part 2 of 3 installments- read PART ONE
3:
Nearly everyone alive remembered when the streets felt different, because the rise and fall of the Automated Revolution happened so quickly.
A pretty couple attending a movie remembered the neon lights outside and the slick paper ticket stubs and the films that generally played without a hitch. So it smarted when the light tubes buzzed weakly or not at all, when the person shaped ticket-taker at the window didn’t understand their request because it wasn’t worded exactly and they were forced to settle for the showing it gave them, when the artificial butter ran down the side of the carton because the concessions-vendor missed the popcorn, when the lobby tile was greyish with grime that the tile-cleaner skimmed over, when the film was alright were it not for the failed audio sync and persistent grain from a dirty lens.
