Chapter 24 Bronze armor

Bronze armor

A few more weeks went by and it seemed that little by little people were forgetting Nina's name. She couldn't wait to be left and forgotten in time. All she wanted was to go back to being anonymous, but that would not happen anytime soon.

She participated in some art exhibitions sponsored by the Bergen community, where she helped women, teenagers, and children with social inclusion. She was also getting better and better at piano and English, French and Italian lessons. She knew how to use her free time. Healing a little bit every day... Lyon and Kara never left her side, even by video calls.

David on the other hand spent day and night focused on work. His name was the subject of pages and channels that talked about movies and series. He had signed important contracts with a streaming company, and his name was mentioned in several well-known films in the cinematographic universe. When he had some free time, he spent with his family and playing online games.

Nina was also always at home or work. And one such evening at home she sat in her living room, on her white leather sofa, and turned on her TV. She had an 80-inch TV, almost the size of the living room wall, and a portable projector, one of the things David took great advantage of to play games while he was there.

Turning on the TV, Nina saw that his account was still logged in. His name, his gaming partners, the entire history of when he was logged in, and how long he had been logged in for, over the past few weeks, appeared on the screen. His scores and anything else that might be in the logs. This brought her to her knees. Just a moment alone, a smell that reminded her of his body, the scent of his hair, an outfit he had forgotten, anything that made her feel him in the house, made her totally lose her balance and strength. She looked at the television and cried until she had no more tears to let roll down her already pink cheeks from the salty tears.

Suddenly a longing pounded in her heart, leaving her stunned. She could no longer convince reason. She put on the song I miss you by Løv Li, and then the Brazilian playlist. It had been a long time since she had been able to hear these songs, as David sang them aloud showing his pride in having learned to sing in Portuguese. She could almost see him in front of her, there dancing like a Latin. A vision of paradise, he was shirtless with his black pants dropped to his hips. Then when the music played the part: Even for all the richness of Arab shakes, I won't forget you one day, not one day... Nina felt a flutter in her stomach, something thumping fast, it was the butterflies of anxiety trying to implode from so much euphoria. The tears were coming down like the waterfalls of Iguassu Falls.

- God, help me, Dad. Just help me. Make it go away, please, God. Just don't let me fall... just don't let me fall... - She repeated as she clung to her pillow. Then she fell asleep.

Such were her nights seconds before sleep since the day David had left. Every night she rolled from side to side until the crying passed, and then she slept exhausted. She prayed she meditated, she listened to different techniques from different cultures to calm her heart. Nina appreciated the wisdom of things. She was a lover of literature, arts, music, and landscapes. Her soul had a thousand years of history and culture. She would repeat verses from books to her friends, she was very cultured. She always repeated a line from one of her favorite books: I have lived a thousand lives, I have lived a thousand years, I have lived a thousand lives, and I have traveled through a thousand dimensions because I read.

Nina went online to the game David was playing the following week. Now she was a brave warrior. She no longer cried when she listened to his songs when she played his games, and she even felt the courage to look at some of the pictures they had taken together. Photos that, although they had been released to the four corners of the planet, explicitly, Nina had not seen. David in the restaurant, in the pool, so many pictures of him sleeping, of her sleeping, videos of them dancing. Nina then created an account under a fake name on Instagram, Facebook, and various social networks. She wanted to see how he was doing, if he was in good health if he had found a girlfriend yet if he had finished any movies, or premiered any series.

It was then that she realized how toxic the virtual world could be. Nothing that was published corresponded to reality, and people were just spending and killing themselves in the networks. His fans didn't know a third of who he really was. Nina tried not to read anything that mentioned her name, but clicks go, clicks come, she eventually came across a link to a recent interview with him on a television show, Elena's show.

She watched attentively while trying not to look away from his image when suddenly the host of the program tapped right on the wound. She asked what had happened to Nina, and before she could hear the answer he gave, she closed the link quickly feeling a thousand needles in her heart. The presenter asked if they never had contact again and if David defended her so much from everything and everyone, why the two of them didn't stay together.

His answers were firm, true, and lived up to the person to whom he had made Nina give her heart and soul with an open heart. She would die for him right there, listening to his voice, his beautiful face, the sincerity and serenity with which he conducted his dialogues, he was really perfect. If only she hadn't been such a coward and hadn't closed the video without first knowing its contents. "After all, it was just a video, who wouldn't be curious? Who would resist watching them?" Nina.

And the more she saw him in her world, the more she was sure that he had been a beautiful dream gone, and that she would carry with a fondness for the rest of her life. The more she read about him, everything that was written before the scandals involving him, the more she understood the raw harassment his fans had for him. They defended him doggedly, they seemed to own him, they seemed to know him up close. And the further away from that world Nina felt. If she didn't want to be part of it before, now she was sure that this life was not for her.

After reading many things about David, she deleted the profiles she had created to get some news about him. She decided to concentrate on playing on the account he made for her, he was breaking records and more records in the game score. He had been teaching her to play for months. She had advanced a lot since then, practicing constantly to let the time go by after all that had happened. Only what she didn't know was that he had access to her account, because it was linked as his dependent.

