They embraced. Both Penn Holderness and his wife Kim. The halogen lights caught the tears on their cheeks and made them shine like diamonds. Ironic that in this strange new world, those tears were worth more than an entire sea of diamonds.
Much like this world, their tender moment wasn’t to last and it was Penn who attempted to break first—ever the man on a mission—but his wife held him fast. Pulled him back, pulled him down so that their foreheads touched. She looked into his eyes, and pushed her forehead into his, harder than she ought to. Hoping that maybe if she applied enough force she could finally pierce the skin. Crush the bone that separated, to finally get through to him, or perhaps to finally understand him —the man he had become.
Penn broke first. This time with more force and she let him. What choice did she have? “You don’t know that.” he said, his response was delayed and directed at her earlier declaration. That common refrain that seemed to drive the two of them to tears more and more often. He turned from her and resumed stepping into his proximity suit. A shiny silver affair with built in helmet and footwear, raided from a fire station when it all went down, capable of withstanding up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Let's say you’re right. Let's say there are others.” She said. “Why waste your time with this? Internets been gone for god knows how long.”
“Which is why we broadcast.” said Penn and he rapped on the cold metal wall behind him, and the sound reverberated throughout the entire bunker. Kim couldn’t take it. She broke down again.
“Please don’t go out there ,” she all but whispered. “Don’t leave me all alone.”
“I have to.” Penn said, and he worked both arms into the suit.
“It’s dangerous.”
“That’s what the suits for.”
“Every time..” Kim began, and Penn stopped his preparations, stared at his wife with tenderness in his eyes.
“Every time you go out...I feel like you leave a piece of yourself out there.” Seeing his wife as she was, Penn fought back both his desire to comfort her, and his desire to weep. He smiled as best he could.
“Guess I’m just full of holes then,” he said. And he was right. He was damaged —leaking. He was a Swiss-cheesed levee that had been pouring out since before everything began, before the children. He would never tell Kim, though he suspected she could sense it, that soon there would be nothing more to spill. His will to live emptied out, gone to where all the water in the world had gone. To where all his kids had gone, his parents. Just —gone. Until then though, he’d do the only thing he could do. Retread the steps he took when life was worth living. What more could you ask of a living ghost?
So he left his wife crying, slipped on his helmet, attached the oxygen tanks and brought up his equipment to the steel door at the top of the stairs. The one with the tiny view port like a welders mask. Once at the top he worked the wheel of the air-locked door, which eventually hissed open.
Exposed to the outside he greeted the scorched earth and the perpetual ash that swirled and rode the hot air. He spied the red and wounded sky and began to set up his things: the camera, the speakers. He made sure everything was in frame and then he started up the karaoke version of Alicia Keyes’ classic hit. And when it came time for him to do the chorus he belted out his own version of it into the microphone that was recording inside his suit.
“THIS .WORLD. IS ON FIYAAAAAAAAHHHH!”
Topics discussed on today’s episode include: Cait Called The Twist, SlurpFam Fall Fashion Week Month, James Corden Car Talk, Notes From Van and more!
Airdate: 09/17/21 - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1151305250
