Page 16 - Demo

Robert could hear the trickling of a stream, echoing strangely in his ear; he could hear the wind as it brushed through the leaves and the branches, interweaving with the echo of water. The young boy could also see all this, framed in his eyes as if he himself were the camera. But when he reached out —
“Robbie, how many times have I told you, don’t touch the screen.”
His fingers only touched a flat surface, feeling a buzzing sensation as the TV screen flicked to a view of the Grand Canyon. His fingers tell him the screen is slightly warm, and he knows why: he read it in his book, where it told him that TVs need electric energy, and it can become quite hot after a while as electricity, the book tells him, releases heat.
He was clever like that.
His trail of thought was interrupted as Mother dragged them out of the Electronics Section. They passed by a wall where a wallpaper of lifelike greenery covered it from floor to ceiling, but Robert could see very clearly the lock hidden within the colours; the lock which, undoubtedly, a door.
He wanted so much to open it.
But it slipped his mind as they dived into the crowd in the agora of the shopping mall. Robert grinned to himself secretly; he understood the word agora, and he also understood the word agoraphobia. He took pride in himself not having any fear of crowds or open spaces as, after all, he was a child born of this crowded city. Robert remembers quite well, thank you, all the passageways and fire escape routes of this shopping mall (excluding that locked one); and he feels very proud, too, when he recognises all his neighbours in the crowd.
“Good day, Mister Darvon, sir.” “Wonderful to see you, Robbie, my boy.” “Missus Raymond, your son’s grown tall!”
75