A Hair of Delphi - 5 - TV Time

Author's Preface:

Speed is an issue that I have noticed in this project. And that issue is becoming overbearing as I realize that the story is moving too slow for how many weeks I have been placing this on the blog now.

It is difficult with a serial piece to have such a small time frame, the frame has to be larger and move more quickly for readers to continue wanting more week after week. I think the slow start is okay, but within two more excerpts, I need to cover some serious time.

To see previous installments, please check the index.Until then, please enjoy "TV Time."

June 20, 1998

Two hours of infomercials about the new hit CD compilation, never dulling knives, and world class jewelry (guaranteed to never lose their sterling luster!) were followed by the morning recap of last night’s news.

A residential fire in Haverhill destroys two homes--No details reported. The World Series is two months around the corner with the assumption that the New York Yankees will be competing against the San Diego Padres. The British pound continues to increase in strength over the US Dollar at 1 British Pound Sterling to $1.667.

In local news, yesterday, a maintenance man on campus felt lazy in his duty to clean the moss and discoloring off of the buildings and monuments and used a high pressure hose to break off the hand off Allan Halsey’s statue in the central quad. It is left unsaid what plans are being made to take care of first, the statue, and second, the janitor.

I still could not sleep after my terrible dream. The images of the machine and of my own death and dissolution into a data stream in a computer still flashed in intervals between scenes of people on the television cutting a rubber pipe, and then slicing a tomato with the same kitchen blade.

The news station signed off their morning report with a wide angle shot of the sunrise over the riverfront and a cartoon began after the following commercial. I clicked off the TV. It had been a very long time since I last watched Saturday morning cartoons. I decided that I was not quite old enough yet to watch them again this day.

My computer was still installing the Disc Dr. Jacob Abernathy gave me. By the time the program came online, I would be able to see not only the first sample he scanned for me, but also the other five I left with the doctor to be scanned—scanned into the fear inspiring machine he calls Martha. I looked at the computer screen. The program was still installing: 29.48% complete.

Of course, Microsoft in its inimitable ability of understatement created its programming to never tell a true estimation of completion time. Three hours before, I started the installation and the estimate was for roughly eight hours. Now it required at least another 07:38:19.

Day light broke through the blinds finally around 7:23 am. The brilliant rays comforted me, as if they washed away the overwhelming ilk of the night before. I no longer felt ominous shadows of terrible dreams pushing against me, minimizing me. On the contrary, I felt a mite claustrophobic and the intrinsic need for exercise arose.

Facing the alternatives of staring at the television or the laptop computer for another seven hours, I decided to call upon Dr Jolene McDonald, another of my fellow resident physicians at St Mary’s, for a walk and lunch. We agreed to meet after her shift ends at eight.

It is now 7:45 but, living so close to the school and the hospital, I will have no trouble meeting her in time. It will be refreshing to walk with Jolene again. Perhaps I can get a second opinion on the situation at hand.