No Time For Caution

[Click here for the accompanying soundtrack of this short read]

5 months into the experiment...

In my sleep, I hear a knock on the window…my car window. It surely must be them, the sentinels. In the Matrix movie starring Keano Reeves, the sentinels are these octopus-like machines that patrol “the real world”, not the fake “matrix” program world. They patrol the real world and get rid of any remaining human resistance. Any remaining humans have retreated to “Zion”, which is a city deep underground the earth, where the hot earth core keeps everyone warm.

To a student sleeping in a University Parking lot, campus security are like sentinels…and the safe place…? the “Zion”?... well… that’s the library. But right now in the parking lot, I’m exposed. I take my eye mask off and push the driver chair back up to sitting position. With a black curtain still draped to the driver side window, I open the door.

“Hi there, sorry but camping is not allowed in the parking lot” one of the two said.

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Its cold outside, but the sleeping bag is keeping me warm. The windshield is white with snow. The watch reads 7am. I am trying to remember where I am parked. Did I park on the hill? And which way was the car facing? I need to get up before its light out. Darkness provides the cover I need to shield myself from the peering eyes of a society that looks at people like me like a pariah. The darkness is my refuge. Only in it, may I find some semblance of privacy. This is my life now. There will be no relief for quite a while. “I looked into the abyss, and the abyss stared back at me”.

The hum drum, the monotony, the aching dullness…time stretching infinitely into the horizon. “This is you”.

Turning the ignition on and hoping it does not sputter. No it does not, it comes alive. My spaceship on a foreign land, shielding me from the relentless emotionless elements. Protecting a dream that goes far back many years, a promise made many years ago.

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“I had a dream mom” I say into the phone, as I walk about the campus. “Dad was alive and happy, he was happy to see us and we were so happy to see him”. I could tell that tugged at her heartstrings, for she fell silent for a moment. Recollections of my dad are far and few between. But there is this one recollection, walking with him in Gaborone, Phase 4. He was so tall whilst looking up at him I had to try hard not to fall over and hit the back of my head. He paused and looked at somewhere in the distance. “What are you looking at?”…questions not asked…how many there must be.

I’ve heard many great things about my dad. His premature passing was always bemoaned for unfulfilled dreams…unfulfilled promises. And now the torch had been passed on, not as a matter of fact, just a matter of “feeling”.

There are promises to be kept. And one promise perhaps more important than all, to keep...A tear rolls down one cheek. I counted 3 seconds...I wiped it off with the back of my hand and put on my headsets. I looked at the road ahead. "This is you."