#theatomium

[thegnasticious]

Atomium

In 1958, the world’s fair happened in Brussels. 

Atop the Heysel Plateau was multiple exhibitions for people to take entertainment and information from. 

Being an international event, the people of Brussels wanted something truly outstanding to represent them in this fair. 

With the help of André Waterkeyn and architects André and Jean Polak a 335 foot tall beast was built. The whole form of the structure was built to signify a single unit of an Iron cell magnified 165 billion times. 

Supposedly the Atomium was intended to show enthusiasm for the atomic age, though an Iron cell is lacking in any nuclear fusion. Interlinking walkways were made to connect the orbs of the cell making it appear like a Node. 

A central elevator can take 22 tourists to the top in 23 seconds for a panoramic view of brussels in a self-run restaurant. Proper supports were lacking in the original design, most of the compensation and weight was put structurally on the spheres. At first exhibition much of the steel beast was fully accessible to the public. People marveled at the seemingly endless walkways, and an art deco atmosphere seemingly out of a Kubrick movie. 

It’s original design was only made for the fair, a duration of 6 months. people of Brussels seemed to welcome the structure, and as other exhibitions were dismantled, the Atomium still loomed. For 30 years the Atomium stayed, becoming a landmark icon, but parts of it deteriorated. You could see the top spheres lost aluminum in some spots and parts of the supports were beginning to rust. This was about 10 years after the fair, a very debated time in German history because of Russian collusion and near occupation in the area. 

I met the Atomium myself, in a dream. I had seen it before somehow, but I couldn’t quite define it. 

“You fucking see this, 

just look at all of Brussels, I knew we’d make it here baby”, something yelled at me. 

I faded from the Black of sleep to a migraine earthquaking my brain in two. The light was deafening, I could hardly see anything. My hands were tied behind this orange fixed chair. It was bolted to the ground. Wasn’t I at home in bed last night? How did I get here?

“Billy the kid, baby, that’s me. You know why were here? Every year at least one poor asshole jumps off this monstrosity.”

He wore a Black leather jacket with a crimson sweater underneath. I could see the glow of his cigarette in the dark afar. He then came from the dark dragging a person, as he lifted it, I made out who it was.

“Greg!”, I screamed.

At that moment something hit me, a flooding of memories. 

Greg was my former boyfriend, I had just left, but was with for a considerable amount of time. I could feel that something was wrong and see it. His usual glasses were smashed into his face and his head was blown out in all directions. Blood was trickling all over. Billy had beat him pretty bad. I don’t know if he was unconscious or dead.

“Why the fuck did you do that?”, I yelled at him.

He held out a rag towards me.

“You’ve seen this in the movies, chloroform. That how I stalked you guys for months. Pulling you and him out at night, playing with you both in any way I wanted to. You’re parents lied to you, I’m no doctor, I’m no person, I’m no nobody. That gang work I got Greg into, don’t worry nobody will wonder why he jumped off the world’s greatest Atomium. I framed him perfectly, stalking you guys day in and day out. Getting you guys up here wasn’t easy,”

As he said that, the room seemed to sway with a gust, he almost fell over. I felt a bit like puking, everything was swaying like a ship.

“I’ll tell you something though, I always liked you. Now that Greg is out of the way, it can be just you and me baby, every day, all the time. I saw those looks you used to give me. We could go rob his stuff blind after this, run away forever like you dreamed about. You know, that’s why you dreamed of this place, that and what I’m about to do”, Billy said.

He then grabbed Greg by the black hair at the top of his head. I could feel the strands of hair in my fingers as he did. The hours we spent together, learning about each other’s flaws and perfections. How was this the culmination? How was this right? His body dragged lifeless across the metal floor. A quick gust came again, and Billy slipped, slamming Greg’s face on the floor. More crimson red blood pooled out, It was at that moment I realized, he was probably already dead. Billy grabbed him by the head again and dragged him to an opening straight to the outside. It looked like part of the wall had fallen off. I could see the glimmer of sun from outside. Billy turned him to me and said,

“Get a good look”, 

He then turned and threw his body out of the sphere like a rag-doll.

From outside, you could just see what looked like a little almond falling to the base of the Atomium in the rising red sun. 

In my bones, I could feel it, that he was gone. 

Billy then turned to me with a sinister look, I knew he was going to hurt me or worse, I closed my eyes and I prayed for a miracle. 

That was when a gust hit the sphere stronger then any before. It knocked Billy over and he seemed to suck right off the edge, as if a gravity well had opened below. 

I saw the Black of his eyes as he screamed for help, and I wished that he found none. I could see his corpse hitting the ground below, splattering into the red of his sweater.

He had taken something so important from me, all those nights, how I’d wake up, I’d blame Greg. The worst part was knowing that is was Billy. Before this, all I knew of Billy was that he was Greg’s long time best friend. When I was found in the Atomium that evening by a security guard who heard my screams, everything opened up.

The next days Belgium newspaper read:

“Atomium caper caught: 8 years of false suicides linked to murders”

It would be another 20 years until the Atomium would be renovated. It’s top spheres were enclosed, and further supports were added. As fears of business being deterred, no monuments have been erected for Greg Tremmel or Billy Freil. But the story does exist in some dark corners of Belgium, or me as I will always remember the Atomium, for better or worse

[bloominbrilliantdesign]

Inspiration #TheAtomium #Belgium #molecule #inspiration #sculpture #photooftheday