strangetomato | Strangetown, Here We Come: Chapter 32.5

Zoe pressed down on the last piece of tape and stepped back to observe her work.

The poster wasn't anything special. She'd tossed it together pretty quickly, cut 'n' paste style, while spending the night at her parent's house. It'd do the job, though, and she had been taping them up on every surface between her house and the hospital.

She was on her way to see Jaxy.

She was going to be okay, after her close call, but they were keeping her there for some counselling. Zoe was distrustful of therapists, having known a number of them through her parents. She hardly saw the need to pay someone to sort out her problems, especially when that person had problems too. Nobody was immune to that.

Still, Jaxy needed it. It was time for her to face her past, to deal with her problems, and every little bit helped.

Satisfied, Zoe turned from her work and looked down the alleyway, along the brick wall.

It was covered with posters, neatly arranged. They were slick, glossy posters, crisp and new. Not the sort of thing you usually saw on a city wall.

There was a man standing at the far end. He noticed her eyes on him and began to walk towards her.

As he stepped just a little too close, Zoe took a step back, giving him an indication that he should watch himself. "Can I help you?" she asked.

"I see you've been admiring my posters."

"Well, I saw them, yeah." Zoe wasn't in the habit of flattering people if she didn't mean it. "What's that all about, anyway?"

"I'm spreading the good news of the coming of the third age of sims."

Zoe didn't physically back up, but in her mind, she was already running down the street. "Oh, really?"

"A change is coming. A whole new universe. If we're ready for it, and if we're worthy, we'll be reborn."

"Uhhhh-huhhh..."

"You don't believe me?"

"Nothing personal, Mr. I don't really believe things easily."

"Mr. Humble."

"Huh?"

"That's my name."

"Okay, sure. Whatever." Zoe turned to walk away. "Have a nice day now, Mr. Humble."

"Don't you want to be ready for it when it comes? If we don't adapt to the change, if we aren't prepared, we'll be left behind."

Zoe kept walking.

"Don't you have problems that you'd like to leave behind? You could start fresh, be reborn, and all of this world's worries will melt away. It will be like starting over with a clean slate."

Zoe felt tears welling up in her eyes, but she kept her head up, kept walking on just as she had been.

"It will free you from the suffering of this world."

Against her will, she felt a tear escape down her cheek. It would be nice to believe him. Zoe could do with an easy answer just then. Jaxy could use an easy answer. Ripp and her parents and everyone she knew could all use an easy answer in one way or another.

If only it were that simple.

"Hey, wait!" He had to shout now for her to hear him. "I have a present for you. Take this computer, free of charge! It'll show you. It'll show you the way. Here, take it! It's free! It's yours if you want it!"

But Zoe was already gone.

Helena Summerdream had only been in a the city for a day or two when she saw the poster.

Drummer wanted, it said, as if it spoke directly to her. She had decided to skip university to come to Sim City, a move that hadn't really surprised her family, but was unexpected all the same. With Helena, they had come to expect the unexpected.

She pulled a tab off the poster and slipped it into her pocket. It was the ticket to her dreams. Her golden ticket.

She was going to be a rock star.

She noticed an old woman talking to a man down the alleyway.

Even after only a week in this neighbourhood, she recognized the woman as one who walked that street, begging for change. Helena didn't think she was being too presumptuous in thinking that she must have been a lady of the night in her younger years. Maybe she still was, when interest allowed.

She didn't hear everything, but she caught fragments of the conversation.

"... and all the pain and suffering of this life will fade away..."

Helena's thoughts drifted.

"... a fresh start... loved ones... another chance..."

She thought of her father, crushed to death and burning.

Nothing left to show for his life but a pile of smoldering ashes.

Her sister, off at Académie Le Tour, was dead set on bringing him back from the afterlife. She wished to beat Death at his own game. As cold, calculating, and brilliant as she was, she just might achieve that. Hippolyta thought about it all of the time. Everyday, she thought of nothing else. Everyday, she relived it. She thought of nothing but death.

While Helena, her twin, tried desperately to forget.

"... you'll start over... it'll be a whole new world... a new chance..."

Helena reached into her other pocket, and popped something into her mouth. It was a seed. Her parents were active gardeners, but they grew things that nobody in this part of the world would have any knowledge of. She bit down and felt a spark of electricity shoot into her tongue as she broke the shell. After a brief metallic sensation, it tasted something like licorice.

She stood, looking straight ahead, watching the posters, observing the colours. Cars drove by and people walked pass, paying little heed to the young woman beyond a double take at her minty green skin and flaming red hair.

After several minutes, she saw a woman who was decked out in tourist gear from head to toe, and Helena started laughing.

She laughed and laughed.

She looked back down the alley at the odd man and the old whore and she laughed again. He wanted to give her a computer? Helena laughed and laughed and laughed.

What would a homeless woman do with a computer?

She listened to the man's message, and she looked at the woman's hopeful face. Was it true? Would the man really give her a second chance? It was nice to think so.

Suddenly, Helena found herself hallucinating, and she thought she could see the woman herself, reborn. Was she having a vision or simply imagining it? Standing on a cliff, a young child, looking out over a beautiful harbour. It was sharper, clearer, and more real than anything she'd ever seen in waking life.

It was as if the whole world had been upgraded.