Feelings

So many new inventions the humans have created during their stay on earth, always looking for a way to make life easier for everyone. Human-like beings have also made their own inventions or helped in the creation of the ones you see in your daily life. But usually due to their long lifespan, they don’t adapt as easily as many humans do.

Valentine, who has already finished a dress and is packing it, can’t stop thinking about Hana’s message.

[What do you mean by that?] Valentine wrote.

[My, you don’t kNow¿ looKs like I’m m0re advanced in the eMoticon area] was Hana’s answer. She’s just happy and proud to be able to communicate via phone and is showing off a little.

[Those are called emojis, smarty-pants]

“Why is she like this?” Valentine says “Is that guy Pierre actually a bad influence? Did he do something to my friend? I shouldn’t trust him so much, but he seemed like a good guy”

“You shouldn’t text and walk” Jeanne says while they walk down the street.

“Sorry, I’m trying to tell Valentine that we will buy something before arriving” Hana explains “Also, she says that the small images are called emoji”

“Oh Right! The modern ones, forgot that. Sorry I’m not a good teacher”

“No, you are doing fine. A lot better than me”

“Anyways, if you are going to keep walking, you’ll get hurt. Try sending an audio message, you have to press the microphone icon… Uh, it’s the one besides the text area it looks like and egg floating over a stick”

Hana moves her eyes around the screen and sees something vaguely similar to what Jeanne described and then presses it “Like this? Am I doing it right? This is new for me AAAAH!” Since she was looking at the screen, she didn’t notice the metal lamp post in front of her until it was too late and it hit her right in the face. The phone falls to the ground and the message is sent.

“I told you” Jeanne laughs “I saw the whole thing like in slow motion. I maybe should have said anything but honestly I warned you less that 30 seconds ago”

“Ouch, Sorry. You are right. I got distracted” Hana picks up her phone and looks at it, not even a scratch “I’ll leave in my pocket. Let’s hurry or the place will close”

Back again at the house, Valentine is going upstairs. The Sun has disappeared and the lights of the night can be seen coming through the windows. She arrives at the living room and sits, then takes her phone out and stares at the notification next to the LIME icon.

“That’s odd, an audio? I’m so glad that she is learning fast” Valentine smiles and presses the play button.

“Like this? Am I doing it right? This is new for me AAAAH!” There was silence after the message finished playing loudly.

<SO YOU DO KNOW WHAT THOSE EMOJIS MEANT!> Valentine thinks while she covers her eyes with her left hand.<I’m sure this message wasn’t supposed to be sent… what do I do!?>

She selects the message and sees how many options appear, one of them says: ‘DELETE’. She decides to go with that option and another message appears ‘The message will be deleted from your device only, not your friend’s device’

<No use!! Well, maybe I can delete it from my phone only and play dumb if she asks. I don’t want her to feel ashamed, she’s still learning how to use a phone>

Many notification sounds start arriving one after another, Valentine takes a peek at her phone and all are messages from Hana, but none was coherent, some examples are:

[strdt hbtgd] [faduytr3] [456ygcau%&] [jbsj325++++]

Valentine slowly closes her phone and then throws it against the couch.

“IF YOU ARE BUSY WITH THAT THEN AT LEAST PUT THE PHONE AWAAAAAY!!!” She yells “Enough, I tried not to be nosy and be a lady of… of… integrity I think is the word. But enough is enough, you are not helping me in helping you to not feel ashamed” She breathes and grabs her phone “I don’t care any more, I’ll let you know that I know everything”

[Well, looks like someone is having fun 😈]

Buzz buzz

Hana feels the vibration of her phone, they just finished buying groceries and are coming out of the store. At the end she decided to not only buy fruits and vegetables, so she got some cereal, other breakfast food and some snacks. She and Jeanne are carrying small bags.

“Can you please hold this for me?, I think Valentine wrote something” Hana moves her arms giving Jeanne the bag she is carrying.

“Sure, no problem” Jeanne holds the paper bag with a bread sticking out of it.

Hana checks her phone and reads the message.

[Yes we did 😊, it was a good day] She writes back, and then notices the messages that she accidentally sent.

“Hey, what’s this?” She shows her the screen.

Jeanne takes a look at the texts and then explains “Oh, you butt texted her”

“I what!?”

It took a little explanation but Hana was able to understand how some text messages can be sent without noticing. She ignored her phone and left it in her pocket. She and Jeanne kept talking on the way home that she got distracted, they talked about how weird is to see so many cars nowadays when it was a rare sight many years ago, Jeanne explained how the world is now perceived a bit smaller since the creation of the internet, she also had to explain what internet is, Hana talked about how surprising was to her to learn about all the audio devices that have been invented while she was asleep.

“So Valentine knows how much I like music. She collected tapes, cassettes, multitracks, and cds over the years just for me. I think I still like vinyl the most, but I have been learning a lot from the books she also collected and it is so amazing… humans are so amazing!”

Jeanne sees the bright smile that Hana is making, it spreads like if it were a virus and she now feels the need to smile too.

<I don’t know why, but just looking at her go about something she loves makes me feel somehow different> Jeanne thinks.

“Have you heard of a band called Queen? Is modern and so good. I found their songs in some of the CDs at home” Hana happily says “Hope I can sometime go to one of their concerts”

“Oh… hmm… That won’t be possible” Jeanne says with an awkward expression “But you could watch the movie”

“Eeh? Why?”

