Yes. Where should I begin? It started a few weeks ago. I was going about my daily to the hair saloon."

"But our profile on you indicates that you lost all your hair quite many years ago."

"Yeah It's same as how you put it, (pause) nostalgia"

"Go on"

"Yes, so I was on my way and suddenly there are light flashes in the middle of the day. I had to look away from the sky."

"From where were these light flashes coming from"

"I am not sure. It seemed to be coming from The Antenna. But I checked on my receiver, the sound was coming loud and clear. Just as good as now."

"Anything else?"

"Let's see. Then I went with my business. Mrs. Campton's strange new pet is also talk of the neighborhood."

"Thank you Mr Cosborn for your time."

"Do you have any more details on those light flashing?"

"For that you would have read The Paper Mr Cosborn. Have a nice day"

[the-city]

Incident Report A51299X2

This has been the fifth derailment incident this month. This subway line seems to be crumbling apart (not unlike the city). Each incident always refreshes my memory to the day I joined the Trans Corp 15 years ago. While I was terrified the co-worker laughed off the incident as something you will get used to. 15 years later I still haven't gotten used to it. The subway has never been in tip-top shape. But I don't remember breaking down more than once a month a few years ago. After the last 4, I finally decided to go to my manager even though I knew exactly how it was gonna go. "Has anyone died?" He asked to which I was panic-stuck for a moment. "Incident Report will be on your tab by tomorrow morning" I replied after a sigh. I actually don't mind writing these. At least they provide a way to converse with someone without them shorting the discussion with has anyone died. But I don't think anyone is reading these. I still wonder what happens with these reports. Reports that everyone in this city writes. No one exactly knows what. There are many rumors circulating in the public. People often bring up, you know, The Machine! But what would The Machine do with all these non-sense? Somehow everyone has accepted that they are super important. But there never is any feedback. I once complained about a lack of feedback on the incident reports to my manager to which he encourage me to write up a feedback report. And as anyone would have guessed I never heard back from that. There are horror stories from people who stopped writing these and going mad. I am not convinced that is causation or correlation.

Someday I plan to figure that out. You know the day I will leave this Job for sure in search of the answers. I hope that day my manager would have to write a bunch of reports!