Today is different than yesterday, the sun is smaller, and no one seems to notice.
Two
years ago, some scientists in Switzerland discovered that the earth has
started to move farther away from the sun; it's regular orbit has been
broken. A perfect circle has now turned into a spiral that's unfurling
outwards.
After 730 days of studies, observations, and
experiments, no one has been able to determine what caused this. All
they know is that it has something to do with gravity, and that the
earth is now being pushed farther and farther away from the sun, which
means it's going to get colder. No one knows if the earth's orbit is
ever going to stabilize again, or if it will be flung out of the solar
system. And it's still too early to determine the future timetable of
events or the severity of the situation.
The day the earth broke it's orbit, was the day the voices started.
At
first, they were just whispers; soft syllables that blended together to
form sounds, not words. I heard them while laying in bed. I thought it
was my girlfriend humming a melody, while she read the paper and ate
scrambled eggs for breakfast at the kitchen table, but I realized the
sounds were too disorganized to form a song, and didn't have a rhythm.
It was just noise. But, as the days passed the syllables evolved into
words: sad, run, cold, alone, leave, no, love, shiver, die, end, sad, no, hope, fucked, shit. In a few weeks the words evolved into sentences:
"In
three years, you will need to build a fire and wrap yourself in a
blanket. No one will be there to hug you. You will start to eat parts of
yourself to survive the hunger, which is okay, as long as they are
unimportant. Study what's unimportant."
I wondered
if it was just me, or if this was an undiscovered side effect connected
to the distance between the earth and the sun. I didn't know. I asked my
girlfriend, Kim, "Hey, have you been hearing anything weird lately?
Like have you heard any sounds even when it is completely quiet?"
A look of concern conquered her calm facial expression.
"No. Why? What have you been hearing?"
Kim
and I met on the internet over four years ago. I was hearing voices
back then too. They told me to kill myself with pills, razorbaldes,
falls out of windows, baths in the deep fryer at work, and nooses made
out of ethernet cords because nothing will get better; there is nothing
to live for. She said she was worried, and frustrated because I had a
problem that could be cured, if I just sought help. I didn't. She
stopped talking to me for four months because she said that whenever we
talked, it made her depressed. So I went and got help, then they put me
on some meds to balance me out after a short spell in the mental
hospital. We started talking again. I drove nine hours to meet her, and
never left.
"Oh, nothing...I think the water heater
might be fucking up again. Maybe we should call the landlord tomorrow to
come, and check it out? It could be nothing, but it could cause us to
catch pneumonia, which has the potential to kill, or we could abstain
from showers, and get fired from our jobs. Either way, he won't be
getting his money. Yeah, I'll call him tomorrow. The situation can
become severe at any second."
Kim shook her head from
side to side, which cause her brown hair to move back and forth. She
laughed, caught her breath, and sighed.
"Okay. And make
sure you explain it just like that. I'm sure he is going to be very
sympathetic with our plight, and send the best water heater repair man
in the county over to investigate these weird sounds, which have the
potential to kill us, and/or not pay rent on time. Plus,I don't think my
body can survive another week of artic showers, after the last time. I
was born in a warm weather state remember? Unlike you."
"Haha. True. Well now we are in the warm weather state you were born in together. I'll get right on it."
"Bullshit.
I know that phone call will be made in a month. I think you would have a
decent shot at the gold if procrastination was a competitive sport at
the Olympics."
"My track record doesn't lie; I've never been a punctual person, so I can't argue with you there."
The muscles in her face relaxed. She sat on my lap, and we kissed.
Before
she got up, Kim stared straight into my eyes, looking for any little
clue that could lead her to believe that I was hiding something. My past
has always made me suspicious, and I was never a good liar.
My eyes looked left for a spit second. I didn't notice. Kim did.
"I actually think I'm going to take a shower right now. See you in 15."
Crisis averted.
Kim stopped before the bathroom
door, and stared at me sitting there eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes
with milk dribbling down my chin.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
Just
kidding...BUSTED. She knows somethings up, just tell her the truth. Or
at least a part of it. Like fuck? How'd you get a girlfriend, as amazing
as Kim again? I'm surprised she's puts up with all you bullshit. For
fuck's sake say something! I'm trying to help here. That's all I'm
trying to do. I just want the best for you.
I close my eyes, drop the spoon, put my index fingers on my temples, and softly
start rubbing them in small circular motions. My mom used to do it to
me when I was little kid whenever I got upset with something. It always
seemed to calm me down, but my fingertips have never been able to
replicate, the feeling of relaxation and bliss.
"Honestly, I don't know."
"Maybe
you should call your therapist, and schedule an appointment later this
week. You know it would be for the best. Everyone needs a little help
now and then. And it could also be something with your meds? You'll
never know unless you go." she said in a motherly tone.
"Yeah. I'll do that."
I
looked down into my cereal; the flakes were starting to break apart
because they were becoming more and more waterlogged with milk, as Kim
shut the bathroom door, and turned the shower and the radio on. I could
her her whimpering in between songs and commercials, trying to hide her
tears.
Over the course of the first three
months, the temperature dropped ten degrees below average. Orange crops
in Florida and California were in the midst of a genocide. 20 people
committed suicide because they were unable to go on living in a world
without orange juice. Most people were just mildly disappointed and able
to adapt to artificial citrus flavoring.
The general
public was unable to observe the sun shrinking in the sky because you
had to be wealthy to afford sunglasses powerful enough to shield a
person's eyes from staring directly into the sun. Majority were still
looking at the ground, or at the screens of their cellphones. They knew
what was happening, but it wasn't really affecting them so it didn't
really matter. Some people actually thought it was kind of cool. Just
another reason why earth was the most awesome planet in our solar
system, and hell maybe in the entire universe. I mean what other planet
just breaks its orbit for no apparent reason, and has life on it?
Earth's just a trendsetter; the moon it's bodyguard.
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