Sunduk showed me his collection of high resolution, high fidelity audio-video equipment later that evening. A sheik showing off his harem of nubile concubines could not have been prouder. I only pretended to be interested because he was so eager to impress me, but then he turned on the monumental television set and started a movie—a film called Blade Runner—and my jaw dropped to my chest.
"What is this?" I gasped, approaching the vast screen.
I did not quite dare to touch the display, although I wanted to. The images were so crisp, and they moved with such lifelike fluidity! I have never been able to watch television. The bright swarming pixels drive me to distraction. It is one of the unfortunate side effects of our enhanced senses. We vampires are not fooled by the illusion of television as mortals are fooled by it. The pictures do not appear to move so much as stutter by, one still frame at a time. But the technology of this immense panel of plastic and metal and microscopic circuitry had the power to confound even my immortal senses.
"It looks so real!" I exclaimed.
For the first time in my long life, I was able to appreciate the wonder of television!
Sunduk beamed. "It's an 8K, 240 hertz QLED TV."
I nodded blankly. He might as well have said it was magic.
"They're not available to the general public yet," Sunduk went on as I leaned a little closer to the display. I tried to make out the individual pixels that composed the picture but could not. The display was like a painting with the motion of life. "This is a pre-production model," he went on proudly. "It cost 250,000 euros, but Paulo here is made of money."
Paulo from the kitchen: "Paulo is not made of money!"
Sunduk tilted his head toward me confidentially. "Yes, he is."
"It has the illusion of life," I said, backing away from the screen to admire it more fully. I flinched as a detective in a worn brown overcoat shot at a fleeing woman. The woman, who was nude but for an outfit made of transparent plastic, wailed and went crashing through a series of plate glass windows.
"It's the same principle as any other film or television program, a series of rapidly displayed photos, only this television set advances the frames two hundred and forty times a second, slightly faster than even our senses can perceive."
"Amazing!" I gasped. I sat on the settee without looking behind myself. My eyes were riveted to the screen.
"You can finally watch TV!" Sunduk exclaimed.
Apollonius peeked into the television room, saw the expression on my face and rolled his eyes. "Oh, boy," he said. "We'll have to pry his butt from that couch now."
"I have waited one hundred years to watch a motion picture," I said, somewhat defensively. "Now, at long last, I can enjoy the movies I've always wanted to see." I looked at Sunduk excitedly. "Do you have The Wizard of Oz?"
"No, but I can download it."
"Yes, please!"
"It will take a few minutes. We have internet, but it's not the fastest. We have to use satellite here on the island."
I smiled, leaning back in my seat.
"No hurry, Sunduk. I have plenty of time."