2043 A.D.

by Edward M Wolfe

  “How come you’re so cool?” she asked the older woman.

  They both laughed, then Sara said, “I don’t know. How come men my age don’t think I’m so cool?”

  Michelle looked at Sara’s left hand and noticed the bare ring finger. “I can’t believe you’re not married. You’re the coolest lady ever.”

  “Talking to you makes me wish I was forty years younger, and a lesbian.” The two of them cracked up again. “I almost got married once, but in the end, I decided that I’d rather be true to myself instead of doing what others expected of me. And that meant waiting to meet a truly good guy. I’m not sure if there are any left though, because here I am, fifty-seven years old and still single.”

  Michelle looked down at the floor, took a deep breath, and sighed.

  “Oh no. You must think if I haven’t found a man in all these years of waiting for Mr. Right, then there’s no hope for you. I’m sorry, dear. I didn’t mean to make things look bleak. I’m sure you’ll meet someone just perfect for you. You’re very intelligent, insightful, honorable, and I do have to say it, unbelievably gorgeous. Just make sure you give yourself some time and don’t just go with the first guy who acts nice to get you in bed.”

  “Actually, I wasn’t thinking so much of the future. I’m pretty sure I already know the perfect guy for me.”

  “Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say something so wonderful with such a terribly sad face. How is that possible? Where is this young man, and why isn’t he with you?”

  “That’s the problem. I have no idea where he is. And if I manage to find him, I doubt he’ll want anything to do with me.”

  Michelle began to cry and Sara came around the counter and held her, whispering that everything was going to be all right.

  Thirty-four

  Jacey only picked at her food while the guys ate everything on their plates. Chad complained about the inferior quality of the food but also wondered aloud if they could get seconds. Jacey stood up and walked toward the exit door.

  “All I need is a cigarette and I’ll be happy,” she said.

  She reached the door and looked through the tall thin rectangle of glass and spotted the guard standing to the right of it.

  “Have you got a cigarette?” she asked him loudly.

  He turned to look at her and she smiled at him. He held up a finger and spoke into his lapel mic. She couldn’t hear what he had said, nor the reply he’d gotten. With one hand still on the mic, he gestured toward the others at the tables with his other hand and raised his eyebrows.

  “Hey! Anybody else want a smoke?” Deron was the only one who did. Jacey indicated as much to the guard. He nodded. A few minutes later someone who looked like an orderly appeared and handed something to the guard. He opened the door and handed her two e-cigs.

  “You’re only allowed to have these.”

  “Is there nicotine?”

  “I don’t know. Doubt it.”

  “Shit. I mean, thank you. I appreciate it. Anything is better than nothing. I’m going crazy in here.”

  “You know what they say,” the guard smiled at her. “Anyone who isn’t crazy when they go into a mental hospital will be crazy by the time they leave.”

  Jacey smiled back and said, “At least I have that to look forward to.”

  She walked back to the table and handed one of the e-cigs to Deron. They removed them from the plastic containers and started puffing away, still sitting at the dining table. A voice sounded from the ceiling.

  “Vaping is only permitted in the designated area next to the wall with the ventilator label.”

  They looked around, spotted the ventilator and the sign and made their way over to it. Once there, they resumed vaping, dutifully exhaling toward the wall vent which promptly sucked the clouds out of the room.

  “Shit. These do have nicotine,” Jacey said.

  “Yeah. I’m actually getting a head rush. I don’t remember the last time I had a cigarette,” Deron replied. They smoked for a few minutes then he asked, “Have you ever heard of the word leucotomy?”

  Jacey looked at him suspiciously, wondering where he was going with this. “Yeah. Why do you ask?”

  “It’s just something I read recently and I don’t know what it means.”

  “It’s another word for lobotomy.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. Really.”

  “How about cingulotomy? Do you know what that is?”

  “What the hell were you reading? A manual on fucked up mental health treatments?”

  “Something like that. What’s it mean?”

  “It’s when they burn holes in your fucking brain.”

  “Why would they do that? It doesn’t sound at all therapeutic.”

  “But an ice-pick through the eye socket does? They’re both totally freaking barbaric, and they should be banned, but they’re not. In fact, they’re doing them more now than they did a hundred years ago.”

  “How do you know this stuff?”

  Jacey took a deep drag and turned to the wall, slowly exhaling the smoke-like vapor. Then she replied, still facing the wall. “Stupid doctors did that shit to my mom.”

  “What happened to her? I mean, after they did that?”

  “You ever watch those old zombie movies from before the war?”

  “I’m sorry I brought this up. I didn’t know.”

  “Of course you didn’t,” she said. “How could you?”

  “Thanks for gettin’ me the cig. That was nice of you.

  Jacey looked at him for a second, weighing something in her mind. She took another hit, then asked, “Can I trust you with a secret? You seem like an okay guy, and I need help with something.”

  “Sure. What is it?”

  “I’m getting out of here tonight. But I need help. If you’re willing, you don’t have to risk getting in trouble by actually trying to escape with me, but I need someone to help me get out.”

