Ruins

The Roman Stacks - Maria

"Stop moving it, I'm trying to get the thing to sync up!" Maria thrashed with irritation as her sister tried to wrestle the dirty headset from her head. The two girls had wandered into the Roman Stacks outside their tenement. The city spread for miles all around them, but in these piles of waste the girls were never looked at as street urchins, just residents, and they loved every second of it. The place hardly had a view of the sky when you stepped into it, its abandoned shacks and leftover garbage piled into the heavens forming towers that rivaled the Corporate buildings downtown. Vargos was an urban jewel looking at those towers, but these towers were a monument to the filth the city never cleaned, just shuffled from one area to another.

"It's my turn Maria! Give it!" Analise yanked at her sister's head once more, using all her might to remove the headset. She pulled again before Maria sent a sharp kick into Analise's shin, a surprising hit to land with her eyes covered by the headset's visor. Analise fell on to her backside and started to blubber before unleashing the full force of her sobs. Maria smiled and pressed the button on the side of the headset again, hoping this time it would activate. The helmet whirred for a moment before the screen burst to life in front of Maria's eyes in a flood of pixels and screeches. Maria tensed but the helmet soon resumed normal function, presenting a menu for her to wade through. She giggled as she focused on one option and a new screen appeared after staring at one option for long enough. Analise wiped her nose and huffed as she wandered from her sister towards a new pile of discarded gadgets and trash.

Maria continued moving through the options presented on the headset screen before finding the radio. She focused on that option before a radio station stream activated, making everything in her field of vision change from red dust and the monument to trash that was the Roman Stacks, to a relaxed lounge room textured by neon signs and velvet purple furniture. After a moment the furniture was filled with hosts from the radio show, bobbing their heads to the music and laughing as the host of the show, MONEY M1KE, laid insult after insult against the artist who'd made the featured song. Maria didn't understand the joke, but she giggled as the hosts shared stories and talked about things going on in the city.

She crawled forward on her hands and knees, feeling the burn from the dust for a moment before it started to feel a carpet-like plush, and her nose lost the scent of discarded waste and was filled with the aroma of expensive booze and cigarettes. She giggled more before resting against the side of one of the host's chairs, the velvet and leather feeling cool on her back as she relaxed against whatever pile of scrap metal was closest. She leaned her head back and took in the sights and smells of the studio. She spotted a plate of discarded food by one of the hosts sitting across from her and noticed it was leftovers from a restaurant order. She squealed as she realized the hosts had to be somewhere downtown with such impressive food just being tossed away. The hosts continued with their banter, Maria giggling as they shared jokes she couldn't understand faster than a street merchant barking at passersby.

Maria felt a peace she didn't know before. Since birth all she'd known were balled up fists landing on her, scarcity whenever her stomach growled, and anxiety from trying to make sure her sister didn't suffer the same pains. With this headset on she didn't have to think or even feel the pains of her lived experience, she only felt the lived experience now of being in a nice place where people shared laughs, smiles, and conversation with those they loved. Maria could not wrap her head around how such an incredible thing was just thrown away into the bottomless sea of the stacks.

She couldn't feel the burn of the sand in the Roman Stacks. She couldn't smell the ever-present aroma of garbage. She couldn't taste the dirt and trash that was ever-present in the atmosphere, or see the horrible sight of those she grew up with starving to death only days after meeting them. She also could not hear the yelling that made up the soundscape for the miles of trash stacks. Which is probably why she never heard the crack of her sister's leg when she stuck the ground after falling from a nearby stack. It's probably why she didn't hear the cries Analise made trying to catch her breath after having the wind knocked out of her before unleashing sobs over her shattered leg. And it's probably why she didn't hear the rumbling of a towering Roman Stack losing its structural integrity just before a collapse.