SYNCHRONY
By
Nathan Hobby (1998)
you’ll always be my whore
because you’re the one
that I adore
- THE SMASHING PUMPKINS,
‘AVA ADORE’
Chapter one
Deja-vu. It
happened maybe ten times. Waking up in
gritty sheets on Greg’s couch to the sound of rain on the street below.
That last time, maybe nine am, and it was still
dark. I stepped onto cold
concrete. The flat was empty; Greg had
left for the mine at six.
I could feel the bump on my neck, tight, hard and shiny,
but I refused to touch it. Yesterday I’d
told myself it was a pimple. I felt sick
because it had got bigger and now I was sure it wasn’t.
I dressed in a jumper that smelled of last night’s cheap
Chinese. There was only a carton of milk
and a black banana in the fridge and so I decided I wasn’t hungry. The naked
woman leered at me from the fridge calender and I suddenly needed to get out of
there. Get away from Greg and
Gregness. I took the elevator down to
the street.
I had twelve dollars left in my wallet plus a ticket for
a return trip home. I must have known I
was going to go back or I wouldn’t have paid for the return. But I had wanted to tell myself I could run
away and leave it all behind. Leave her
to die by herself.
Thinking of dying made me think of Dr Green. The bastard.
He liked to think he was my dad - always giving me advice. He looked down on my mum because she worked
in seedy bars, but he still wanted to marry her. She won’t marry him, I thought, not an ugly
fiftysomething guy like him.
He called me in after he’d looked at
I scowled at him and tried to think of something to say
back. Nothing came, I only burned with a
useless anger and in the end I said nothing and walked out.
He
had no idea. No-one had any idea.
Thinking about him must have screwed my face up because
as I passed under a streetlight this school girl about my age walking the other
way looked at me funny and moved over.
That made me feel worse and I tried to put on a normal face.
It felt strange to be walking down this dark street at
nine am in the morning while I should have been a thousand kilometres south
sitting in school in light. It was
surreal, a nightmare that wouldn’t go away - and yet the real nightmare was
waiting for me back home. And growing on
my neck and in my head at the same time.
I ordered a coffee in the same twenty-four hour diner
we’d eaten at last night and sat at a
corner booth, sipping it slowly.
I knew I shouldn’t drink coffee; it makes me go hypertense but I didn’t
care. I wanted to feel awake.
The diner was deserted.
A waitress I’d seen a couple of times before was wiping tables. She was about sixteen and average looking
with a curvy delicious body; strawberry blonde with a nice smile.
The street was lightening a little when someone sat down
opposite me.
I looked up and saw it was the waitress.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi.”
“You come in here quite a bit.”
“Yeah. About the
only place around here to eat.”
“You’re a friend of Greg’s?”
“Ah, yeah, actually. I’m staying with him at the
moment. You know him?”
“Oh... a bit, from here and at hockey. I’ve played against him a couple of
times. Where do you know him from?”
“We... we went to school
together. In Junetown -
“Oh right.
Gee. That’s ages away. He’s a bit of an unusual bloke... I mean,
doesn’t seem to have many friends or anything.”
“He’s boring, that’s why.
He dribbles crap all the time.”
She giggled. I
couldn’t believe that I’d said that.
“That’s a nice thing to say about your friend.”
“Whoops... hell, I don’t know. I’ve always felt... sorry for him. Like I had to be his friend.”
“Well you didn’t need to travel one thousand kilometres
just because you thought he might be lonely did you?”
“Yeah. Okay. You got me.
I’m just using him. I’m running
away from home and I wanted to get as far as I could and this was about the
only place I knew someone. Happy? And why did I tell you all that?”
She looked at me funny and then she laughed.
“My name’s Lauren,” she said.
“P-pleased to meet you.
I’m Samuel.”
“Samuel? That
sounds heaps serious. People call you
Sam?”
“Some do.”
“Well I’ll call you Sam.
What are you doing today, Sam?”
I shrugged, “Mope around I guess. See the sites of Crenden for the hundredth
time.”
She giggled again, “You’re funny, you know that? I knock off
in a couple of hours. Why don’t
you meet me here at eleven thirty? That
is, if it fits in with your moping and all.”
“Yeah. Yeah
sure. I’d love to.”
She stood up and smiled, “Eleven thirty, then?”
She walked away and I glowed inside. I quickly finished the coffee and then walked
the grey gloomy streets for a couple of hours, thinking only of that cute smile
of hers. The bump was beginning to throb but I refused to think about it.
She was ready to go when I got there and she took hold of
my hand.
I couldn’t believe it.
I’d only just met her and there I was holding her hand as I walked out
of the diner.
“Where we going?” I asked.
“Back to my house for lunch.”
