Work Text:
<TMP modem noises>
<Fr3-d1 activates>
<Norris begins to read in a monotone>
“Fragmentary song lyric text from 1969 popular music culture, artist unknown.
I took this walk to ease my mind
To find out what's gnawing at me
Wouldn't think to look at me
That I've spent a lot of time in education
It All seems so long ago
I'm a thinker, not a talker
I’ve No one to talk to, anyway
I can't see the road
For the rain in my eyes
Fragment terminates.”
****
Teddy is walking down the dark road in a nameless suburb, and it is raining hard. He hasn’t got a proper coat on, just a light jacket, and he curses his lack of forethought not to bring an umbrella at the least.
The flimsy fabric is soon soaked in the rain, and there’s a slight but chilling wind. it’s a dark night, moonless, and he can’t hear any traffic noise at all, nor see any evidence of other people up or around, it must be past midnight.
His shoes are soon soaked through and as he walks he steps in one of the many puddles that are lurking in the uneven pavement, and curses under his breath. He is thirsty, but has nothing to drink, and there appear to be no shops or bars on the route he is walking. Mind you, at this hour, they’d all be closed anyway, he thinks.
There is little ambient light, being only a slim moon and a few scattered streetlamps, which cast old- fashioned sodium-yellowbeams here and there. There are a scattering of parked cars here and there along the road, but they all look boxy and vintage, maybe 1970s style from what Teddy recalls from old photos.
As he walks, Teddy becomes aware he is not alone after all. A tall, slim figure is walking alongside him, he is pale, with lank blackish hair, and wears jet black jeans, a more faded black t shirt, and a long black leather trenchcoat. He is wearing wonkily applied kohl eyeliner, and his long spindly fingers have fingernails decorated with rather chipped looking black varnish.
“Interesting” says the man. “I thought it would just be me here, it usually is. I’m Gerry, for what it’s worth.”
“Teddy” says Teddy. “So you’ve been here before then”?
“Many times” says Gerry. “It’s always the same. The rain, the cold, the road, the bridge. I start at the grocer’s store, I live above it here, see, and then I just walk until I get to the bridge. There’s never anyone else about though. I wonder why you’re here this time.”
Gerry stops walking, and stands silently, the incessent rain plastering his hair flat and running in rivulets onto the collar of his long leather trenchcoat . Teddy can’t quite think of what to ask him. Gerry stares ahead into the middle distance.
<Norris cuts in and reads>
“secondary fragment:
But for all my years of reading conversation
I stand without a word to say
I can't see the bridge
For the rain in my eyes
Fragment terminates “
Gerry starts walking down the road again, moving more quickly now.
Bloody hell, thinks Teddy, I really don’t understand what’s going on with this guy. He’s certainly an odd one. And where did that voice come from?
“Look mate” he calls, “wait up. “
Teddy lengthens his stride, and tries to catch up with Gerry, who is moving faster than it looks like he should be. Teddy eventually puts on a brief sprint and closes the gap to draw alongside him.
“I don’t understand why I’m here either” says Teddy to Gerry. “I mean, I’ve never even seen you before. Why would you be in my dream? “
“Oh I really don’t think it’s yours” says Gerry. “ I know this place like the back of my hand, I’ve been here so many times. AllI can imagine is that you need some sort of advice or answer from me, or I from you. And to be honest, I’m all out of questions tonight. I’m just going to let it all happen.”
Teddy watches the street gutter, which is swirling with runoff from the continuing rainstorm.
The streetlight gives some of the water a brief rainbow sparkle as it falls into the iron storm drain grille, even though it shouldn’t have the colour palette to manage that in the dark.
“I’m not sure if you can help me, Gerry”says Teddy quietly… “I want to talk to my friend, Alice, about something that I’ve got involved in recently.”
“Well, why don’t you? Sounds simple enoughto do” Gerry replies as they approach closer to a long, arching bridge that carries the road up ahead , over a deep, swirling river.
“This is probably going to sound stupid to you,” said Teddy, “but I’m sort of… being watched. Like, all the time. I want to warn Alice, but I don’t want to get her drawn in, or noticed by the wrong sort of people. And my new job is… intense. More than I realised to start with.”
Gerry pulls a face and laughs dryly. “Nah, not stupid at all, in fact that sounds pretty typical for the Eye. That’s basically how it works, it watches you, and it learns everything. If you want to warn her, You’ll have to find a way to talk to her without it noticing. White noise, distractions, get off grid, find a natural Faraday cage, that sort of thing. You’ll work out something”.
“So you do think I should talk to her about it all?”
“Well” says Gerry thoughtfully, “if you really do care about her, yeah, I think you should. There’s a lot of scary monsters out there and I don’t mean the David Bowie album. I don’t think you realise how much of a knife edge things are on at the moment, how easy it is for the world to destabilise. But you and I, Teddy, we’re only small things in the vastness. We don’t matter to them unless we get in the way. “
They have reached the bridge, and Gerry steps onto it, still talking as he walks. His pace has slowed slightly , and Teddy is finding it easier to keep up, although the wind has picked up a little and so he has to lean towards Gerry and concentrate to hear him.
“But If we don’t make human connections, talk about the things that matter, then soon we’ll just be gone, and no-one will even notice. Kind of poetic really, if a bit sad.
So yeah, Teddy, talk to her. Before it’s too late.”
Gerry falls silent as they approach the very middle of the bridge.
The rain gets heavier.
<Norris cuts in and reads>
“Tertiary fragment:
And my essays lying scattered on the floor
Fulfill their needs just by being there.
And my hands shake, my head hurts
My voice sticks inside my throat
I'm invisible and dumb
and no one will recall me
And I can't see the water
Through the tears in my eyes
Fragment terminates.”
“Well, I’d better be going”, says Gerry.
He jumps up lightly onto the bridge railing, his long leather coat billowing in the wind.
He makes eye contact with Teddy.
“You do need to tell her what’s going on, Teddy he says firmly. “She deserves a chance against what’s coming”.
And then Gerry closes his eyes, stretches out both his arms to form a T shape , and leans backwards until his body falls soundlessly off the bridge.
Teddy gasps, and rushes to the railing, but all he can see below is the long drop to an dark, frothing tumult of water. There is no sign of Gerry at all, and when his eyes tire of searching, Teddy looks back up onto the bridge, and sees a CCTV camera fixed to an overhead strut. Its lens whirs, and he knows he is being scrutinised. Then the rain intensifies and everything vanishes in a mass of rain-come-static.
****
Teddy wakes up standing in the street outside his apartment block. He must have sleepwalked again, it’s becoming more common for him. He sighs, takes out the spare key fob he has taken to wearing around his neck recently on a leather string , and blearily heads back in to get up and dressed. He has things to do.
****
Back at the OAIR, a black leather trenchcoat with a bulge from an half-used box of hair dye in the left pocket has appeared on the coatstand. The outer surface is wet with rain.
Gwen surprises everyone by making around of tea and biscuits, and seems more cheerful than she has in weeks.
“Someone’s been getting it” teases Alice.
Gwen blushes slightly. “Only in my dreams”she replies. “Too much going on here to have time to socialise in real life. Come on, Lena’ll go on about the caseload again if we don’t get back to it”.
“Yes ma’am” replies Alice with a mock salute and an eye roll at Sam.
They get back to it.
*****