I made a deal and our souls are the price
fall with me into sensual delight (come on baby)
eat of the fruit before they turn on the light
I walked through the archway into the next room, her voice trailing her words away into a low croon. Johnny was still talking to Legs, so I wove my way through the people towards the bar.
“Hey Sofia, love the dress,” Hola called out from the bar and I walked over. She looked classy, a slinky little black dress showing off her curves.
“Thanks babe, love your show,” I answered, leaning on the glass surface of the bar and looking at the exotic fish of multiple colours and patterns that swam within. I turned to the bartender. He was a good looking kid, probably another aspirant to the dizzy heights of Stellarwood.
“I’ll have an Afterlife with a twist, easy on the lime,” I smiled.
“You should come on the show some time,” Hola said. “We can talk about music and life, a little politics but I want to focus more on the spiritual side of Sofia. You do know your name means wisdom?”
I nodded and accepted the drink from the bartender. He gave me a friendly smile.
“I’ll put you on with Guru the seventh, have you met Um?” she said sipping from a straw bobbing out of a bottle. There was some kind of glow-worm in her alcohol.
“Um?”
“‘Guru the seventh is called neither he nor she but Um? because the guru alone knows if he’s a woman or she’s a man.’ That’s from their literature. Can you believe it? In this day and age of scanners that can tell you what your mama had for dinner the night your papa knocked her up, not one person knows the gender of Guru the seventh. Every machine scan has revealed confusing results.”
“Um? Pronounced with a question mark at the end? Sounds kinda off to me. No, I haven’t met, um, the guru,” I said sipping my drink. It was good. A warm creamy melt of caramel and fire. “You could hire a private detective,” I suggested, arching an eyebrow.
“I did,” she answered mirroring my expression.
“And?”
“He joined the Guru’s cult. Come on my show and I promise you, your eyes will be opened.” Hola opened her eyes wide to demonstrate and smiled. She was very beautiful. Her hot chocolate skin and amber tinged eyes, her long dreadlocks with their little bracelets made of wood, crystal, shiny metals, and ribbons made of silk and leather and other cloths.“Do you want to meet the guru now?” she asked.
I looked over at Johnny and he looked like he needed rescuing. Legs was chewing his ear off about something and poor Johnny boy looked bored out of his skull. “Sure, can I bring Johnny?”
“Actually Um? would like to meet Johnny as well,” Hola said standing up.
We walked over to table where Johnny sat flanked by Legs and one of his men, Chuckles or something. On either side of them were two of their plastic whores, all sexual artifice and no soul.
“Johnny baby,” I said. “Hola and me were wondering if you weren’t too busy,” I paused and made my lips into a cute O, “maybe you could come upstairs for a little private party. We need you to make love to us Johnny. The both of us, right now.”
Everyone fell silent. Johnny was looking into my eyes with a little smile on his face and then Legs burst out laughing, followed by Chuckles and the two girls.
“Well you heard the lady. Go on now, just don’t forget what we talked about,” Legs said as Johnny got to his feet and walked around towards us.
“Room for one more on that train?” Legs asked as we each took one of Johnny’s arms.
“I don’t think so,” said Hola and the three of us walked away.
“Thanks babe, that guy’s really starting to piss me off,” Johnny said kissing me on the cheek.
“What’s the matter?” I asked
“Like I was saying last night, I can’t stay at K’Racked Pipe. It’s time for a change. The whole post ironic hardcore thing is played out,” Johnny sighed. “Whatever, I just have to survive another five months and then I’m free. The bastard actually thinks he can convince me to stay.”
“Don’t worry, there’s nothing he can do babe,” I said kissing him on the cheek. “I’d kill him if he hurt you.”
“I’d be careful, Sofia, mayor’s daughter or no,” said Hola. “I’ve heard some awful stories about that man.”
“They’re all true, I assure you,” said Johnny, “He gave me my break, it’s true, but that break could have come from anywhere. I mean my talent didn’t come from Mr Elegance. It’s not that I’m not grateful, but K’Racked Pipe is holding me back creatively. I need some new energy but they just ain’t hearing me.
