KIDS! It's me, Dad!
I have to talk fast because I might get cut off any minute. Look, I can tell by your expressions that you don't recognize me anymore. That's okay...it's not your fault!
I tried to call your mother but she didn't recognize me either, and she hung up. It sounds fantastic, but... I honestly don't think she remembers having had a husband.
It all started a couple of weeks ago when I went out of town on business. Remember? You guys made me promise to bring you back a souvenir and your mother drove me to the airport. Well, things went pretty well there at first but after a bit I began to feel that something was off kilter. Things had changed somehow. At first it was just a feeling; I couldn't put my finger on it.
People on the street just seemed different somehow.
For a while I thought I was imagining it. People seemed more...aggressive.
I don't know why but they'd get really annoyed about little things.
I was at a restaurant and two men started a fight over who should have an empty table. I didn't get it. The place was full of empty tables. Why start a fight over it? They would have killed each other if someone hadn't pulled them apart.
Violence had became so common that every once in a while I'd stumble on a corpse in the street. Like everybody else I learned to walk past without seeming to notice.
The media was no help. TV and newspapers were full of stories that ridiculed people who failed to take revenge. There were shows that showed how to load and fire a gun, and recommending running over a person twice to be sure they were really dead.
Even kids TV was like that. I could hardly believe what I was seeing.
It got so that nobody trusted their neighbors. Misunderstandings frequently resulted in shootings.
I had the feeling that the town was being rapidly depopulated. Not only that, but buildings were falling into disrepair at an alarming rate. It only took a few days to put 30 years of decay on them.
Whatever or whoever was causing it all to happen must have come to the conclusion that homicides weren't fast enough. I began to hear rumors that people had been inexplicably whisked away into the sky. At first I didn't believe them.
The story was that lots of people stayed home with the doors locked, but it didn't do them any good. If their time was up they'd still get taken up unless the windows were closed and their bodies couldn't get out.
Eventually they'd starve to death and their lifeless corpses would continue banging against the ceiling. The first time I heard this I didn't believe, but I've since been educated. I can't describe the sickening feeling you get walking along a suburban street and hearing the corpses thump against the walls inside.
Did people try to leave? Sure they did, every way they could, but every avenue was closed. Small roads became overgrown with brush and trees.
Bigger roads simply vanished.
There was no way out.
What's going on? I talked to a guy on the street who had a theory...he says maybe this has happened all through history. Buildings go, people go, and nobody remembers any of it. Maybe cleaners have to eliminate the past to make way for the next thing. Maybe that's just the way things work. I don't know. I don't understand any of it.
Wait a minute, someone's at the door. Maybe it's the police. I called them a little while ago. I'll be right back.
****THE END****
c story by Eddie Fitzgerald 12/2014, photo copyrights owned by their respective owners.