  “I already tried once and they shot me with something that made me totally sick.”

  “What was your plan?”

  “I tricked the guard on the ground floor lobby into leaving his post, then made a run for the front door.”

  “Too bad your brain isn’t as big as your balls. That wasn’t very smart.”

  “I know that – now. What’s your idea?”

  Jacey looked around the room and said, “Let’s go to the TV room.”

  When they got there, she sat on the couch and gestured for him to sit next to her. She turned on the TV, raised the volume, then leaned in close to him as if they were a couple and whispered to him.

  It didn’t take Deron very long to make a decision. His choices were to either be brainwashed and drugged into oblivion and then possibly be allowed to go home, or fail in his treatment and have holes burned in his brain, possibly with the frontal lobe scrambled as well. Yeah. He’d help Jacey, and go with her, regardless of the danger involved.

  He told her he’d do it, and they remained on the couch, watching a movie together and continuing the charade that they were a couple, sitting close together with Jacey resting her head on his shoulder.

  When group recreation time was over, a guard entered and called the teens to the exit door. He ordered them to line up behind him, single file, hands at their sides and to not get out of line until they arrived at their rooms.

  They reached Chad’s room first, then Deron’s, then Michael’s. When the guard reached Jacey’s door, he unlocked and opened it.

  She asked in the sweetest voice she could muster, “Don’t I get a kiss goodnight?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” the guard replied.

  Jacey took one backward step into her room and undid the top button of her shirt. She pouted and asked, “You think I’m ridiculous? I was hoping you’d find me just a little bit sexy. At least enough for one little kiss.”

  The guard looked down the hall to his right where there was a surveillance camera affixed to the ceiling. He got an idea and
bent down to tie his shoelace, positioning his head just inside Jacey’s doorway, out of view of the camera.

  “Okay. One quick kiss,” he said.

  She smiled and said, “You look really sexy in that position.” Then she wolf-whistled and leaned down to kiss him, immediately slipping her tongue into his mouth and moaning in pleasure.

  When Deron heard the whistle he pulled open his door which he’d been holding onto since he’d entered his room, preventing the latch from catching. He ran up behind the guard who was caught up in the thrill of the forbidden kiss and grabbed his head, quickly swinging it into the wall as hard as he could.

  The guard went down, but he didn’t go out. He reached for something on his belt and Jacey quickly stomped on his arm and kicked at his head with the other foot. Deron also kicked him once and saw that he was unconscious with his hand twitching as it lay on his belt.

  Jacey removed his keycard and said, “Let’s go,” and ran down the hall back toward the dining and recreation room. Deron grabbed the guard’s unusual gun and ran after her. When they reached the end of the hall, she turned left toward a part of the facility he hadn’t been to.

  “Do you know where we’re going?”

  “Mostly,” she replied.

  Halfway down this hall she passed a door, then stopped and backtracked to it. It was unmarked, but she decided it had to be the one she was looking for. She swiped the guard’s keycard and pushed the door open. Deron followed right behind her and shut the door as soon as he was in the room which looked like a large cleaning supply closet. He turned around and saw Jacey already making her way up some shelves against the side wall.

  She stopped climbing and started sweeping away the items on the top shelf, sending stacks of garbage can liners to the floor, then she climbed up and lay on her back, positioning herself so she could get her feet beneath the A/C vent. She kicked as hard as she could and dented the panel.

  “Try to put some shit in front of the door in case they find us,” she said, panting.

  Deron began moving mop buckets over to the door, turning them upside down. There wasn’t anything else large that he could use so he started throwing everything he could into the area in front of the door. Brooms, mops, gallon containers of liquid cleaner, packs of toilet paper, paper towels. None of it would keep anyone from opening the door, but it would slow them down a little as they tried to get past it all. As he was considering whether or not he should pour out some cleaning solvent out to make the floor slippery, he heard the vent panel clang.

  “Got it! Let’s go!”

  Jacey pulled herself up into the square hole and Deron ran over and started climbing the shelves. As he reached the top shelf, he heard the door swing open and bang into the mop buckets. He started to go up into the vent and felt a hand grab his ankle, pulling him back down.

  Thirty-five

  Kathleen let her car drive her to the Anaheim Convention Center where she would meet Eric for their date, talking to him the whole way there and apologizing for being late.

  “That’s okay,” he said. “I’m more interested in the after party more than the main event anyway.”

  “I’ve only seen the events on TV. I didn’t know there was a party afterwards.”

  “You’ve been missing out on the best part.”

  Kathleen heard thunderous applause coming through Eric’s communicator.

  “Is it starting already?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I can see one of the big screens from where I am. The Administrator just walked onto the stage.”

  She looked at her car’s computer screen. “I’ll be there in about seven minutes.”

  “No worries. You won’t miss anything important.”

  By the time Kathleen arrived, met up with Eric and the pair had found their seats, the Administrator was midway through sharing the list of accomplishments that he said everyone should be proud of, because they were made possible by every citizen working to make Orange County and southern California in general the national leader it was rapidly turning into.

