The Radio Enthusiast
” – …Well I’m not doing that.- Not again please! You’re killing me.
– Stop telling me what I should do, I’m warning you this is the last time you’re talking to me with that tone…
– Dear, we need to repair the pumping station so we can have running water again. But I can’t do it if you don’t help me.
– I don’t need running water, I have a boat and I can use it if I’m sick of you.
– Then do us a favour…
– What did you just say!
– Nothing honey, I’m off to the radio station.”
This was calm before the storm, I knew that. She was always like this when I provoked her. I will certainly pay for what I did tonight and sometimes I think I deserve it anyway…
I jumped on the boat and rowed to the radio transmitter, where I was heading. It seems like I will have to come back a few times this week if I want to repair the station on my own. She used to help me, back in the early days of our life here but these times are so far away now.
I set foot on Wrecked Island. We named it that way because they are so many shipwrecks nearby, due to the broken lighthouse and they all seem to run aground here, on the beaches of this island. When you walk here, the time runs with the tides. The main beach where I installed a small wooden berth for my boat is made of the thinnest sand. This beach is surely the most beautiful one I have ever seen. And yet the whole island looks a bit dreary with the big pumping station that we built in an abandoned building made with concrete which lies here quietly; the wreckages left everywhere on one side of the beach and most importantly the spooky forest that takes most of the northern part.
I always wondered what lives in this wood, it is not that big, but I am too cowardly to go deeper in the wood on my own. I always feel I’m being observed when I walk here. There might be some living animals, smarter than me, watching me from above but never interfering. The whole place is too scary for me and it might be why all my most important belongings are in a safe hidden in here.
When I’m opening the station doors, I feel observed. That happens regularly here to be honest, so I don’t mind, and I enter the building. Every time I come here I’m welcomed by the smell of the sea. I sit on the chair and I put my headphones on.
“ -…The president wishes that every state will cooperate with the government on these important times…
-…Calling all units on lane 8…
-…
-…Oh, baby baby it’s a wild world!
-…
-…
-999-9999, please start transmission, over…”
I stopped there on 169.00 MHz. I’m always on the watch for radio signals that could be sent in case someone would need help or anything. I rarely have relevant signals. No one dares to come here – this is precisely why I stayed here in the first place.
But while I was talking to myself, I noticed a crumpled paper near my desk. This is strange because I’m sure that it’s not mine and no one is supposed to enter the radio station except me. I picked it up and tried to read it.
Wow, it looks like someone is trying to guess a number. Is it a phone number? No, it is too short. Oh, but wait, I think it is a frequency… Okay… Now I get it. It’s her, isn’t it? She is trying to guess my safe code. This is the worst, she is trying to steal me, or even worse: to spy on me. I don’t want her to see what I’m hiding from her, I’m so afraid. She could murder me.
This is too much, I can’t go and find her, and then talk about it. I don’t stand a chance against her. But I can’t pretend this has not happened, and I surely don’t want her to look in my safe. I need to get everything out of it. I don’t have any other choice.
I’m getting sick of it. This has gone to far, she’s a monster. I can’t live with her now. I never could. I’m getting out. I don’t know when, maybe tomorrow or next week but I’m leaving.
She must have made dinner by now. I must come back. Tomorrow I will start having a look at the pumping station. I think I know what’s wrong with it. It could be seaweed caught again in the pipes, that happened before. The pipes are so large, I think that I’ll have at least a week worth of work. Well, I guess I’ll have to stay for a bit, and for dinner.
Come Back - The Game
If you are enjoying the universe of “Come Back Chronicles – Radio Enthusiast”, you will enjoy solving the two islands’ mysteries in Come Back – The Game!
Discover the upsetting truth of these shores in Come Back, the first chapter is available now on PC, Mac & Linux. Get your copy below or on our page Itch.io.