Spitwrite Box Set

Part 1

Part 1

The train arrived at Piraeus station. Blanche had taken the train from her town into Athens for the first time, then swapped lines at the intercity hub. She emerged through a thick puff of bubblegum-scented vaping cloud and got hit with the hustle-and-bustle of the busy place.

She must have looked like a fish out of water, because a young sailor offered to help her out. "Can I help you, ma'am?"

Blanche turned to him, looking grateful "Well, they told me to take a streetcar named Desire, ride it all the way to Paris for an entire day and get off at Elysian Fields."

The sailor smiled. "I see." He leaned in closer, looked around to see if anyone could overhear. "Did you add the hashtag?"

"What hashtag?" whispered Blanche, confused.

"You need to add the hashtag #desire on your Agora profile," the sailor said, practically whispering in her ear conspiratorially.

"I-I didn't know that!" Blanche said, fishing out her phone from her bag. "Thank you."

"That's all it takes. Then just look for the car, you can't miss it." The sailor bit his lips, then added, "Look, you need to keep it to yourself, got it? Whatever happens, whatever you see inside Desire, you keep it to yourself, right?"

Blanche nodded furiously.

He stepped away. "I gotta run, but good luck on your journey."

Blanche reached out to stop him, she had more questions. A ton more. But he was gone in the crowd, and Blanche was a short woman, she tip-toed to try and see him to no avail. A few people bumped on her and called her 'vlaka,' making her flinch uncomfortably at the slightest touch, so she decided to step aside and add the hashtag. She found a spot behind a big banner advertisement and added the hashtag on her Agora profile, the social network that everybody used nowadays.

She got outside on the street and stood across from the overpass bridge for the pedestrians. The cars whooshed past in thick traffic, going up and down in the busy harbour. She could smell the sea but couldn't see anything. Just like her own height, the street was practically at the sea-level, so, even though she could do a few metres and dive right into the water, she couldn't see the blue. It wasn't advisable to dive inside a harbour anyway. All that dirty stuff from the ships.

She clutched her bag tight and waited for Desire to come.