The Wakeful Wanderer's Guide to Disillusionment

Extremes

Helen woke from a vivid dream to the sound of Gray laughing. She shifted under her thick fleece blanket, knitted by robots from the harvested remains of an era of obscene waste. Her bunk for the night was comfortable enough, but the smell of so many bodies gathered so close disturbed her. Gray was quiet for the moment. The dream of her mother returned to her. Helen was playing in the parlor with a gigantic puzzle that reached from the floor to the high ceiling made of thin colored sticks and wooden joints. She felt certain that her mother was going to stomp into the room and demand that she put it all away, but her mother was just a voice echoing off the walls from somewhere near the dining room or kitchen, making preparations, oblivious to her daughter and the mess she had made.

Once again, Gray was laughing. Helen was uncomfortably aware of the closeness of all the other sleeping people in the barracks. He was bound to wake everyone if she didn't intervene. Gray's bunk was directly beneath her own, and she leaned over the edge to prod him on the shoulder. His eyes opened, and he drew in a quick breath.

["You were laughing out loud,"] she sent.

["Okay, whoops, sorry. Did I wake you?"] he sent back.

["Yes, but only me for now, I think. Were you laughing in your sleep?"]

["No, I was awake and there's this story I found that's being passed around in Europa. It's so funny. I didn't realize I was laughing out loud,"] Gray responded. ["Do you want to see it? Someone put it together as a narrative toon. It's a little sad too. It's really old, and I think it's a true story. I can send it if you like."]

Helen, realizing she was too awake now to go back to her dream, agreed to the share.

The style of the toon was flat and brightly colored, with thick lines around simplified figures. Like all shared narratives, it felt both like a dream and not like a dream.

A young woman named Dierdre offered to take care of an elderly dog while staying in a large apartment on Manhattan Island a long time before the flood and market crash. The owners of the apartment, a pair of investment bank employees by the name of Smith, traveled by airplane to an island far to the south to get away from the noise of the city and the cold winter months.

A week into her stay in the apartment, she awakens to find the dog has passed away in the night. The body lies lifeless on the kitchen floor by the water dish. Dierdre uses a handheld phone to call the owners to let them know of the sad event. The Smiths are kind, letting her know from their cabin on the shore of a bright blue bay that they knew the dog wasn't well, and that this might happen. Dierdre asks what she should do with the body.

Helen paused the narrative.

["Is this the right story? It's not funny at all,"] She sent Gray.

["Wait for it,"] Gray responded.

The Smiths give Dierdre the address of the veterinarian, a doctor that takes care of animals, and say that she should get the body of the dog to that address where the dog would be burned to ash. The toon explained each of these things by way of look-aside illustrations so that people unfamiliar with these terms could understand them. Dierdre is asked to return and receive the container of ashes if it is ready before the Smiths come back from their trip. All of this is standard recompense for the use of the apartment. Dierdre doesn't take any offense, but after she gets off the phone, she finds she has some trouble lifting the dog, which is large and weighs a little more than half what she does. She finally finds a large suitcase, a sort of bag with clasps, in one of their storage rooms, called a closet, and loads the body of the dog into it.

["This is gruesome,"] she thexted Gray. ["Are people really finding this funny?"]

["Just keep going,"] he thexted back.