There was a canal where we could swim but no one did. People used it as a means of transport some times. We could walk until there was an overture, then queue for the small boat that would take us to the other side.
People were agitated about the world state of affairs. I was not so, and was surprised that people were so upset. Then one day a few of us met by chance, we had not arranged to meet and we probably did not want to, either. I was depressed and did not know why, and I was expecting a visit from far away. I had been walking everywhere instead of biking, then to go with this visit I had to get back on the bike and I felt lazy, for I had not biked for a long time. Then I tried to remember when I had been energetic and happy for the last time and was surprised to find that I didn’t even remember. I put on my cycling clothes and still felt uneasy.
I was in some kind of communal room that people would use to pass through from one room to another. I was getting ready. Then suddenly I was well dressed and I was not in that room, but near the river. Some one passed very close to me and touched my neck, probably thinking I was some one else. I felt attacked but then, realising that the big guy who had touched me had not done it on purpose, I calmed down, and was very relaxed and cool about it. I just wanted to continue going to wherever I was going.
But he made a point of stopping to apologise. I saw that he had construction clothing, he was a working guy. He had touched my neck with his glove. He pointed out that the glove he had touched me with was impregnated with some substance that could be toxic and I needed to be looked at. I didn’t want to, I didn’t think it was important and wanted to get on with whatever I was up to, but he insisted. He took me to an observation room where I would be examined and have whatever substance he had touched me with removed.
There were other people in beds too, in the observation room. We started to talk and we had an interesting conversation about debt in that observation room. Some people owed me money… And they started to tell me how serious the situation was. We need a revolution, they said, it is coming. I didn’t think it was. They explained that money didn’t exist. That it was all electronic annotations in some one’s electronic systems. That, I already believed. They said a few people had massive negative annotations because they owed so much. They explained that living in debt was a way of life for many. That, apart from the hazard of having people constantly reminding them that they owed money, it was a nice lifestyle. I remembered that the people who owed me money did not seem to have any intention to give it back to me. Then they said some people owed millions and millions, and that they kept having people like me who worked to pay for their life style, continuously transferring the wealth that we had produced by working from our standards of living to their own lavish lifestyles. Our conditions deteriorated so much there were people doing drastic things like committing suicide. Pressure was mounting and there would be a serious and bloody revolt soon.
My visit came and I was very happy, again, surprised and worried that the last time I had been happy had been so long before. I then took my visit to places of interest. We met with the Oriental man who often came to our shop. He explained that he was going abroad for a long time, it had to do with the revolution. I realised more and more how serious the situation was. He told us about his plans with great detail. Then it came down to me: he kept saying “I” and not “we”. I wondered what would come of his numerous family, but I just asked suddenly, interrupting:
“Hang on a second. Are you saying you are going on your own and not with Laan?”
Suga and the man looked at me, upset because I had interrupted them with such a trivial question. He explained that Laan and he were in the process of separating. I was scandalised because they had been together for so, so long. More than fifteen years altogether, I remembered when Laan told me she was moving in with her boyfriend.
I asked further and he mentioned some things about her, bad things about living with her that apparently made her unbearable. He really had no choice but to break up with her and give up the flat. Then I assumed he would leave the flat for his son, who happened to be my visit, but who was turning into my friend of European origin.
He explained that the one mistake he had made, the one mistake this perfect couple had done, had been to move in together. He explained that he had this perfect relationship with his family and then with Laan’s arrival the house became completely dominated by the only woman in the group, and that had been completely awful for the household, and the relationship, to the point that they now had to break up. I asked my companion at the time, which I was not sure whether it was my visit or my friend from Europe, if they were now hiring the rooms and they explained that the house would be empty although yes it would be handy to stay in the house and continue to use all the things they had built a home with. I tried to convince my friends of the convenience of keeping the house and staying in it.
“Why don’t you move in here then, to make it easier to pay the whole rent”, I was told. It was a very cheap rent, it made sense to move from my communal house into this flat. It was very tempting but I planned to leave all my things in my current house, keeping it as a safe backup, then move in the flat only as a trial. Maybe it was here that the Oriental man warned me about the unsuitability of moving in with the person you love.