The Future

It was another grey and dismal day in Cityscape, nothing ever changed. There was always a food shortage since we couldn’t grow crops anymore, we had to import everything. Water shortages because of the droughts. Air pollution so devastating masks and re-breathers were not only mandatory, but they were also lifesaving. The old United States back in the day had implemented restrictions on factories and industries, so much that major companies had moved elsewhere, mainly overseas. What happens though when those countries decide to clean up? They buy land in the cash-strapped United States. Major cities like Chicago and Detroit were practically giving industrial land away after the COVID pandemic in the 2020s. Many of the large corporations from overseas just bought it all. Then they moved all their industry here and all of ours right back along with it, including all the waste. So now we live in the worst polluted country in the world. It is a miserable existence if you can exist at all. Many have died.

My name is Belandre. I was born during the first COVID pandemic. I fight to live every day. I steal. I cheat. I fight. I live. Occasionally good things do happen, I have found in some of my scavenging, some interesting things. Yesterday, I am still trying to wrap my head around what I found and saw. I was searching through this old house that was in ruins, no food left, no weapons, nothing of use, but something glinted in my flashlight for just a second, so I had to check it out. After moving a few boards, I reached in and pulled out a heart-shaped locket. After cleaning it off the best I could, I examined it. The locket was beautiful, antique with exquisite detail, a few small precious stones. I thought to myself. This could buy a few cans of food. I saw the clasp and unhooked it, as I opened it, the room changed like I in a dream. Slowly colors started flowing in, and there before me stood a young woman that resembles me holding the same locket. Wait a minute, she did not just look like me, she was me, but she was pretty, in a dress with long wavy hair, beautiful crystal blue eyes, I had to take my rebreather off. I stared. That minute, she looked up, she saw me, but her expression was one of terror, she screamed and dropped the locket and ran. The colors faded immediately back to the ashen brown-grey that it always is. What had happened? Had I seen into the past? The past I had seen in books and paintings had all been hidden or destroyed so it is hard to remember. I’m telling you, that girl looked exactly like me, but cleaner more colorful, more youthful, more beautiful, yet exactly like me.

Guess I will never know what transpired that day. Perhaps I peered into another world, saw a different, but a better rendition of myself. I like the thought of that, there is a better me somewhere out there. In a world that had the chance to change things and did. A world that a chance to stop bad things from happening and did. Stopped worrying about what they needed and started taking care of what they had. I think so. That world was so much better than this one. I wonder what they did differently. If only we could turn back time. But we cannot. But I did hold on to the heart-shaped locket. I’m going to keep it. Seems to me it’s worth more than a few cans of food. Who knows perhaps one day I can see myself again?