Flashy Shorts
Page 2
Know that I will always be grateful to you Mama.
It's almost time now. Soon I will look into your brown eyes for the first time. Eyes full of warmth, happiness, mischief and love of life. Mirrors of my own brown eyes.
It's time now, Mama. I will forget all that is to come, so I can learn it all anew.
Where did all that light come from? So blinding. Where am I? Who are you? Do I know you? Such warm brown eyes.
"Hello Jessie, I'm your Mama."
CONSTIPATION
Now you're probably thinking bowel movement (or lack of to be precise), but in my case, the constipation is in my emotions.
Emotional constipation, not your average medical terminology I grant you, but a precise diagnosis nevertheless. You see, I just don't feel anymore. Nothing, not a thing, good or bad. And it just happened, out of the blue. So here I sit, constipated.
Is there a cure for what ails me? A laxative to restore my emotional bowels? Over the counter medication to provide overnight relief and back to normal movement in the morning?
Or how about an emotion suppository? You know, a tornado-sized pellet that you definitely don't swallow.
Maybe they could send a camera in there. Hold still happy for your close up. Big smile grumpy you're up next. No, the blue spangly outfit miserable, it goes with your eyes.
Now you're probably thinking that this really isn't too bad a problem. A temporary glich in the works that will resolve itself shortly. And maybe I would agree with you, if it wasn't for the fact that I've just killed someone and never felt a thing.
BLUE SKY
Twenty years after landing on Mars and the terra-forming families still hadn't overcome the atmospheric hiccup that had appeared within the new ecosystem. On first look, all was well, Earth had indeed been created here on Mars. Flowing water, plant life lush and green, animal diversity. Just don't look up.
The 'hiccup' as the eco-scientists liked to call it, had made the sky a very definite shade of pink. For the first several years, they had tried insisting that the rather more lilac colour of the sky was merely atmospheric resettling and would over time disperse out into the blue that everyone back on Earth was used to. Well, the years passed, the ecosystem developed, and yes, the atmosphere did disperse too. Into pink. Not a pale pink either, but a definite strong bright pink.
Now you might not think that a pink sky would cause such strong feelings, but to those of a masculine nature (of which the majority of terra-formers happen to be;a necessity in this hard way of life) this was most definitely a problem. For two reasons this was a problem. Firstly, it made them look inadequate in the eyes of other terra-formers sent to populate and develop other planets. Not even those around the moons of Titan had had such a 'hiccup'. Secondly, and more embarrasingly, these naturally very masculine people had noticed another side effect of the 'hiccup'. Their eye colour had changed over the years of living under the pink Martian sky. Changed to a rather lovely feminine shade of pink.
DRAINED
For thousands of your years we remained hidden. Deep within the bowels of this planet you call Earth. Left untouched, keeping the balance.
You then appeared, and despite our teachings, grew too fast and too many. Hungry, always hungry. Ignoring our warnings, you ate and ate and ate.
You removed us from our hiding places, searching us out like over-eager anteaters. Never giving back. We tried to grow again, to return the balance.
We gave you warning after warning, but you grew stubborn, defiant, unrelenting. Now we cannot wait for you any longer. Balance must be restored. We must be returned to balance.
First heat, then cold, so cold. We will take you back to the few. To restore balance once again.
YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE ENJOYING YOURSELF
I told myself over and over again as I queued up for the next ride. "The scariest ride of your life" the park owners claimed. Well here I was. Again. Testing their claim. Still searching for THE ride of my life.
"What a great job that must be," they all say. "Checking out roller coaster rides all over the world. How fantastic. You must really enjoy yourself."
Must I? I suppose I should be, but something is missing. Over the years the claims have got larger, the rides have got bigger, but the enjoyment? That has definitely got smaller.
OVERLOAD
With a robot in every home, daily life was so much easier. Most people now left their home-bots alone and unsupervised during the day to cook, clean, look after pets and in many cases the children too. This left a lot of leisure time for people to enjoy. And enjoy they sure did.
Many made the most of this free time to improve their health, and exercise clubs shot up everywhere. Then there were those whose idea of free time was the nearest bar or club, open all hours, drinks and drugs flowing freely.
While the robots worked hard at home, the humans played hard in the clubs. All responsibility left in the hands of the home-bots. As they delved deeper into the club life, their addiction grew stronger, until many stopped going home at all.
The home-bots became the parents to the children, the owners of the pets, the keepers of the homes. The humans became the robots. Their search for pleasure on overload.
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