Chapter 415. We Encounter a Strange Spaced-out Girl Stranded on the Highway. (8/10)
“Do you work with cars a lot?” Dawn asked curiously.
“No, hardly ever. But batteries and electrical systems are another story altogether.”
“So you’re good with electronics?”
“Yeah.”
“I wish I understood electronics, but they’re completely beyond me.”
“A lot of people in the city also don’t understand how most of their electrical devices really work so you’re not alone. Electronic devices become more and more complex with time, rather than knowing how they work, as long as you know how to use them, that’s typically enough to get by in the city.”
“Doesn’t everyone in the city know how they work?”
“No. Not even close.”
“I never knew that… I always thought people from the city were all super-geniuses who knew everything.”
“You’re really idealizing people from the city too much. There isn’t anything particularly special about people from the city. If anything, the only special thing about people from the city is how psychotic they are.”
“You’re saying people in the city are crazy?”
“Yeah. They’ve completely lost their minds.”
“Why do yuh say that?”
“Just forget I said that.”
“You’re the one who brought it up an’ made me curious. Now I want to know. Why do yuh say they’re all crazy?”
“Because nobody thinks for themselves anymore. People have become so complacent in the city they just want everyone else to do the thinking for them. They’ve given up on freedom of thought and mindlessly go along blindly believing whatever they’re told like a hive mind. If you don’t think the same way as them, you’re ostracized. They’ll come for you like they’re some sort of cult if you refuse to go along with their insanity.”
“Rosa, he’s exaggerating, right?”
Rosa took a seat and balanced on my motorcycle with her left foot pushing on the front tire of Dawn’s pickup truck and said, “I wouldn’t say he’s necessarily exaggerating.”
“How?”
She swung her right leg back and forth above the ground as she explained, “Well, I can see what he means. When it comes to school in the city, we’re typically taught to think the same way. We’re expected to do as we’re told and follow a standard pre-established path to success in life which is considered the norm. They pretend to encourage us to question things, but they only do so so they can lead us to the conclusion they want us to reach. There’s no neutrality in it, there’s a certain agenda and narrative they try to push and they don’t even try to hide it. It’s basically a clockwork factory pumping out a bunch of robots who’ve been methodically programmed to obey their superiors.”
“That sounds pretty… dystopian.”
Rosa agreed with a nod, “It is. But nobody likes to think of it that way. We’re led to believe we have freedom when we don’t. We’re no better than cattle and livestock raised on a farm for wealthy elites to slaughter and make use of. Being a girl who’s lived your whole life out on a farm, you’ve actually got a lot more freedom than people born and raised in the city. You should appreciate and value the freedom you have out here.”
Yes, I felt a bit jealous of the freedom Dawn had. But I understood freedom came with a price, that price was stability. There was a trade-off for everything. I wasn’t naive enough to not understand that.
“Mmm. Right...” Dawn nodded, a bit absentmindedly, as she fell into silence and blankly stared into the distance in the direction of the golden field along the side of the road.
When we initially arrived her gaze had been similar, only it was directed to the road. I couldn’t help but wonder what this girl with horrible luck was thinking about.
I tossed the jumper cables in the back of her pickup truck’s trunk and said, “Dawn, I’m going to drop Rosa off nearer to the thicket of trees over there. I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Huh? Yeah.” She didn’t seem to be paying much attention and responded on autopilot.
I put the battery down in the trunk for the time being and closed the hood.
With that done, I hopped on my motorcycle with Rosa and dropped her off close to the thicket of trees not too far away.
Rosa removed our stuff from the back of my motorcycle and said, “I’ll set up camp here for the night. We can just head to the city tomorrow.”
“You sure? It’s not too late yet.”
“Haha, my gut feeling tells me that girl’s streak of bad luck isn’t going to end.”
“Should we just ditch her then?”
“Don’t be a jerk.”
“I don’t want collateral damage from her bad luck. You should know my luck isn’t that great either.”
“When you multiply two negatives, don’t you get a positive? So if two people with bad luck are together, won’t the result be good luck? I like to think I’ve got pretty good luck. If I went with her, a negative and a positive multiplied together would still yield a negative result.”
“Just admit the truth, you just want to watch the world burn on the sidelines for some entertainment.”
Rosa hopped off the back, removed her helmet, and brushed her hand through her hair. Her hair fell down behind her back as she looked back at me over her shoulder and laughed with a wide smile that didn’t even try to hide her intentions, “Hahaha, of course. I’m sure I’ll get a good laugh out of whatever happens, I’ll be looking forward to an amusing campfire story when you get back. I’ll cook up and have some good food waiting for you.”
