Vending machine

For the next half an hour I was just sitting with my eyes closed. Thinking of a solution to this problem. Still, I didn’t find any. Going after her and forcing into another conversation, without a really smart way to handle it, would be equivalent to throwing salt on a fresh wound. I lacked both information and wits to wriggle my way out of this without damaging any of the parties involved. Finally, I grabbed the contract, read it one more time and took the liberty of inputting her number and address into my phone. Maybe later there will be something I can do.

While thinking about my next move, I glanced over the laptop placed on a desk in the corner. It was casting a charm over my weak self. To make it worse, Victor’s taste in games resonated strongly with mine. It was full of EU IV, CK II and other grand strategy games additionally strengthened by the most iconic MOBAs. For Victor it was one of his main time killers, just as it was for me not so long ago.

As soon as the thought ‘one round of league won’t hurt much right?’ appeared in my mind I stood up and pulled out the plug of this devil’s machine. It was just a symbolic action as the laptop itself was turned off, but it had a great meaning to me. As George, I sold everything connected with games and imposed a ban on myself to not let it control my life ever again. Not being able to browse the internet was extremely inconvenient, especially in this situation, but I couldn't waste this second chance at life straight away.

Until I will be able to fully control this craving I won't touch it.

To take my mind off it, I started removing things from my mental ‘to do’ list that I created earlier.

For example, the whole flat wasn’t cleaned even once since Vic started living in here. Forget the vacuum cleaner, even a brush, mop or other tools required for cleaning weren't present. Not to mention the piles of dirty clothes that were lying in what I christened as 'the contaminated zone’ of the bathroom.

No wonder that Vio tried to avoid any contact with me. Everyone would do that after seeing what is going on in here. I just hope that Silvie was too distracted by other matters to pay it any attention or I won’t be able to look her straight into the eyes ever again.

When I was out shopping earlier, I also bought the required cleaning tools and now was the time to make full use of them.

First battle zone - kitchen and living room.

That was actually the easiest part. Why? Because it was barely used at all. Only the microwave required some extra attention. The rest was just dusty. As for the room... I had to remove the additional function of a flypaper from the floor.

From time to time I closely observed the laptop to raise my mental resistance against it.

Second battle zone - bedroom.

This wasn’t that hard as well. There was only a bed and a closet in here anyway. It was just that I had to throw away most of the sheets and even some of the ‘clean’ clothes stored inside as they suffered from the incurable dirt sickness. I added several new points to the shopping list that was being created on my smartphone and moved on to the boss battle.

Third battle zone - The Bathroom.

For a moment or two, I was seriously contemplating the use of a makeshift flamethrower to just burn it all to hell. Why half eaten pizza pieces and moldy plastic containers were mixed together with clothes? Is that why Vio started bringing the food in plastic bags instead of lunch boxes? I was totally convinced that taking a shower in here doubles as a dexterity test because even a slight, accidental brush against the wall of that shower cabin would make you scarred for life. I had few other questions about the state of this place but decided to avoid searching in Vic's memories, as I wasn’t brave enough. Even in my previous golden pig years, I had never fallen into the dirtpravity to such an extent.

After hours of scrubbing, wiping, doing laundry and decontamination it was already getting dark. Now, all that was left was a good old shaving and a little of freshening up this new face of mine.

I gave up on the unruly black hair, getting it under control would require some serious fighting.
When it was done I could nearly feel the hidden handsome attribute raising. Satisfied after a day of hard work, I tried to grab a beer from the fridge only to discover that it was devoid of such stuff. Which was actually logical, yet old habits die hard.

I made up my mind and decided that this was the best chance I will ever get to remove even the filth that was heavily integrated into my core being.

As the evening was still young and there wasn’t anything else left to do inside, I took my jacket and went out for a run. Establishing new wholesome habits to supplant the old ones was now one of my main objectives.

On my way out I was wondering, where did the yesterday's whiskey come from? Was it really that easy for a minor to buy alcohol and all kinds of medications in this city? I scanned Vic memories in detail and quickly found an answer. Yup, it was rather easy. Especially when you had a provisional driving license that looked just like a real one if you covered a part of it with your fingers. Add to it an inattentive shop clerk and there was no problem at all.

It didn’t take even ten minutes to regret that sudden rush of healthy inspiration. Running itself was good and the idea behind it was a glorious one indeed, but as they say, everything has its time and place. Trying to jog while pavements were covered in a fresh layer of snow, which was being constantly reinforced with uncountable waves of falling snowflakes, was a bad move.

However, I didn’t turn back home. I just changed the concept of running into playing the role of a snow plow… I mean going for a walk. There was hardly anyone on the streets, which gave this new, yet familiar city a somewhat mystifying feeling. My thoughts were once again attracted towards Silvie and her power.

This unexpected, supernatural face of the world, which couldn’t be found at all in Victor memories, was a great force that dug out all the dreams I once had from their graves.

