Seventy years

By Nicklas Wartha 

I woke up in a room. I couldn’t see a thing. I stood up and walked around, searching for a wall. I tripped and fell a few times, but then felt a wall. I then walked along until I found the door. I wanted to open it, but it wouldn't, there was no door handle. I knocked and punched against the door and suddenly it opened and I fell out. 

Let me introduce myself, I am Thomas Scrad I come from England. I have already visited Dublin, and plan to do it again sometime. I am 90 years old, but still healthy, I can still walk and people say I think like a forty year old. The only problem is that I sometimes forget what time it is and where I am. I have one attribute, which is that I always wear my 60 year old watch from England. 

Out of the room it was as bright as the heart of the sun and it was impossible for me to see. I closed my eyes in order to make them get used to the brightness. 

“What time is it?”, I asked myself, “Where am I?”,

I was confused. My eyes slowly got used to the light and I was able to see some outlines of objects, I stood up and looked around. I was standing in a long corridor with many doors. The doors looked like the one in the Star Trek movie. Everywhere screens and as I walked along the corridor I saw several cameras following me, then I saw an elevator. I didn’t even press anything, the elevator opened and took me directly to a floor. I saw a reception, which meant I was in a Hotel, I guessed. Everyone stared at me, with blank faces but they didn’t say anything. The receptionist didn’t want to speak with me, I was only able to see another employee in the back of the room calling someone and it looked like he was describing me. 

“To whom? why?”, I had all those questions in my mind and was nervous. When the employee came to the reception again he said to his colleague in a frank and serious tone:

“It is done”.

I decided to go for a walk and as soon as I went outside, I heard voices behind me whispering and one shouted:

“Oh no! Go Go, we need to tell them!”

I could hear loud and fast steps at the back of the room. I decided not to bother anymore and went outside the building.

Outdoors I could see a cathedral and the Christchurch place. I saw a sign saying Lord Edward Street. The sign was floating in the air and I could even walk through it, it was projected  like a hologram. I also realised that the cold air and the rainy weather had the exact same “cold mood”. The car drivers drove without respect and fear, scratching me a few times and  with the same shocked look when they saw me. I walked into the cathedral, the missing heart was projected back to its place and the other side of the wall was renewed as well, like the other one in the 20th century. The style was still the same, but the the tour guide was a robot. The bell's sound made my heart go faster and the system still worked with the boat ropes.

I then walked along the street until I reached a long metal stick, also called the spire. As far as I knew, the lights had changed since my last visit to Dublin. The same route as last time, just at a different time. Visiting chapter one in the Writer’s Museum brought my mind back to the start of my life and I could see my childhood again, it was just that many books were unknown. The endless problem steps developed the step taker and its appearance changed to a hologram, next to the museum. The hologram an unreal image, that was there to see. 

James Joyce, a hero of Ireland, was still remembered. 

“Hold to the now, the here, through which all future, plunges to the past”, from Ulysses raced through my mind. The museum changed, but the content didn’t, the person was still the same. 

The city was getting darker and darker.  I couldn't see a thing but then all of a sudden the whole city was lit up like it was day, just that huge light bulbs were set over the city. I had to sleep, my eyes slowly closed and my legs couldn't carry me any longer. I was going back to the Christchurch Hotel and was searching for a room to sleep in. As I walked back a voice surprised me from the back, 

"What are you doing out here?",

"I am going back to my Hotel" I answered nervously.

"You’d better go fast!"

I wanted to ask him why, 

but the voice screamed 

"Hurry!"

I was confused and I just wanted a soft place to lie down. I went into the high tech hotel, but this time I didn’t use the front door, because I wanted to avoid weird looks from people and so I used a back door. I closed the door of my room and looked out of the window. Officers walking around and looking at every place they could see. I didn't care much that night and my eyes closed quickly. The TV was still on, I could hear the news reporting about a person in town, that shouldn’t be there. I couldn’t finish listening, because my eyes close too fast. My eyes opened when I heard the singing birds.  They were right next to me. "Dublin changed a lot", I thought and at that moment I saw a black box on the right and left of me sending sound signals to the side of the bed. This made me realise, that this city is a fake city. Everything was unreal and weird. 

I woke up normally and went to eat breakfast with fake  glasses and a different hair cut, so people wouldn’t notice me too fast, but they did again. I don’t know why! At breakfast everything was on high tech robots and the food was labeled with extremely healthy food awards and perfect nutrition stats. Everything was perfect, while it actually wasn't. I didn't like the way everything should be perfect, and that one thing made me nervous. After cereal and an egg, I decided to go to the "Trinity College of Dublin". Wandering to the College was also an interesting step, because it was one of the oldest libraries in Dublin, used already by monks in the 16th century. The college offers a huge library, which I already visited the last time I came to Dublin in 2014. The college is still the same and everything is as original as at that time. All the old books look as old as before and I was still impressed by it and I think it was the only place which didn't include screens everywhere, it was still as fresh and original as before. Going to "Saint Stephen's Green" was a sad experience, past years had made trees fall and grass disappear and the city just used fake grass and fake trees to recreate the park to remember the blood spread and the lives lost. I also saw a the “National Museum”, which was very high tech and again like everything else the fake world was around. The books and papers were now digital and not the original anymore. Everywhere QR-Codes in order to scan the code and get the text/book on a tablet or phone. 

After coming out of the building I didn’t even have time to think where to go next, some muscular guy took me and threw me into a van. I didn’t know where we were going, the sound of turbines and the smell of burned rubber told me that I was at the busiest point of the city, the airport. The door opened and from now on, I couldn’t remember anything until I woke up in London under a bridge. Looking around, the only thing I could see was a small piece of writing:

“Don’t come back, we are independent and you are not welcome here anymore old man”.