I don't know which path you're taking
If it's bent or straight
All I know is I've found something
that will take me home again
~ James ‘So Many Ways’ 1986
If it's bent or straight
All I know is I've found something
that will take me home again
~ James ‘So Many Ways’ 1986
 |
| Lower East Side ~ Inka Essenhigh |
Deserted streets fan out from inside Metal’s gate; Eva stands for a moment to gather her wits.
To the left, on the apex of two of those streets, The Hammer & Anvil offers weary travellers, in candy bright neon: refreshments, food, sex and advice; all at unadvertised tourist prices.
Inside is empty but for the bartender who accepts one of Eva’s trinkets, places it in her pocket, and, returning from the kitchen, hands her a mug of Surprisingly Tasty soup; house speciality.
“You lost, love?” she asks Eva, her tone slightly mocking, “Looking for Bigmark?” over her shoulder.
“No” says Eva, “I was born here”
“You are lost then, looking for Mum?” bending back through the doorway where she’s drying drips from glasses left too long in the washer.
“Do you know Ellie?”
“Ellie who darlin’?” yellow teeth; tea drinker.
A gaggle of rowdy men, all dressed identically in hooded capes, bang their way in, immediately sept-tripling the clientele and trebling the noise level.
Eva thanks the woman for the soup, deserts the sensory overload of the place and enters the streets of the Outer Ring, turning left, turning right without any system
The streets are empty but for the occasional armed sentry in hooded black.
Ellie has told her about the Outer Ring, but only in passing, saying that the buildings that constitute the Outer Ring are populated with observers who monitor the incoming travellers
She wanders with neither method nor aim for some hours; lost in the maze of alleyways which lead her time and again to dead-ends formed by what she presumes are either the inside of Metal’s outer wall or the outside of Metal’s inner wall.
She is lost, inside a test that asks no questions.
She is scanned in all dimensions; infrared to ultraviolet
Her image is sent inwards for recognition.
Eventually one of the sentries stops her and asks “You looking for somebody?”
She tries to look him in the eye, but the shadow cast by his hoodie gives little away.
“Somebody in particular?”
“Do you know a guy called Axel?”
“Um, you’re gonna have to narrow that down, every second fucker in here's called Axel - Axel who?”
To the left, on the apex of two of those streets, The Hammer & Anvil offers weary travellers, in candy bright neon: refreshments, food, sex and advice; all at unadvertised tourist prices.
Inside is empty but for the bartender who accepts one of Eva’s trinkets, places it in her pocket, and, returning from the kitchen, hands her a mug of Surprisingly Tasty soup; house speciality.
“You lost, love?” she asks Eva, her tone slightly mocking, “Looking for Bigmark?” over her shoulder.
“No” says Eva, “I was born here”
“You are lost then, looking for Mum?” bending back through the doorway where she’s drying drips from glasses left too long in the washer.
“Do you know Ellie?”
“Ellie who darlin’?” yellow teeth; tea drinker.
A gaggle of rowdy men, all dressed identically in hooded capes, bang their way in, immediately sept-tripling the clientele and trebling the noise level.
Eva thanks the woman for the soup, deserts the sensory overload of the place and enters the streets of the Outer Ring, turning left, turning right without any system
The streets are empty but for the occasional armed sentry in hooded black.
Ellie has told her about the Outer Ring, but only in passing, saying that the buildings that constitute the Outer Ring are populated with observers who monitor the incoming travellers
She wanders with neither method nor aim for some hours; lost in the maze of alleyways which lead her time and again to dead-ends formed by what she presumes are either the inside of Metal’s outer wall or the outside of Metal’s inner wall.
She is lost, inside a test that asks no questions.
She is scanned in all dimensions; infrared to ultraviolet
Her image is sent inwards for recognition.
Eventually one of the sentries stops her and asks “You looking for somebody?”
She tries to look him in the eye, but the shadow cast by his hoodie gives little away.
“Somebody in particular?”
“Do you know a guy called Axel?”
“Um, you’re gonna have to narrow that down, every second fucker in here's called Axel - Axel who?”
| James | ||
| So Many Ways | ||
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