“I told that motherfucker just now that I wanted to record some tracks with The Chango over at Talisman and Legs started going on about how they were all a bunch of snakes who couldn’t be trusted. I mean, what the fuck? I just wanna make music and he’s trying to tell me who I can and can’t do that with? Uh-uh, fuck that shit!”
“Hey Johnny, I heard that Babylove Brown was gunning for you,” Hola said. “Are you worried?”
“Gunning for me? Where’d you hear that?”
“On the grapevine. In your song you called her ‘a bitch out of hell, with balls bigger than her bazoongas.’”
“Don’t remind me, please. Man, I don’t even remember recording that song and it’s a hit. You know my favourite track on the album, ‘Everyone Zero’, didn’t even chart?”
“I know, baby, I know. The game’s all fucked up. By the way, Hola’s got someone she wants us to meet,” I said.
“Wait a minute. Have you lured me under false pretences? What happened to the threesome?”
“Sorry Johnny,” Hola smiled with sweet mocking sadness, “not tonight. Have you met Guru the seventh?”
“Guru the seventh? I think I saw a video on WhoTube. It was...um, interesting. A whole bunch of conspiracy theories and shit about aliens and interdimensionalites or whatever.”
By this time, we had walked through several rooms and ascended a few flights of a spiral staircase to find ourselves outside a dark wooden door on the top floor.
“The guru is a guest of Welfire. It was in fact the guru’s influence that led to Bad Money’s change of heart and name. These are Um?’s rooms,” Hola said, knocking on the door.
A voice called out, “Come in,” from within.
Hola turned the brass knob and opened the door.
“Oh yeah?” Johnny said, “I was wondering about that. We haven’t had a chance to talk much recently.”
It was a fairly large room with a queen-sized bed, a work table covered in books and papers, several comfortable looking chairs, a large window overlooking a garden and doors leading to a balcony.
“Welcome,” said the guru as we walked in, standing up to greet us. He was a short and sturdy person with close cropped grey hair and very dark skin. I couldn’t place her age or gender. He could have been anything from a twenty-nine-year-old woman to a sixty-year-old man. It was a little eerie.
Not that there was anything spooky about him. (S)he was clearly a hueman being. It’s just that somehow the guru managed to look like no one else entirely. I suddenly understood why they called the guru, Um? I didn’t know what to make of...it.
Um? had a certain...aura. It was almost visible, like a glow. It was as if Um? had decided to shed all barriers between Um? and everyone else. Or (s)he had some very fancy toys, the kind daddy used to manipulate people in his political games. I was probably being paranoid but then only the paranoid survive in Para City.
As for Stellarwood...all you gotta do is give up a piece of your flesh to the devil. Like the cops rent out their blind eyes and deaf ears, their loose tongues and jack-booted feet, their truncheon-gripping fists and their trigger fingers. I never used to think about stuff like that before I met Johnny. He’s into all that anti-establishment stuff. I like it because it pisses Daddy off something fierce.
“Come in, please, make yourselves comfortable,” Um? said, ushering us into the room
. “Would you care for drinks or snacks?”
Soon we were all seated with our chosen drinks. A sublime little cake made of nuts and berries layered with chocolate was melting into my mouth and Johnny was holding my hand. Hola was on his other side smoking haze out of a vaporiser.
“Your song, Sofia, ‘Inspire’, the one in which you sing, ahem, forgive my interpretation...” and then the guru sang my words in a strong sweet voice, and I had that lovely feeling inside knowing that a fellow hueman being knew where I was coming from. The same fucking planet, right?
If I knew how to be free
Would I be in this cage?
Would you still desire me
If I turned the page?
Why do you fear me,
Like the end of an age?
All three of us clapped our hands together. Um? sang beautifully, with a deep clear voice that could guarantee success in show business if Um? so chose.
“Thank you. You wrote that song, did you not?”
