Erinyes
George Saoulidis
Chapter 1
I took her place. That’s the reason I am telling you all this. Oh god what was I thinking?
But let me start from the beginning, or else you’ll think I am crazy. I am not, by the way.
My name is Mahi and I’m a teenager. I no longer feel like a teenager because of all the skata that has happened but I guess it bears mentioning. I used to be a normal teenage girl, going to school, taking selfies all the time, failing my grades, getting yelled at by mom, going for long coffee breaks like any self-respecting Greek should do, my future predetermined by people who don’t care and enforced by people who just manage to get by.
Oh boy did I live in a bubble.
Still at our house, living in posh northern Athens, amongst the pine trees and blissfully unaffected by the Greek crisis, I remember hearing my parents through the door arguing.
“You can’t give her a present, she failed half the exams!” said mom with her patented angry whisper. I am pretty sure my ears shot up at the sound of the word “present” and I stuck my ear to the door.
“I know honey, you are right, but I already said yes to my boss!” said dad. My dad works for Hermes Information Technology at the marketing department, shush now and let me listen.
“Who ever heard of a present being mandatory to be given to your daughter?” asked mom.
“It is a buzz marketing thing, circulate the new phone model to some sneezers and it creates demand when it finally hits the shelv-“
“Don’t call Mahi a sneezer!” mom interrupted.
“It’s just a term. She is popular, other girls will see her with the new Veil phone and they will want to buy it in order to become popular themselves. She fits the profile and I told my boss that she would be perfect for the marketing study. It is a market survey thing, we gave lots of phones away.”
My mother wasn’t happy at all. “It sends the wrong message, fail the class, get rewarded with a brand new phone, why bother studying at all?”
“There is a lot of money funnelled on this release. I already said yes, we can’t afford me losing my job,” said dad, mentally adding the word “again.”
And that was the end of the discussion, and me biting my hand not to cry out of excitement. Dad’s workplace had the latest tech, like straight from Japan or something like that. I never cared for those things. What I did care about, was me being around with the latest smartphone model, showing it off to every kariola who thought she was cooler than me. I can’t remember exactly but I’m pretty sure I posted an update with my excited face about getting a new phone from my dad’s company, right then and there kneeling by the door.
Huh. I guess they really do know their thing.
But why am I going on and on about a stupid phone, you might ask? That stupid phone was how she found me, that’s why.
When dad gave me the new phone, it was like Christmas in June.
“We are still mad at your grades Mahi. Your mom and I want you to understand that this is not a reward for failing classes, you need to study hard and pass,” I think dad said, or at least something similar, but I was only paying attention to the super awesome pink late-tech smartphone in the box.
“Thank you daddy sooo much!” I jumped up and hugged him. “I need to show this to all my friends right now!”
“That’s the idea,” he said and went on to face the angry mom stare in the next room.
Of course I was grounded for being close to fail the class and I had tons of studying for the re-exams with no time to spare at all, so naturally I turned on the music real loud, started dancing and taking selfies on the mirror with my new phone.
What a vlaka I was.
While you have the mental picture of me jumping up and down singing pop songs firmly placed in your mind, I want to explain some things to you that I only figured out much later. The only reason we lived in a nice neighbourhood after the Greek crisis is because dad got a job at Hermes. I had no idea at that time (still jumping up and down) of the way people lived around Greece, or that mom and dad wanted me to get an education and get a job in one of the corporations that were swiftly engulfing the country, or that they believed that doing so was the only way to survive, the alternative being leading a life of poverty.
Then I got an IM. “You know what happened to Narcissus who admired himself at the lake all the time?” asked Billy. Bless him for being such a grounding influence.
I naturally replied with stupidity, “He turned into a bush.”
“Close, but not it. Have you spoken to Deppy?” he said.
Even the most grounded teen has his hormones bubbling hot I guess. I called him on the phone and snapped, “You talk to her yourself!”
“Come on, please just bring her here, do it for me,” he said, me imagining his puppy dog eyes. A two meter tall puppy mind you, but with a tender soul.
“I am grounded and have to study. Do you want to go from being - such a nice influence to our daughter - to - what a bad influence that young man has become - ?” I asked, mocking my mother’s tone of voice.
“I’m guessing you are posting selfies and I expect you will keep doing so for the next two hours. By badly influencing you to skipping study time I am also preventing you from staring at your reflection. Lesser of two evils and such,” he said, clearly playing chess with his idle hand as I could hear the soft thumping of the pawns.
“Stop playing with yourself Billy,” I said.
“I’m not. This Korean guy is even better in chess than the other games,” he said. His phone glinged in-call with a received SMS text, probably from the chess opponent sending in his next move.
“OK fine, I’ll call her,” I said, recognising the excuse to get out for a walk.
Billy was (seriously) not using the latest smartphone, not posting everything on Facebook and not chatting, tweeting, IMing, sharing, liking, tagging all the time like the rest us. What a freak.
