What a Wonderful Day!

"I’m on! Attention, I’m on air! A huge coloured wall raises in front of me, at a couple of miles!"

"Pass image to RT band, agent 01!"

"Yes, sir! I reduce the dimensions! It’s a stained glass window!"

"Right! Give me the ship’s coordinates!"

"87 K…"

"Isn’t it 99 K?"

"87K, I’m never wrong, agent 001! 86 K is an android’s coordinates from the 8th generation! And the one we were looking for is right from the 8th generation!"

"Has it transformed? Have you got it in your objective?"

"He kept his appearance. It is like I thought, an A8!"

"Come back to RH band!"

"I need a favour! Let me listen to the Dixieland concert!"

"Agent 01, come back to RH band! Anyway, the concert will finish as badly as ever could! The guards will come…"

"Why?"

"Give me a break with your stupid sentimental stuff! Do you know you could be exterminated in a moment?"

"You’re right. I don’t know, for a second, I felt a strong desire to escape. Doesn’t it happen to you, too?"

"I cultivate my feelings."

"A8’s name, please."

"Falco."

Violent knocks on the stained glass. Falco startles frightfully. He pulls the gun sear. "Who’s there?", he shouted loudly.

"Open to me, Falco, please!"

It’s Agatha. She cries her eyes out. She’s all wet. It’s raining bucket down.

"Take off your clothes and sit by the radiator. Do you want a brandy? It’ll warm you. Here, drink some hot coffee."

Agatha is crying. She covered herself with a camel hair blanket, that Falco took from his modest desk chair. She sips her brandy loudly. Her nose blushes.

Falco mocks at her. Agatha pointed her finger to him in menace. She tells, hiccoughing:

"The guards came with some TEMPO guns. They just blew out the people in the Dixieland bands. They had a warrant. I saw it, too. A big officer showed it to me. He was grinning foolishly. They threw them out in time. I don’t even know if the guns were set for 1917…"

"Why right that year?"

"Have you forgot? New Orleans! How many times haven’t we dreamed to travel back in time to that mad New Orleans."

"It’s impossible to me, Agatha. I have some work to do lately."

Agatha sighed. She sips her coffee noisily. She kisses Falco on his nose.

"Tell me, why do Power people in the archipelago hate Dixieland?"

"What a silly question! How could they not hate it? people brake free from their survey. A cascade of feelings! Reverie! Madness! When you’re playing the trombone, what do you feel?"

"I feel like I’m flying!"

"See? That worries so much the Power people! The upper class doesn’t like the absent-minded guys! They don’t give maximum efficiency, they’re unpredictable! No one knows what’s in their minds! They’re playing tricks on you when you don’t even expect!"

"You’re mixing things up! I don’t believe this is why…"

"Believe me!"

"The Prefect and the Mayor are some cads!"

"It’s nothing new for me! They have their own business, but as for their manners…"

"They proposed a ménage a trois adventure to me!"

Falco sobbed. And her, Agatha?

"My heart beats for you!"

Falco makes love to Agatha. The darkness surrounds them. Later, they drink brandy.

Tender gestures. Falco caresses her thighs. Agatha watches curiously a faint light floating in the office.

"Listen, what’s that thing?" she asks with a soft voice.