David had almost no time for games because of a full schedule, super producers wanting to recoup money and lost time, were dissecting the artistic class, just as the various industries around the world were exploiting their clients in an attempt to recoup the loss.

He had not noticed her in his games until that moment when he read on his computer screen: "a stranger is online; help stranger win this battle; stranger wins a thousand points and breaks her own record. He frowned and for a moment doubted that it was her. He checked their histories and realized how linked their accounts were. His face broke into a smile that tasted of admiration and sadness. Just as for her, it hurt to remember the moments they had together.

He had accepted to be part of her group in the game, he could play against her, but he was sure that if he massacred her in that game where she was excelling, then he would have an enemy for life.

He changed his nickname with another dependent account to play on her team. Both of them didn't use a microphone. They just "texted". They didn't want to expose their voices. His heart said: run for it! But his head said: The same thing will happen. Her breaking up with you and making you swear to leave her alone. David hesitated for a moment, he promised to let her go, he gave her his Scout's word that he was going to give her the chance to forget him. He was going to give her the benefit of time. So he kept quiet so as not to attract her attention, and so they remained playmates for several days...

Nina was already going out normally on the street, to the extent that she could in times of pandemic. She no longer cared whether anyone was going to film her, take pictures, or do whatever else they wanted to do. She had turned the "fuck you" on full blast and left it there without turning it off. David would read what came out about her in the media, whatever it was, a little two-line note, he thought. People bookmarked his name, one of the benefits of the Internet. He was grateful for this.

Several times he felt like being there to protect her when all this happened. But she never answered the phone. She never answered a single e-mail. He didn't know that she had lost her only means of communication, because of the hackers, so he thought she hated him more than anyone else for everything that happened in her life after him. And she didn't have his phone number, she didn't have his address, she had no way to contact him privately. And even if she had, it was unlikely she would. She was schismatic, fearful, and proud. The two of them went on with their respective lives away from each other. By the mismatch of fate or the mastery of chance.

Three months had passed, November was knocking at the door. Since September the cases of those infected and killed by the "coronavirus" had increased greatly in Norway. The number had passed a thousand infected by September 11. And over the months the restrictions have increased and become stricter. Thus resulting in a decrease in the spread of the virus again.

Europe had faced its second wave of the pandemic, which had left the worldwide recovery in check. The infections were averaging 100,000 per day, forcing governments and companies to reinvent themselves, and adopt a variety of unprecedented and provisional restrictions and measures, which changed as the number of cases increased or decreased, in an attempt not to destroy the economy and livelihood of each country.

Suddenly Nina appears on one of Norway's largest audience and talk shows. The journalist who had been harassing her at work had finally convinced her to use her strength, her empowerment for good, to inspire other women and other people who suffer bullying. Nina began to appear in various campaigns against discrimination, digital violence, prejudice, and human rights.

Any money involved went to help animals, women, children, and families in need. It was the only way she would agree to participate in something public. It had to be linked with themes that would serve as a lesson for a society that persecuted an artist but did not make a donation to a neighbor, an orphanage, an unclothed beggar on the street going cold. It was her answer to all the insults and judgments she suffered; it was like slapping the face of society with a kid glove. She answered evil with good. She did not accept money for futile appearances and causeless campaigns. She became a true crime-fighting soldier against the voiceless.

She opened a profile on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Tumblr, and every social network there was at the time. Her phone, internet network, computer, and social media accounts were very well protected this time. She had been guided by lawyers, police, journalists, and the others involved. Her social networks contained no private content, only anything related to the campaigns against bullying, fraud, oppression, and digital bullying.

David watched his interviews attentively. He was impressed by the lessons Nina was giving him in answering all the questions about what had happened to her without at any time involving her personal life. He saw a woman who was firm, strong, but hurt and wronged. He saw a woman who knew how to use the whole situation, all the buzz caused with her name against her own criticisms of the past. David read everything that came out about her, any note, any video, any campaign. He was still unhappy about the attacks she had suffered, and how she had been humiliated with words by the media all over the world, without her ever having done anything against any of these people.

He wanted her to have a voice in a program that would reach the whole world. He wanted the world to apologize to her since he didn't have the opportunity to do so face to face when he sought her out at her home in Norway, as she was at Kara's home in another city.

As he watched her talking about fighting violence in general, his mind kept working. He respected her and kept her quiet for months, she made him promise. But now it was different, he was watching her stop hiding. She found herself so cornered that she had to react, she had to fight to defend herself, that's how he saw those campaigns she was participating in. And in the midst of so much conviction, she ended up accepting to participate in one of the most renowned programs in the artistic world: Elena's program. The same one that David participated in at the beginning of these scandals. There was a lot of negotiation and reluctance on her part. She had only accepted because Lyon and Kara were very good at arguments, and Nina was finally at the stage of facing her fears, overcoming difficulties, stopping being the world's punching bag, and "turning things around".