The Air We Breathe

1999- Prologue, Nora

Nora stared up at the sky and looked out across the sea, searching for any lights but there was still nothing. She knew it was too early but she still thought she might see some signs of activity- lights from a news helicopter that may have been circling above them, ready to capture the scene live as it unfolds, or an army plane ready to descend and save them from chaos. Nothing. The sky had been dark for hours now as Nora and her friends kicked off the drinking for the one night that anything was possible: New Years Eve, 1999. Nora had just turned 20 years old and where do 20 year olds go that are still living with their parents and only have money from a crappy customer service job? Phillip Island.

They were camping in the front yard of a friend of a friends house and had jumped on one of the buses that was taking everyone to centre of town, Cowes. People had gathered there on the beach to watch the fireworks at midnight for the last couple of years and whilst it probably wasn't legal, as long as you were discreet, you got away with drinking alcohol on the beach. Vodka and New Years Eve went hand in hand for Nora. She was excited about the fireworks at midnight but she was more excited about what could befall them as the calendars and digital clocks turned over from 1999 to 2000. It had never been done before, of course. It seemed that as computers were invented in the 19th century, no one had prepared for the 20th century! All the digital technology was static with a 1 and 9 in the first two digits. Y2K had been all over the news for the last couple of months. Dubbed 'The millennium bug', people had all kinds of theories about what could happen if the computer systems weren't updated to cater for the year 2000. Nora was secretly excited about what could go wrong.

She stared up at the sky again, bottle of lemonade in hand (vodka and lemonade) as friends giggled and chatted in the background. As she wasn't looking where she was going, she tripped over a leg in the sand. A couple were lying down, legs entwined, having a passionate embrace already. They had probably just met. It was actually too dark. There was only five minutes to go until the countdown for the year 2000.

Some people thought that the planes that were flying around the world would fall out of the sky. Machines would stop working. Any digital timetable would revert back to 1900 so they would suffer major errors.

"Does not compute" Nora imagined the machines screeching in a robotic voice.

"Error, error" they would beep.

Would the medical records and drivers licenses make everyone older or younger? Nora guessed she wouldn't even be born yet, according to the records. It was so confusing and funny what could happen. She had heard many people were having Y2K parties in the cities. She also imagined the rooftop scene from the movie 'When Mars Attacks' with revelers dancing and partying like it's the end of the world as they know it and looking to the sky for martians. Nora was looking for explosions when the computers combusted. Her anticipation was building- 1 minute to go!

Everyone was checking their phones for the time. The countdown began...

"10...9...8..." the crowd called out loudly.

Friends had gathered in cliques and Nora was with her best friends, all looking at each other and then to the sky. If no planes fell, there would at least be the fireworks and an exciting year ahead for a 20 year old finishing Uni.

"7....6....5..." they started jumping up and down on the spot, chanting with two single girlfriends as they clutched to each other and jumped up and down in unison.

"4...3...2...1... Happy New Year" they screamed into to the night sky and to each other.

Photo credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/551057704377856127/