Living and Dying on the Internet by Alex Day

Author:Alex Day [Day, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-08-02T04:30:00+00:00

ghost

‘So,’ I asked, ‘how much is this Disney World trip gonna be?’

Marilyn has visited Walt Disney World in Florida at least twenty times. Her mum and dad planned to go with her the year we met, but — noting her parents were now of the age where they were keen to skip the thrill rides in favour of a more leisurely vacation — she’d been sending me daily emails since before we started dating to outline the many reasons I should accompany her on the trip. I acquiesced after becoming her boyfriend.

I’d only been to Walt Disney World once, with my dad when I was six (another of the reasons Marilyn insisted I go). Marilyn left it up to me to arrange my own transport from the airport to the hotel, which she regretted when I rolled through the front gates of the Caribbean Beach Resort in a private limousine complete with champagne and multi-coloured flashing lights inside, grinning out the window with one fur-sleeved arm toasting a glass to her.

‘Why did you do that?’ she shrieked in disbelief as the chauffeur opened the door for me.

‘Thought it’d be fun,’ I grinned. ‘It was.’

‘You are ridiculous, Bugsquash,’ she said. (Marilyn had taken to calling me by a different nickname every time she spoke to me. She finally settled on ‘Bugsquash’, which caused her to snort with laughter every time she said it.)

Marilyn carried a wealth of experience, knowing what parks opened at what times and what rides to go on, in what order, to skip the queues and secure good views for the various shows, parades and firework displays on offer every day. In turn I generated a force of mischief for her to contend with, leading her towards paths that were out-of-bounds and challenging what she thought was possible in the place she knew and loved.

‘I wanna get a haircut,’ I said.

‘You can’t.’

‘Yeah I can,’ I pointed. ‘There’s a barber on Main Street. Look.’

‘You can’t just get a haircut, Squash!’

‘Let’s find out!’ I said, strolling in. Minutes later my hair was being cut by the woman who does the hair for all the Disney princesses as they stroll around the Magic Kingdom. ‘D’you want one?’ I asked Marilyn, gesturing in triumph at the scene I’d created.

I’d assumed I wasn’t going to Disney. I wasn’t sure our romance would last that long. Marilyn brought me a lot of joy but I wasn’t sure how we could sustain our differences long-term. (She didn’t know any of this — I suppressed things. You don’t break up with a wonderful person like Marilyn just because things don’t feel like they’re working.)

One of the biggest issues for me was the amount of energy she spent on the internet. For months I’d known about the existence of an online gossip forum where anonymous users dished the things they most disliked about various YouTubers. Marilyn had her own thread and I’d done my best to prevent her from discovering it. Once she found out, she spent

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