Long fingers drummed against a virgin wooled knee as Tobias watched the urban landscape passing by him. This city felt alien to him. Nothing but black cutouts of tall buildings adorned with geometrical light-shows. How could anyone feel at home amidst such a synthetic background ? But then again, how could anyone feel at home in the MODERN world ? Civilization was such an unnatural concept to him. Seeing men, like him, dressed in three-piece suits, holding their iphones and their ipads, getting lost in numbers and statistics if only to ignore their HUNGER for destruction. Abandon the modern man in the wilderness and they would still commit the same ATROCITIES of their primitive ancestors. Home ought to be somewhere between the line separating humanity and savagery. It wounded him to think so many were prepared to DENY this.
His head turned to examine his driver’s profile. She was the quiet type. But something about her large heavily-lidded eyes felt familiar to Tobias. Much more familiar than anything that concrete jungle had to offer him. The woman didn’t seem to blink often. An impromptu often found in the insecure or sociable. In that aspect, Tobias’ driver seemed REPTILIAN. An empty stare that did not care much for others. Perhaps it didn’t even notice them . . . Not until they got too close. He had learned long ago she was not a regular driver. She didn’t come in any list or website. She was no tour guide or hostess. Tobias wasn’t even sure whether she could be called HUMAN. She was something else entirely. The detachment of every movement she made guaranteed this not to be such a farfetched thought.
Fingers ceased to mark their silent rhythm in order for Tobias to listen to the woman. Usually he was very good at LISTENING. Tobias Budge could hear things no other musician could. The inner workings of the human anatomy were as loud as clockwork to his ears . . . But her song was nothing but a steady drum. No improvisations, no subdued strings . . . Nothing. The next question didn’t NEED to be asked. It would have been avoided were he in a social event, mingling with the opera enthusiasts, trying to improve the details of his HUMAN VEIL. But this wasn’t a mascarade. No one within that car was playing a role. Nobody found the need to impress or manipulate . . . Just two creatures in their natural habitat.
❝ Have you ever been afraid ? ❞