Medean Crisis: A Season of Change
The snow swirled with the wind as winter began to announce its return. The cold wind blew the fallen leaves in swirls outside the window. Agnes couldn’t remember a year when snow fell this early. She thought it best to go about her errands just in case the snow made the roads slick. God knew that people always freaked out when the first snow fell. She’d like to avoid all the bad driving. So, she gave Elvis his medicine and went to get her keys. Elvis showed little effort in concealing the fact that he didn’t eat the wrapped-up ball of cheese plus pill she gave him. There was little use fighting with him. He trotted after her as she made her way to her garage, no doubt he was hoping for a ride. “Now now, Elvis. I can’t have you climbing on me while I’m trying to drive in this mess.” She peered down at him. He was always a good beggar, and the combination of his blue puppy eyes and his adorable saggy jowls made her cave none too quickly. “Fine, but you’re taking your medicine when we get home.”
Her car slowly came to life after the fourth try. The engine groaned in exhaustion. She paid little mind; she had used the car for over a decade, and it hadn’t failed her yet. The garage door creaked open; the empire of webbing that had spread throughout her garage had made an expansion to the door. This, however, would not be a long-lasting reign as the power of the door pulled and tore the webbing from its anchored position. She imagined the emperor of the spiders was none too thrilled. She smiled wryly, put her car in reverse, and pulled into the street. MEEEEP MEEEEP!! A truck almost struck her as she pulled out. “Tsk tsk. People don’t have any patience anymore, Elvis.” She calmed herself. “I suppose I’d look in the rear-view mirror more often if I didn’t have to see what’s become of me,” she quipped. She referred to the result of years’ worth of heartache and worry. Her greyed, partially bald scalp and wrinkled sallow skin. If she didn’t look at herself, she could almost forget. She could almost remember a time when she was a beautiful woman, desired and loved. Her Harold loved her. He was a hardworking and kind man. She wondered how long she had to keep this going until she could see him again. Elvis whined and circled around his seat, eventually deigning to lay down on the choicest spot.
Her car’s old tires slipped and slid through the wet ground, but she was an old hat at navigating this kind of weather. Soon enough, she was at her destination. Cornucopia was her favorite grocery store. It had all the best prices and offered a slew of attractive coupons. She was able to make her meager budget stretch here and it was also where Harold would always take her. She went through aisle by aisle, assessing the most frugal use of her money. As she did this, she noticed the sign to the pharmacy. Oh lord! She almost forgot her pain medications again! She must make a stop at the pharmacy.
Cornucopia’s pharmacy line was as long as ever, and her legs were hurting by the time she was served. Harold always used to stand in line for her while she shopped. The forward momentum was easier on her joints than standing in one spot. She stepped up to the counter and saw the pharmacist, Thomas. Thomas was so young. She couldn’t believe he was a pharmacist, but he was very knowledgeable and friendly. She liked him. “Do you have any questions, Agnes?” She smiled at him. “It’s about time for the flu shot, isn’t it?”
She never cared for needles, and she winced dramatically as Thomas administered her vaccines. “Come on now, Agnes! It won’t kill you.” She never cared for his dark humor. It always struck her as a bit disrespectful, but she knew he didn’t mean it that way. She just smiled warmly at him and said: “Come on. Let’s get this over with.” After she made sure to thank him profusely, and then bustled off toward the grocery’s checkout. By this time her feet ached with her back and legs. Elvis was still having a great time though. He kept licking the air at her, letting her know he was there and loved her. She smiled at him. Such a good dog! Before long she lowered herself heavily into her car and started it up again. This time it only took two attempts.
After the grocery trip, she decided to swing by Georgie’s, her favorite burger chain. Gabriel was working and gave the customary extra burger to Elvis. Elvis nearly tore his hand off as he gulped the burger down. Gabriel smiled and rubbed Elvis’ ears. Gabriel always had a soft spot for Elvis, and Agnes loved him for it. Gabriel was such a nice boy; she was glad he had stuck with his job at Georgie’s. She knew it was a hard place to work at. She sat in the parking lot and enjoyed her burger. It tasted better than she ever remembered it. Slowly as she chewed, her mind drifted to Harold. How he’d always get the onions from the burger on his shirt. She’d pretend to be irritated, and no doubt she used to be. Repeated action becomes tradition though, and tradition has a nostalgia to it that makes it more endearing. She smiled thinking about it. She would hope that she could see him again, but hope had left her soul.
