The Disco-Dishwasher-Combustion

The DiscoDishwasherCombustion

Down in the bowels of the Xar City on the Asteroid Belt of Xeridus there was a warren of dark tunnels lit with flickering neon. This was not called the Red Light district on Xar, because with a big Red Giant for a sun the entire Asteroid Belt avoided any such color bigotries. Red did not equal bad or sinful, said the President of Xeridus on the vid with a forceful smile, and would you consider donating to his next round of fundraising?

In the warren there was the little bar called Toby’s, and in the back there was a dishwasher named Chad. Chad was not from Xeridus, but no one really knew where he was from, not even Chad. He had appeared one day inside the bubble of Xar City, and had wandered until the Police had locked him up for vagrancy. Social services took over at that point, and they were very empathetic to his apparent memory loss. They told him to find a job and no more sleeping on in the tunnels or he would be deported to the dark mines of Uxis.

Chad found he had little skills, or if he did have them he couldn’t remember, and so he finally managed to find a position at Toby’s. He gathered the dishes and then fed them to the SaniWasher, before he stacked them once more in their bins. All day, he gathered, fed the machine, and put the dishes away. He didn’t mind it so much, but he was bored.

“Amnesia Man, did you see Dance Craze last night?” Asked Zinn, the live server who was one step up the employment ladder from Chad. Zinn was tall, thin, and a pale yellowy color from head to toe. He had vapid blue eyes that seemed perpetually red and watery. Chad tried to like Zinn, since he was the closest thing he had to a friend, but it was hard.

“Don’t call me Amnesia Man.” Chad commented as he loaded in the dishes. “It makes me feel… odd.”

“Cool it, Cat, I was just making with the talk. Now did you catch the vid show or am I just jerking myself…”

“I never miss it.” Chad said softly, his eyes taking on a dreamy distance. There was something angelically beautiful about Chad that sometimes seemed to transcend the dank little kitchen he was forced to work in. Zinn would never have told Chad this, and he looked away with embarrassment. It was uncomfortable for him, the Zinn Man, the lover of intergalactic women (he wished!) that he sometimes found his short lithe co-worker beautiful.

“Amnesia, you need to go on that show. I mean, it’s the ride out of this place. Each season’s winner gets a job at the Tabethian Resort. Oh, what a life. Dancing, doping, and beautiful women! Can’t you just see it? Man, we should do it together. I gotta cousin’s whose friend with a friend, and she said she could get me on… you want to try too?”

For a moment Chad stared at Zinn wondering if this was some kind of elaborate joke, the kind that he often didn’t understand but others seemed to find so hilarious. After a pause though, he realized that Zinn’s gaunt face was earnest. Slowly Chad nodded. “I would like to try. I like to dance.”

“Yeah, but on the vid! The vid. Everyone will see us. But hey, I ain’t promising that they’ll get you on. You know those judges are really harsh.” Zinn made a face. Maybe he was making a mistake promising to take Chad with him. Chad was such a zygote, so innocent and serious. Zinn in his typical shallowness quickly forgot his momentary anxiety. They would just go, dance to some pulsing tunes, meet some hipping ladies, and then come back here to wash and serve. That’s was the life for guys like them.

Chad loaded and unloaded dishes for the rest of the night in a daze. He loved Dance Craze. It had been the first vid show he had ever watched. He never noticed the size of his place when the vid was turned on. When he watched the dancers twirl and gyrate he stopped thinking, he felt lighter than air and his head seemed to fill with sparking spheres of pure color.

Five days later he was waiting in line with a thousand other hopeful contestants, all of them in their radiant best. Zinn, who leaned against the wall of the Studio, checked out the girls and rated them in his head from fair to yech. Zinn wore his best purple suit. He thought he was “farm-stock, grain fed primo beef” and the rest of the cats in line were all “synthetic, gen mutated tube created protein powder.” Or yech, to put it in a shorter form.

Even Chad didn’t look so great under the reddish light that came in through the dome. He looked like a pink man in a pink suit, with pale lavender eyes.

Chad pushed down his pale hair, and smiled. He couldn’t have been happier. He didn’t care what he looked like, he was going to dance.

When the Studio doors were opened they were fed into the dark maw of the building. They were searched, scanned, and x-rayed. They were then offered stims, green rides, or crazy blues, depending on their favorite form of mood alteration before being shuffled out onto the dark dance floor.

Chad stood with the others. He had lost track of Zinn in the shadowy darkness. He stood shoulder to shoulder with other contestants, their hearts beating fast, jokes muttered, and the odor of excitement heavy in the air. He could barely breathe with it and hoped the music would start soon.

A bright light came on and there stood one of the Judges. The two has-been celebrities stumbled up to the light and didn’t bother to look down over the dark huddled mass of people watching them. Tawa, the famous vid star of twenty years earlier, licked her painted lips and poised with hip cocked. “Now you people, listen up. Ya’ all will be eliminated quickly, so don’t struggle. The floor will open up and ya’ all will fall, but the grav generators will catch you and ya’ all won’t get hurt. You can just go back to your miserable lives. Got it?”

