Looking for the last music

The rumors have be circulating……..

The rumors started years ago about a girl that was organizing people to search for any computer or tablets or device that had digital music files that was not erase from the “Big Spark”. The rumors would go through town like Dandelion seeds floating in air with wishful dreams every time a newcomer passing through town. It gave us hope from the way the world once was. Many of us have never herd old music that once people carried in their pockets in little devices. A lot have seen the devices but few people have found one that still works. Some of these musical devices were protected from the “Big Spark”. At least that’s what the older ones wished for. We still look to the sky in fear even though it has been years since the ones that dominated the skies with the laser beams. Our defenses were no match to them. We don’t know where they came from. We think they went back to their home planet. Some are wait for a second wave. Some believe that they put us back into the stone age because we were destroying the planet ecosystems. While some where trying to protect earth we were just growing to fast to make any helpful changes.

It has taken a very long time to build up communities replicating the ones before were people felt safe. In the beginning we were so scared and hungry that people divided into groups from people isolating themself to creating community groups who worked together in peace. The raiding tribes were the aggressive and violent ones to fear. They made trust difficult to build in the beginning especially when we all were like scavengers hiding, collecting, even hoarding supplies. The world is more like a bunch of tribes working together these days and we barter goods amongst one town to another. There has been a lot of scarcities and we are all working together making food, patching up clothing, raising animals and making anything we can from them. If we can make multiple trades out of them thats how we survive. Every tribe has a type of supply they grow and barter with other. So people go out in groups to trade their supplies with different tribes, villages and towns. Different towns have their own fashion these days. That’s another reason I want to travel to other town which could take days to find something different to wear or something different to eat. You still have to be careful of the raiders out on the roads but the raiders are nomadic and you sort of guess where they are from the stories that are shared from town to town.

I have herd of stories about of people hearing old music over the years. I have never herd it with my own ears. I figured they were always made up. The only music you herd is from people singing. Some towns have make shift bands but it’s more singing and instrumental music. I wish to experience music how my mother has when she was young. My mother bedtime stories would be about going to massive concerts. My favorite was how she described electronic DJs and the amazing light shows. How the energy would just make you happy. Her stories sounded so magical they gave me dreams of color like in sunsets. So when the rumors started around town about a concert happening I was determined I would do what ever it took to experience it.

Some towns were very touchy about music and you could only hear about it whispered in the shadows. The old people seemed to be the ones that were most effected showing bitterness or sadness and even tears in their eyes when speaking about the lost music. At night gathered around campfires, especially among strangers, stories of digital sounds would come to life. Some of them reminiscing about getting there first iPod or how they had thousands of songs at their finger tips. Others talked about running in the streets with their favorite songs pushing them further then they wanted. Like stories about BigFoot sighting someone would share a story about hearing a couple minutes of a song on a found digital device. It became a myth for most of us growing up in this new world.

“Sound Day” was an event that was suppose to happen on Summer Solstice of 2080. My friend told me of the rumors he herd when his family visited his uncle family in another state. On their long journey they had met several people with similar stores from different cities and from different states talking about “Sound Day“. Even hearing stories from his uncle’s family of the rumors they herd. Everyone we know thought it was a joke being played one the masses. It wasn’t till he spoke of a painted barn where they put up their horses for a day of rest that I started to believe. The side of the barn had a mural on it with big bold arching letters spelled “Sound Day” at the top. Bellow the letters on the right half was an old digital music device. On the other side was a bunch of big bulging music notes floating away from it. Below all of that were letters spelling out “Summer Solstice 2080” above letters spelled out “Denver” The Muriel had confirmed the rumors they herd on their journey. He drew out it out in his sketchbook. It was beautiful. We made replicas drawing when we could find supplies the following year. Handing them out to strangers. Sometimes leaving a copy in a closed bottle tied to a tree for someone to find.

The stories of a young girl who started walking from city to city and town to town in search of devices that had digital music still working on them spread across the land. They call her DJ Jazzy; the girl that missed music so much she started looking for any remnants of it after the “Big Spark”. She supposed to have found one and was able to here a couple songs before it died. She continue to gather as many as she could find. She would collect them and share them with the world on a future date. That date became known as “Sound Day”. Her plan was to setup in a stadium in Denver. It inspires others to look for them and there was a collective effort to send found devices to Denver in search of DJ Jazzy. It gave us hope and a goal in a shattered world.

As we walked for weeks we gather more and more people with every mile. Every night we were surrounded with entertainment by people showing off things, songs or dance from their hometown. Even though we were all tattered and torn in makeshift clothing and shoes with holes with pour hygiene, it was the first time in a long time where people were excited and happy. We were a collection of all ages making the journey of a lifetime. It became known as the “Sound Day Pilgrimage”and it was bigger then anyone expected. The world seem to come together for music.

The Denver streets were full of thousands of people. The was a pulse in the crowd that led us to the stadium. The roof tops had people gathered. Some could make it into the stadium so they camped out along the streets. Lining every block were cables that we followed. The streets and roof tops had a series of funny boxes attached to wires that collected and gathering more and more along the way. The older ones called the boxes speakers explaining that if this worked the sound would come out of them like a clear invisible liquid flooding the street. This hand me feeling a little nervous after hearing that. It lend to an open stadium with the edges of it covered is speakers of every size you could imagine. We had to work really hard to get up and in that we lost most of our new friends in the sea of people moving like an ocean swell.

In the center of the stadium was baseball field with a platform made of some big boxes and behind it was a series strange looking things. They built device like see through rings and the collection of tube that spun. Inside each tube was a person riding a horse which did not move forward even though they were galloping. The tube just spun around the horse and person. All of them had a cable running from them to a strange structure. Somehow we were able to make it though to the main platform.

I saw a woman standing on the platform. Holding up in her hand with a white little box with a screen. In the other she held a cord that fell to the ground. As she held up her arms in the air her shirt seemed to give her wings of every color. From her neck she had this necklace. As she turned towards me the sun lit up this red heart shaped locket with a beam that reflecting back at us. She had wrinkles of joy, her before I realized she was not anything what I dreamt of. In fact she was’t young at all like to rumors spoke. We made eye contact and a feeling of fear washed over me as I realized we really didn’t know what year its was or how many years it really took looking for these music devices. It took a life time as this older women was about to give the world music again.

She looked down on me smiled and pointed. She must have seen the excitement on my face and asked me if I would like to press the play button for everyone. The sea of people cheered as I climbed up my friends shoulders to reach the platform. I climbed over the funny boxes when I saw they were really massive speakers. She handed me the device and showed me where to plug in the cord. Then strangle humming and high screech came form the pile of boxes we were standing on that made me jump. The world went silent and the air changed as if everyone just held in their breath. She just smiled and nodded at me to press the button. I pushed down and the air started to vibrate all around us. The noise starts off soft and slow, it had a repetition to it like it was syncing our heart beats with it. Then more layers of sound came over and other layers of sound and the speed increased. My ears could not understand what was happening. It was like the sound flooded my ears with every color of every sunset at once. It seemed to wrap all around you like a thick winter coat and it made you feel like your were rising up into the air. Your body would just start to move in happiness and looking out at everyone in the crowd they were moving in happiness. I looked back at DJ Jazzy she was like a dancing angle with her arms swaying in the wind of music. Tears rolling down her face brought tears of joy to mine. She brought music back to the world. I felt there was nothing anyone could ever do to repay her for the wonderful gift she shared with us that night. Then I realized her tears, her happy tears watching us all of us in pure joy was her gift too.