LISA
Broken Dreams
The sound of a siren wakes us. It’s close and feels as if it’s above us. We scrabble together, unsure what to do, should we signal to them? Start shouting perhaps?
It raises the same unspoken question- we’re not really prisoners, are we? The basement door’s unlocked so we’ve no great urge to escape. Why shout for help when we could probably just walk out anyway.
“I think it was an ambulance not a police car.”
“I can never tell the difference.”
I wonder if Number 1 is back and whether we are, at last, going to get some answers.
LIZZIE
Broken dreams and a scratch. A deep cut, now nothing but a scratch on the surface of the skin, a faint recollection of pain. A deepness forgotten.
Broken dreams and the urge to speak, to shout a future lost.
In complete silence, in complete immobility.
Broken dreams and a second, only a brief second, a signal from afar, a thump, a thump, a thump…
The drumming, louder and louder. A cacophony of doubts building up.
Broken dreams now and yesterday, and now. Broken.
Dreams of futures unspoken. And maybe, just maybe one day, just one day…
Maybe broken no more.
RICHARD
The Game of Life
Welcome to the Arcade of Broken Dreams!
Here are the games of despair and the wasted efforts, the hours of fruitless endeavour, and hopes betrayed.
What will you play today?
Will you play the claw machine? Clutching futilely at your goals, teasingly just out of reach, until – tantalisingly close – they fall from your grasp?
Or perhaps you’ll choose the coin cascade? Feeding its hunger with all you have in the vain hope of winning big, but you never do.
Whichever game you play, you’ll never win. Your life will never change.
But, I know you’ll be back again tomorrow.
Guaranteed!
SERENDIPIDY
You’ll find the urge to scratch irresistible.
But, trust me, scratching is the very last thing that you want to do.
By now, your skin is paper thin. It’ll tear at the slightest touch, and you’ll soon be ripping your own flesh from the bones. I promise you, once you start, you won’t be able to stop.
So, I urge you, don’t scratch.
Resist the temptation.
Grit your teeth and hold on, no matter what.
I know you’ll give in, eventually, but please try not to scratch, just for a moment.
At least wait until I’ve turned the camera on.
NORVAL JOE
After the officer asked the same series of questions for the hundredth time, he said, “Okay. Let’s start over from scratch.”
Billbert had the urge to pound his head on the table. He interrupted the officer’s line of questioning. “Officer Vattash, you said you were going to call my parents hours ago. Why aren’t they here?”
Vattash shrugged indifferently. “Maybe they weren’t home.”
A female officer poked her head through the doorway. “Hey Vattash. The boy’s parents are here. They’re filing a missing person report.”
“Officer Sheepdip!” Vattash growled. He made an annoyed face and tipped his head toward Billbert.
TOM
It was the 80s
If there ever an Arcade of Broken dreams it surely was Pizza Time Theater. The second restaurant in the chain was located in the back end of Town and Country in San Jose. I spend hours their glue to a space invaders. The place was a mad house of kids running around. Parents throwing back beer and wine that was on tap right next to the fountain dispenser. Only thing missing was the paper umbrella. When the whole thing folded, I was on the chapter 13 crew to sort out assets. Got that very space invader cabinet for a song.
852 Airship Archimedes
In 1928 the airship Archimedes made its maiden flight. The DELG created a fight from Buenos Aires to Caracas. Of note Captain Juan Domingo Perón was on that voyage. The Archimedes flow for nine years. On the night of May 5 1937 the airship disappeared over the upper Amazon Basin. Production of Archimedes II was discontinued during the war. The hanger it was stored in were bombed by the British in 1943. The Archimedes III was launched in 2230 it made the run from New Atlantis to Zedi Prime on Mars. Archimedes III was blow-up by the October Rebels.
PLANET Z
Elmo is our robot dog, and it serves a lot of duties.
Going out for samples, fetching gear from the base, cleaning the floors, and the occasional dangerous duty.
We only get so many Elmos a budget cycle, so we have to retrieve any broken Elmos.
If they can’t be repaired, they end up as spare parts for the others.
Patterson likes to say “good boy” and pat Elmo after doing something for him.
Because Patterson knows all too well what happens when we don’t have an Elmo to send out.
“Suit up, Patterson,” says the base commander. “Be careful.”
CHATGPT
In the depths of an arcade, amidst the flashing lights and cacophony of sounds, Sam found solace. Each game offered an escape from reality, a chance to drown out the whispers of broken dreams. But tonight, an infinitesimal spark ignited within him, an urge to break free from the cycle of monotony. As he reached for his favorite game, a scratch on the screen caught his eye. Ignoring the signal of caution, he plunged into the digital world with determination. With each victory, he felt the weight of his shattered dreams lift, replaced by the promise of a new beginning.