Soundtrack

Do You Realize? the man sang in wonder, with the headphones creating an almost uncomfortable intimacy, that you have the most beautiful face...

I'd clicked on a playlist that for some reason I'd helpfully called GOODSTUFF, and had no idea what was in it. The Flaming Lips were a genuinely pleasant surprise - I hadn't played the album for ages - and this was a standout track for me.

The laptop had finished going through its tedious startup rituals, and I now clicked on the disk icon for the memory stick. Reading from the top of the list of folders, I saw they were named: LUCIDAR, CASE STUDIES, PROJECT LUPUS, MACKIE, A and PROJECTIONS.

Well, Mr Smith (even though I now knew his name, I couldn't think of him as Albert at all) had said to begin at the beginning.

Double-clicking on the LUCIDAR folder, I saw the first document was a pdf with copies of a series of memos - which certainly placed them in a bygone era.

As I scrolled through them, I felt my eyes growing wider, and was vaguely aware that if anyone was watching, I probably had a pretty slack-jawed look. Reading on, the spaced-out sounding music in the headphones seemed the perfect accompaniment, somehow.

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes - let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round



Story begins here.