The Uneventful Droning Static

 It was the first nice night we had in a long time. It was neither too humid like the many months before nor sweltering like the latter months of the year. I heard the door open as someone wandered closer and closer nearing my room. My father peered into my room, "Sleep soon Cir you can't miss your classes". I assured him I would and he staggered onward past my room. I knew I'd regret it later but was just so nice out, so I left my room to spark the radio to life. Next, I turned the sound down as low as I could well still being able to hear I listened to the night stories, as soft snores drifted out of the nearby room.

For many hours the soft static and tales of heroes far too vicious to play over the radio in the morning kept me company and warded away sleep. With the distant creak, I realized that I would lose my nightly friend if I waited even a moment. With soft motions, I pulled my head away from the single speaker that was just whispering to me and turned the volume until absolute silence covered the small building I called home. After two or three soft steps I began to walk causally toward the bathroom. Behind me, my father's voice wandered toward me "Hey what are you doing at this hour?" Rubbing my eyes I mumbled something about a dryness in my throat. My father looked at me his face crinkling into a smile. "You should take better care of yourself", with that he grasped my shoulder tightly. I could tell in his voice there was an uncomfortableness. Once I could see his face in the moonlight I knew, he was aware that I lied to him the way his features that of a starving dog begging. Damn, he must have heard it, I should filter it somehow next time. "Well, If you need to use the bathroom you should go first." With a nod, he walked past me. I returned to the radio turning it off with a click and crackle hidden by the water's flow and I returned the volume dial to a moderate location. "Be sure to get some sleep son, okay?" As I walked past him I responded softly with "I will," half defeated and half tired. Soon sleep had found me.

I woke up to dead silence that felt unbearable. Looking over to the ticking clock it was some time just after eight. My heart dropped. Once my breath managed to catch itself the beats of my heart increased and my mind started to race. "If I left at this very moment I would have just made the skyrail." I was neither dressed nor fed. With a loud sigh, I accepted my fate, I'd skip my first class of the day. "I just caught up too", I said looking down at my partially rotted desk where a list of items sat, each one neatly crossed off. A memory of waking once this morning only to let myself drift away came back to me. I grimaced looking at the room past my own glad that Dad had an early shift that day. No disappointed looks for me today, I was already at school for all he knew.

With the extra time until the next skyrail, I wandered into the hall and turned on the radio. The news was not particularly captivating but when I set it on the highest volume it gave me something to listen to well preparing for my day as I wandered through the house. I searched through the cupboard and cut a slice from the bread that must have been made two nights prior. The radio host spoke about the leader of the nine districts Rex, and how he said the world would end this year. I thought back and he said that last year and the year prior and continued to say it to this day. Some people who particularly liked him seemed to heed the warnings with reverence whenever he said it. Talking about how we averted it one way or another. I couldn't bring myself to care either way, "Huh, one year?" I was done eating and wanted to pack my bag, distracted I looked down at two magazines that I borrowed from my seat neighbor from class three and thumbed through the pages. As the radio's background static was the only thing left droning on in my head.

After realizing how I was losing time and not wanting to miss the next skyrail, I moved on to the bathroom and stripped my underwear away with a yawn. I turned on the shower waiting for the limited heat to kick in. Entering I followed the actions I was accustomed I listened in once again to the radio. Some damps were spotted in District Three, which was too far away for it to have any effect on me, but apparently, the containment zone stopped the skyrail system from leaving, soap stung my eyes as some interviewers talked to people stranded on a platform far from home. The weather was starting to get towards the windy season and a new shop had a branch that was opening in the seventh district. I determined that it would be a nice stop on my way home from school. I stepped out of the shower just as the radio began the 30-minute loop of news from the day before. Hearing this I rushed to dry myself and shut it off. I dressed myself in the uniform leaving the outfit loose, my undershirt exposed and the overcoat unbuttoned, my class two teacher wouldn't mind. I thought back to the news, the windy weather would be appreciated with the stuffy suit style being unbearable most of the year. I smiled despite a bad start to the day in the long run things have not been half bad.

I collected the magazines from the table returned them to my bag and walked out the door and onto the platform shared by 20 or so houses looking. Then wandered over to the edge and leaned over staring at the ocean thousands of feet below. It glittered bellow like millions of sapphires sparkling under the sun yet somehow it seemed endless in its depth. "What a beautiful day," I thought smiling to myself.

"If that's where the damps emerge from why would they even want to climb up these gargantuan ocean trees? I wish I were like them and could live down there without a care in the world." With loud noise, I found my legs unable to hold my own weight as the ocean at once appeared hostile to me. Rapidly I grasped the wood railing overlooking the once beautiful pit below me. An elderly lady from two houses down somehow managed to hobble behind me unnoticed and slam her cane into the back of my knee. With a glare that would kill a demon, she shrieked, "FUCK YOU!"

