Chapter II
Audio Diary 1
Subject: Kade Walsh
Date: 13 April 1956
Time: 13:00
(Click)
Uh…so I guess I'm gonna start using this thing. Friend gave it to me as a Christmas gift last year. Apparently everyone's got an Accu-Vox here in Rapture. Well, I uh…I went to see this woman today; you know to kinda sort through my life, talk about what's bothering me. She's not a shrink exactly, well I mean she is but…she's a doctor more like it. I mean I know I can talk to Val and everything but some things…I dunno. So I went to see this woman and she sat me down on one of her chairs and asks me a bunch of questions. Where do you work? What's bothering you? What's your social status in your opinion? Do you have a family? That sort of stuff. So I tell her I work for Cambridge Anesthetics, I live in Pauper's Drop; I've got a wife and a daughter. She tells me that's all well and good, but the family I have is holding me back. Naturally I got pretty mad so I stood up and asked her who she thought she was, telling me my own family's not good enough. She told me she didn't mean it like that, but rather I should be looking at the bigger picture. Look for a family in the people of Rapture, trust in them and let them be my guide to happiness and utopia. Utopia? I thought I was already in a utopia; although you could've fooled me seeing as how this place turned out. Then she suggests I start recording my thoughts; says it'll help me mull things over. I'll give her that one; I do need some place to vent. But that is thelast time I go see her. Her name's Lamb; kinda ironic now I think about it. She's nice on the outside, but boy has she got something up her sleeve.
(Click)
Audio Diary 2
Subject: Kade Walsh
Date: 16 April 1956
Time: 17:00
(Click)
I saw a poster today. I was on my way back home from the distribution plant and the doors of the metro opened up at my stop and there it was, staring me in the face. On it was a man on one knee with a young kid next to him. He was smiling this big, toothy grin and he had his hand on the kid's head like he was ruffling his hair. There was a woman too, who I could only assume was his wife, and she was standing directly next to him with the same wide grin spread over her perfect lips. The poster read: Protect your family with plasmids! It made me sick. What kind of person would rip open their God-given genes for a few parlor tricks? Fucking Rapture and its propaganda. "Protect your family with plasmids". Are they serious? How is getting spliced up every night gonna benefit your family?
(Click)
I'm running late. I dash into the kitchen where my wife and daughter are. Val is fixing something to eat on the stove and Katherine is sitting at the table, swinging her legs because her feet can't reach the ground. She has a blue jumper on with white polka dots and the white bow in her hair I got her for her birthday. She looks so sweet in her school clothes. As I rush into the kitchen Val turns around with a frying pan in one hand and a spatula in the other.
"You're going to be late again," she says grinning playfully at me.
"I'm not late until I'm late," I reply as I snag a piece of toast from the chrome toaster on the counter.
"Well then you better get out of here before you really are late."
I shove the toast in my mouth and pick up my briefcase and my hat. I swallow the toast in a single gulp and walk over to where Katherine is.
"Let's play tin man, daddy!"
"Not now, baby, daddy has work."
"But we never get to play tin man," she crosses her arms and pouts.
"We will after work, but right now I have to fly, and you little miss need to get ready for school. Mr. Ryan's visiting today and you don't want to miss that, do you?" I hate that bastard, I think to myself.
"No."
"That's my girl, now give daddy a kiss," I bend over and she gives me a peck on the cheek. I stand up, "Bye, Val. I'll be home around nine."
"Again with these late hours? I might as well be saying goodnight to you right now," she looks crestfallen.
"I know, I'm sorry, but Mr. Cambridge won't let any of us go until all the customers and bulk buyers have finished. Besides, tomorrow's the weekend, we'll do something fun. Maybe we'll take a trip to the Tea Garden, how's that?" Katherine yelps with delight. I can see Valerie is not as excited, but she attempts to look as though she is. She knows as well as I do that we don't have that kind of money. "I love you," I say with a smile and I kiss her lips.
"I love you too," she says. I am out the door within a minute, on my way to sell drugs to numb the pain of those who have spliced till it hurts.