Minute 03

 Minute 03 (by Jasmin Salami Dehkharghani)

Happy anniversary, darling! (Short Story)

Oct 3rd, 1995

Dear diary, 

today is October the 3rd of 1995. I saw her again. Not by accident but by choice. I woke up from a dream at around 5 am and I couldn’t go back to sleep. My inner voice told me what I already knew…the time is right. I left early this morning, earlier than usual, to catch her before she went off for work. She got her coffee without milk but two teaspoons of sugar at Jim’s Diner at 10 a.m. Nothing anomolous. Same procedure, every day. 

After sipping twice on her coffee, she headed to the office. I followed her far enough not to be noticed; but also close enough to let her aura enlighten me once again. Being within the reach of her but not having her is unbearable. The mere calmness around her suffocates me. Look at her. With her blonde curly hair and her shiny blueish eyes she got me and awakened my inner instinct to hunt again. I wanted and I needed her. So I started to go after her. First, rarely; later on, uncontrollably often. If she knew who I truly am, she never would have talked to me. So I pretended to be someone else. The ordinariness I radiated with my being made me authentic. At least she finally started to trust me. 

Exactly one year ago I met her. Since then, my inner urge to possess her has increased tremendously. I started seeing her without seeing her, hearing her without hearing her and touching her without touching her. 

My therapist once said “The Carousel never stops turning”. And he was right. Although I talked to her and met her once or twice, she didn’t see the real me. Seeing without seeing, hearing without hearing and touching without touching is a burden on Earth that slowly tears you into million bits of pieces. My inner nothingness ripped me apart. And I needed to set an end to this.  

When she entered the office, I sat on the park bench across the street in Warrens Park and waited. The water of the fountain covered my silhouette entirely, so she couldn’t see me. I read the newspapers without losing my attention to her being in the office for only one 

second. People walked by every now and then. Children, mums with baby carriages, seniors with walking sticks. The decay of life has never become more obvious to me as in this very moment. My personal realisation that decasia on Earth is an unavoidable provoked factum led me to do what happened then. 

It was half past six when she left the office. My nose hurt from the sun that burnt my nose’s skin after a while. But it was irrelevant. Everything in this moment became irrelevant except for her. I tried to get her once before, but I failed. This time nothing’s gonna stop me. I need you, don’t you understand this?! I crave her and I need to meet my increasing lust for her.
It became darker and darker. The streets became emptier and emptier. It was a cold day in mid-autumn and I noticed that she started to freeze. She began to hurry. I traced her and followed every single step of hers. Her boots’ heels clacking on the cold pavement made me insane. It was as if a clock was ticking inside my head. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. ‘Be careful, your time is ticking away. Hurry up, otherwise she will be gone.’ 

When she turned from Blackford Avenue to Stringtown Road I saw my chance and I took it. There was noone except for her and me. Her phone rang. She stopped, looked down on her screen and never ever looked up again. 

I am not proud of what I did but neither have I felt myself guilty. I did what I had to do. My inner instinct guided me and I trusted the voice inside of my head. “The Carousel never stops turning”. So I will go on…with and without you. 

Exactly a year ago we met. 365 days, 8.760 hours, 525.600 minutes and 31.536.000 seconds later it ended. 

I love you, always did and always will.

Happy anniversary, darling! 

 

 

Explanatory Note – Minute 3

The project of minute three of the film covers a short story that was written after two screening times. The fundamental idea was to emerge in the aura that is generated by the visual aspects and the auditory components that are created in minute three. In general, mysterious sounds appear throughout the 60-second-clip. A very peculiar feeling was established through the intertwining interplay between the visual elements and the sound. A frightening atmosphere and a suffocating calmness that are based on the slow camera movements are established. The hand that enters the screen can be related to the idea of being grabbed and touched without permission. 

The written short story is told by a first-person narrator who wrote a diary entry about a woman who is followed and eventually murdered by the man. His depressing insanity becomes obvious by the illustration of his own thoughts in the diary. The short story aims to mirror in certain aspects the characteristic dull and dreary vibe of minute three. 

Within the short story an intertextual reference is integrated. The phrase “The carousel never stops turning” is extracted from the American medical TV show Grey’s Anatomy where it is used in melancholic situations concerning the protagonist Meredith Grey. By the use of the statement the continual progress of life is addressed. This idea of endless turns and repetitions can also be visually detected in minute three: Right at the beginning the viewer is confronted with a turning roller. The feeling of monotony and ongoing continuation can be noticed. 

These ideas led to the development of the short story Happy anniversary, darling!. The short story’s mood emphasizes the minute’s tone which results from its background sounds and the visual image.