"YOU COULD KILLED ME YOU OLD HAG!" my response was equally loud.

"I LOST MY HUSBAND TO 'EM. IF YOU REALLY LIKE 'EM SO MUCH YOU SHOULD JUMP!"

"Aww, it's too bad they didn't get you as a couple" I spit back; droplets landing on her now red and still wrinkled face. Her cane once again raised to the sky but I responded by running as fast as I could. Her screaming continued on but it was growing distant as her hobbling could never keep pace. Turning just in time I watched her fall with her weaponized cane no longer on the ground to keep her stable. I continued practically skipping along the platforms suspended between the trees one after another. I was smiling remembering the sound of her face hitting the solid platform. "bitch," I muttered under my breath.

Without even thinking my feet had taken me to the skyrail platform. A soft sigh left my mouth without even thinking, I didn't get to enjoy my walk. There was around ten minutes until the scheduled arrival time. With my spare time, I looked at the people on the platform. Often Lor missed her first class too, looks like even she made it today. She is a friend of some of my buddies and I only ever see her when I run late or at our shared last class of the day. Her hair is about the same length as mine and she is known for starting fights however she's not unsociable and I usually gladly listen to her stories that she quickly builds. No one shared my uniform, and with a deflated breath accepted that I would be alone until I made it to school. It looks like I was alone in my lethargy today.

I sat on one of many benches that filled the platform pulled out my bag and returned to flipping through the already-read magazines. My mind drifted page to page caught from time to time by something bright from the time before the incident. Some old pictures showed a distant land through these "cars." They were both captivating and utterly useless in the modern world with no earth to speak of. "I wish I could sit in one still," I verbalized my silent thoughts. Then I looked over to see a plane, and my mind drifted off again, "What is stopping..." Suddenly a hand grabbed my shoulder, and my mind raced rapidly "Fuck that old bitch is back isn't she," maybe I can get someone to get her off of me.

"AAAA!"

"WAAAA!" The scream was not an old lady's surprise, I turned to find Lor shocked and looking down at me, with her usually heavy eyelids spread wide over the bags under her eyes.

"Oh, hi Lor, it's just you," I said sheepishly rubbing the back of my head

"Don't "hi Lor" me, You just scared the shit out of me," as her eyes returned back to their glazed-over gaze.

"I was reading next time don't touch someone without them knowing who you are."

"Nerd you know that we have textbooks for history."

"Fuck off! Your dork ass was working on something useless project last night, weren't you? And you have the gall to call me a nerd."

"You don't know shit," She smiled but it was obviously forced, as the gaze didn't shift at all.

"I can see the bags under your eyes and..." I took exaggerated sniffs at the air "You smell like you were burnin...." She slammed her fist hard atop my head.

"TAKE IT BACK!" She shouted out calmly over the sounds of a passing skyrail zooming past. I grabbed her cheek and yanked it down "OWWWW OWWW OW. FUCK STOP IT ALREADY"

"It's only fair," I smiled a petty grin from ear to ear.

"Fine," she squints, "Don't do it again, though?"

"Yeah yeah... you but then too though."

"Don't be such an ass one of these days someone is just going to through you over the edge," with that I thought back to the witch of a woman I met.

"Meditating on your mistakes?"

"Will you hit me again?"

"Na, at least not today."

"Then that's my new answer." Her gaze seemed mostly flat, yet she chewed on her cheek, rolled her eyes, and acted deep in thought when a shrill buzzer pierced the air.

The buzzer of skyrail sounded and the swarm of people launched towards the first open car. We line up and our conversation continues on and off as we wait in the mass of people. The cars fill one after another and by the fourth car, we boarded together. From the platform, we wandered casually with all the other passengers. The sturdy wood is left behind for a sheet of metal that is trusted with the faith of every person. Our skyrail car shifts out of the way allowing more to board. This occurs twice more as people apathetically secure themself. I continued to talk to Lor about the last class and some dramatic "war" that she started with a girl in the third class. "I'm planning on skipping third and fourth classes want to join? I think I can get Roc and Tyler in on?" With two shrill buzzes sounding the skyrail launches

"Eh, really? Sure thing if you get them both then I'll join," The G-Force forces us back harshly as the skyrail shoots toward the sixth district of academia. Stopping once at the seventh district with a buzz and a fifteen-minute stop at the platform only to take off again. We sit near with no words passing between us. The silence was not uncomfortable as others' conversations filled my ears.

"UGH, Roc better not skip on us because last time he got lost as fuck and needed to use a public phone to call the TRNT," Lor said scratching her head.

"Why didn't he call one of our houses?"

"I don't think I even want to know what happens in that head or whatever is left of it," Together we let out a sigh.

"Well I guess he makes things much more interesting," The buzzer broke the air yet again and we departed together, we had arrived at District Six the bastion of knowledge. Together our late day began.