A Momentary Lapse of Reason - 12
A Novella
12. 道听途说[i]
(dào tīng tú shuō)
It was going to be drastic, she was bleeding through the dank dark digging deeply into the ruined depths below the city. She has to get to where the streets have no name.[ii] She must escape from the men who chased her from somewhere and everywhere and nowhere. She was blown by the wind.[iii]
She wandered with heartbreak speed on the surface, each way looking down wide boulevards and stunted alleyways and river-laden streets. Each time she thought she saw a menacing figure cloak in a black trenchcoated form. Each time she saw a clawing face like a crab with a sharpened samurai scowl in the maw of the coat meaning to eat her. 平家蟹.[iv] 平家蟹. 平家蟹. Billions of years ago.[v] Counting by the million in Chinese numbers.
And thus, a search went up in her mind to find a place where she could hide from the armies of the crab. She went up Salisbury Road and down again drinking the last bit of tea from her plastic bottle and shoving the empty carcass in her left pocket. She was like Mercury in the planets, hustling and bustling to find a niche that she could call her own.[vi] This is where she saw Kit.
It was at this point she realized that they were going down into the bowels there they were working on a piece of the subway and hoping that none of the crabs would recognize where she had been. So, she fled following the man that she thought she loved.
That is how she got down here burrowing through the dank dirt and drenched garbage that had been compressed over the years into a topsoil that city streets and palm trees could thrive in.
But she heard the burrowing behind her, and she knew it had to be the crab creatures with dark trench coats. They were after her and she did not want to think about what they would do once they caught her.
And so, she burrowed ever more desperately but she could still hear the cowling claws coming after her. She renewed her efforts even though she felt she was losing ground with every passing second.
She clasped ever downwards towards the center of the earth. She felt she was in a grove, being chased by a banded and a warrior.[vii] It made her dig more furiously. She heard it on the wireless back when.[viii] There was a buzzing in her ears, and she did not know which way was up and which way was down. She only felt right here, right now, and in the present moment.[ix] Scratching and clawing for the second.
The muck squeezed down her top and blemished all of the skin on her back and chest. But she did not care because the way was the only thing that pressure allowed her to think of.
And in that moment, she thought that of a bit of luft. Air to breathe. Air to swallow. But it was only a mirage. And her heart sank. But the pit of her stomach had no room and she vomited up the water. She finished out the plastic bottle and drained the last little bit of tea.
Then she called on her left foot a pull which must, she was certain, come from her pursers. The thrashing then started, and she became tangled up with her skirt and the legs entwined around it. The pressure of the dirt came closing in on her relentless in its desire to press itself into her mouth and her nose. She gasped.
Then with her right hand, she felt a rusted pipe. And with this pipe, she shoved downwards towards the limb that had threatened to engulf her. Over and over again she rammed the corroded steel. By the end, she was exhausted, but she did not feel anything on her body that was alive. She rested and continued digging but at a more deliberate pace.
She swam inside the filthy grease and grime, through the dirt and garbage. And then she finally felt the end. She realized she was only a few inches from the bare dirt floor.
Then she stood up and realized that she had gotten to the other side. Whichever side that was.
And thus, she stood up and looked at the discombobulated windows and concrete. She did not know where she was but many people were staring back at her wondering who she might be.
Then she saw Kit, simply standing there. Then he said: “How did you get to this place?”
“I simply followed you.”
He looked up and down at her and saw the plastic model in her hand. He took it and smelled it because he thought that there was something strange about the odor.
“You realize this was spiked with a hallucinogen?”
She shook her head and moved into him and embraced. She gobbled down his shirt and caressed his neck. She whispered sweet nothings that had no effect, but she did not care in the slightest.
“Easy now, everything will be all right, eventually.” He stared into her eyes. And she got she saw the greatest moment of a connection. Her heart warmed and she realized that her skin was cold from the mire that she had dug through. She shook from the chill and he gave her the coat which he wore.
Then looking down she saw broken tiles that had once been a floor. She looked up and did not see anything other than a roof that was badly degenerated. And she realized that she must be in the Kowloon Walled City. A place that did not exist on any map because it had been destroyed many years ago. Looking around she did not know what to make of this slum city on the edge of Hong Kong.
It was a mystery.[x]
It was as if she were in a black version of Wonderland. A dystopia by way of Tim Burton.
It had no Batman, only Kit dressed in leather.
[i] Hearsay.
[ii] Reference to U2, “Where the Streets Have no Name”
[iii] Reference to U2, “Where the Streets Have no Name”
[iv] Heike Crab.
[v] Reference to Carl Sagan, Cosmos.
[vi] Reference to Holst, “Mercury” in The Planets
[vii] Reference to Akutagawa, “In a Grove”
[viii] Reference to The Buggles, “Video Killed the Radio Star”
[ix] Reference to Jesus Jones, “Right Here, Right Now”
[x] With all apologies to Shakespeare in Love.