Chapter 2
I was already wearing make-up.
You don’t take selfies without make-up, what are you nuts? That is like 60-70 less likes right off the bat. I got my bag with my laptop and sneaked out of the house. It wasn’t that hard with mom having a video of a how-to recipe playing on the tablet and the kitchen TV showing some Turkish melodrama BOTH OF THEM PLAYING SO LOUD MY GOD MOM TURN IT DOWN DIDN’T IT USED TO BE THE OTHER WAY AROUND?
Thank god we live in a protected neighbourhood, or else she wouldn’t even hear any burglars smashing their way in.
Deppy was online naturally so arranged a meet at the corner by my house.
While I waited, I could see a small Roma boy, just a kid really, trying to make a living. As the cars waited at the crossroads, he would stroll to the window, extend his little hand to the driver and ask for them to buy his pack of facial tissues. It was a thing they did. Instead of asking for charity, they would “sell” you the cheap pack, and you’d always pay more than its actual value as a kind gesture.
The boy was disappointed. On a warm summer day, nobody was sneezing or anything, so nobody was buying anything from him. He had just went up to jeep, having to stand on his toes to present his wares to the tall window. He was waved away by the man inside, who simply went on with his phone call. His shoulders fell and he slouched away, while the cars revved and left the intersection. He was standing in the scorching sun all day, trying to make a meager living.
I had seen his green eyes before. He’d been
working our street for a few months. The boy had medium dirty curls, unkempt hair.
He reminded me of my little brother.
I called him and bought a pack of facial tissues from him. I gave him half my allowance, then shrugged and gave him all of it, except the change for the metro fare. He gave me a smile, sold me three packs of facial tissue and went on to enjoy some of the shade.
Chapter 3
Deppy showed up. She had the superpower of walking and never taking her eyes off the phone, all the while taking half-jumpy cutesy steps and not bumping onto things or people. I strategically positioned myself many times with a light-post between us just to kindle a sudden kiss between them, but she never seemed to fall for it. Oh well, time to get her to kiss a boy-like light post. Man, are they the exact opposites of one another or what?
“Ya!” she said, clearly dodging the light post. Oh well, must keep on trying.
“Ya. Let’s go to Kifissia for frappe,” I said casually.
“Nobody will be there, too soon. Lemme see. Yeap, no check-ins yet,” she said, taking her eyes off the phone for a mere second to see me.
“I need Wi-Fi, mom closed mine, I’m grounded,” I said casually. Casually I said!
“What a bummer. Fine let’s go but I haven’t got any money. Just coming along for the check-in!” she said with her cutesy voice. Guys must fall for it all the time.
We walked side by side each of us on her phone towards the metro. I texted Billy, “Bringing her now. Just buy her a frappe and she’s all yours to ignore you as long as you wish…” .
Deppy saw my earlier post about dad’s present and said, “Oh you got a new phone, lemme see!”
If it’s not on a status update, it did not happen.
I twisted my wrist slightly and showed her the latest smartphone that was thirty centimetres away from her nose but needed information to take the long route (I don’t know, are there satellites involved or something?) to make her actually notice it. “Oh it’s so nice. And pink!” she said. And then she started touching it.
No, that did not seem unusual to me at that time.
“What can it do?”
“No idea. Took a bunch of pictures.”
“Come on, it must do something new, Hermes’ stuff are the best.”
“Still got nothing.”
“Wait, lemme search.”
“Here it is, overlay. The revolutionary Veil smartphone will also be the first integrated overlay device. Overlay brings the digital world topology to the real world for the ultimate augmented reality… Sample pics, nai, here, how to use. Can I?” she asked but was already grabbing it. I let her play or else we would never make it to the metro.
She turned on the camera and pointed it a people on the street. Some floating text followed them, and when she tapped on a guy his facebook profile came up. The app lost the face-lock because Deppy was jumping up and down with excitement and I was carried away for a bit.
“Find a cute guy, that one,” I told her and bit my lip.
“Single, works at Apollo Medical. Good pick girl,” she said nodding.
“No don’t add him!” I said and tried to stop her. The man reached for his phone, smiled and I got a friend request acceptance a few seconds later.
“Oh this is golden. When do these come out, did your dad tell you?” she asked me with excitement.
“Soon I guess, I dunno,” I said.
“This is so awesome,” she said and pointed the camera at herself. The overlay showed her profile, her latest update, even the IMDB link of that part she had in a movie a year ago. “It has nothing private, everything is already accessible online. Lemme check, nai, my private pictures are not shown – thank god, dad would have a heart attack – but overlays the information about someone from the net on the real person. Oh, it works on buildings too. Anything with an RFID chip. Who cares really? Let’s go see what the people on the metro will show up!” she said, and started jogging.
I never jog, it ruins my image.
She was plenty distracted while waiting for me to walk at the metro station, so I did not feel bad for taking my time. It did feel weird not having a phone on me though.
