Escape from Paradise

Chapter 6: Strange Incidents in A Strange World

The silent crowd paced out of the theater and down the wide stairway. Their mood was different from the usual uplifted and joyful after seeing a new blockbuster. They were exhausted and sad. Instead of going to the reserved dinner tables in various restaurants many decided to go home and have a rest. A wide river of people flowed toward the closest train station while a few streams, one of which included Larry and Diana, strayed to a lively street on the side of the Palace.

Suddenly everyone froze in awe, for they saw something that had never happened in Paradise before. The district in front of the stairway to the Palace vanished. All plants, buildings, and objects inside them disappeared, only people remained, hanging in the air, amazed just like the spectators. In a spot where a restaurant had stood, a dozen couples hung in the height of the second floor in seated positions. Twenty meters away, three pairs of dancers were stuck in the middle of lifting their partners. There were people lying, there were people standing and there were people swinging nonexistent game sticks. They all fell and slammed into the ground which at the moment was not made of the usual gray pavement but of light yellow smooth surface identical to the one in the desert surrounding the city. People screamed and shouted and moaned. But the terrible sounds lasted only a few seconds because a pack of hundred doctors flew in, silenced the victims and took them to the direction of the hospital.

The pavement surrounding the district turned into a gray goo, which moved into the emptiness from all directions and covered it with a thin layer. In the spots where the buildings had been, smooth blobs of gray mass emerged and grew in size. Larry had built quite a few buildings and seen many produced by the others but he had never seen the entire district being rebuilt at once. Not even all city board members, if they brought their tablets that allowed to manipulate matter to a degree, could achieve such a feat. The blobs moved up and their curved elongated surfaces stopped upon reaching different heights. Then they spread to all directions and formed shapes of buildings that had disappeared. Windows, rooms and all other inner features gained their shapes. Then, the lights inside them lit up and outside walls gained their distinct colors. The district was restored to its previous state missing only a single ingredient: humans.

They would return tomorrow, Larry knew, probably they will have forgotten about what had happened to them. All terrible memories after the visit to the hospital would be erased. Shocking and terrible things had no place in human memory in such a place as the Paradise.

When the spectacle ended, far in the distance at the edge of the recovered district Larry saw a hunched man with a stick disappearing into a dark alley. Larry's imagination added missing details and painted the man from Jessie's and Bill's description of the mystery man.

Diana said a silent, "Wow." Her jaw had been dropped since the buildings had disappeared.

Larry replied with a skeptical tone, "Yeah, wow. Probably the movie won't be the greatest news tomorrow."

"Why...how..."

Diana pressed against Larry's arm. Feeling her shivers running through it, Larry said, "I have no idea of what had just happened."

"Oh, hon. I'm feeling dizzy. I need to take a seat. Let us go to the Swaying Palm and get a few drinks."

"Yes. Let us go. I could use a drink myself."

They walked down along the edge of the colossal stairway and entered a wide avenue famous for high-level restaurants and bars. Here, and there drunks slunk home, many of them assisted by helpful robots whose task was to make sure that the streets on the next morning would be clean and orderly. Here, many citizens drowned in pleasures high from alcohol and drugs. Here, people wandered the streets seeking for a way to disconnect from reality or twist it for a brief period of time. Here, they met one night friends to have a boring conversation with or to drown in pleasures together.