I nodded.
“As I thought. Sofia, would you and Johnny be interested in starring in a movie I recently wrote?”
“Really?” asked Hola, “you didn’t tell me about this before.”
“It was a surprise. Would the three of you like to hear my pitch?” Guru the seventh asked, “I assure you it won’t take long.”
“I don’t believe it, I’m getting pitched by a saint,” Johnny burst out laughing and hugged Hola and me close to him. “Pitch away, sir, err, madam, pitch away.”
“Thank you,” the guru said standing up and facing us, “but if I’m a saint today, know that I too once such a sinner. All the world’s a stage. Maya. Illusion. Overstand your role and you awaken the infinite dreamer. First contact, second chance, third eye open, fourth wall breached, fifth dimension visible, sixth sense aware of the seven tales unfolding. The observer changes and is thus changed. Just remember there is always a higher level, a perspective beyond your blind spots.”
Um? took a deep breath and began his pitch. His voice had a rich and deep timbre to it and she held us spellbound with the weaving of a tale.
“Imagine, if you will, that you were alive during the last days of the empire. Imagine suddenly waking up and discovering that the emperor was leaving Terra for greener pastures, another shore far from the planet. Most of the berths in his spaceship are already taken but the emperor in his generosity has left a thousand and one spots open to the victors of The Final Games.”
“The Final Games?”
“Yes. There are actually records that suggest this took place. As you know, much of our history was lost during the wars, destroyed along with countless lives and uncountable treasures of the past. In any case Johnny, you will play Ecila, a young fellow competing in the Final Games and you, Sofia, will play Chi, a young woman who is one of the few to decline the emperor’s offer to emigrate to the stars.”
“Okay,” said Johnny, standing up and walking over to the minibar. “I can dig it. We’re talking the last days of the empire. The end of the Golden age. Beautiful sets and fantastical machines. All that wealth and decadence.”
“Well, an austere form of it,” said the guru. “Now, focus on the pathos for a moment. Imagine what it must have been like for the people. Those staying on Terra knowing they had been judged to be second class citizens, unworthy in the Empire’s eyes.
“Some accepting their fate or creating their own, some fighting for a berth in the spaceship, some denouncing the emperor as a cold hearted son of a bitch. Imagine the lifelong friends and families saying goodbye, loved ones who would never see each other again.”
“Why does my character, Chi is it? Why does she choose to stay on Terra? Is it for a man or family or something?” I asked.
“Chi wants to stay because she doesn’t like the idea of what will happen to huemanity if the best of everyone leaves. Chi wants to stay to stop the war.”
“But we know the war happened. So Chi fails?” I said.
“Yes and no. Meanwhile Johnny, you’re competing in the most challenging games ever designed by mankind. We’re talking about mental and physical challenges that kill many competitors and drive others insane. The whole world is watching via screen and you are suddenly a celebrity.
“In the mean-time, Sofia, you are being wooed by the emperor himself for he needs your genius in bio-morphology. You ask him how he can be so cruel as to abandon the people and he replies that huemanity must take responsibility for itself.
“You reply that you are hueman and will not abandon your fellow man. He says that there is nothing you can do to help them. Even if you stay, they will hate you for being one of the chosen ones, and they will complain that you are not doing your job well enough. And without the infrastructure of the empire, you will be reduced to basics, meaning your ability to help will be limited.
“Perhaps, you say, but something is better than nothing and I could teach the people what I know. In any case, who are you to decide who stays and goes? You ask. Well, says the emperor, wear this invisibility cloak and we shall go amongst the people we are to leave behind.
“If you can show me just one hueman who deserves a berth but was neither given one nor the chance to win one, I shall delay my departure until ships are built for rest of the entire population. If however by the end of the movie, one such man cannot be found, then you must sever your attachment to huemanity.
“In a series of twelve long scenes, each one shot in one take, flashbacks and dream sequences included, Chi and the emperor meet twelve archetypal personalities of huemanity and the stereotypes they have degenerated into as well as their hope for redemption.
