Do androids dream of electric sheep?
Have you read "Do androids dream of electric sheep?" ? The 1968 novel by Philip K. Dick. Or maybe you've watched the 1982 film adaptation "Blade runner" ?
Although I hadn’t been born back then, my parents, already a couple, had been collecting films, the kind that came in large VHS cassettes. Little 10 year old me had access to entire decades worth of sci-fi, and my sister and I were allowed to watch whatever we wanted from their collection, no matter the PG rating. We would usually pick something horror, but having watched and re-watched "The exorcist" a dozen times, it was time to venture out of our usual picks, so on a fateful day I chose a tape with the picture of Harrison Ford holding a gun above a smoking Sean Young on the box. I also stole one of my dad's cigarettes and smoked it while watching the movie that day.
I was changed after that. I went from pretending to evict demons from my cousin's body, and invoking the spirit of Manon with my sister (as I said, we liked "The Exorcist" and "The Craft") to running around the house pretending to violently decommission fugitive replicants.
When I turned 15 — the birthday which renders the Mexican coming of age ceremony for girls, comparable to the UK/US debutante ball type of thing, for which I had intense disdain for — I asked my mother to buy me an expensive coat instead of holding a ridiculous party. She was happy to oblige and took me shopping, but turns out I had a much more expensive taste than she could have predicted so we ditched the mall and headed to a crowded swap meet. Under any other circumstances I would have found myself defeated right then and there, but I was determined. I pushed my way through the throng of frenzied shoppers. I would stop at nothing to acquire the perfect Deckard thrench coat.
Eventually I found an amazing vintage napped leather coat, fur lined and so heavy that I have to use a special sturdy hanger that won't snap in half to store it.
The Blade Runner coat of my dreams.
It was, at the time, a few sizes too large for me but this was an investment piece and I was only 15, I would grow into it and be able to wear it for the rest of my life. Sadly, I am done growing and it is still too big. I have kept it because it represents the futuristic bounty hunter I aspired to be, although this magnificent specimen resembles more the kind of coat that Joe, the replicant from the 2017 sequel "Blade Runner 2049" wore. Little did I know I'd end up identifying more with the rogue androids than with the human bounty hunters.
Maybe its time with me has come to and end.
It begs, from its Ikea prison, the Pax closet system, to be released, to find a blade runner aspirant to couple with and fulfil its true purpose.