“Sounds good.”
We walked on in silence for a little way. Then she asked, “So, what are you running
away from?”
I must have tensed because her grip on my hand softened a
little.
“Ohh... you know.
Bad parents. Lousy life. School sucks.
Usual stuff.”
She turned her head and looked into my eyes.
“Maybe you can tell me the real reason later.”
We walked a long way, at least five kilometres, out of
the business district, through the houses and right out to the big hill at the
outskirt of the town, talking inanely as we went. I was feeling naueous, the bump on my neck
was pulsing and I knew for sure it was starting.
Finally we came to her house. It was old and small at the end of a quiet
street.
“There’s no-one home.
My Dad’s at work.”
The heater had been left on; it was stiflingly hot
inside. All the curtains were closed and
the trivision was playing to an empty house.
Lauren made sandwiches and we ate on the couch, staring
at the tri-v news, at events that had happened months ago in distant parts of
the galaxy. I forced myself to eat and
I was frightened I was going to vomit.
Despite the coffee I felt sleepy and heavy.
“Do want a drink or anything?” she asked.
I shook my head and she leant down in front of me. She kissed me, hard and full on the lips and
I suddenly realised what a little slut she was but I didn’t even care.
“Why are you really
running away?”
I felt so tired, so weary, I wanted to surrender to whatever was there.
“My girlfriend... she... she...”
“She’s pregnant?”
“Yeah, yeah that’s it,” I replied, not having the energy
to correct her.
I think I must have fallen asleep, because I woke up and
I was kind of lying over her lap and she was cradling my head. She smelled sweet and her hand felt so good
on me that I just stayed there like that and murmured into her lap.
Time had lost all meaning. It was hot and dim and the tri-v was still
playing.
We shifted a little.
I had my hands over her, feeling her pale skin, and she was
panting. I felt her breasts hard and
firm inside her bra and had this strangely comforting vision of the scores of
others who had done just this, probably on this very couch.
And suddenly I caught myself. A vision of
“Shannon,” I whispered, “
I passed out and woke up over Lauren again.
“She’s not pregnant,” I said, feeling dizzy and wanting
to be with
“What happened to her, then?”
I was close to tears and I was shaking my head. “No, no,
no, I can’t tell you.”
“Yes you can. Come on Sam.
I love you. You’ve got to tell
me.”
I lay there groaning. “Brain-bug,” I finally said,
sobbing, “A brain-bug got her. A moon
leech. And now it’s going to grow inside
me because she loves me. And they’re
going to take over our minds and join us together in a big cocoon and fly us to
the moon. Then we’re going to live forever as zombies
on the moon. And there’s no escape. No escape.
There was no point coming here.
It’s already got me. It’s growing
on my neck. You can see it.”
“No,” she said, “You’re lying! You’re lying!” she was almost screaming,
“You’ve gone crazy! You’re fine. You’re just fine.”
The ceiling was rotating, the black was growing and I was
falling all at the same time. When I
woke up this time, she wasn’t there.
Sharp pain in my neck. I put my
hand up to the bump. It came away slick
with blood. I was frightened - what had
happened.
I managed to focus on my watch. It was nine pm. I’d been lying there for hours. My whole body was stiff and I still felt
dizzy.
“Lauren,” I called, “Lauren.”
I needed to piss.
On the tri-v, some alien leader’s rapsing electronic
voice was driving me crazy.
Heavy footsteps on the tiles. A grizzled, balding man appeared at the
doorway.
He shook his head, “The little slut. Look what she brings home. What are you?
One of those druggies? Those
cy-heads? You look like one.”
“No... no, Mr... sir...”
“She left you. She
don’t want you anymore. So get the hell
out of my house.”
He stood staring at me and I was half scared, half beyond
caring. I got up and walked away. There was a toliet just off to the
left. I couldn’t aim straight and in the
end I didn’t even bother, I just pissed all over the floor. I walked out the front door into the violet
darkness and the rain. The lights of the
CBD were below me in the distance.
I started walking toward the lights. I wondered where Lauren had gone. I decided I hated her. I ran, stumbing down the huge hill, a car
honking its horn as it swerved to avoid me.
I was crying, thinking of Lauren’s firm breasts and seeing
I needed
I stopped at the bottom of the hill, half collapsing in a
bus shelter under the streetlight. My
clothes were sodden. I put my hands in
my pockets and pulled out a piece of
paper I didn’t know was in there.
It was wet and tearing.
I opened it carefully and held it up so it got the light better. The ink was running; it was difficult to
read.
Dear Sam,
I’m never going to
see you again because you’re going back.
You’ve got no choice. I’m
scared, that’s why I left you sleeping here.