Jeanne explains about the band’s story, and with regret sees how Hana’s smile vanishes.

“Not fair, I just learned about them two days ago” Hana sighs “Do You recommend the movie? By any chance do you have a copy that I can borrow? At home we have a Betamax, I’m still not used to operate it but Valentine explained that is for watching movies”

“Oh… yeah… How should I put it?” Jeanne makes the awkward expression once again “That’s some old tech you are talking about, I think there are some video stores where you can get a copy. Maybe we could watch it on Webflicks, if you don’t have an account, you can borrow mine” Jeanne stops for a moment and sees Hana’s expression that could be read as not understanding any of the words she said “Sorry am I going too fast?”

“No… no… It’s just that I still have so much to learn. When I feel that I have moved forward one step, then appears more information and I feel that 30 more steps are added with it. I don’t know if I’ll ever catch with you guys”

“Hey, you have Valentine to teach you. And if you don’t mind, I can also help too”

“I would like that very much, thanks” Hana smiles again.

“Ok, back to the movies. I totally recommend the movie, believe or not I love movies. Even before movies existed I was a fan of seeing other people in theater plays, it is just so amazing how other people can express so many emotions out of nowhere, laugh… cry. I’m a bit jealous, even taking over a body if I Feel sad I won’t be able to cry, so seeing others makes me feel like I’m living the moment with them”

She goes over the skills of some specific actors that Hana doesn’t know, but is totally intrigued now. Looking at Jeanne’s smile while she talks and how her eyes move, generates a warm feeling located around the chest, she feels relaxed and happy.

“You seem to know a lot about the subject” Hana finally decides to interrupt.

“Oh, no. Just basic stuff, I think. There are people that really know a lot”

“Doesn’t seem basic to me. You have really caught my attention, I want to see the movie with you. When do you think we can?”

“Oh, I have all the time in the world. Maybe tomorrow or next week?”

“Tomorrow is fine actually”

“Alright! Want to go to my house? Or can I go to yours? I’ll bring a laptop, It’s all what we need”

“If we can, then… I prefer if you go to my house… what’s a laptop?”

“It’s a… I mean… like a small tv that… are you familiar with computers?”

“Computers? Like in latin?”

“Yeah… we can start from there…”

They talk a bit more while they walk the remaining 5 streets, Hana learns some basics about computers and the internet.

“So my new phone is like a mini puter?” She opens her eyes widely.

“Kind of, but it has its limits. You’ll see tomorrow”

<Tomorrow> Hana thinks, and her heart starts beating <Why am I so excited about it? Is it because I’ll see this miraculous machine? Is it because I’m getting used to all this new stuff? Is it because I made a new friend? … or is it because I’ll see her again?> Hana suddenly feels the weather a bit more warm, but it’s actually only coming from her face. She touches her cheeks and realizes that is blushing <What? why?> She looks at her friend but somehow it is hard to concentrate. For some weird reason, the movement of her hair in the air feels like it is going at a slower speed than usual, and her smile looks shinier.

She doesn’t see them, but small purple and dark sparkles start appearing in her eyes.

“You need me, you’ll never be happy with someone else” That deep voice again, sounds faint in the back of her head. A chill runs down her spine.

Scared, she moves her eyes looking in every direction and notices a pigeon flying randomly, it crashes against a flowerpot on the fifth floor of a building located on the sidewalk that they are on. The object falls in Jeanne’s direction.

CRASH

Pieces of ceramic and dirt are all over the place, some petals slowly move and touch the floor. Hana pulled Jeanne back a couple of centimeters by pulling her shirt, saving her from the impact of around 9 kilos that was aimed to her head.

“Wow, thanks” Jeanne is almost without words “Good think that I’m already dead or that would have killed me again” She looks up and yells to be careful to a man who comes out of the balcony where the flowerpot was located.

Hana keeps grabbing the last 10 minutes until they arrive, almost without saying a word.

“Hey I’m ok” Jeanne says “Thanks, but you know that even if that would have got me, I would still be here, right?”

“I know, it’s just... That it startled me” Hana’s voice is a little different, more cold “Anyways, we are here. Thanks… for everything” she takes the bag that Jeanne has been carrying the whole time and quickly walks to the entrance, the door automatically opens for her.

“Oh, ok… see you tomorrow” She didn’t even have time to react properly.

“Uh… yeah… tomorrow” The door closes after she enters.

At the window, on the first floor, Valentine is peeking. Jeanne waves at her and she waves back.

“Who is the lady at the entrance?” Valentine asks as she sees her friend coming in and sitting directly on the couch while she covers her face “I thought you were with Pierre, where is he?”

“He is Pierre. I mean, she is Pierre. No, Jeanne. I mean, they are the same person but like that she is Jeanne but is still the same Pierre you know, just another body”

“Oh, ok so you were all day with Jeanne, I see” Valentine takes another look at Jeanne as she leaves, then looks at Hana sitting while covering her face and then remembers the audio message she got early <WHAT!? Then she did it with Jeanne? Was Hana always like this? Oh! That kinda explained the audio! But wait!! She looks worried, maybe she thinks that I wouldn’t understand it. Oh Pierre, just who are you? I have to say something> She approaches her friend “Ah, seems like you had an interesting day. Anything you want to talk about? Are you ok?” She stutters a little bit.

“Valentine.. I.. I remember, it just came back a couple minutes ago, I’m still processing”

“W-what do you mean? It can't be”

“Yes, I remember him. Victor”