If something like that can exist, does it mean that even more awesome things are hidden all around me? If I could pick one for myself, which one would I want?

Teleportation sounds nice, but unless I had to fight with something it would be reduced to a mere convenient trick. The same can be said about other battle oriented powers and for sure there aren't any goblins nearby. Silvie’s one is more like a social manipulation tool. I’m pretty sure that it has its limits and she seemed to be traumatized by it, yet the fact that she still had used it testifies to how useful it is.

I reached the midpoint of my walk, a river bank that should be made of ragged paved stones, but now everything was smoothed out by a layer of snow.

Just as I was to turn back, I noticed someone removing snow from a rectangular box placed under the streetlight. It had aroused my curiosity, so I moved closer.

To my disappointment instead of a vampire girl, who believed that every machine could be repaired by kicking, I only found some random dude around my age. I turned back home and decided to ignore him, as I already had an inkling of how this situation would play out, but it was too late. He noticed me.

“Hey! Hey mate! Wait.”

“Yeah?”

“Could you help me out a little?”

He asked and pointed towards the vending machine that was half buried under the snow. Looks like my hunch was right and he was trying to dig it out… without any tools… he didn’t even have gloves.

“Just go home mate. It’s now worth it.”

I turned down his request and prepared to move on. Helping others was a noble goal, but one couldn't forget that there are limits to everything.

“Oh come on! Help me. I’m even willing to pay.”

“Like I’ve said it’s not worth it. There’s a store nearby, it should still be open and I’m pretty sure they will be willing to sell you a can of coke or a coffee or two.”

“That’s not it, it has to be this machine or I can’t sleep.”

“Huh? You’re trying to buy a coffee so you can sleep better?”

“I never said I want a coffee mate.”

“Then what do you want?”

“Hot choco.”

“... just give up.”

“Hey! Stop! I’ve got a good reason.”

“Hmm?”

Let's give him a chance, who knows maybe he actually has a good reason. Yeah right.

“You see…”

“I’m listening.”

“Today’s the second anniversary of my confession to the love of my life.”

“She turned you down and now you come here every year to celebrate it?”

“No, she accepted. Why did you instantly assumed that I got turned down?”

“Just because. Are you boasting now about your love life? If yes, I’m going home.”

“No, no, no. You see, she accepted and we were drinking hot choco here during our last year’s anniversary. That’s why I need to drink it today as well.”

“Why are you standing here by yourself in that case? Shouldn’t you be together… wait, don’t tell me…”

“Yeah… she died some time ago. So can you help me now please?”

I was going to ask if he got dumped, but before I could even finish my sentence he turned the mood into a heavy one.

He actually had a good reason and it was one that made me feel like an idiot for forcing it out of him. I went near the machine and started digging. The problem was that under the soft outer layer of new snow was a solid, frozen one that required a lot of effort to remove.

“Sorry, let’s dig it out together.”

“Yeah, thanks mate.”

We worked in silence. After few minutes we managed to removed a quarter of snow and were kicking the harder inner layer to crush it when his phone rang. I nodded to him to answer it and he distanced himself for the duration of the call. While taking a short break, I was listening to the relaxing sound of the nearby river. It didn’t take long and when he was back, I started digging again.

“Hey mate, I got to go.”

“Huh? Why? What happened?”

“Ahaha… haha… my girlfriend called and told me to go back home as fast as possible.”

“... a new one already?”

“Aha, ha, hahaha… the old one.”

“The dead one?”

“She got better. Anyway, I really need to scram.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. There was just one, a paper-thin layer of reason that stopped me from removing his stupid grin with my fist. The sound of crunching snow suddenly stopped and I saw him standing still, few meters away, with his back turned towards me.

“As thanks I will tell you one thing. You definitely should take an interest in this vending machine. Cya mate.”

With this one line he turned half of my anger into a disbelief, the other half still demanded blood.

As I watched him go, his last words were burning brightly inside my mind.

“It can’t be…”

I took a longer look towards the still buried machine. It was rather normal. I couldn't find anything unusual about it at all. Still, after taking into consideration what happened with Silvie today, I couldn’t bring myself to ignore those words and go home. The ‘what if’ feeling was combined with the absurdity of the whole situation.

A strange guy on a river bank asked me to help him dig out a vending machine and even highlighted the fact that I should be interested in it… no matter how I look at it was basically a cliche among cliches.

So… I started digging.

Two hours. That’s how long it took to dig it out. The best part was that the machine was either broken or simply frozen as I couldn’t do anything with it. No matter how much money I put inside, nothing happened. I even carefully scanned the surrounding area, but there wasn’t anything out of ordinary going on.

After declaring a revenge and winning a mental insulting match against that guy, I was back home. It was already close to midnight. At first, I just wanted to end this day and go to sleep, but on my way to grab something to drink from the kitchen I froze. The laptop was plugged back in.