Everybody always tells me I am a curious girl, and yes I am, I have always ask myself the how and why of everything. We used to live in a pretty house, not the ones at the west of our city, only the richest and more important people live in there. We lived in a normal house, we lived very well, everybody in our city used to live well, or at least that is what everybody said to me and my friends, but that wasn’t the truth at all, the government hided very well the people that didn’t lived the way we did. For their community having all of those electronic things we lived with was completely normal, and people who lived without them were the ones that the government wanted to hide. The people that lived as I did, didn’t did anything at all, houses were programmed to do everything for us, they waked us up every morning with our breakfast ready, they chose our clothes according to what we were going to do that day, and a lot of other things. The people that the government hided were the ones that lived in houses they made by themselves, that cooked everything their own and also got the food without anything. I had no idea of any of those things after the “blackout”, that’s how everybody calls it.
I was about to turn 15 when it happened, a week before new year’s eve (my birthday too) I was about to go to bed when it stroked the news, Krista, my program, turned the wall viewer on and told me to listen, because she knew I would be interested in that kind of things. I still remember exactly what it said “today, at 1230” which was lunch time for me, “the pear company presented some difficulties that may affect a lot of the citizens” that’s how it started, then the president of the pear company (that was the company who made all electronic and digital things) apologized because probably we were going to have a lot of “difficulties” with the programs and with light along the week, then he started another sentence that I didn’t heard till the end because the image and sound went off, Krista said “wait a moment, Aria, I’ll try to fix this” but then she went crazy, lights started to turn on and off, programs started to talk incoherencies, then Krista said “Good night Aria-ia-ia-ia” and the light turned off. It wasn’t only the lights of my house, the city was in complete darkness, I was scared, I could hear my parents talking to each other, it never happened, they always go to bed with their pear-table on their hands and with the hearing balls on their years. I usually go to bed and start asking Krista questions about how humanity used to be, she always tells me it was without technology, then technology started to get over humans until we got to that point. That night I went out of the house and started looking at the sky, the night was beautiful, there were a lot stars, in my city those stars were not easy to see, all the lights of the giant advertisements that were all around the town didn’t let the sky to be seen as it was that night, incredibly beautiful. Everybody was kind of desperate without their programs telling them what to do, I realized people really don’t think independently or originally, and I really don’t understand why I don’t think that way, I just don’t feel like letting a person that really doesn’t exist to manage my life.
I stayed up until like 0230, my eyes were closing already I was just too tired, I went to bed hoping I could wake up by my own, but I didn’t, Krista was back, she waked my up, with my breakfast in a table beside my bed and the bathroom door open so I could get in to take a bath, I didn’t wanted to do anything at all, I was tired of that life controlled by that stupid machine, I started hating the program. That day was an usual day, I went to school until 1430, I almost fall asleep in class, the program that teach us math has the most boring voice on earth. After school I went to drawing classes, the only thing I really enjoy, there’s a boy in drawing class too, and we always exchange looks. I had never seen one of his drawings, but I knew because of what the teacher said (yes, he is a human) that he draws very well.
When I got home I was kind of confused, I didn’t remembered what was happening, mom was planning a New Year’s and my birthday´s celebration party, that didn’t happened because of the “blackout”. But the second I came in the same news of the last day were plying, they were the same, it was like if they were showing the same video, I knew something was wrong that second, but I was just hoping for the lights to go off again so I could do the same I did that last night. The sun set started and in the second the sky was as orange as it could be I heard my mom stop talking to her program, and she screamed “pleeaasee!!! Not again!!” I was simply too happy, lights went off.
