Pittman Place pt 4

Jakob felt no pain nor dizziness. He wasn't nauseous or light headed or even tired anymore. He simply was. He existed. He still perceived and felt, but he no longer needed his skin or his eyes or his nose. Perception was no longer about physically relating to the world around him, it was different for him now. He could see things, but he understood that his eyes merely part of his perception of himself. When he closed them and everything was dark, it was a willful withdrawing of his ability to perceive his surroundings.
But he couldn't have closed his eyes, even if he had wanted to.
Everything shone brightly. Each building was tall and stately and covered in chrome. All of them, every single one. They all seemed to shine and sparkle, even though the sky was gray and overcast. Jakob looked warily at the sky and he felt that it wasn't really a sky as much as a lid. He wondered for a moment before his attention returned to his immediate situation.
He was looking out a window from a large plaza. This plaza seemed packed with people moving this way and that. Some looked irritated, while others smiled at him blithely. He stared around wondering as each of these people seemed to shine themselves. They seemed to be covered in the same sparkling chrome as the building around them.
But more than this, as he looked up, he saw that the window in the plaza extended a great ways up, giving him a full view of the skyline. He couldn't see very far, but it seemed to him that the buildings in the distance were actually taller than the ones close by.
He was staring wildly at all of this, attempting to soak it in, when a hand was placed firmly, but not tightly, over his.
“Alright nah, ked. Les kep movin' nah, shall weh?”
Jakob's eyes found the hand, chrome and shining like the others, but larger by far. He followed the hand up to the arm and to the face. Jakob had to tilt himself sideways to see all of the man, he was so very wide. The man seemed to extend out from his neck like an upside down balloon. The head at the top was shining with disheveled brown hair. The man squinted down at Jakob, but Jakob couldn't see what color his eyes were. The man made a tight smile at Jakob.
“Ev ben away so long Ev furgotten ma manners! Here now, ma nem ez Joshua, eh?”
A hand the size of a plate swung around from the far side of the man. It came down in front of Jakob. Jakob looked up at the man, who continued to squint at him. He thought the man was smiling, but he couldn't tell from here. Jakob put his hand, so very puny in comparison, in that of Joshua's. They shook and Joshua's wrist sparkled. On it was a small golden bracelet. It was knit like a finger trap and Jakob looked at it wonderingly.
Suddenly everything brightened. Jakob looked up. Everyone in the room had stopped. They were all looking up towards the sky. Jakob looked over at Joshua. Joshua himself had his face turned up towards it and for a moment, his face seemed to reflect the same golden light. It changed Joshua's visage, making him seem younger by far. Then, just as quickly, the light was gone and everyone shoes once again began to chatter in the great plaza.
“Well now, wed best beh off nah, doncha thenk?” Joshua said, looking down at Jakob scrutinizingly.
“Where are we going?” Jakob asked.
“Dunna yea know why et ez ya 'ere, ked?”
Jakob tried to think, but all he could think of was the sound of his mother's door as it opened. Her face as it came through the doorway, looking sleepy but concerned.
“Okeh, well yull fend oot soon enough I suspect! Fur right nah, less just get a move on, eh?”
Before Jakob could nod, Joshua had started off through the plaza. He was walking normally, but Jakob's legs raced to keep up.
They crossed the plaza, weaving in between the people as the moved towards the door. Joshua moved quickly, careful not to bump anyone. Jakob thought it seemed like a dance almost. Joshua swaying this way and that, missing people by inches at times, but always with his eyes on the doors. They reached them after a moment and Joshua pushed one open and led Jakob out into the street.
Joshua turned quickly and it pulled Jakob sideways.
“Hey!” He cried.
Joshua stopped and looked back at him. He squinted with the gray sky behind him.
“Can I hold your hand, please?” He asked. Jakob squinted himself. Even though it was cloudy, it was still bright from all of the reflected light.
Joshua looked down at him (at least, Jakob thought he was looking at him). He seemed to be judging for something. After a moment, he opened the hand holding Jakob's arm. Jakob meant to rub it, but when he looked at it, he almost screamed.
“My arm!” He said, his voice quavering slightly.
His arm seemed only half there. It was still three dimensional and intact, he hadn't lost any fingers or the such, but it was semi-transparent. It reminded him for a moment of frosted glass. As he looked at it, he saw Joshua's hand behind it. It was open and waiting. Jakob took it and the two continued to walk. This time turning right and moving away from the building they had just exited.