After her burger she began to head home. She was so ready to curl back up on her sofa with Elvis by her side and have a nice nap. Curled up with Elvis, she always felt a hint of the happiness she once had. SCREEECH Her car slipped on the road. Her heart jumped into her throat and her hand gripped tight on the wheel, but she was able to gain control over her car. Her mind began to get foggy, no doubt from the burger. It always affected her blood sugar poorly; she should have brought her insulin. She accelerated her car in a rush to get to her house.
She drove into her garage at a breakneck pace and jolted it to a stop. She hastily hoisted herself out of the car and quickly stepped into her house. Elvis followed close behind her. She couldn’t believe how hot she was. Her sweat had soaked through her clothes, and she found it hard to breathe. Agnes continued to get foggier and foggier in the head. She suddenly felt extreme dizziness and doubled over trying to steady herself. Then all her discomfort went away. No pain. No sadness. She was happy. Finally happy again after so long. Hope flooded into her soul, and she couldn’t help but smile.
Elvis whimpered as he saw and smelled the change in his owner. A very alien scent had wafted from her and permeated the car. He quivered in fear as he saw his owner smile like he had never seen her before. It was a tight smile that went from ear to ear, but it was so unnatural even Elvis could see something was very much not right. Agnes looked at Elvis. She reached out a hand and began to pet him. He made to move away from her, but her hand clenched down around his neck. A voice that sounded as if Agnes had drowned and then tried to talk came out of his master’s mouth. “Sorry boy, you no longer serve a function.” Elvis yelped and writhed as Agnes reached her other arm out.
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Chapter 1: Working Stiff
Sami was bored. Again. He kept trying to grasp trails of thought to occupy his mind, but they kept slipping through his fingers. It was this way every day for hours on end. No one really thinks of entertainment as a NEED. Not until boredom grows to levels that you can feel it, anyway. That faint numb pressure in your mind that can drive you mad. “Sami, stop the daydreaming and make some calls!” Dan said, rudely interrupting his musing. Dan always seemed to know when he was drifting and would never let him have the sweet release of his mind drifting. Sami hated his job. He hated getting up before he was ready, rushing out the door, and trying to beat traffic to not be late. He especially hated sitting at his cubicle trying to occupy his mind. Dan told him he just needed to “apply himself and really help people.” He never really felt like he was helping people. Usually, it was regurgitating corporate approved lines to angry customers. Indiverge Tech, the mega million software company, had very specific ways of handling a litany of customer inquiries and complaints. For a while, there was a mild challenge in memorizing these and then using them to get off the phone with customers as soon as possible. Another one of his incredibly important tasks was cold calling and selling the new Convergence 44. It was very important to sell the 44th of something, obviously. Never mind that it wasn’t the 44th iteration of the program. Why did companies think it was necessary to “mix up” counting? “Sam!” Dan was irritated this time. “Sorry Dan I’ll call the Peterson account asap”
Sami sighed, feeling the weight of his boredom settle back in. Corporations really did just want mindless drones working for them. Ugh. He couldn’t believe this was his life now. As his annoyance grew inside him, he couldn’t help but think of Diane and the mistakes he made with her. If it weren’t for her, maybe he wouldn’t have to be here. At least he could hope to get out of here eventually. Now he must try to figure out a way to get out from under her heel. She made him think they were going to have a life together. Back then, it sounded like a great life. Her lips touching his, making his heart pound. Her infectious laugh. All promised a golden future. At this point, he didn’t think any of it was real. The only real thing was now he had alimony to pay. His mother warned him not to go with Diane, but he figured it was out of some archaic sensibility. If he had only listened to her. Diane should never have been trusted.