In that second I jumped out of the window because when the program and electricity go off, the house closes automatically. I walked by the lonely streets for almost two hours, I felt very good, then I saw a men running, he was not dressed in white like we all should dress, he had different colors on their clothes. I started following him and when I was about to turn in the corner after him I cashed with another person, it took me like 3 seconds to recognize him, it was the boy from the drawing class. We both were scared when we impacted, “sorry, I’m really sorry” he said, “oh god it wasn’t your fault, it was me trying to follow that guy” after I said that I felt like I was the dumbest person in the world, why would he like to know what I was doing. But then he answered “really? I was following him too” when he said that I felt better “my name is Matt” he told me, “mine Aria” I answered. Matt and I kept walking by the lonely streets, we talked about everything, when we got tired of walking we were already far away from the center of the city (where we both lived), so we got on the roof of a house that seemed to be abandoned and kept talking and looking at the starry sky.
I was in love; that was clear, I think I was before that day, but I couldn’t say it for sure, because we didn’t ever crossed a word. I felt sad because the other day we will have to go to our houses and we will have to wait a week to see each other again in drawing classes. But for some reason that didn’t happened, we both woke up the next morning and electricity was still off. I felt happy but I acted like I didn’t care, that morning we were watching the landscape and we saw the same man, this time we would definitely follow him. That was how I realized that there was another community in our city, we followed the man for almost 30 minutes and then we got to this set of houses, all with wooden ceiling, very colorful. A girl saw us and screamed, her dad came out, when he realized we were not older than 18 he invited us to come in. We heard their story; they were people that preferred to live in “the old way” and with a lot of simplicity. We didn’t understand but when we saw all the kids paying with each other with things that I used to play with but digitally I understood, we stayed with tem for 4 days, we learned to cook, cultivate, etc. but then we decided to go to our house to make sure our families knew that we were okay and so that we make sure they are okay.
I got home and I realized they were bad, very bad, they were hungry and didn’t looked good at all, so I got them food from the “villagers” that’s how we called them. The reason of why light was gone was still unknown, and it is unknown now. But I loved my new lifestyle, me and my family moved to the village and people started to try to form houses like theirs and try to survive with that life style, it was amazing, how from one day to the other everything changed. Matt lives in a house beside mine, he is now my boyfriend and we still go to drawing classes, but with another teacher.
Okay, to clarify, I don’t know for sure if he is my boyfriend, but we kissed the other day and we hold hands and all that stuff, I really like him. Oh and I almost forgot, he gave me a set of flowers on my birthday and a beautiful drawing of he and me together holding hands.
Society changed, now the ones who thought they lived better have nothing, and the ones who lived comfortably with what earth gave them are the wealthiest. So I’m glad I’m curious and I found this people, this new lifestyle and this new beginning.
I was about to turn 15 when it happened, a week before new year’s eve (my birthday too) I was about to go to bed when it stroked the news, Krista, my program, turned the wall viewer on and told me to listen, because she knew I would be interested in that kind of things. I still remember exactly what it said “today, at 1230” which was lunch time for me, “the pear company presented some difficulties that may affect a lot of the citizens” that’s how it started, then the president of the pear company (that was the company who made all electronic and digital things) apologized because probably we were going to have a lot of “difficulties” with the programs and with light along the week, then he started another sentence that I didn’t heard till the end because the image and sound went off, Krista said “wait a moment, Aria, I’ll try to fix this” but then she went crazy, lights started to turn on and off, programs started to talk incoherencies, then Krista said “Good night Aria-ia-ia-ia” and the light turned off. It wasn’t only the lights of my house, the city was in complete darkness, I was scared, I could hear my parents talking to each other, it never happened, they always go to bed with their pear-table on their hands and with the hearing balls on their years. I usually go to bed and start asking Krista questions about how humanity used to be, she always tells me it was without technology, then technology started to get over humans until we got to that point. That night I went out of the house and started looking at the sky, the night was beautiful, there were a lot stars, in my city those stars were not easy to see, all the lights of the giant advertisements that were all around the town didn’t let the sky to be seen as it was that night, incredibly beautiful. Everybody was kind of desperate without their programs telling them what to do, I realized people really don’t think independently or originally, and I really don’t understand why I don’t think that way, I just don’t feel like letting a person that really doesn’t exist to manage my life.
