The Traffic Sword and The Invisible Drone

Two traffic policemen, about 120 cm tall each, arrive at the site. They blow their impromptu whistles made of large duplo blocks and walk towards the only civilian in sight.

She’s sitting on the sofa, scrolling surprisingly joyful Tiktok dance videos, which she just yesterday discovered offer a passage to an alternative world where everyone gets along.

The policemen approach her in bright red jackets. “You’re such cute firefighters,” she says and quickly gets corrected. “We’re the traffic police. This is my traffic sword.”

The civilian has just been pondering her upcoming trip to Paris, wondering if she should cancel because of the riots. She would cancel, but then she’d loose several hundreds of euros. Travel insurance hasn’t been very useful, but a traffic sword – now that certainly does sound like it belongs to our current world.

The other policeman shows his remote control, “And this controls my invisible drone.”

When the woman on the sofa was a little police girl herself, many decades ago, she hadn’t heard of drones, invisible or not, but she often played Penny from Inspector Gadget, who had an awesome notebook that could look up anything. One might imagine that the inventors of the iPad had been glued to the very same show in their childhood.

Travel used to be a way to pamper oneself. Now, it has become a calculated risk. Last autumn, it was wild fires in Spain and rumours of Covid resurging. A quote floating about says, if you don’t know for sure, let’s assume everything will turn out alright.

It’s been almost 20 years since she lived in Paris, half her age. Mademoiselle, she was called. Now she would almost certainly be a madame. Maybe the Paris she remembers is as intangible as the Tiktok universe of cheerful dance challenges. Or maybe it’ll catch on, like a viral video, or like Benalmádena, where she had the pleasant sensation of remembering who she once was, back when she used to live and breathe travel.

Last night, the traffic police had a disco party for just the two of them. Smart lights turned Living Room City into a turquoise and violet dance floor, Spotify played 70’s disco, and inventive dance moves appeared from nowhere. The enormous and cuddly Little Teddy was invited, but he was a bit out of shape and needed to be held up. There was even surfing at some point, on a tropical print cushion.

It’s a hard decision. To stay in the comfort of the imaginary world or to venture out and explore the real world, warts and all?

The photos are from Benalmádena, Spain, February 2023.

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