"Lakeland. Lake… land. Is it a lake, or is it land? It can't be both. It's self-contradictory. You know?"
photo by @therealpaul
The roadside spot ahead was possibly the same spot that he'd seen the painted bread-loaf van on his previous trip, but today nobody was there, and Arlo slowed the bike and made a much better stop than he had managed yet on the hovering bike.
With the lake sprawled before them now and with the bike finally stopped, he could acknowledge what Mel was saying. He had noticed the name too. "Yeah… Lake-Land... I DO know. And, it's the opposite with 'Hill Valley'. Can't have a valley without some hills… and hills make the valleys. Self-supporting!"
Surprisingly, Mel had never actually thought of that, but she wondered now-- after the surreal ride they had taken just seconds before--why she had started it, and how they could seriously be talking about town's names. "So… is this really all we have to talk about right now?" She laughed.
Arlo's face became even more serious, and it's seriousness suggested that he was choosing important words in his head as he spoke.
"last night… when I had this bike at home, I'd decided… or thought about… " He stopped for a breath, looking at the bike for help. "I was going to bring it down to your shop and show it to you, see if you wanted to ride it, or… or go for a ride, I guess... if you wanted."
Arlo's face now had a look of guilt, like someone who'd either said too much or too little. His cheeks turned actually red for an excruciating few seconds as he heard his own voice ruining something that he shouldn't even be telling her.
Mel looked down at an interesting pebble as he floundered on. "And so, that was why back there a minute ago, I asked if you wanted to go for a ride, it was that. That was the joke, we were already riding... or, you were..."
Mel laughed a little and smiled towards the lake, instantly easing the sudden awkwardness that had just engulfed them both. She then spoke with her usual calm atmosphere. "Now… is THAT all we really have to talk about right now?" She glanced back towards Hill Valley comically. They both smiled easily at that. She had saved him gracefully, they both knew.
Her apprehension, or mostly curiosity, as to why Arlo had been there waiting, lurking by her car, was now at least halfway eased, as his difficulty in saying it out loud was genuine enough. Dropping her comforting smile, and with the usual melody now gone from her voice, Mel looked at him sideways, "how come the cops are after you?"
Arlo was relieved at the new topic, but his plastic smile had suddenly begun to grip his expression again, and he spun on his heel, then sat down hard on a handy boulder, as if pressed there by a great thumb.
He stayed quiet for long enough for Mel to take her eyes from the bike, which she had been examining, and watch him. It was as if the boulder he was sitting on was energizing him-- giving him new strength, and his eyes began to take on a new look.
There were two boulders, Mel had noticed, and she sat down on the other one-- she could tell that Arlo was about to speak. He looked like a kettle with the lid about to rattle, ticking from some hidden heat source.
He looked like he had something to say, and he did. His voice began softly, as if speaking words aloud had always been forbidden before.
"Hill Valley. It's like a prison, made of mirrors. These people… inmates. They're inmates, and they don't know it-- they REFUSE to believe that the absurd… farce, that they live-- that they're looking at, is a reflection. Their own… it's THEM! They actually DON'T GET IT! "
Arlo quickly snatched off the aviation goggles that he had forgotten were still strapped onto his forehead. "They WON'T see it! I mean… they don't WANT to. The way they have it set up now… it's like…"
Arlo stood up fast, looking across the lake, and held out his hands to illustrate as he continued. "It's a feedback loop. It's powered, by LAZY, IRRESPONSIBLE COWARDS. Humans can be TRAINED to be lazy, irresponsible cowards!"
Mel tried not to snicker, and scratched her nose instead while he preached on.
"They don't want blame, or responsibility for their impractical, stupid world. It's a vast, diabolical feedback loop. These dumb people! They… NOTHING EVER GETS FIXED! They're COWARDS-- afraid of the responsibility, and lazy… so they hire somebody to take all of the blame, and THEN, they can say, that by hiring someone else, they were therefore being responsible!"
He loudly let out a steamy hiss of air, and then looked at the clouds, as though his next words were spelled out there in the lake's puffy sky for all to see.
"They are actually trained to believe that giving away all of their responsibility is the responsible thing to do!"
Mel saw the clouds and nodded in agreement, but didn't want to interrupt his sermon-- Arlo was reaching a boil.
"Hill Valley is an orphanage."
As if approving his own thought with a quick nod, he went on.
"Those poor creatures that live in there… they're told from the start that they will only have to be adorable and obedient, and the nice grown-ups will give them some damn pudding. They even get the idea-- the FANTASY-- that they get to PICK which nice parents will choose them… it's really as if they never want to grow up, or ever have to do any real chores or activity to make their own world STINK a little less, they just let the orphanage clean up EVERYTHING while they play house, and watch their TV''s. They think the only real conduit of their fabricated reality is that absurd babbling box of baloney! They want the orphanage to break up their patty-cake push fights in the halls… they want to use their schoolyard tantrum technology to shape their ridiculous reflection in the mirror-- the feedback loop-- that squirrel cage. It's THEM though, they could make it all… THEY DO MAKE IT ALL… if they only knew."
Now Mel was thinking about pudding, but she was still listening, and he was still going. He looked like he was either about to laugh or cry, as he searched over the calm lake's water for his next words.
"They really don't know… it's a mirror. They can't accept that the puppet in the reflection-- that they are looking at… is themselves. They actually WANT to believe that someone else is building their world, providing for them. Hell… a DOG can be trained to beg for treats-- these people are programmed to think… and BELIEVE, that to get any precious treats, you have to sign a damn petition, or beg somebody… you have the power to BEG, and that's it! ANYTHING to try to avoid the responsibility, or consequences, of their own action. They've TRAINED themselves to be that damned lazy… and it's culturally accepted to be such cowards. It's even encouraged! But they DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT to ignore what's happening-- to ignore reality-- their creation, when it HURTS the people around them. It's not right."
Arlo leaped up on top of his boulder and looked back down the curving highway towards Hill Valley with a genuine scowl. When he looked back at Mel again, they both thought the same thing; that he still hadn't really answered her question about why the cops were after him. He collected himself immediately and answered.
"The Hill Valley PD stole my watermelon car this morning from in front of my apartment-- in front of everybody. They invited… DARED me, to come down to the police station to claim it."
Arlo stepped down from his stone, looking at the hovering bike, and then at her. "I'm sorry I got you involved in this, Mel."
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Thanks for reading FICTIONARIUM Chapter 7 Episode 4
LINK to previous episode
To see more articles and short stories click any @therealpaul