“Stop hogging the stage, you old cow.” Terrence Evans the Third stepped up beside Tawa in his shining jewel encrusted suit of black and red. He flashed those radiant teeth that had once graced a daily sob drama. He raised his hands and the crowd applauded. Chad stood still, feeling sick. He couldn’t breath, it was too crowded. “Tonight is Disco night. And we want you all to rock the star. Rock the Star! Who’s going to Rock?”

“We are!” The crowd shouted back. Chad put his hands over his ears. Too loud. He wanted to go home.

Then the music started, and the dance floor lit up with rainbow hues. The ceiling reflected the lights, shining, swirling, and spinning. Chad stood still. Listening. The beat hit him hard in the head, taking him away. He started to move when he saw the first contestant sucked down a hole that appeared in the floor. The girl screamed on her way down and the people around her laughed. Chad started to dance.

The ceiling opened up and down came a gigantic round mirror ball that sent even more splashes of color flying around the room. Up and down seemed to lose meaning, and in places the gravity seemed off, sucking or pulling… but either up or down people kept disappearing, sucked away.

“All right, all right. You’ve people have all made the first round. Now the vids are coming on. Make it good now.” Terrence called out over the crowd and cheers rose once more flooding out the sound of the music.

Chad might have stumbled but Zinn caught his arm. “Amnesia Man! You’re here! You’re doing it. Keep it up!”

Chad nodded as the music swept him up again. He started to move. He closed his eyes and danced. He danced and danced. He didn’t notice the others, and he certainly didn’t realize when Zinn was sucked down. As he moved he saw things he had never seen before, stars and galaxies exploding, growing, sorting themselves out into creation…and all this without drugs. I’m flying, he thought, I’m traveling…

“Hey, Hey, Hey. You boy are rocking.” Terrence tapped Chad on the shoulder and the young man stumbled to halt. He stared at the vid star without recognition. What kind of creature was this? So ugly with its plastic teeth and leathery skin. Slowly though Chad’s awareness came back. He was on Dance Craze and one of the judges was in front of him. Tiny cameras had come out of the ceiling like tentacles of some great black beast and they homed in on his face. He blinked at them confused.

“So what’s your name?” Terrence asked with a false smile and cold eyes. Make me look good, those eyes warned.

“Chad.” He muttered, glad that he remembered. But that’s not my real name, some thought emerged and he frowned confused.

“And what do you do, little man? What hellish job are you trying to escape?”

“Dishwasher.” Chad stared down at his feet.

Terrence grinned at the cameras. “Dishwasher! A Dishwasher. Well we hope that good ol’ Chad makes it all the way, don’t we folks? What other reality show in all the worlds offers a dishwasher this once in a lifetime career on the beautiful and luxurious Resort World of Tabethia. Good luck to you, DiscoDishwasher!”

The music came on again and now the crowds were gone and the dance floor seemed almost empty. Chad could see just five others in the crazy lights and he closed his eyes once more as he let the deep bass pick him up and take him away. Stars shone, and the dark of space loomed, he was flying over ice rings and gas giants, a pulsar singing a song that only he could hear.

Zinn watched the monitors from the below-stairs party. The others were all joining, coupling, or just drugging out….but he watched because there was Chad. Chad was glowing. Was that just a trick of the lights? Chad was spinning in way that seemed inhuman and he was glowing white. His face was translucent, and more beautiful than anything that Zinn had ever seen. Tears came to Zinn’s cheeks. Others around him grew silent, and the silence spread. No one could take their eyes off the glowing Dishwasher.

Chad floated up in the air, spinnng and spinning, and he spread his arms… the white matter of stars came out of his hands, and a light came out of his chest so bright it was blinding. The light increased. It was terrible and great. And then he was gone. Just gone.

The monitors showed only an empty dance floor with cheap lights, nothing like that Real Light, and Zinn cried. Everything was ugly to him. Nothing would ever be beautiful again. How could anything compare to what he had just seen, and now it was gone? How could he go on? Others around him fell to their knees, crying, sobbing, calling out for the beauty of the world to come back. The crass, ugliness was overwhelming.

“Whoa.” Terrence’s face filled the monitor and he looked so hideous that Zinn had to turn away. When he closed his eyes he could still see an afterglow against his eyelids, the afterglow of Chad.

“Whoa.” Terrence repeated. “Now that’s something that you won’t see on any other reality show. Auto-Combustion! That’s right folks, that boy just danced himself to death. And it’s all the rage. We’re going to call that move the DiscoDishwasherCombustion ! That’s right. DiscoDishwasherCombustion . And you can only see it here. Here on Dance Craze! Tune in next week.”

Zinn walked away. Already he was forgetting, forgetting what true beauty was, that tiny glimpse of something ELSE, and somehow he felt smaller. He felt sadder. Something beautiful had moved on.