“Do I look like a horse who’s going to chase after a carrot on a stick?”
Rosa removed our stuff tied down to the back of my motorcycle while humming in a good mood.
“Why do you sound so happy to send your boyfriend off to help another girl?” I couldn’t help but ask disgruntledly.
“I’m just in a good mood after making a new girl friend. You know how hard it is for me to befriend other girls. You better be nice to her or I’ll get mad, okay?”
“Is it really something to be so happy about?”
“It is. It’s the first time I was the one who took the initiative to make contact and it end in us becoming friends. It usually doesn’t go well when I try to make a friend myself. It only worked with Alicia because she was so pushy in trying to become friends. As for Izora, it wasn’t because I made the attempt to befriend her myself either, it just happened because we got to know each other through Alicia before inadvertently getting closer to her through you. So right now I’m actually over the moon and want to zip myself up inside a sleeping bag and roll around on the ground in the tent after I set it up.”
“That was probably the most embarrassing confession I’ve ever heard in my life.”
“Yeah, it was pretty embarrassing. But... I don’t mind if you know my embarrassing secrets since... I love you.”
“And if you didn’t love me?”
She pushed my helmet’s visor up, tapped on my lips with her right index finger, and teased, “I’d have to kill you before killing myself.”
“What a scary thing to say to the person you supposedly love.”
“What are you doing?” She pouted, seemingly dissatisfied about something.
“What do you mean?”
“You know…”
I was genuinely confused. What did I do?
“I really don’t know.”
“You aren’t going to... say it back?”
“Say what back? ‘I’d have to kill you before killing myself?’”
“No, dummy. What I said right before that.”
“Right before that?” Oh, that’s what she meant.
“Yeah.” She nodded cutely.
I decided to continue playing dumb despite knowing what she wanted me to say. “You mean you want me to say, ‘I don’t mind if you know my embarrassing secrets?’”
“No! After that.”
“Huh, before ‘I’d have to kill you before killing myself’ and after ‘I don’t mind if you know my embarrassing secrets?’”
“Yeah, yeah. That’s right. Between those two things.”
“Hmm… I’m drawing a blank. I don’t remember what it was at all. I think I was too traumatized by your scary response.”
Chapter 415. We Encounter a Strange Spaced-out Girl Stranded on the Highway. (8/10)
“Do you work with cars a lot?” Dawn asked curiously.
“No, hardly ever. But batteries and electrical systems are another story altogether.”
“So you’re good with electronics?”
“Yeah.”
“I wish I understood electronics, but they’re completely beyond me.”
“A lot of people in the city also don’t understand how most of their electrical devices really work so you’re not alone. Electronic devices become more and more complex with time, rather than knowing how they work, as long as you know how to use them, that’s typically enough to get by in the city.”
“Doesn’t everyone in the city know how they work?”
“No. Not even close.”
“I never knew that… I always thought people from the city were all super-geniuses who knew everything.”
“You’re really idealizing people from the city too much. There isn’t anything particularly special about people from the city. If anything, the only special thing about people from the city is how psychotic they are.”
“You’re saying people in the city are crazy?”
“Yeah. They’ve completely lost their minds.”
“Why do yuh say that?”
“Just forget I said that.”
“You’re the one who brought it up an’ made me curious. Now I want to know. Why do yuh say they’re all crazy?”
“Because nobody thinks for themselves anymore. People have become so complacent in the city they just want everyone else to do the thinking for them. They’ve given up on freedom of thought and mindlessly go along blindly believing whatever they’re told like a hive mind. If you don’t think the same way as them, you’re ostracized. They’ll come for you like they’re some sort of cult if you refuse to go along with their insanity.”
“Rosa, he’s exaggerating, right?”
Rosa took a seat and balanced on my motorcycle with her left foot pushing on the front tire of Dawn’s pickup truck and said, “I wouldn’t say he’s necessarily exaggerating.”
“How?”
She swung her right leg back and forth above the ground as she explained, “Well, I can see what he means. When it comes to school in the city, we’re typically taught to think the same way. We’re expected to do as we’re told and follow a standard pre-established path to success in life which is considered the norm. They pretend to encourage us to question things, but they only do so so they can lead us to the conclusion they want us to reach. There’s no neutrality in it, there’s a certain agenda and narrative they try to push and they don’t even try to hide it. It’s basically a clockwork factory pumping out a bunch of robots who’ve been methodically programmed to obey their superiors.”
“That sounds pretty… dystopian.”
