?Interrobang! · Track 50 · middle
Touch That Is a Job and Still True
OBJECT (intimate, what Sisukiro found): a piece of hand-carved jewelry made by, or for, her. OWNER (re-linked by Sisukiro): Prickly Pete — professional cuddler from a lonely city; note the irony of the name. FOUND AT: the lonely outer reaches of Pitcairn. THE (UN)LIKELY STORY & THE UNANSWERABLE QUESTION: Pete cuddles lonely strangers for pay though he's Prickly; left a hand-carved piece of jewelry on the loneliest island's edge. Can touch be a job and still be true?
Lyrics
[Intro] Found you near St. Paul's Point. Half-buried in the red clay. A piece of… driftwood? Bone? Carved into a single seabird's wing. Worn smooth by a thumb, over and over. [Verse 1] The journal connects you to a man they called Prickly Pete. He lived in a city of millions, all touching by accident. He left you here, on an island with fifty souls. The loneliest job, on the loneliest rock in the sea. [Chorus] Can a hand be true when it's hired for the hour? Sixty minutes. Ninety minutes. A quiet timer on a phone. Does the warmth count when the money's on the table? Prickly Pete. Tell me. Can touch be a job and still be true? [Verse 2] I see the room. The clean mats on the floor. The folded blankets, waiting. The stranger at the door, carrying a weight. He was a container for the grief of someone he'd never know again. A professional shoulder for unprofessional tears. [Chorus] Can a hand be true when it's hired for the hour? Sixty minutes. Ninety minutes. A quiet timer on a phone. Does the warmth count when the money's on the table? Prickly Pete. Tell me. Can touch be a job and still be true? [Bridge] But this... this little wing you left behind. This wasn't for just anyone. The grain is too known. The curve is a memory. Did you carve it for a client who became something more? Did they carve it for you, a thank you that broke the rules? Proof of one time the timer didn't matter. Just for a moment. It was real. [Outro] Here on Pitcairn, the wind doesn't answer. The two-way radio went silent in 2002. Just a single satellite phone for fifty people. I'm holding this wing in my palm. Still asking. Was it true?