Following (3)
By Robin Zemek
People milled on either side of him. The Charles Bridge was one of the busiest tourist bridges in all of Prague and today it showed: the cameras were out in droves. Every few seconds the air lit up with a flash and the crowds were thick and dense.
David checked his watch.
She was late.
That wasn’t like her. Even if her pattern was having no pattern, she was always punctual.
Maybe she just can’t find me in all these people, David thought.
Maybe that’s what she wants: to tease me, make me squirm, make me think I’ve come so close and she’s alluded me.
I hate it when the ball is in her court, but then again it never leaves. I am always at her mercy. And today she has none.
David walked further down the bridge and stood under an elaborate street lamp.
She wanted to meet here so I wouldn’t cause a scene, so I wouldn’t shoot her or kiss her or both. She wanted to meet now so I couldn’t toss her over the side into the frigid river. She wanted to be safe.
Safe would be not showing up.
Today it looks like she’s playing it safe.
What’s life without risks?
Where’s the passion?
Where’s the obsession?
22.2.09
18.2.09
Following (2)
By Robin Zemek
Firetrucks screamed down the street past David, furling his coat and flattening his chin to his chest. The lights painted his shadow on the wall behind him. Their wail faded down the road and he checked his phone, listening to his message once again:
“Tomorrow, Charles Bridge, 10. Bring no one.”
David looked behind him. She’s probably following me, he thought. He checked his watch. Twelve minutes. He could see the bridge.
Each step he took rippled a puddle and each breath he took puffed steam into the air. He picked up the pace.
I want to be waiting there when she shows up, he thought, I want to be able to see her coming. I want to know I saw her, that I was close to her.
His phone vibrated in his hand. It shot to his face.
“Talk to me.”
He was greeted with a dial tone and snapped the phone shut, cursing. This was part of her game.
By Robin Zemek
Firetrucks screamed down the street past David, furling his coat and flattening his chin to his chest. The lights painted his shadow on the wall behind him. Their wail faded down the road and he checked his phone, listening to his message once again:
“Tomorrow, Charles Bridge, 10. Bring no one.”
David looked behind him. She’s probably following me, he thought. He checked his watch. Twelve minutes. He could see the bridge.
Each step he took rippled a puddle and each breath he took puffed steam into the air. He picked up the pace.
I want to be waiting there when she shows up, he thought, I want to be able to see her coming. I want to know I saw her, that I was close to her.
His phone vibrated in his hand. It shot to his face.
“Talk to me.”
He was greeted with a dial tone and snapped the phone shut, cursing. This was part of her game.
17.2.09
Serial
Every few days I'll add to this. Serial.Engage.
Following
By Robin Zemek
“What are you going to do when I come knocking?”
“What are you going to do when I don’t answer the door?”
“I’ll break it down.”
“And when I’m not home?”
“I’ll wait for you.”
“And I come home to a broken door? I’d leave.”
“I’d still catch you.”
“So then you know where I am now?”
“I wouldn’t be very good at my job if I didn’t.”
“Funny... I thought I was your passion.”
The dial tone hummed into David’s ear and he placed the phone down.
“Obsession is more like it.”
He walked over to the world map mounted on the wall of his office and drove a pin into Prague.
Pins littered the map. Places like Budapest, Berlin, Naples, Rome, all had pins protruding from them, silent reminders of how close he had gotten. Their little game had all but consumed him.
“She won’t slip through my fingers again,” he twiddled the pin in his thumb and ring finger, “this time you won’t be two steps ahead. I’m catching up.”
He walked back to the mountain of paper work that hid his desk.
“Now everyone is looking for you. No more little game. Now you’re a criminal.”
He excavated some files and held them under the light.
“No one is going to hide you anymore. Tomorrow you’ll be in chains.”
Following
By Robin Zemek
“What are you going to do when I come knocking?”
“What are you going to do when I don’t answer the door?”
“I’ll break it down.”
“And when I’m not home?”
“I’ll wait for you.”
“And I come home to a broken door? I’d leave.”
“I’d still catch you.”
“So then you know where I am now?”
“I wouldn’t be very good at my job if I didn’t.”
“Funny... I thought I was your passion.”
The dial tone hummed into David’s ear and he placed the phone down.
“Obsession is more like it.”
He walked over to the world map mounted on the wall of his office and drove a pin into Prague.
Pins littered the map. Places like Budapest, Berlin, Naples, Rome, all had pins protruding from them, silent reminders of how close he had gotten. Their little game had all but consumed him.
“She won’t slip through my fingers again,” he twiddled the pin in his thumb and ring finger, “this time you won’t be two steps ahead. I’m catching up.”
He walked back to the mountain of paper work that hid his desk.
“Now everyone is looking for you. No more little game. Now you’re a criminal.”
He excavated some files and held them under the light.
“No one is going to hide you anymore. Tomorrow you’ll be in chains.”
8.2.09
Colonists
by Robin Zemek
It was a strange land, much like a cave. Sky nestled with the ground in an unending loop, it was oddly comforting. I, like most of the colonists, am always in awe at the scope of it all. It seems one dimensional, stretching only forwards and backwards, a long tube.
We’ve grown used to our surroundings in our few days here. The crops are growing nicely as fertilizer is abundant. Several colonists complain constantly about the smell, but colonization is never without a few nitwits who nitpick everything.
The days are long and light is always a constant worry. Sometimes the sun will disappear for days and sometimes it will shine for days. It is a strange alien world. Unpredictable.
We have yet to see any aliens. Some colonists further down have claimed to see them: huge brownish menaces, rampaging over their crops and leaving everything in disarray. We have sent out men to try and tame these extra terrestrial cattle. Even our best trackers have trouble finding them.
There is no north or south, only east and west. Our compasses don’t work here. Everyone has their own idea why. I think it’s because of the intense deposits of magnetized material nearby. Others think solar flares.
The land here is alien, we have abandoned all rationality. Thus is the way when you colonize a colon. But as we like to say amongst ourselves:
“Better than Uranus.”
by Robin Zemek
It was a strange land, much like a cave. Sky nestled with the ground in an unending loop, it was oddly comforting. I, like most of the colonists, am always in awe at the scope of it all. It seems one dimensional, stretching only forwards and backwards, a long tube.
We’ve grown used to our surroundings in our few days here. The crops are growing nicely as fertilizer is abundant. Several colonists complain constantly about the smell, but colonization is never without a few nitwits who nitpick everything.
The days are long and light is always a constant worry. Sometimes the sun will disappear for days and sometimes it will shine for days. It is a strange alien world. Unpredictable.
We have yet to see any aliens. Some colonists further down have claimed to see them: huge brownish menaces, rampaging over their crops and leaving everything in disarray. We have sent out men to try and tame these extra terrestrial cattle. Even our best trackers have trouble finding them.
There is no north or south, only east and west. Our compasses don’t work here. Everyone has their own idea why. I think it’s because of the intense deposits of magnetized material nearby. Others think solar flares.
The land here is alien, we have abandoned all rationality. Thus is the way when you colonize a colon. But as we like to say amongst ourselves:
“Better than Uranus.”
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