Future

What the future may become.

He was so excited when the boxes came to the door. He is 15 years old and home alone today. The only child in in the family, it is the first week of summer break from school. He was able to bring in one box at a time with how heavy they are. He knew exactly where to put it. He spent most of the free time helping his dad wire the house just for this. Smiling wide, he cuts open all the boxes and grabs the instructions. He is really hoping to have this completely assembled before his parents return home.

An hour later, he has the station complete. The computer is connected to the house completely as the instructions stated. He is very excited to have this system since most of his friends have systems like this installed. He can now be the same as they are in the home. He does not really know much about them since he has spent little time at his friends. He boots up the computer and smiles wide seeing it on the screen it is updating and connecting to the house. He quickly gets in the last box and assembles the contents.

The station is a curved six-foot-tall section that fits in the wall about six inches deep and three feet wide. A platform sits about five feet up, the computer screen is just below the platform. He finishes the small drone and places it on the platform. The screen shows the drone is charging. Another part of the screen shows the house is ready and being monitored already. The names of everyone in the household is displayed. He is curious and selects his mom’s name. The screen displays her everyday routine; work schedule and shopping days. There is also a section that shows what will be changed per protocol. As he reads how his mother’s home life is supposed to change is starts to wonder about having this system.

When he saw this type of system at his friends’ house, he thought it was wonderful and fancy. He really wanted one at his home also. His parents would procrastinate by telling him one day we will. It has been four years since he started asking about getting one, and the day is here. Now that it is mandatory for every household to have at least one, the excitement of having it dropped a little bit for him. Seeing how the computer thinks the household schedule would be, has him not liking it at all. He closes all the open windows on the screen and knows the system will change the schedule when it sees how life really is at home.

He stands back and looks at the computer control area being proud of how well he put it all together. The door suddenly and unlocks. He turns quickly toward the door and slowly walks to it. Right before he gets to it, the door flings open. He jumps back a little, scared that the door flung open and almost hit him. His heart is racing but it slows down when he sees his mom step up toward the door.

She smiles at him as she hangs up her purse in a closet by the door. “I see you got the system going. No problems with it?”, she looks over the computer system frowning a little and looking concerned.

“None at all mom! It was kind of fun putting it together. Are you alright?”

She nods and heads upstairs to change for the day. She smiles at him to show she is alright. He heads to the living room and starts playing video games. After a half an hour, an alarm goes off in the house and a voice goes over the speakers, “It is time to start dinner! You have 10 minutes to start. This is your first day, so fines will be waived for the day.”

He looks around confused. He never heard anything like that before, not even at his friend's places that have the system installed. He heads to the entrance to the living room and watches his mom move quickly to the kitchen. A panel in the kitchen has a recipe on it to show what to make for dinner. He sets the table as he watches his mom rush in the kitchen to get the food prepared.

 

The next day, he is in the mall, looking at his phone and messaging his friends. Today is Saturday and his friends are meeting in the mall to browse around. He notices there are new base systems set up in between stores as he meets up with them. He gets a message of where they are just as the system close to him lights up in red and a small drone flies out of it. He watches as it goes into a store and out of sight. He wonders who would be stealing from any stores in here as he walks up to his friends.

He smiles at his friends, “Finally we get to meet up.”

One friend has thin framed glasses and black hair. He is a little bit taller than the others wearing blue jeans and plain black t-shirt. “I know. It does take some time and planning. But here we are here at last!” He laughs a little.

The only girl in the group is the shortest. She is wearing a long skirt and short sleeve shirt. Her long hair is pulled back into a ponytail. She rolls her eyes jokingly, “Pffft. Ben, it’s only been a month. Not that long at all.” She turns and heads into the store. “I’ve been dying to check this place out. C’mon Sam, Jim, you two coming in also?”

The last one in the group has very short hair. He is wearing blue Jeans and a Marvel Comics t-shirt. He stays back a little bit with Jim, quietly says, “Jim, have you heard the governments speech this morning? I think was a little unsettling. They made this all a rule, but not law.”

Jim sighs a little, “I caught some of it. It does explain the new systems in here. I installed ours yesterday. I didn’t know it was mandatory to have by today.”

Sam looks at Ben and laughs a little seeing Paulette hold up a long dress to him to tease him. “Mandatory alright. When I left, I saw the military just down the block. They had a couple in cuffs and outside on the lawn. Three of the military people were standing around them with their guns pointed toward them. Can you believe that?! Like holding them hostage almost. But then there was a certain company was there installing the device. What was the name of them again? I can’t remember the name of the company.” He looks down thinking.