I stayed up until like 0230, my eyes were closing already I was just too tired, I went to bed hoping I could wake up by my own, but I didn’t, Krista was back, she waked my up, with my breakfast in a table beside my bed and the bathroom door open so I could get in to take a bath, I didn’t wanted to do anything at all, I was tired of that life controlled by that stupid machine, I started hating the program. That day was an usual day, I went to school until 1430, I almost fall asleep in class, the program that teach us math has the most boring voice on earth. After school I went to drawing classes, the only thing I really enjoy, there’s a boy in drawing class too, and we always exchange looks. I had never seen one of his drawings, but I knew because of what the teacher said (yes, he is a human) that he draws very well.
When I got home I was kind of confused, I didn’t remembered what was happening, mom was planning a New Year’s and my birthday´s celebration party, that didn’t happened because of the “blackout”. But the second I came in the same news of the last day were plying, they were the same, it was like if they were showing the same video, I knew something was wrong that second, but I was just hoping for the lights to go off again so I could do the same I did that last night. The sun set started and in the second the sky was as orange as it could be I heard my mom stop talking to her program, and she screamed “pleeaasee!!! Not again!!” I was simply too happy, lights went off.
In that second I jumped out of the window because when the program and electricity go off, the house closes automatically. I walked by the lonely streets for almost two hours, I felt very good, then I saw a men running, he was not dressed in white like we all should dress, he had different colors on their clothes. I started following him and when I was about to turn in the corner after him I cashed with another person, it took me like 3 seconds to recognize him, it was the boy from the drawing class. We both were scared when we impacted, “sorry, I’m really sorry” he said, “oh god it wasn’t your fault, it was me trying to follow that guy” after I said that I felt like I was the dumbest person in the world, why would he like to know what I was doing. But then he answered “really? I was following him too” when he said that I felt better “my name is Matt” he told me, “mine Aria” I answered. Matt and I kept walking by the lonely streets, we talked about everything, when we got tired of walking we were already far away from the center of the city (where we both lived), so we got on the roof of a house that seemed to be abandoned and kept talking and looking at the starry sky.
I was in love; that was clear, I think I was before that day, but I couldn’t say it for sure, because we didn’t ever crossed a word. I felt sad because the other day we will have to go to our houses and we will have to wait a week to see each other again in drawing classes. But for some reason that didn’t happened, we both woke up the next morning and electricity was still off. I felt happy but I acted like I didn’t care, that morning we were watching the landscape and we saw the same man, this time we would definitely follow him. That was how I realized that there was another community in our city, we followed the man for almost 30 minutes and then we got to this set of houses, all with wooden ceiling, very colorful. A girl saw us and screamed, her dad came out, when he realized we were not older than 18 he invited us to come in. We heard their story; they were people that preferred to live in “the old way” and with a lot of simplicity. We didn’t understand but when we saw all the kids paying with each other with things that I used to play with but digitally I understood, we stayed with tem for 4 days, we learned to cook, cultivate, etc. but then we decided to go to our house to make sure our families knew that we were okay and so that we make sure they are okay.
I got home and I realized they were bad, very bad, they were hungry and didn’t looked good at all, so I got them food from the “villagers” that’s how we called them. The reason of why light was gone was still unknown, and it is unknown now. But I loved my new lifestyle, me and my family moved to the village and people started to try to form houses like theirs and try to survive with that life style, it was amazing, how from one day to the other everything changed. Matt lives in a house beside mine, he is now my boyfriend and we still go to drawing classes, but with another teacher.
Okay, to clarify, I don’t know for sure if he is my boyfriend, but we kissed the other day and we hold hands and all that stuff, I really like him. Oh and I almost forgot, he gave me a set of flowers on my birthday and a beautiful drawing of he and me together holding hands.
Society changed, now the ones who thought they lived better have nothing, and the ones who lived comfortably with what earth gave them are the wealthiest. So I’m glad I’m curious and I found this people, this new lifestyle and this new beginning.