I’m scared first that maybe I like you heaps and I want you to stay with
me. I don’t why, I hardly know you, but
I just felt that way. Second: that maybe
the brainbug’ll get me too. I know
that’s silly, and I tried to cut it out and save you, I really did, that’s how
much I like you. But I couldn’t so I
gave up.
It’s
a real pity that you’re going to the moon and all, because you’re a nice bloke
and whenever I see Greg, I’ll think of you.
Please don’t come into the diner or anything, it’ll just make it
difficult.
Love
Lauren.
I was crying again which was so stupid because I’d
only known her for a couple of hours and I’d been sleeping for most of
them. And all my tears ran into the rain
and were lost like they never even existed.
I kept on walking.
The bump was aching and bulging, I could feel it, but I kept on walking
anyway, because I was going home.
It took hours and I didn’t spoke a word to anyone; I
passed silent houses and cars and soon shops and the only thing that was real
was the rain hitting the bitumen. I
stopped a couple of times and sat on the pavement, just letting the rain soak
into me. Eventually I saw the diner
ahead, a yellow oasis of light in which people laughed and ate and talked. I stood outside the window for a minute,
watching them all. Lauren wasn’t there,
of course, and there was an old couple sitting in my corner booth. I walked on.
Back at Greg’s flat, the light was on and he was watching
a porno on the tri-v as he drank beer.
He turned as I came in, dripping on the bare concrete, and he laughed
his horrible induced laugh.
“Got a bit wet, Sammy?”
I scowled at him and he stopped laughing.
“Where you been, anyway?”
“Having sex with sluts.
Except not quite.”
He put his beer down.
He must have got one of his workmates to get it; he wasn’t eighteen
yet. I knew that he could only drink two
cans; after that he got sick. He liked
to pretend he was tough.
He went and found a towel and as he did, he told me for
the hundredth time about when he had sex with a slut, except the details were
different each time.
I nodded, smiling.
He passed me a towel.
“Go have a shower, hey?
Might feel a bit better.”
I did. I had a
lukewarm shower as Sulac mosquitoes as big as my thumb sucked my blood and the
plumbing screeched like a dying woman. I
felt even worse and I put back on my wet clothes, just for effect.
I went back out and he looked at me funny.
But I spoke before he could.
“You know the real reason I’m running away?” I turned
around and pointed at the growing black lump on my neck, “My girlfriend got a
moon-leech and I thought maybe if I got as far away as possible, it wouldn’t
spore on me. However, it did and now I’m
going to die. But thanks a lot for
having me while you did. It was great
knowing you. Oh, and by the way, you’re
going to get it too, because they’re
highly infectious. You’re going to die
which is just as well because not many people like you. You live one of the most boring, pathetic
lives I have ever encountered.”
He started stuttering, but I went back into the bathroom
and grabbed my backpack.
“I’ve got to go back now.
I can feel the leech calling us together. It was inevitable really. Sorry about you dying and all.”
He was sitting there gaping at me, finally managing to
say, “What?” but I was already closing the door and making for the
elevator.
PLOT
SYNOPSIS (as followed for the author’s most famous novel, Synchrony)
Chapter 2: -
Sam goes home and tells Shannon to get an abortion
-
He has another fainting/insanity attack and reveals that it is all due to his
LSD habit. The brainbug is just a
hallucination and he’s not really on another planet.
Chapter 3:
- Lauren moves into town and tries to findd Sam
-
Shannon has the abortion and is really upset
Chapter 4: -
Seduced by Lauren, Sam realises he doesn’t really love Shannon
-
Extremely guilty, he runs away with Lauren back to Sulac and lives with her
Chapter 5: -
Lauren gets pregnant
Chapter 6: -
She dies in childbirth
Chapter 7: -
Sam moves in with Greg and becomes a miner
-
he calls his daughter Shannon and she grows up to work in the greasy
diner.
Alternative
PLOT SYNOPSIS found amongst the author’s most precious papers after his death
Chapter 2: -
Sam returns home and finds Mr Green has raped Shannon
-
guilty that he left Shannon alone, he murders Mr Green and runs away with
Shannon to the foam deserts of Mithras
Chapter 3: -
the bonding begins; the leech joins them into a huge sac and shoots them
off
to the moon
Chapter 4: -
Shannon kills herself with a knife she is sold on the moon
-
Sam wanders around with a half dead leech in his head, screaming out for a
partner.
Chapter 5: -
Greg and Lauren arrive on the moon, bonded
-
Sam kills Greg with the knife, declaring him finally liberated and lives
happily ever after as a zombie with Lauren in the wild paradise of the moon,
eating red moon-berries and falling asleep each night by the gentle lapping of
the Million Mile Sea