Rosa agreed with a nod, “It is. But nobody likes to think of it that way. We’re led to believe we have freedom when we don’t. We’re no better than cattle and livestock raised on a farm for wealthy elites to slaughter and make use of. Being a girl who’s lived your whole life out on a farm, you’ve actually got a lot more freedom than people born and raised in the city. You should appreciate and value the freedom you have out here.”
Yes, I felt a bit jealous of the freedom Dawn had. But I understood freedom came with a price, that price was stability. There was a trade-off for everything. I wasn’t naive enough to not understand that.
“Mmm. Right...” Dawn nodded, a bit absentmindedly, as she fell into silence and blankly stared into the distance in the direction of the golden field along the side of the road.
When we initially arrived her gaze had been similar, only it was directed to the road. I couldn’t help but wonder what this girl with horrible luck was thinking about.
I tossed the jumper cables in the back of her pickup truck’s trunk and said, “Dawn, I’m going to drop Rosa off nearer to the thicket of trees over there. I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Huh? Yeah.” She didn’t seem to be paying much attention and responded on autopilot.
I put the battery down in the trunk for the time being and closed the hood.
With that done, I hopped on my motorcycle with Rosa and dropped her off close to the thicket of trees not too far away.
Rosa removed our stuff from the back of my motorcycle and said, “I’ll set up camp here for the night. We can just head to the city tomorrow.”
“You sure? It’s not too late yet.”
“Haha, my gut feeling tells me that girl’s streak of bad luck isn’t going to end.”
“Should we just ditch her then?”
“Don’t be a jerk.”
“I don’t want collateral damage from her bad luck. You should know my luck isn’t that great either.”
“When you multiply two negatives, don’t you get a positive? So if two people with bad luck are together, won’t the result be good luck? I like to think I’ve got pretty good luck. If I went with her, a negative and a positive multiplied together would still yield a negative result.”
“Just admit the truth, you just want to watch the world burn on the sidelines for some entertainment.”
Rosa hopped off the back, removed her helmet, and brushed her hand through her hair. Her hair fell down behind her back as she looked back at me over her shoulder and laughed with a wide smile that didn’t even try to hide her intentions, “Hahaha, of course. I’m sure I’ll get a good laugh out of whatever happens, I’ll be looking forward to an amusing campfire story when you get back. I’ll cook up and have some good food waiting for you.”
“Do I look like a horse who’s going to chase after a carrot on a stick?”
Rosa removed our stuff tied down to the back of my motorcycle while humming in a good mood.
“Why do you sound so happy to send your boyfriend off to help another girl?” I couldn’t help but ask disgruntledly.
“I’m just in a good mood after making a new girl friend. You know how hard it is for me to befriend other girls. You better be nice to her or I’ll get mad, okay?”
“Is it really something to be so happy about?”
“It is. It’s the first time I was the one who took the initiative to make contact and it end in us becoming friends. It usually doesn’t go well when I try to make a friend myself. It only worked with Alicia because she was so pushy in trying to become friends. As for Izora, it wasn’t because I made the attempt to befriend her myself either, it just happened because we got to know each other through Alicia before inadvertently getting closer to her through you. So right now I’m actually over the moon and want to zip myself up inside a sleeping bag and roll around on the ground in the tent after I set it up.”
“That was probably the most embarrassing confession I’ve ever heard in my life.”
“Yeah, it was pretty embarrassing. But... I don’t mind if you know my embarrassing secrets since... I love you.”
“And if you didn’t love me?”
She pushed my helmet’s visor up, tapped on my lips with her right index finger, and teased, “I’d have to kill you before killing myself.”
“What a scary thing to say to the person you supposedly love.”
“What are you doing?” She pouted, seemingly dissatisfied about something.
“What do you mean?”
“You know…”
I was genuinely confused. What did I do?
“I really don’t know.”
“You aren’t going to... say it back?”
“Say what back? ‘I’d have to kill you before killing myself?’”
“No, dummy. What I said right before that.”
“Right before that?” Oh, that’s what she meant.
“Yeah.” She nodded cutely.
I decided to continue playing dumb despite knowing what she wanted me to say. “You mean you want me to say, ‘I don’t mind if you know my embarrassing secrets?’”
“No! After that.”
“Huh, before ‘I’d have to kill you before killing myself’ and after ‘I don’t mind if you know my embarrassing secrets?’”
“Yeah, yeah. That’s right. Between those two things.”
“Hmm… I’m drawing a blank. I don’t remember what it was at all. I think I was too traumatized by your scary response.”
