It was 6 am sharp when the night sensor sounded in her left ear, beep, beep… beep, beep. The light was bright and the sun promised to shine all throughout the day. She stood up, and from her bedroom window, took a long look at the violet sea ahead.

She thought about how privileged they were, to live in such a nice building complex, miles away from the overcrowded city. This was the right place to live for those who were better off. Solar powered blocks of flats, all translucent capsules on the inside and reflective on the outside, reminiscent of plastic bottles, reflected and multiplied the view of the violet sea.

He’d already left. She smiled noticing that he had mistaken his Tuesday sensor for his Thursday one. Then she replaced her Monday evening sensor with her Tuesday sensor pinning it to her left ear. Immediately a list of commands were given, each one related to her morning start, from weather predictions and advice on what to wear, to traffic reports, and a constant reminder, that she had been getting for the past two weeks, about their 3rd year anniversary coming up the next day. Tomorrow is your anniversary! You still haven’t bought him a gift! A list of suggestions from different vendors, each with their own unique voice, announced things such as: a 2 second jungle escape with the white tiger, for 1,049·99, a minute of dolphin’s sounds, for 545·99, a 3 minute swimming with sharks emotion, for 2,025·50. If any of these interests you, it will be delivered to his sensor tomorrow at the time of your choice. Swimming with sharks! she shouted. For 8 pm sharp, she commanded. A cheerful voice, immediately responded with the message: Thank you for your purchase! Your voice receipt will be stored in your cloud inbox. You will get a confirmation of your delivered gift, tomorrow at 8 pm sharp.

Having attended to most of the commands that had been sent to her that morning, she was finally ready to head off to work. She took the translucent reflective lift down to the front door, and began her walk across the translucent platforms above the violet sea, towards the parking lot – another stack of capsules reflected the sea. On her way, she passed by the sheer leisure and commercial centres, all for exclusive use of building residents. Finally, just as she passed by the enormous construction site where the endless building expansion plan was taking place, she crossed paths with the old lady who hung around the area sometimes, offering passersby to read their future. The old lady did not wear a sensor, her clothes looked old and faded, the only modern thing she had on her was a small voice tablet payment machine, hanging on her neck, which was presumably how she received payment after a reading.

As soon as she saw the old lady, she began walking at a faster pace to avoid her, but the old lady still managed to grab her by her arm saying what she usually said, can I read your future? No, she said, I am in a rush today, some other day. Their eyes met for an instant, and the old lady insisted, I will do it for free today, it’s free for you, today. But she just left the old lady there, mumbling some words, and drove off, as quickly as she could, in her one unit solar powered car.

***

The long journey to her distant office, located at the heart of the overcrowded city was uneventful that morning. Her Tuesday sensor alternated between playing music, the traffic report, breaking news and commentaries from the journalists she followed. From time to time, announcements were made concerning traffic accidents, which had occurred, with advice as how to best avoid them. The sun would apparently shine throughout the day, under a hot, humid heat, with the possibility for a sudden short tropical storm at some point in the afternoon.

It wasn’t unusual, just minutes before she reached the office, to confront some unavoidable traffic. During that time, stopped by the traffic control air resistance, she had a full view of her office. The huge office complex happened to have been built on top of the ruins of what was once a football stadium – the biggest in the world, at some point – built exclusively for a world cup that had once been held in that country, years and years ago. It had cost millions to the taxpayer, but it was built with such cheap materials, that it was in ruins – a result of the first tsunami the city experienced… It was now undergoing its 3rd renovation, where she could see, from a distance, the solar panel windows being replaced with new, reflective ones.

As soon as the traffic started moving again, she parked her car on the blanket of asphalt that now covered the sleeping giant – what was once a massive statue, was now lying disfigured on the ground, it’s left side completely destroyed, the head cut at the throat, separating it from the body. The huge opened mouth, had been transformed into a big cave, home to rare species such as snakes, lizards and scorpions, the latter was found throughout the structure, beneath the debris. She parked the car right above his ears, smiling about that period in history, now known as the democratic dictatorship, nicknamed by marolinha1. The giant statue had been of the first ruler of that period, and the man whose government had built the stadium. He had insisted that this huge statue of him was erected next to the stadium. Once finished, millions of underpaid builders were then hired to lye fake gold leaf on top of the giant’s cheap surface. Now just a pile of concrete rubble and broken rum bottles, covered by a blanket of asphalt.

Up at her office, she couldn’t help but noticing this builder wearing a boiler suit and working on the window panels of her office. A very tall, thin man, with brown skin and silver hair. He greeted her with a nice smile and she noticed he didn’t wear a sensor. She asked, Hi there, I noticed you do not wear a sensor… Any particular reason? To which he responded with a grin, Not really, I am just not from around here, and carried on with his work.

At some point in the day, while gazing out of her new office window, noticing the sky becoming drastically grey, she heard an agitated noise coming from the neighboring office, where her subordinates shared a room. She decided to go check what was going on. All she could see and hear were clicking noises coming from the sensors of people running around something. Initially she could not see what it was, but as she came closer, she started to make out the form of a butterfly. After closer inspection she identified it as a 3 colour winged butterfly. After a bit of flying around, the butterfly finally rested on top of the left shoulder of the man in the boiler suit. The butterfly remained on the man’s shoulder for a few seconds and everyone became suddenly quiet, until it found its way outside. A sudden breeze blew some humid air inside. Just minutes after the window had been replaced, a torrential rain started to fall.

The storm lasted for about 5 minutes and then the sun started to shine again. It was time to head home; she had had reminders from her Tuesday sensor throughout the day that this evening she had to attend her weekly human contact meeting. Tonight’s meeting was going to last 3 minutes. It involved a presentation about the life of some existentialist author from the xx century, after which a brief discussion took place, within a friendly, non-judgmental environment. However, she was feeling very tired, so she sent a command through to the group’s sensor that she wouldn’t be attending the meeting that evening and headed home instead.

He was usually home before her, dinner ready and they both ate together; but that evening he wasn’t there. She looked out of the window and stared at the violet sea, now dark, under moonlight. She was exhausted, and decided to switch to her Tuesday evening sensor, take a quick shower and head to bed. She lay in bed with the lights off; the sensor read her a novel in a quiet voice, while simultaneously projecting images onto the bedroom wall. Slowly the voice and the images began to fade, and were replaced by the sound of waves gently breaking against the shore. She fell asleep and dreamt of a storm of 3 colour winged butterflies.

There was no trace of him when her sensor sounded her alarm at 6 am sharp, on their 3rd year anniversary morning. She got up and took a long look at the violet sea ahead. The sun was shining.

1 tiny wave in Portuguese