“The spontaneous and trusting innocent who ends up living in denial; the streetwise and accepting orphan who turns into a perpetual victim; the heroic warrior who ends up a villain; the caregiver who ends up a guilt-tripping martyr; the brave seeker who ends up a castrated perfectionist; the lover who becomes addicted and uses sex to manipulate; the destroyer who instead of destroying that which no longer serves life in order for new life to grow, engages in self-destructive and psychopathic behaviour; the creator who becomes too obsessive to truly create; the responsible ruler who ends up the ogre tyrant; the magician seeking to make inspired visions a reality who ends up the evil sorcerer, transforming to the ill with negative thought patterns and bad intentions; the wise truth loving sage who becomes the cold unfeeling judge; the fun loving fool who becomes the glutton, sloth and lecher without dignity or self-control.
“Mankind, having forgotten that the archetypes live through us, is demonstrated to be a broken machine; the living dead, the damned, and the lost, all locked in eternal cycles of karma, unable to transcend to dharma. In the same scenes we also see the beauty of man’s struggle to overcome the world she herself has helped create.
“As for myself and my court, says the emperor, we are not simply leaving behind the planet but an entire noosphere of negative thought patterns. We intend to push beyond the very boundaries of space and time itself. I have moved beyond good and evil, Miss Chi, says the emperor; come with me if you are ready to take the same leap.
“In the end, Johnny, you fail to win a berth by the narrowest of margins. On a night out with your friends to commiserate, you meet Sofia and spend a night of passion together. The next day Sofia boards the emperor’s spaceship.”
“That’s kinda sad,” I said.
“And kinda beautiful,” Johnny added.
“Yes, but that is just the beginning of your characters’ arcs. The film concludes in a montage of the war and the various cultural milestones of the past two thousand years leading right up to the two of you, today, living in modern times.
“Like I said, that’s the end of the first film. The two sequels will...”
“Sequels?”
“Yes, it’s a trilogy. The ultimate goal of which is to show that it doesn’t matter who went with the emperor, slave owning son of a bitch that he was, to explore the stars and who stayed behind on Terra,
for the energy and ability to do incredible things are encoded within us all. Once the Buddha achieved enlightenment, it became possible for all to do the same. People have to learn to believe in themselves again.
“This truth is the heart of the entire trilogy and shall be the subtlest and most powerful of all the messages, revealed allegorically side by side with the simple fact that for all the machinations of powerful entities, we are our own worst enemies for we let it happen. It’s time we let go of all the bullshit in our heads that tells us in one way or another that we, in our natural honesty and commitment, are not good enough.
“Tell me, Sofia, why do you straighten your naturally beautiful hair, turning God given roots into bad copies of the white woman’s hair-do? Why do so many negro women and not a few men use harmful chemicals to bleach their skin, even in these dangerous times when melanin protects you like your mama’s love?”
I shrugged, embarrassed, then sighed in relief when Johnny interrupted and said, “For some reason, that reminds me of one of Chango’s tracks, the one where he goes...” Then Johnny drawled out in Chango’s signature half-drunken style:
Babylon’s got the brothers out there mercing each other
while the sisters turn ratchet lined up twerking together;
inspected by policemen like cattle led to slaughter -
Niggas so scared, the enemy don’t even gotta bother
Life in Paradise sure is one hell of a mother...
“Yes, I like that. Paradise is indeed one hell of a mother. Or should I say, ‘one hell of a motherboard’. You see, Paradise City is an illusion, a simulation on a hyper-dimensional computer. That’s why we call it the PC. Your task in the game of life is to save your life and your soul. Unfortunately, the game being played on the PC’s mainframe is Empire. The Graphic User Interface displays Paradise but deep beneath the City, a ravenous beast of a machine seeks the corruption of your mind and the destruction of your soul.
“Our task in the game of life is to save our lives and indeed, souls. We have to become our own heroes, for all our sakes. We have to become our own superheroes, for all our sakes.
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