Five mind numbing hours later, Sami meandered to his car. What a miserable feeling, to have your ass hurt from sitting too long. The irony of getting tired from your body resting was not lost to him. Humans were so frail. He slammed his car door and continued in his sardonic musings until he got back to his apartment. It wasn’t the worst place he could be living, but he also couldn’t really afford it anymore. Thanks, Diane. He performed his daily routine as he stepped in. Kicking off his shoes, sighing from depression, dropping his pants, and moving past the pizza boxes and empty pop bottles to his bed. He had no tv nor any table. He just had a mattress in the middle of his room with a $300 laptop on it. To him, this was paradise. Here he could assuage his boredom and replace it with loneliness.
Even that was dulled by the movie streaming and video game playing though. He sat in bed, grabbed his laptop, and checked his gamer chat. His friends were offline for now, but they’d be back in a couple of hours. He’d likely play games with them until 3 a.m. and get a tight 4 hours of sleep as always. For now, he was gonna get his powernap in. Last night’s hot wing box was where his head usually sat, so he swiped it to the trash heap on the side of his mattress and laid his head down on his browned pillow. His life was perfect, he lied to himself. The life of a king.
He woke up with a start and blearily looked up, groggy. There was still some sunlight peering in through his one window. He still had some time before the fellas got on. He got up and went to his bathroom limping on a leg that was numb and tingly from sleeping wrong on it. The toilet was yellow, and his sink was full of hair. The smell of ammonia and fecal matter wafted from the toilet as he flushed it. It had been some time since he had occasion to do any deep cleaning. None of this really bothered him, he was too tired for it to. After relieving himself, he went to his refrigerator and grabbed a pop then a bag of chips from his cupboard. He sat down and began a serious doom scroll on Social Contact. He didn’t even enjoy it, but it was something to keep his mind occupied while he munched on chips and waited for his friends to get on.
A dancing cat here, an ASMR video there. His feed was full of the inanest content. He wondered why he watched it as his boredom began to sink back in. He blamed the algorithm. It clearly knew exactly what would grab his attention. How could it not? It was able to hear his conversations on his phone, track all the data from all his web visits, and use this data compiled with millions of other people to see social trends. The algorithm had a special knowledge not just of him, but anyone like him. Oh well, it provided some mediocre entertainment so who cared? Pretty much no one, that’s who. Kept scrolling, looking for something worth watching. Woah! What was that?
He scrolled back to the video. It was a phone recording of an alleyway. “Hey! I’m recording! You guys won’t get away with this. Seriously, stop it!” the person recording was a young female probably in her twenties, or so Sami figured. What she was video taping were five people who had no commonality that Sami could see cornering a middle-aged man. “Come on Albert” a tall red haired man gurgled. “I don’t know you! Help me!! What did you do to Veronica!?” The man named Albert was frantic and had a broken piece of a chair he was swinging wildly around. One of the people, a small framed dark-haired woman, stepped toward Albert and got hit in the head with the leg. Blood flew everywhere and Sami wasn’t sure she could get up from such a blow. The other four took this opportunity to grab Albert and hold him down. “Stop it!! You’ll all go to prison for this!!” the camera wobbled as the emotions rose in the person recording. Suddenly the recorder screamed, and the phone fell from her hand. It fell with the camera side up and caught a short elderly woman with a kitchen knife stabbing the girl that was recording. “Get the hell away from me!” She ran and grabbed her phone in one fluid motion, her blood leaking onto the screen. She kept bolting. “Something is wrong with people here! I’ve called the police, but I want everyone to see this! Something is wrong!” The video cut out abruptly.
Sami sat there bewildered, his heart pounding. What had he seen? Why were those people attacking Albert and the camera girl? He supposed her name must be Tammi, since the video was posted by Tammi Talks. Sami shared the video to his wall asking, “What the hell is this?” He hoped someone could tell him that it was just a riot or something. “Woah, that's crazy!” “Oh man! You should have put a graphic content warning!” “More AI BS!” “I hope that girl is ok!” The post was blowing up. He was glad he wasn’t alone in feeling totally freaked by what he saw. He looked up from his computer at his unlocked door and jolted up, power-walked over, and locked it. He was going to take extra sleep meds tonight.
Copyright © 2024 by Richard Kleaklan
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