The whistling was what stressed me out most about the clip.
I expected the high definition video quality of the vehicle burning to be the worst part. The exact model was unrecognizable in the flames, but had been some kind of army vehicle, one that still ran on petrol. They have a long metal grill along the front of the bonnet, and spikes on top of their square. You see them a lot in old photos.
The police found them on an old patch of wasteland. Rare to find empty land in that part of the city, and in the process getting cleared for new plants. Apparently the sunflowers were ready to be planted the next day.
You can still see the figures inside the car. All of them silver, and juddering in the heat. If you look close enough, you can see the silver running down like melted candle wax. You can spot the wisps of steam boiling from the mouths.
But the sound was what got to me. That same hot water bottle noise Deni makes when they are in trouble, amplified and heightened into one long screaming note.
The video does not show the full extent of the sentence carved into the dirt near the vehicle. But from the first few words I guessed the rest. An online forum confirmed my theory.
‘I can only show you the compassion of fingers in a closing door.’
I keep watching the clip again and again.
Mum found me in the end. The jack of my headphones must have pulled out of my laptop.
‘Venus, it’s not healthy to keep watching this stuff on repeat. What do you think it is going to achieve? Empathy? This is how stuff like this wins.’
In the end she stood in front of the screen, and insisted we go for a walk.
We take a stroll between two bakeries that lead towards the harbour. They started off as competitors, but with grain prices dropping out palm trees and ivy joined their businesses together. We have taken this thirty minute route under this canopy a hundred times over, and if you plan the timing right this is the perfect place to watch the sunset vanish, and the lights of the city appear.
But not tonight. Tonight I think of those burning bodies.
Cannot text Deni yet.
Glad to have a clip from the Butter Mouse this evening. I touched the screen, and watched things from another world. A world where nothing is on fire.
Clip: A long and varied selection of the sights of this alternate dimension. Definite similarities to our own, but imaging traveling in a ship like that! My beautiful sights of a different world.