Paulette almost yells across the store,” He’s getting me this one! Then we can go eat! I’m starved.” She laughs as she heads to the counter almost pulling Ben along.

As soon as Paulette and Ben join them, they had to stop at the doorway as six military personnel walk by with a man in cuffs. They watch in disbelief. All four of them stay silent as they leave the mall to go to the restaurant. The restaurant is in the same parking lot as the mall and is not far from the entrance. As they head in, a large sign shows “Please seat yourself. A member will be right with you.”

They sit in an open booth and slide the double plexiglass doors closed. A small light outside the booth turns yellow. Jim slowly takes off his mask from his mouth and nose and looks up at the ventilation system. Ben and Paulette are sitting on one side of the booth and he pulls his mask off very quickly as soon as the doors close. All four of them take deep breaths once their masks are off. On the table is a tablet that comes on when the door was closed.

Jim picks up the tablet and selects his order and passes it to Sam. They talk some about the mall while they are ordering. As soon as Paulette finishes her order, she selects ‘pay’ at the bottom. The screen comes on stating ‘Sarah paid for your order. Thank you.’

Paulette smiles and texts her mom, “so mom paid for our meals. I’m telling her thanks for all of us. Oh,“ she bumps Ben, “I got to use the bathroom. “

They all put their masks back on. Ben opens the door and steps out so she can head to the bathroom. He watches her for a little bit before sitting back down and closing the door. “This may be crazy, but I really do like her a lot. You two really don’t mind her hanging with us?.”

Jim looks at him and laughs a little, “Nah.  We’re all friends here. I kind of wonder what it will be like if Sam here gets a girlfriend.”

Sam looks at Jim, “Not funny.”

“What I mean is, there’s already four of us. We can’t hang out with another person. Four is the max limit we can be with if it’s not immediate family. Duh. We all grew up knowing this.” Jim looks toward a window just seeing a few military personnel walk out of sight.

Ben looks at them both. “I didn’t think of that. If either of you have someone to hang out with also, we would have to take turns who is hanging out with who, or maybe just go our own way. “

All three just look down for a bit, thinking. Paulette pulls open the doors and playfully pushes Ben to the side. “wow, you all look like someone died. “She laughs some and almost sits on Bens lap. “look, if it’s because of what just happened. I saw it all when I was heading to the bathroom. A couple got within six feet of a group of four. We all know there can’t be more, so the military was there right away to split them up. It’s no big deal. That’s why we have the military patrolling everywhere.” She closes the door and they all slowly take off their masks.

Sam looks at her, “it’s kind of what we were thinking. I was actually thinking of what it would be like to be in bigger groups and not have to wear these masks. It might be crazy, but what if we didn’t have to have the computer systems set up in the house?”

Her eyes got a little wide looking at Sam, not believing what she’s hearing. Jim sighs a little, “I thought it would be cool. A new gadget for the home. I’m beginning to wonder about that.”

She huffs a little, “well if it wasn’t for these masks and social distancing, billions of people would have died from viruses! I can’t believe you two. Didn’t you hear the speech today? All this is for our safety. It has been since the big outbreak twenty five years ago that killed two billion people.”

“My grandpa told me about that. You know, cause he was there. It wasn’t two billion people. Also, there was a different group that kept the peace called police. Not the military around all the time. Just something he keeps saying to me that gets me to thinking. ‘where’s the proof?’ he would say.” Jim looks toward the window seeing a couple military personnel walking along the parking lot. “He had printouts of websites stating what really happened. The history books are wrong.”

She looks at Ben then to Jim, “I can’t believe this. Since..” she stops as the waitress slides open a small slot on the door and passes their meals through it. The light on the outside of the booth turns green. “since this is our life. We grew up knowing all this. I don’t want to die from a virus, I especially don’t want to go to prison for not following the rules. Your grandpa doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The Health Organization made all these laws long ago to help us. Do you really think we have to get five vaccines a year for nothing? I just barely got my certificate to travel outside of the state. We couldn’t travel because I was old enough to have my own certificate, but it took a while to get to see the doctor for him to sign off that part. I don’t want to mess this up. Ben could come with us this time too.”

Sam looks at her while he’s eating, “I believe him. Haven’t you seen more control lately. Also, he says there were more types of restaurants. This Amazon restaurant is good, but haven’t you wanted to try something else?”

