Pinkurita

  My firaced the cover of the medical book, titled "Veins: The Highways of Life." There was a gigantic illustration of a human hand with capilries brang out and iwining into various patterns. I lifted my gaze to the apartment ceiling as the phone vibrated, notig multiple grease stains peeling away, a reminder of the st time someohered to that mess. The call ected, and a voie up. I had no idea how to start the versation without sounding weird, so I let out a silent squeal.

  "Hello?" The voi the other end sounded indignant, fused by my muffled scream. "Honey, you know I’m busy. Is this some kind of joke?"

  "No! Linny, I just wao tell you that you fot your medical books at home. Could you e by tomorrow to pick them up? I know how hard it was for you to get them, and I wouldn’t want to lose them by act."

  "Oh... right, I’ll stop by tomorrow, okay? Oh! Don’t fet, I ordered some sads for you. They should arrive soon. You o eat well, silly."

  "That sounds... hank you so much, Linny. I hope you’re doing okay, sis. Love you, alright?"

  "Love you too, girl. Don’t stay up too te. Kisses."

  The call ended, leaving a deep void in the room. Worn-out furniture, walls with barely any traces of paint, and the lights from the puters were the only things providing a bit of light to that dark abyss. A long sigh was the only thing that broke the tension. I had no choice but to head to my dusty desk, defeat weighing on my shoulders, leavih a burden I loo shake off. I pced my hands delicately on the keyboard and opened a bnk tab where I poured out my emptiness.

  I heard raindrops hitting the window, f a melody I fouiful for a few minutes. I moved my hands away from the keyboard, thinking about how much my eyes hurt. I hadn’t stopped w since 9:00, and now it was 22:30. Inspiration drained little by little as I tried to find a solution to my ck of ideas. That’s when my head hit the edge of the desk, letting out a dry thud that closed the curtain.

  Everything I ohought was miurned out to be just a myth. Not long ago, I mao get a good job as a proofreader at a well-known publishing house, one of the few that doesn’t use artificial intelligen their projects. However, being hired meant moving to a pce I never imagined myself in. My sister Linny was the one responsible for me now living in an apartment oskirts of the ercial district. I have to admit, the ck of noise has kept me sane during my stay here.

  I still have fresh memories of when I the airport and saw the giant neon signs that said, "Wele to Wildcore," with a disgusting green hue. My grimace of disgust couldn’t help but fade as I got into the taxi.

  I wished I could lose myself uhe foot of a tree that reached into space, with a ke at its base where I could submerge myself for eternity... but that image was suddenly interrupted. A sharp pain in my forehead made me wake up abruptly.

  "Woah! Did I fall asleep? No way! I’m going to be te for work!"

  I looked around before realizing it was already daytime. The rain had stopped, and the sun’s rays pierced the window like furious drills. I only had time to run to the shower, put on the first thing I found, and rush out of the apartment like a bolt. The public transport was so crowded that I barely mao get in. By 8:35 in the m, I was already sitting in the office, drafting the final corres for the new hit the publishing house would release to the publi a few weeks. It was an Afri romaory that exploded in sales because it broke many stereotypes. I was chosen to be the o this work to everyoable.

  "You work really hard, Wendy. Keep it up!" My boss stopped by to gratute me, leaving a vanil dessert that made my mouth water. "Here, enjoy this. Eat it slowly! Don’t choke."

  "Thank you, Mr. Raúl! I’ll eat it ter."

  By 18:00, I was already heading to the elevator to catch the first bus home. The publishing house’s hallways were long and gave me a bad feeling when night fell, making me want to jump out of a window just to avoid seeing them. I stopped in front of the elevator, and as soon as it arrived, I stepped in.

  "Wait! Hold it, please!" A middle-aged man came running at full speed with a stack of papers in his hands. He seemed in a huge hurry.

  "Oh, god..."

  I began pressing the button for the first floor as fast as I could. It seemed like he was going to squeeze into this tiny space, but the doors closed just in time, relieving the edges of my tense soul aing me sigh in peace. I could hear his curses as I desded on my ow, feeling no guilt whatsoever. When I reached my destination, I walked out with long strides. A greeting caught the er of my eye, and I realized it was Renard, the doorman, waving from his security post. I responded by raising my fist in his dire before leaving the building and seeing the vast panorama that opened before me.

