14. Unconventional

[gunwithoutmusic]

Saturday, May 28th—12:53 p.m.

751 words. Approximate reading time: 3 minutes, 45 seconds.

“That one looks like a dog, huh?”

“I guess. Looks more like a horse to me. What do you miss the most, do you think?”

“I dunno. I guess I don’t really miss much. Things haven’t been that much different for me, really.”

“Really, Jace? Things haven’t been that much different? Or do you just not remember what it was like before?”

“Really, Pria. I mean, maybe things are different for you, but I hardly ever left my house anyway. Sure, it’s been getting harder lately to actually get together in person with anyone, but we’re all online so it’s not like I’m starved for socializing, and I’d already been getting my groceries and stuff delivered, so, yeah... I guess things haven’t been that different for me. There’s a cat.”

“Hm, I’d say it’s a horse. You know what I miss? Bowling.”

“Bowling? Well, that’s something I wouldn’t have expected to hear from you! Shoot, we could get some people together and set up a little bowling alley here in the park. I’m sure everyone would be into it.”

“First of all, you know it could only be like, one other person, max, and even that’s pushing it, three people hanging out in the park all close by each other. It’s bad enough dealing with getting the side-eye from every passerby just because we want to see our friends somewhere outside of the damned Multiverse.

“Secondly, it’s not the same. Outside in the park, in the middle of the day, with what I could only assume are makeshift pins and balls created out of whatever junk three people can find lying around their houses? It’s not bowling if we’re not in a dimly-lit hole in the wall somewhere, tossing back beers and peeling our shoes off of the sticky floor with every step.”

“Okay, now drinking beers with friends, I do miss that. Hey, look, a giraffe!”

“You mean that horse?”

“This game isn’t fun unless you actually play.”

“This game isn’t fun, anyway, Jace. It’s like, the exact opposite of fun.”

“Well, what else is there to do?”

“Exactly. Can’t go bowling, can’t go to a concert, can’t go to a club, can’t go to the movies... Nothing to do but go to the one place we’re allowed to be outside and sit and stare at the clouds. You know what they look like to me? Clouds.”

“Man, you’re such a buzzkill sometimes, you know? Times are hard right now, we gotta do what we gotta do.”

“I know, I know. But still, it’s been two years. When are we getting back to normal?”

“Who knows? Best to just enjoy the life you’ve been given and do what you can to find happiness inside those circumstances instead of trying to go outside of them.”

“Seems a little defeatist to me, Jace.”

“Yeah, but what are you gonna do? Can’t fight the system. Look at the people we’ve seen walk by just in the last hour. Every one of them is afraid and hurting.”

“And every one of them sees us sitting here on this little hill together and glares at us like we’re the worst people to exist on the planet when we’re not even doing anything wrong.”

“Exactly. You think any of those people are gonna say, ‘Man, I sure miss bowling; we ought to rise up and tell the government what we think of all of these restrictions!’? No. Because that’s crazy, Pria. Bowling will be back. We just gotta ride this out.”

“Sure, Jace. Just ride it out. Two years! Do you really think bowling will be back? Movies?”

“I don’t know, Pria. No one does, right? Two years is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Maybe we’ll just have to figure out different ways to entertain ourselves. Maybe drinking beer on a sticky floor in a dimly-lit room will just be something people used to do. No one goes to gladiator battles anymore, and that’s not really a bad thing, right?”

“I guess. It just sucks is all. Aren’t we supposedly social creatures? It doesn’t feel right to get most of your socializing done with words on a screen or a video of someone you feel like you used to know.”

“Eh, it doesn’t really bother me. I kind of like it better. Hanging out with friends was cool, but then you also had to deal with a bunch of strangers whenever you went out somewhere. Okay, that one actually kind of looks like a horse.”

Pria frowned at the cloud that looked kind of like a horse, and silently wished that literally anyone else had been available to hang out.