$5.50 On A Sunday Afternoon Because We Work On Weekdays.
SUNDAY
They paired me up with her again. So many of us now than when we started. Used to think we’d end up like those stories of people gone missing, but now I think I’m finally starting to see light at the end of the hole. She was happy to see me. Just like I hoped she’d be. We went through hell to find each other. I count at least seven different species now since the Thermals arrived. Dazzle says one day we’ll all be replaced and those legends that haunt us will finally come true. I tell her she’s paranoid and I wrap myself around her and we wait our turn.
TUESDAY
Dazzle and I were tossed around together. Sifted through to the back and left to ourselves in the corner. I don’t think they can see us back here and I tell Dazzle we can hide forever here in the dark. They’ll never find us here. She showed me the parts of herself that have fallen apart. I show her the parts of myself still intact. We realize how different we are. I say that’s why we’re so good for each other. She says that’s why we’ll never be paired together again. I notice her grey tips and I worry she may be right.
SATURDAY
Heard Dobby and Jute screaming. It woke me up and I wrapped myself around Dazzle tight enough not to let her wake from the noise. They took Jute from him. It didn’t
matter how similar she was to Dobby or how well they worked together for the months they’ve been here. It didn’t matter that they loved each other. They took her away and they paired her with one of the darks. I heard Dobby shouting so loud he began to shred his chords. I tried telling him to calm down; that if he shredded himself he wouldn’t last long enough to see her return. He told me she’d been paired with a dark. A thermal dark. Dazzle awoke. Together we slumped deeper into our corner.
MONDAY
They threatened us. We managed to bury ourselves so deep they couldn’t find us, but I tell you they were angry and they barreled through the lot of us like we were dated luxury items ready for disposal. Jute had yet to return. Dobby hadn’t spoken in days and we were down to only a few remaining couples. Thermals were nowhere to be found. Dazzle and I talked about our earliest memories. Hers was more abstract and surprisingly optimistic. She talked of children and small fingers. All I could remember were the machines.
WEDNESDAY
Finally they found us. They pulled us out from the dark and dissolved our warmth. We’d been hiding for days and it was finally time to work. Dazzle and I together were like feed and needle. With each step we kept warm, we kept form and we kept our spirits high. I tickled her in the moments we touched. Though we soon found ourselves enclosed in their devices and I worried the next time I saw her she’d be falling apart at the seams and we’d no longer be paired together again. It worried me so that I could not
perform to my best abilities. I got wet, cold and I shrunk before I shred. I could do nothing to stop the forces to which it was my duty to obstruct. It seemed the world was out to get me. I pushed at the walls of my locked coffin, screaming for Dazzle to hear me. I shred myself just like Dobby had.
At the end of the day they released me. My job done. I felt no fear greater than the one of me entering that device again until today –in those few seconds before they let her go. She came out damp, tired and dragging. Her spirit gone, and her integrity pulled to the depths of the hole in which they threw us. I tried to reach her, but I couldn’t.
SATURDAY
I found Jute. She lay along the walls of our hole clinging to it for stability. I tried talking to her, asking what had happened and assuring her that Dobby was still around and waiting for her. I couldn’t believe how damp she still was. Half of her had grown stale and stained in brown while the other half still wet and creating a stench that led me to her in the first place. I feared Dazzle would look the same way if I ever found her. Before Jute could speak the Thermals made their way to me and they spoke in tones much deeper than anyone I’d ever come across.
We are the way, we are the only choice left and we will survive to see your demise.
SUNDAY
The day of renewal had come. The day I find Dazzle; the moment we reunite and I cling to her so tightly that they have no choice but to pair us together again. Our
electricity will be so bright we’ll be the first to be picked. Picked and paired. I looked for her as they pulled me out from the hole. I looked for her through the blocking limbs of the Thermals. I looked for her through bubbles, holding my breath I searched the entire sea for her grey tips. I fought the cycling battery of heat in hell and still no sign. They picked me up and laid me down and told me I’d be hell to pair up again. I peeked through the rest of us to see Jute in the mix. Pulled from hell, she was quickly stretched and then tossed aside. She would not be coming back.
SUNDAY NIGHT.
I wedged myself back into our corner. I waited for Dazzle. What felt like decades alone ended when someone finally came to meet me. It was Dobby. We clung to each other. We talked about the parts of ourselves that have fallen apart. We talked about the parts of our wives that were still intact. I didn’t tell him about Jute, and I feared what he may be holding back from me about Dazzle. In another few days it’ll be our turn to work again and maybe we don’t make it back. We’ll make it to wherever they took our other halves.