  The metropolis was something I still couldn’t get used to. Everything was on a much grander scale than I had ever imagined. Flying cars, t metallic buildings, and people wearing strange fashions that included ubes ed around their bodies.

  I couldn’t help but feel disgusted.

  At the end of the day, I boarded one of the many buses that passed by my street. The smell of tobacco was noticeable in the air, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. After all, the wave of smoking had increased i years. There were no more prevention posters or anything like that. erism in this era was all about who could sell the most or be the coolest among friends. I couldn’t see who the eys were, but I just resigned myself until I reached my stop. I stepped onto the gray pavement, climbed the building’s stairs, opehe door to my cave, and noticed three pstic ptes stacked on top of each other.

  "No way..."

  I let out a sigh of frustration when I realized it was the sads my sister had ordered for me. They were pletely ruined! Now they were just a pile of bitter, dehydrated lettuce. pletely disgusting.I went into the apartment to throw all of that irash and sat down at the puter. I tossed my backpato the bed, my shoulders burning.

  "I wonder if Linny came by to pick up her damn book. Phone, where are you?" Before I could do anything, a vibration told me where it might be. I found it in one of the many pockets of my backpack. Someone was calling—it was my sister. "Speaking of the devil, Linny! Did you mao pick up your book?"

  "Hey, how are you, Wendy? Yes, I already picked it up, and I saw the pile of sads stacked outside your door."

  "Ah... yeah, crap. I was running te for work and didn’t notice. Sorry," I let out an annoyed sigh as I remembered that.

  "They must have gone bad by now, but it’s fine. Little one, how have you been? How’s woing?"

  "Everything’s fine. I just got home. What about you?"

  "It’s been tough. The hospital is fuller than ever with patients who’ve been injured."

  "Injured?" I perked up at that detail.

  "Yeah, well, there have been protests, and they’re being oppressed by public security. You know how these things go."

  "Ah, yeah, they’re disgusting. Hey! When we meet up? I really want to see my favorite doctor in the world." Lin out a powerful ugh as I said that in a teasing tone. She knows what I’m talking about.

  "Tomorrow, okay? I have some free time before work. I’m gd you’re doing well, sweetie. I have to go now, so I’ll call you ter, alright?"

  "Alright, thanks for calling. Love you so much, Linny."

  "Love you too, honey. Bye, kisses."

  I hung up the phone and threw it bato the bed. I couldn’t even deal with my owe that moment, so I decided to rest my eyes for a few minutes before putting away the dessert my boss had given me and tinuing with the work I had left from today. My head inning as I thought about the versation with my sister Linny. Somehow, I didn’t feel the same exhaustion in her voice. Is she taking some kind of supplement to get through the day? Bullshit, she’s a full-fledged doctor. If anyone’s proo falling into that, it’s me. But... I’ve decided that life should be lived without modifications like that.

  Finally, I hit the keyboard to wake myself up, feeling like I was about to drift off into the world of dreams. The work never ended, and I had to keep going if I wao meet the deadline. I turned on the small TV that came with the apartment to have some background helped me trate better on my work. Endless s of words piled up, one on top of the other, creatiehat formed paragraphs that worked well together. While my fingers worked on transting the pages of the pending novel, my ears listened ily to the news, whily talked about trivial things that had happeoday... until something made my neck almost snap from the sudden turn.

  "Today, multiple protests have beeered across the city. The districts have been shaken by a massive wave of enraged citizens protesting the measures being taken by the major corporatiarding their peace agreements. Riot police have had to use brute force, quickly arresting the most aggressive individuals involved."

  "Looks like Linny wasn’t lying... What the hell is wrong with these damn panies and their stupid wars?"

  I looked for something to throw at the TV out of sheer frustration, but I remembered that everything I had were gifts from Linny or things I had bought with my own money. I sighed in exhaustion, holding back my anger, and just kept typing. The pages filled with illustrations of the Afri couple showing affe, and a few soft noises escaped my lips as I read those ses.