Chapter 25 22

I pressed the switch on the wall in the dark, and after a few seconds, the fluorescent lamps on the ceiling flickered, and the white light filled the entire warehouse. There are probably a hundred fluorescent lamps in total, and the warehouse is even more beautiful than it looks from the outside. Much wider, though the amount of light is still overwhelming.The dazzle made me close my eyes, and after a while I opened them. The darkness has disappeared, leaving only silence and coldness. The warehouse looked like the inside of a huge cold storage, but it was taken for granted when one considered the original purpose of the building.Although there were not a single window in the walls, and the ceiling was painted bright white, there were stains of yellow, black, and other inexplicable colors stuck here and there.The wall was so thick that it was obvious at a glance that it felt like being stuffed into a lead box. A sense of terror that I could never escape from here captured me, and I turned my head several times to look at it. The back door, never saw a more repulsive building.

If you look at it with good intentions, you will also feel that it is full of elephant cemeteries, but instead of those elephant bones with bent legs, there are endless pinball tables lined up neatly on the concrete floor.I stood on the stairs and kept staring down at the strange scene, while my hand subconsciously crawled to my mouth and retracted into my pocket. That was an awful number of pinball tables, and seventy-eight was the correct number.I spent a lot of time counting the pinball table several times, seventy-eight, yes.The machines are lined up in eight rows facing the same direction, until they reach the wall at the end of the warehouse, as if they were lined up with chalk on the ground, and the rows are not chaotic by a centimeter.Like a fly solidified in acrylic resin, everything around is motionless and still.The death of the seventy-eight and the silence of the seventy-eight.I moved my body reflexively, because if I didn't, I'm afraid even I would be included in those monsters.

It was cold and still smelled of dead chickens. I walked slowly down the narrow concrete steps of only five flights.It was colder down the stairs, but still sweating, nasty sweat.I took out a handkerchief from my pocket to wipe the sweat, but there was nothing I could do with the sweat stuck to my armpits.I sat down at the bottom of the stairs and smoked with trembling hands.Three-handed spaceship, I really don't want to meet her like this, maybe it will feel the same for her. After the door was closed, no sound of insects could be heard, and absolute silence settled on the surface like a thick fog.Seventy-eight pinball machines put their three hundred and twelve feet firmly on the ground, silently enduring the heaviness that has nowhere to go. It is really a sad sight.

I'm still sitting down and trying to whistle the first four bars of Jumping with Symphony Sid.Steingate shakes his head and stomps the syllables.In the empty and unobstructed cold warehouse, the whistle was blowing brightly and gracefully. I felt a little better, and played the following four bars, and then another four bars.Everything seemed to be pricking up their ears to listen, and of course no one shook their heads or stomped their feet, but nonetheless my whistle disappeared as if sucked into every corner of the warehouse. so cold.After the whistle was blown, he couldn't help murmuring, and the echo didn't sound like his own.Sitting here for a solo show all the time is not enough. If I sit still, the air-conditioning and the smell of chicken seem to seep into my bone marrow together.I stood up, slapped off the cold dust on my trousers with my hands, stomped out the cigarette with my shoes, and threw it into the tin can next to me.

Marble toy Marble toy.Isn't that why you came here?The cold seemed to stop even my mind from moving.Think about it!It's a marble toy.Seventy-eight marble toys OK, what about the switch?Somewhere in this building there must be a power switch that can wake up the pinball toy, look for it! With my hands in my jeans pockets, I tried to walk slowly along the walls of the building.The flat, drab concrete walls are still drooping here and there from wiring and lead pipes ripped out for cold storage.From the remnants of various machines, meters, junction boxes, switches, etc., it can be imagined that the holes left by pulling them out at random with great force, the walls are much smoother than they look from a distance, like huge slugs The way it crawled.Actually, the building is very wide when walking, and it is surprisingly wide for a cold storage warehouse for a chicken farm.

There was a similar staircase directly opposite the one from which I descended.There is the same iron gate at the place where you go up the stairs, and everything is the same, giving you the illusion that you have already circled the field.I stretched out my hand and tried to push the door, but it didn't move. Although there was neither a latch nor a lock, the door remained motionless as if something was stuck in it.I left the door and unconsciously wiped the sweat off my face with the palm of my hand, but there was a smell of chicken. The switch was next to the door, and I flipped the big lever switch, and immediately there was a low humming that seemed to surge up from the ground, covering the entire surrounding area and sending chills down the spine.Secondly, a series of sounds sounded like tens of thousands of birds spreading their wings and flapping.I looked back at the cold storage warehouse, and there were seventy-eight pinball toys sucked into the electricity, and the sound of thousands of zeros being played on the scoring board.After that sound was over, there was only a dull electrical sound like the buzzing of swarms of bees, and the warehouse was filled with seventy-eight marble toys for a moment.Each panel is flashing with various primary colors of light, and each panel painstakingly depicts their different dreams.

I walked down the stairs, walking slowly among the seventy-eight pinball machines, as if on a military parade.There are typical excellent models that you have only seen in photos, some memorable models that you have seen in the game field, and some models that no one can remember and have long since disappeared in time.Who is the pilot's name painted on Williams' Friendship No. 7 board?Gray?That was in the early sixties.A gorgeous trip to Barry, blue sky, Eiffel Tower, happy American travelers.The king and queen produced by Goldlip Company have models with as many as eight bowling lanes.A western gambler with a clean beard and a careless expression, with the ace of spades hidden in the cuff of the sock.