  “You may be asking yourselves how we’ve become a national leader, or what I mean by that. I will have an announcement later that will be the best news we’ve all heard in a long time. But first, let’s welcome my husband, the Assistant Administrator of Orange County, California, Mr. Steven Nguyen!”

  The audience applauded loudly, Eric and Kathleen included, as Steven came down the walkway with crisscrossing spotlights lighting the way as he walked up to his husband, Phan Nguyen, and gave him a passionate kiss.

  “Mr. Steven will share statistics for the recent quarter and then I will return to tell you where we need your help, and after that, ladies and gentlemen, and all other persons, I will give you the news that will make you most proud.”

  Kathleen gave Eric a questioning look, wondering if he knew what the special announcement was. He shrugged. No one had told his department anything about any special news or developments.

  When the applause died down, Steven Nguyen, a white male who towered over his husband standing behind the podium with him began to speak.

  “How is everyone tonight? Are we all good?”

  The audience cheered, clapped, and whistled.

  “Is the weather alright with everyone?” he joked. Again, the audience cheered. The perfect California weather made the Grand Plaza at the Convention Center a perfect venue for the night’s events.

  Steven smiled and waited. When the audience was quiet again, he began in earnest with his announcement. Crime statistics were down again, lower than the last quarter. Housing renovation completions were the same as the previous quarter. Skilled laborers were sorely needed and apprenticeship programs were actively recruiting. Deconstruction of abandoned quarters of the county had increased, as had the total number of tons of recycled materials. Those two stats always ran together since the houses and buildings that were deconstructed were naturally recycled. Megawatts of solar and wind power had gone up. Natural resources returned to nature was up, which was also a reflection of the deconstruction stats.

  “I’m happy to announce that we’ve had an increase in the county population,” Steven was interrupted as the audience cheered again. He gestured for them to let him finish. “But our numbers are not keeping up with our needs. We’ve made tremendous strides in reviving our county, but there is so much more work to be done. We need your help not only with increasing the population, but also with helping us even out the racial imbalance in our population. Please consider doing your part by making some babies!”

  The audience went wild this time hearing the second most powerful man in local government urging them to have unprotected sex. The jumbo monitors around the plaza displayed the words, “Fuck for the Future!” and sent the crowd in a frenzy of celebration.

  “Can you do that, Californians?”

  They indicated that they could indeed.

  “For those who want or need assisted fertilization, I have good news for you. The Birthing Center has received a wonderful gift from the brilliant minds at UC Irvine Medical Center. If you come in now for pregnancy assistance, you will be able to choose the characteristics of your future child. Height, hair color, eye color, build, and even pigmentation to some degree. So come on down and start designing your baby!”

  More wild applause followed this medical breakthrough. Misters Nguyen smiled and kissed as they waited for the audience to simmer down a little.

  Steven continued. “As you may know, our population is predominantly Vietnamese.” The audience cheered as Phan Nguyen proudly smiled and bowed. “Followed by Hispanic, Caucasian, and then lastly, African American.”

  A Native American in the audience wondered about his race. Apparently they didn’t matter. Some things never changed, he thought.

  “We desperately need more African American citizens,” Steven continued. “We will be working with other territories to locate them and invite them to live and work in Orange County. Steven’s news will deal partly with thes
e efforts. But before we get to that, I’ve saved the second best news for last.”

  When the crowd was quiet, the band played a musical piece that built up to a minor crescendo and when it stopped, Steven practically yelled into his microphone, “The number of officially registered and practicing churches has decreased another 17% since the last quarter and there are only three denominations left in all of Orange County with a total of forty-six churches,” and yelling now to make himself heard over the thunderous applause, “and membership in those churches is declining rapidly!”

  The audience was up and out of their seats, cheering, and dancing in the aisles. The band accommodated them by playing a funky dance beat for a few minutes. When the lights dimmed, Steven stepped aside and allowed Phan to take the microphone again and the crowd reluctantly and slowly returned to their seats and eventually the plaza went silent again.

  “First, before I make this incredible announcement, I want to thank every one of you here tonight, and by extension, all of the citizens of this wonderful community. Without you, what I am about to say would not have been possible. We were lucky to suffer less devastation and massive loss of life during The War, unlike many other states. But aside from our relative good fortune, we were also lucky to have the greatest population in America,” he held up his hand to subdue the applause that began, “with the willingness and determination to restore our cities. To make them better than they ever were before. And with my direction, we committed to safeguarding us against every social ill that contributed to the holocaust this country suffered. We’ve eliminated government abuse of power. Our police use non-lethal weapons. We employ as many people of color in positions of authority and law enforcement as we possibly can. We developed and staffed the Department of Equal Opportunity and the Equality Enforcement Corp who also use non-lethal weapons. We’ve given all of our citizens equal financial status. Poverty is a thing of the past. And we continue to work for equality in every way possible.”

  Again, the crowd started to cheer, whistling and clapping until Phan signaled for them to hold still just a bit longer.