“I remembered just now that dad said these phones are for market testing purposes,” I told her as soon as I got close, “so don’t do anything weird with it, I think it takes statistics and stuff automatically.”
“No nudes, got it,” she said casually and carried on eavesdropping on random people’s digital personas.
Sitting on the train we learnt that the lady beside us had an unhealthy love for cats, that the man standing behind her was constantly commenting on professional stripper’s photographs and that the kid running up and down the wagon was 5 years old and had a knack for vandalising wikis. The distraction made the whole six minute commute bearable.
There were some shop windows in our path but I tried to keep the delay to a minimum, or else poor Billy would be left with no fingernails to chew on.
The coffee shop was nice and gray, modern, catering to a bit of an older generation. Billy was slouching over a chessboard.
Not a digital one. A wooden one.
What a freak.
“Oh hi Billy, nice to see you here. Come sit with us!” I said a bit too theatrically.
“Sure, why not?” he said and followed.
Deppy and I took a selfie so we could check-in at the coffee shop and after a couple of tries we were both satisfied.
I dumped both of them unceremoniously with an excuse and sat at the next table with my laptop. Billy was delighted to have Deppy there, trying to initiate conversation. She kept looking at her phone, idly glancing at him and nodding at times.
I surfed some sites I liked for a while. Deppy IMed me, “Oh bummer, it doesn’t take good pictures. Look at all the smudges. Remember to tell your dad to fix it.”
Indeed I opened up some of the pictures I took since I got the phone and on the larger screen of the laptop I could see some white washed lights or something.
One of the white washed lights was almost something like a face. I paid no attention at the time.
Chapter 4
86 likes later I was bored. We might as well had posted a cocktail pic. The only one still excited was Billy. I was so bored I actually took the time to read the messages unknown people send me. They are usually just greasy comments from guys, sometimes disturbing or provoking. One of the messages was different. It was actually a tag on my selfie from my bedroom. It was “#erinyes”, coming from a guy named Prodromos, with a Greek π as his profile.
“Who are you? What is this you tagged on me?” I IM’d.
It didn’t take long for him to reply, “Change your path, it’s not too late. They smell regret before it even happens.”
What was this guy talking about? Why would I have regrets? “What are you talking about? Why would I have regrets?” I said as if I had thunk it.
This time it took longer for the reply, which did not help the crazy guy’s case in my mind. “You will have them soon. Don’t let them take shape,” he said, and logged off. Fine, I wasn’t planning anyway on talking to the wacko any more.
Then I noticed that the face recognition had drawn one more square next to my face on my selfie. That face was the one Prodromos had tagged as Erinyes, not mine.
I’m not sure if Billy had any luck getting to Deppy, I guess there was some rapport but I wasn’t paying attention. Coffee time was over and we split up.
Chapter 5
Back at my house, mom was yelling at me for sneaking out and not studying.
“I needed to take dad’s gift out for a ride, isn’t that the point?” I said unconvincingly. I don’t remember the rest of the conversation but I am sure it doesn’t matter anyway. I went to my room and puffed my pillow. Face down and looking tired like only a teenager can.
Like clockwork, it took a mere two minutes for my need to check my phone to kick in. Scroll, scroll, nothing, nothing.
I opened the pictures I took
. Yup, smudges.
I sent a message to Deppy, “How do I add the printer on this thing?”
She replied, “Just hook it up to the laptop and run the…”
“WIRELESSLY. NOW. IM NOT GETTING UP,” I said.
“Kala! Here, click this and accept the install,” she said a few seconds later.
I clicked and the printer was connected. I tapped print and the photos started whirring out of dad’s printer.
How did she do those things? I’ll never get technology.
I went to the living room, and raised a big photo of my face up to my face. Yup, just like staring into the lake.
Not big enough. I downloaded an app for photo manipulation and zoomed a bit the part with the smudge. Print.
Are those eyes? And that weird looking hole a mouth? It can’t be, can it? Nah it’s just a glitch. What about the rest of the pictures? Print. Print.
What did that guy call it again?
Chapter 6
Agamemnon looked into the vault of heaven and prayed saying, "I call Jove the first and mightiest of all gods to witness, I call also Earth and Sun and the Erinyes who dwell below and take vengeance on him who shall swear falsely, that I have laid no hand upon the girl Briseis, neither to take her to my bed nor otherwise, but that she has remained in my tents inviolate.
Then he cut the boar's throat.
I formed the words with my mouth in silence. The Erinyes who dwell below and take vengeance. I closed the book of Iliad. Heavy stuff.
I played with my lips for a while.
I took my new phone and went to the bathroom. After a touch up I started taking selfies on the mirror, the light is excellent there, I’m getting tons of likes.
Click. Nope, another pose.
Click. Nah.
Click. Click.
Oh man, it’s smudgy again. Zoom it and print, dad should really get this feedback so they can fix it.
Myth Gods Tech - Omnibus Edition: Science Fiction Meets Greek Mythology In The God Complex Universe Page 1