“I tekit yea neverr ben 'ere before?” Joshua asked him. His voice was suspicious, but Jakob didn't notice. He was staring at his other hand as Joshua led him to the end of the block. From there, they made another right onto a street that was far less crowded that the earlier one. Jakob wondered at his palm, looking through it and seeing the vague shapes of the buildings behind it. He turned his hand on Joshua and looked up at the hulking man as they walked. Looking through it, he no longer saw the shine that seemed to cover everything. Instead, the colors seemed bland and washed out. It's all faded, Jakob thought. This thought struck him funny and he put his hand down.
“Mr. Joshua, where are we going, please?”
“Well beh therr soon enough nah. Ah, 'ere we go!”
The turned another corner and came to a large open square. It was so wide that the buildings around it seemed like a huge shining fence built to hem it in. Most of it seemed to be very worn (but nonetheless shining) cobble stone. It was a great open area with nothing at all around to fill it. It had no fountains or statues, no monuments of any sort. As far as Jakob could see, there wasn't even so much as a bench to sit and feed birds. Not that he saw any birds, but, he thought, if they did exist, they would probably enjoy being fed from benches.
At the other side of the square, facing Jakob and Joshua, was an enormous building. It seemed by far the largest of the hedge that surrounded the square. It was towards this great chrome giant that Joshua seemed to be taking him.
“Is this the boy?”
“Aye, so he ez.”
Jakob was still holding Joshua's hand. They had entered the building through a pair of comparetively tiny doors in the center of the front of the building. Inside, everything seemed a bit darker, although the lights overhead seemed brightly fluorescent.
Jakob looked around Joshua at the foyer of the building. It was sparse, without any chairs or benches or even tables. There were none of the usual niceties one found in waiting rooms. It gave the room a hygenic, officious look. Everything shining under the lights. Jakob say through the windows that the sky was still a mundane gray, neither story nor clearing. Indeed the clouds, as Jakob surmised they must be, seemed not to be moving at all. They seemed only to hang there as a great mass. A long gray sheet drawn from one end of the horizon to the next.
“Report to room 310N, please.”
The man behind the counter seemed young enough, his face smooth and unblemished, but his voice seemed both old and bored as it directed them.
“Take the elevators to your...”
“Eh know how te get therr, yea little desker, you! Doen worry ehbout meh nune nah!”
With that, Joshua turned to him, motioning him passed the counter and the man with the old voice, towards the only hallway leading from the foyer.
This hallway was both windowless and doorless. Each wall reflected the light, making it quite bright. They came to the end and turned right. There before them was the elevator. Joshua reached out and pressed the button with the up arrow on it.
“Redeckulus, right?”
Jakob looked around, he saw no other doors, not even a second elevator.
“Is this the only one?” He asked.
“Aye, thes ez the only par of doors dun here, but belev meh, there'z moore then one elevater.”
This confused Jakob, but Jakob nodded nonetheless. He looked down at the man's hand, his own less substantial fingers surrounded by the larger chrome ones. Joshua seemed to see this. He let go of Jakob's hand and bent down to look at him.
“Yea look lek a good ked, too young tehh be 'ere, that's fur shore, but donchoo rrun off on meh now, m'lad. Mmm?”
“Okay Joshua.” Jakob said. Joshua was down closer to him. This close up, Jakob could see that the man had blue eyes. These shone like the rest of them, but their expression seemed kind. Jakob nodded, looking at them. They're faded too, he thought. Joshua smiled, his eyes disappearing into squints as his cheeks came up.
“Yea a good boy, Moses. Em surry yea have tehh beah here.”
Jakob looked at him for a moment, his face blank.
“Moses?” He whispered. The smile dropped from Joshua's face in an instant. He was looking at Jakob with a frank interest.
“I'm not Moses.” Jakob whispered again.
“Wut?” Joshua asked. Behind them, the elevator dinged as it arrived.
Jakob knew something, but his mind was slow, numb. He knew something, knew it for a fact. It had to do with the name. Why can't I think of it! He thought. It was a claustrophobic feeling. There was something there. He knew knew knew it, but he couldn't grasp it. He tried to remember.
Behind them. The door dinged again.
“Who are yea?”
Who am I? He wondered. His mind was drifting. Suddenly, the lights seemed very bright. His head was crowded, full of fluff that he could sort through. He was pawing his way, trying to get around it to an idea that was buried in it, but he couldn't quite seem to reach it.
Joshua put out a hand to stop the doors as they tried to close.
“Boy, who are yea, ef yea ain't Moses?”
“I don't remember.” Jakob said.