January 15th 2023 – Karina Lafayette
It happened just like that. I don’t know how or when. Life seemed very bland, and as I turned on the TV, the only thing available was the local news, airing on repeat. I attempted to turn to the next station, but found the same report over and over again. At first, I shrugged it off, assuming maybe Mercury retrograde was somehow messing with the cable. Instead, I turned on the radio, to two male voices discussing traffic. And same with the TV, when attempting to change the dial to another station, the voices went on. I couldn’t find any music.
Looking at the clock, I realized I had to get ready for work. It was a quarter past seven. Well, there wasn’t any reason to waste more time now, since my commute was fairly long and I needed to be there by nine. So I reached for a box of cereal in the cabinet, and noticed something even more peculiar. The box was grey, with only the company label up top. Someone would have needed to pinch me, because there was no way this wasn’t a dream. Still, I went along my day. I ate my cereal, took a shower and rushed into my wardrobe to put an outfit to change into.
All my clothes were grey, too. There were long sleeved tops and short sleeved ones, jeans and joggers, but not one a different color from the next. I thought I was going mad. Not a moment to spare, I grabbed together an outfit that made sense and went on my way to the bus. A few people were waiting at the stop, and their clothes were grey, too. It didn’t make sense to me. Nevertheless, I played it cool by putting on my headphones and went to turn on some SoundCloud. Except, the app was nowhere to be found on my phone. Anxiety began to build inside my chest. I couldn’t endure a commute without music, most social situations make me feel out of place! I searched for SoundCloud through Google Play Store. It wasn’t coming up in the search results. I even searched for Spotify, and every other music app you could think of. None of them were appearing.
“Okay, calm down.” I muttered to myself. “Maybe there’s just something with my phone.”
The bus arrived. Finally, something that was in its familiar form, right? Except for when myself and the others at the stop climbed on, to my horror, there were no ads above the windows like we usually see. Don’t get me wrong, I know that nobody really likes ads, but they still serve some purpose, right? Behind me, an elderly man whistled a tune. I jumped. How can it be?
I turned around. The elderly man donned a black fedora and a trenchcoat. I seemed to be the only one noticing him. Everyone else on the bus stared out the window, looks of inexplicable sadness all around. The elderly man smiled at me cunningly and mutters: “Is this the kind of world you want to live in? One without art?”
“I don’t know how to make art anymore,” I replied desperately.
“And that’s why it no longer exists, because you spent so much time focusing on anything other than your happiness. You gave the world sadness instead.”
He was right. Before the world changed, I used to draw all the time. I reached inside my napsack for a pen and notebook and spontaneously began drawing a sketch of this strange, strange fellow, the only one who seemed to be the voice of reason right then. Was all of this a nightmare that I’m about to wake up to? Was it a sick joke from the universe to remind me of all the time I could’ve been making art instead of doing something else?
Do you really want to know?
Hi, I know this is different than what I normally write on my blog, but I just wanted to make it a point that so many times when we’re passionate about something, we keep saying that we’re going to do it tomorrow. Then tomorrow comes and something else gets in the way. I’m realizing there are times when I should be creating and I’m not. I need to do more of that, we all do. So if you needed a sign to work on that thing, this is it.
To check out my books, social media and more, scroll to the menu. And be sure to watch my short documentary series on the Saturn Return! If you support my work, consider buying me a coffee.
Karina
Persephone and Co. 
Leave a Reply