A Little Dream

I don't know where to begin telling this story but I will have to try. So, forgive me if it isn't very clever sounding from the start.

The year is 2024. Half the world has been ravaged by a virus we all thought didn’t exist.

The conspiracy theories surrounding the vaccine that would have saved us all were many including that anyone who took them would have microchips inserted into their bodies or that it was a prelude to the mark of the beast; The conspiracy theories almost killed us all.

Most of the world that survived were of a certain blood type O negative and had other antibodies related to the covid19 virus, or had survived cancer; They were the group least likely to survive an event like this. In this case, the fittest didn’t survive.

This is how we got here. I looked across the window to the left side of my bed facing Vicar street, where Sally’s cage used to hang beside, and sighed deeply as I remembered how she would wake me up every morning singing Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds”. Of all the songs in the world that played on my radio, she picked that one to be her favorite.

Sally flew into my house one grey winter morning exactly two years ago. It was a miracle indeed how this magnificent scarlet macaw showed up through my window on Christmas Eve. Where did she come from? Who did she belong to? Could they be looking for her? I guess I’ll never know.

All of England was in her eighth lockdown, the very worst of them all and life had come to a standstill for everybody left behind. The atmosphere was sad following thousands of funerals, with bereaved families struggling to keep family businesses alive and millions being made redundant with the obvious consequence of a crushing economic regression.

The only way I wasn't homeless myself was the money left from a housing lottery I won the year before, on my fifty-seventh birthday, leaving me enough to buy this apartment, make it super comfortable, and store up for the rainy day. Regardless, my heart was as grey as the world around me and I felt just as hopeless too.

The richest of Britain escaped to Africa and Asia to start their business empires afresh and now the tables have turned with those of us left to pick up the pieces as a civil service society.

Christmas 2022 was certainly very quiet with no street decorations, or Christmas music, or anyone loud enough to convincingly make a fuss about it. And even though I was grateful that my family in Nigeria were part of the survivors and doing quite well as a majority of that part of the world, the loneliness from being so far away from them ate at me day after day. Until Sally came along.

She was a frightened bird that had eaten off at least a quarter of her feathers and didn’t trust anyone or anything to come close enough to touch her. The morning she arrived she was barely alive as she landed on the floor of my bedroom through the same window I am looking out through right now almost frozen. I thought she was dead until I heard her tiny little whelp as though begging me to save her.

I had left the windows ajar for some cold air to come in because the flat felt too stuffy for me to breathe and there was a funny smell in the atmosphere I desperately needed to get rid of. This was only supposed to be for about forty-five minutes.

Lost in thought with music blaring through my Marley speakers, I didn’t notice when she flew into my world until I got up to have a wee, and there to my shock and complete horror just lay on my floor a very colorful dying bird. I tried to pick her up but she kept biting at me with her strong beak despite how wounded and weak she was. I had to be gentle and whisper and beg her to trust me. After what felt like hours but turned out to be only about twenty minutes she allowed me to wrap her up with a small towel and placed her in an old carton for my TV from the top of my wardrobe. And then I had to shut the windows to stop any more cold air from coming in.

I then rushed to the lavatory for that wee I had first intended then stayed in there another ten minutes unsure what to do and, to be honest, a little afraid of what I might find when I came out. While in there, I concluded that the best thing to do would be to keep the bird comfortable in the box, leave a bowl of water beside it and some tinned sweet corn poured into another bowl.

I set out the meal in the box with the dying bird, then put on some warm clothes, and then set out on a walk to clear my head, hoping that when I returned the bird would be sitting up in a stronger state and higher spirits. The time was 11:46 am.

The city center of Leeds was desolate except for the homeless people scattered at the corners of the streets in their tents sleeping or talking to themselves. A year ago the people were still in the mood to try maintaining a semblance of normal life. That will was far gone now.

I walked and walked and walked until I got to Roundhay park when I realized where I was.

A look at my watch told me the time was 15:34.

Out of nowhere, I was thrown into a state of confusion and outright panic, I sat on a bench and started to cry. I suddenly forgot my name and frantically searched my pockets for my wallet where I might find some ID or bank card that would tell me.

Nothing.

All went black. The sounds of the park around me were like my head had been buried underwater and then my head came out to the full noise sending my heart pounding with the speed of a rushing dam and then finally all went black for good.

“Alice! Alice!” I heard a young girl yell frantically while she shook me awake.

I opened my eyes to a dining room with a few tables and random strangers either standing in a queue to be served their food or already settled down eating. Across from me sat a blonde-haired girl who looked a little over eighteen years old. She had a big smile on her face and seemed excited about what it was she had been talking about before losing my attention.

“Welcome back!” she chirped. “I snorted” There was hardly any reason to be excited to come back to this- bland walls, bland food, doctors, nurses, and other patients I couldn't be bothered to relate with more than a “Hi” and “Hello”.

“ Where did you go this time?” She asked

“2022” I answered.

By now, I knew better than to bother asking her her name. Many times over I still wouldn’t remember it anyway.