Burn In Violet

03: Faceboot

Chapter 3: Faceboot

“They only made me realize that even the best things in life are… sad with prolonged loneliness.” – Holly Esther

*

“Hello Annie, Faceboot welcomes you back! How do you feel today, Julie? You are currently in a relationship with Fred, Natasha.”

The girl-whose-name-changed-every-time reclined in her chair. Somehow the glowing screen in front of her was a very important part of her life. It was where she, Katie, found her love. It was where she, Hazel, connected with hundreds of friends from days long past. The program named Faceboot was a crucial part of Sally’s life.

True, it had its dark parts. Emmeline got bullied once in here. Her profile had to be taken down once so she, Nancy, could pull herself together and face the world and her friends.

The glowing box called the computer did what computations the human imagination failed to do. It replaced imagination, starting with numbers.

How did it feel to own one?

*

Holly opened her eyes. Again with a weird dream. The ceiling stared back. She sat up and cupped her face with her hands.

Foreign concepts and experiences seemed to invade her dreams. She found it very weird, seeing that despite reading hundreds of pages every day, none of what she read entered her dreams.

Another weird thing was that often, in the dreams, she would feel herself change in her sense of identity. First, she was Mary, then she was Annie, then she was Jane. It felt as if she flipped through the personalities of ten different people in the span of ten seconds.

Why?

She would wake up dazzled and confused. They were often vivid dreams, dreams that she would remember as clear as day. They would present her with foreign concepts and alien understandings. For example, she had never seen how a city of skyscrapers would look like. She knew of the existence of something called the worldwide web, once upon a time, before the time she was supposed to be born. In her dreams, she had seen airplanes.

She had asked Emi those questions, but Emi would only shrug. Was that something like a magical ability? Were they memories of real people? Were they her memories?

Emi would only say, “You’re special, Holly. You survived, even when your family was lost. It might mean something, it might not. I’m still trying to understand you.” And Emi said just that, by her side, right now. The young lady was carrying a tray with a tea set on it and a plate stacked with buttered toast.

Holly sighed. “Why do you always sound like you are reading my mind?”

Emi straightened her glasses. The tray wobbled. “I felt your brainwaves. I knew it meant that you were going to wake up. What is it this time? Airplanes?”

“Faceboot,” Holly replied with a straight face. Emi giggled.

“Ah… that was a notorious one, when I was your age. That time, people thought it impossible to imagine a future without the internet,” said Emi as she took her place on Holly’s bed, placing the tray on Holly’s bedside table.

“They didn’t imagine a future with magic,” Holly stated flatly.

“Exactly.” Emi’s head bobbed, her cheerful eyes half-closed like miniature arches. “Ah well, eat up, I’m going for some solitary research.”

“In the Room of Secrets?” Holly asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Uh… yes,” Emi nodded, her smile shrinking a bit.