Superheroes, monsters, college girls, football, rockets, and women are each a habitual dream that fades and decays in a dark playground.Heroes and beauties from all walks of life smiled at me from the board.Blondes, silver hairs, brown hairs, red hairs, Mexican girls with black hair, ponytails, Hawaiian girls with long hair and waist, Ann Margaret, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, everyone will be beautiful Her breasts protrude proudly.Some under thin shirts that buttoned to the waist, some under swimsuits, some under bras that popped up at the point.They always keep the beautiful shape of that breast, but it does fade.And as if matching the beating of the heart, let the light continue to turn on and off.Seventy-eight pinball machines, the cemetery of ancient, unimaginable ancient dreams.I walked slowly past them.

The three-handed spaceship was waiting for me at the very back of the line. She was sandwiched between those heavily made-up companions, looking extremely quiet, as if she was sitting on a rock deep in the forest waiting for me.I stood in front of her, staring at the nostalgic panel, the deep dark blue space, blue as if blue ink had been smudged out, and small white stars, pure white stars floating in front of Saturn, Mars, and Venus. Spaceship, spaceship with lights in the windows, it looks like a family reunion inside.A few streaks of shooting stars streaked through the darkness. The dial is still the same as before, the same dark blue, the target is as white as smiling teeth, and the ten lemon-yellow award-winning lamps stacked on top of the star slowly glow up and down.The two pop-up holes are Saturn and Mars, the signpost is Venus and everything is still.

Hi!I said.No, maybe I didn't say it.Anyway I put my hand on her face plate glass.The glass was as cold as ice, and the temperature of my hand left a white fog trail of ten fingers there. She smiled at me as if she had finally woken up, what a nostalgic smile.I also smile. It seems like it's been a long time, she said.I counted with my fingers as if thinking.Exactly three years, it has passed in a blink of an eye. We nodded to each other and fell silent for a while.If you're in a coffee shop, it's just when you're sipping your coffee and fingering the floral gauze curtains.

I think about you often, oh, I said.Then suddenly the mood became very miserable. Sleepless nights? Yes, on sleepless nights, I repeat.She never stopped smiling. Is not It Cold?she asked. It's cold, it's so cold! Better not stay too long, it must be too cold for you. Probably, I replied.Then he pulled out the cigarette with slightly trembling hands, lit it, and inhaled the smoke. Don't you play marbles?she asked. No play, I replied. Why? 165000 used to be my highest score.Do you remember? I remember.Because it's also my highest record. I don't want to break the record, I say. She was silent, only the ten winning lights continued to blink up and down slowly, and I looked at my toes and smoked. why are you here Because you asked me to come. call you?She was a little puzzled, then smiled as if shy.By the way, maybe it is, maybe I called. It was hard for me to find you. Thanks!she says.Tell me something. Listen to me. So many things have completely changed oh, I said.That funfair you used to be there turned into an all-night donut shop with terrible coffee. Is it that bad to drink? Once upon a time in the Disney animal movie, there was a dying zebra that drank muddy water that happened to be the same color. She giggled, a beautiful smile.But it's a nasty street, she said seriously, and everything is so vulgar and dirty. It was such an era. She nodded several times.what are you doing now Translation work. novel? no, i said.Just something like everyday foam.Move water from one gutter to another gutter, that's all not happy? this?Never thought about it. Where's the girlfriend? Maybe you won't believe it, but now I live with two twins and the coffee is really good. She kept smiling, momentarily turning her eyes to the sky.I always feel so strange that everything is not like what really happened. No, it's all really happening, it's just gone. sad? No, I shake my head.It's just that something created out of nothing has returned to its original place. We fell silent again.What we have in common are but fragments of time that died long ago.Even so, that warm feeling is somewhat like an ancient light, and it still lingers in my heart until now.And I will walk with that light until death catches me and throws me again into the crucible of nothingness. You'd better leave early, she said. Indeed, the air-conditioning was already unbearably strong. I shivered and stomped out the cigarette. Thank you for coming to see me, she said.Maybe there is no chance to see you again, so take care! Thanks!I said.goodbye. I walked up the steps through the row of marble toys and turned off the lever switch.As if the air had been sucked out, the electricity to the marble toy stopped, and complete silence and sleep shrouded the surroundings.I walked through the warehouse again, walked up the stairs and turned off the light switch, and reached out to close the door behind me. I didn't look back, not once. ◇ It was almost midnight when I called a taxi and returned to the apartment.Blue-faced and smelling like frozen chicken while the twins were finishing their weekly magazine crossword puzzle in bed, I stuffed all my worn clothes into the washing machine and headed to the hot tub.In order to restore the consciousness of a normal person, I soaked in hot water for about 30 minutes, but the cold air that penetrated deep into the body still did not dissipate. The twins pulled out a gas stove from the closet to light the fire for me, and it took fifteen minutes for the shivering to stop, and after a few breaths, I reheated a can of onion soup to drink. It's all right now.I said. Really? It's still cold.The twins said worriedly while holding my wrist. It will warm up in no time. Then we got into bed and worked on the last two crossword puzzles, one about red trout and one about walking trails.The body warmed up immediately, and we don't know who fell into a deep sleep first. I dreamed of Trotsky and four reindeer, and all four reindeer were wearing woolen stockings, a very cold dream.