She looks at her plate for a little bit and says quietly, “Yeah, I guess it would be good to try something else.”

Ben looks at her then looks at the booth across the way. The guy in the booth is wearing a full body suit for handling hazardous material. He has his disinfecting items and is scrubbing every section of the booth. He pulls out a tablet with the app that shows if he missed any spots. “I was questioning having the whole house hooked up to cameras and that mainframe computer.” He put his hand on Paulette’s and looks at her smiling a little. She smiles at him and holds his hand.

Jim, “mom told me we have to watch what we say when it’s installed. I didn’t understand but now I do. It was going to fine us if mom didn’t make dinner in time. The rest of the night it kept going off telling us what to do and when. I’m not used to that.”

“Then there is the military making people install them. I’m just worried about going to the bathroom.” Sam laughs some then continues, “It does make me wonder how much was enforced back then. Also, how much of what we are told is the truth.”

Paulette gets a little irritated, “Look Sam, the military is just making sure we are safe. All this is to keep us safe. Didn’t you learn about police? The police were corrupt, beating people for no reason, killing people, stealing. They thought they could do anything. Good thing they’re gone and the military is here to help us. The killing virus in 2020 through 2022 was deadly. I don’t care what your grandpa says, the books and government say it killed billions! That must be the truth. That is why we wear masks, that is why we have the vaccines, that is why we can only be in groups of four, to be safe! What is with you guys? I’m ready to go.” She puts on her mask and grabs her plate.

Ben glances at Jim and Sam and grabs his plate, “I’m ready! But this is the first day of this law. Things will get better once we get used to it, right?” He smiles some trying to come up with a solution on both sides.

All four of make sure their masks are on before leaving the booth. They carry their dishes to a slot in a wall and slide them through. Right when they leave the booth, the light turns red and a cleaner goes in the booth right away to sanitize it. Sam glances through the slot being curious and sees robot arms moving the food to the stove and some flipping the food around.

They are all quiet as they head out, an automated voice says “Thank you for visiting Amazon Family Dining.” They head toward the Auto Uber station. Ben, holding Paulette’s hand, swings her arm playfully to get her to smile some. She giggles and quickly pulls her mask down to kiss him on the cheek. Suddenly all the cellphones that are close by goes off. Jim ignores it but Sam pulls his out and laughs. He shows everyone, “look! Ben’s temperature went up just over 99!” He keeps laughing and showing the three as Ben’s face turns red. “Careful, you don’t want to go any higher. They will quarantine you.”

“I know, I know. It’s just… well, now everyone knows.” He glances around at everyone close by looking at their phone then to him. He keeps blushing as he pulls her closer to him and heads off faster toward the Uber station. On the way, they have to stop at seeing some commotion going on just outside the mall. They see nine people not wearing masks protesting the use of masks, against being in small groups, wanting schools and churches to reopen as well as parks for the children. At least twenty military personnel with guns raised toward the group telling them to lay down. The military wear full combat gear with masks as well.

Paulette’s, Ben’s, and Sam’s phones start ringing. All three of them answer their phones with almost the same greeting, “Hello mom. I’m fine.” Jim lifts his phone and starts video taping what is going on. Paulette looks at the protesters and moves next to Jim.  He can hear what her mom is saying with her talking very loudly.

“No mom, there is only nine people. I don’t know where you’re getting that there is at least thirty. And no, none of them have any weapons.”

“I’m watching it on the news right now. What did I say about lying to me, Paulette? There are at least thirty nasty protesters without masks.” Paulette’s mom sounds disgusted talking about this, “dirty people, probably spreading some nasty virus to kill people. It’s a good thing the military is blocking the mall. They are outnumbered but the military can handle it.”

Ben stands next to Paulette and hangs up. As soon as he does, she grabs his phone and opens up the news feed. She turns pale seeing the same scene from a different angle but there are three times more protestors on the news feed than there really are in front of them. Ben started to say something but stopped seeing she’s still on the phone. “We are all good mom.” She’s talking quiet still not believing the difference in what she is seeing and what the news is showing. “We are away from the site enough.”

“My map is showing you’re in the red zone. After they give you the proper tests to make sure you didn’t catch anything, I’ll pick you up. At least they lowered the detainment from exposure to say day. I love you honey.”

“Yeah mom… .love you too. Bye.” She slowly hangs up the phone and quietly says to the others, “can we leave slowly so no one sees?”