A Day in a Life In After World: Sugar

by Eric Johnson

find such a wonderful dress?" She burst out finally.

  Hash took this as his queue that he could turn around again.

  "It was lying in a box." He said, "Don't worry, no one will miss it."

  "In a box?" She asked, confused, "from a store?"

  He shook his head. "Nah. Not in a store."

  "Wow!" She continued to marvel at the quality of it. "Really, where did you get it?"

  "I told you, in a box." He looked smug. "They were going to bury it anyway."

  "That's an odd thing to do with a dress." She said then froze and thought about what was just said.

  "Aaaaaaiiiiieeee!" She suddenly screamed. "Get it off of me!"

  She threw her arms up, shimmied, and backed out of the dress.

  Left naked, she dove for her old dress and held it up over herself.

  "How dare you!" She shouted at him. "How dare you give me a dead person's dress!"

  "They are not going to miss it though!" He pleaded with her, "It is a waste to just bury it! Put it back on! Please?" He said the last word almost desperately.

  She looked at him and then at the dress.

  "You looked so beautiful in it." He crooned.

  "Really?"

  "Yes." He said. "I did not expect it to be so, I was just getting you another dress, but I saw it on you and realized why you want to dress like that, because you are beautiful."

  She blushed and considered it further.

  "Who was it?" She asked finally.

  "An Eloise I think. Young girl from a rich family. She died of the bumps."

  "How do you know that?" Sugar asked.

  "They said so at her funeral." He explained. "Funerals are one of the best places to scavenge food."

  She nodded. It was a fact.

  Slowly and carefully she reached for the dress. The pretty dress.

  As she picked it up, she allowed the other dress fall. Her attention was on the new dress and did not notice she was exposing herself to Hash.

  It was a short lived thrill for Hash as the new dress was put back on immediately.

  Sugar relished the feeling of the dress over her once again. It was indeed beautiful. Wait till Tur saw her in it.

  About the Author

  "What if?"

  Eric Johnson would die without this question.

  One can, and should, contemplate this question when one is slaved to the phone lines doling out the Golden Rule of the Windows operating system, "Have you rebooted your computer yet?" With this and a handful of progressive questions, he is the deserving title-holder of HERO forty to fifty times a day as he resolves end-user issues. And yet, this is not enough for one man.

  When he escapes the clutches of the forty-hour paradigm...

  ...he gives himself over to family. A father for five years and a husband for approximately forever, he expresses his love for them through nearly-gourmet cooking, wisdom dispensing, and in fits and starts, domicile upkeep.

  ...he gives himself over to exploration. A veteran of war (dialing), virtual and real photography dark rooms, and bike rides to Hades and back, he has always been a geek. He can easily be lured into conversations about physics, space travel, science fantasy, and occasionally, computers.

  ...he gives himself over to reading. Books consumed are too numerous to store in any one place, much less catalogue. He still believes in the magic of the printed word, but does possess compassion for the e-reader. He has read the internet?twice. He is an ardent supporter of the mythos that Playboy magazine does have articles. He is willing to read words in any medium, from clay tablets to Fark to fortune cookies (in bed).

  ?he gives himself over to writing.

  Eric will want his readers to know that he is not perfect for he has still not cured cancer. Instead, he invites the reader to join him in the adventure of, "What if?"