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Down to Denver

A Short Fic

By Erin GreyPublished 3 years ago 10 min read
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Down to Denver
Photo by Drew Lindsley on Unsplash

Thursday, November 23rd, 2523

Oh my god, I can't believe you're finally in my hands! The ink just...flows so smoothly on the thick, yellowish paper. The black, suede binding is so nice against my fingers. I finally own you, little black notebook.

I’ve been wanting to own you for years - paper is very hard to come by, so I MAY HAVE spent almost half of my inheritance money on you, for only 16 pages and some nice binding, but I think it’s worth it. I probably won’t have 20 grand laying around again for a while, so it was a nice treat to myself. Especially after their passing.

Mom and Dad died two months ago. Tragic car wreck, the whole family was shocked. But now...we’re all here. All seven of us, for the first time in years. George had to fly in from off-planet to be here with us in lowly Denver. We all took a week off from our responsibilities so we can finally clean out the estate to sell. Bethany is too young to have it waiting around for her, and the older siblings? They don’t want it. They all have different happenings in their lives, and none of it is in Denver.

Oh jesus...my hand is shaking as I write these words. From the adrenaline...seeing the drone come out of the sky with you in a package was magical. Thank goodness the snow showers held off, so you got here just in time. I bet a drone can handle any weather, but maybe not the snow Denver can have sometimes. We’ve had some rough winters, but not in recent years.

I think I’ll miss the view the most. Looking out from the front porch and being able to look down the yard, through the trees and see the city of Denver. It feels so close, the tall buildings seem to be at the edge of our property, but they’re really 5 miles south. It feels so surreal up here. Even if we kept the house in our names, it wouldn’t be the same. Not with them gone.

We all got $20,000 in inheritance. I spent 8k of mine to buy you, journal. Mom knew how much I liked writing, and I always dreamt of being able to write with a pen and paper like the scribes of the 1900s. It’s so relaxing to hear the sounds of putting pen to paper.

6:06pm

Of course I got placed at the center of the table. Middle child, torn between having intellectual conversations about the Union and Academy, but only to get distracted by Julia rambling non-stop about cloud types. I...DO NOT...want to hear the cloud song again.

Bethany kept refusing to eat her peas and tried shoving them onto my plate. Rose silenced her with a look before going back to discussing interplanetary politics. Bethany whined in my ear so I couldn’t hear anything from the other half of the table.

Charlie said something about his favorite types of clouds being mashed potatoes and PLOP, I suddenly had an oozing blob on my face. The elder siblings laughed. Why is this funny? Charlie’s such an asscrack.

8:45pm

I forgot how warm the geo-thermal fireplace got. It’s not super chilly out tonight, but it’s definitely the coldest night of fall so far. Or at least that’s what Julia was lecturing us about.

The older siblings tried tuning her out, George just wanting to talk about the estate sale but Julia kept butting in. She wanted us to go buy more food since a huge storm was coming in.

George, being casual as ever, tried to calm her down. Apparently we have a shit ton of food in the basement. I always wondered how he became a colony researcher with his calm temperament.

And apparently we’re doing a lot of packing tomorrow.

Whoopie-fucking-do.

Friday, November 24th, 2523

7:02am

Fucking hell, Weather Nut was right. There’s two feet of snow on the ground. And it’s STILL SNOWING. I can still make out the skyline of Denver, but it’s surrounded in white. We’re drawing straws on who shovels the driveway.

7:15am

Guess who picked the shortest straw to shovel the driveway? Fucking hell.

11:56am

I couldn’t keep up with the snow. I’d shovel the entire driveway and then the upper half would be mostly covered again. I was going to plow it, but we don’t have Dad’s beat up truck anymore, it’s still at the tow yard. None of our cars are equipped with the hookups for the plow either, so we’re fucked. Not like we’re going anywhere - no plow truck came by. After I graduate, I’m moving to the Parker Outpost. Fuck snow.

6:13pm

We got through only 1/8th of the cabinets in the study. Mom and Dad’s desks are entirely empty now. Julia kept giving weather reports instead of actually helping. She kept repeating ‘Four feet of snow’ like it was some fucking seance. George said she can stop being a worrywart and help. She helped - for like 2 minutes.

Saturday, November 25th, 2523

8:10am

We lost power last night. The storm is still in full strength. I can look out the front door and barely see the yard from the snowy wind. ‘Asscrack’ has declared the back storage room of the basement his ‘torture chamber’. Xavier asked what he meant and he laughed maniacally before saying “Imma blow some things up and NO ONE CAN STOP ME!” I locked him in his room after he almost caught the sofa on fire. Asscrack is gonna give me gray hairs.

10:13am

Rose freaked out. She went down to the basement with a flashlight to find additional light and heat sources and found no food in the 2nd kitchen. Asscrack blamed Bethany, and the two tweens bickered back and forth for ten minutes while George and Xaiver checked. There was never food - George was just an idiot.

He went into survival mode and began blocking out the windows to keep heat in. Rose and Xavier are helping to ration the food supply. And guess who got volun-told to keep the two youngest from getting into a spitting contest?

If either of them try anything, I’ll spit in their next meal.

3:34pm

Updates:

- Cellular data is also fucking broken. Julia thinks it might’ve been a solar flare, but who really knows. Storm is still raging.

- Xavier found an antique ham radio in the basement. He’s gonna try and fuck with it to see if he can get a signal.

- Rose assumed I would like playing dollhouse with Bethany. Sick of being the awkward middle child that’s “too young for the adults” but “too old for toys”. Bite me.

4:15pm

Nothing new ye

5pm-ish?

My watch is dea

Right Before Dinner

I swear to fucking god if I have to play barbies one more time I’m getting Asscrack to destroy them.

69:69pm hehe

“Asscrack” wuz here >:)

Sunday, November 26th, 2523

Morning

I don’t want to touch another barbie again. I’m 21, a senior at the Academy, for once can I have a place wi

I Think 20 Minutes Later

JESUS FUCK. That goddamn asshole of an idiot put 8 pounds of black powder, into a bunch of thermoses, tossed it into the basement well, and it blew through FOUR FUCKING FLOORS OF CONCRETE HOUSE. There’s a hole in the roof. The fucking ROOF. There’s shrapnel in the dining room table. And it’s FOUR FEET FROM THE FUCKING HOLE. Asscrack is screaming that he can’t hear anything. I don’t care if the kid went fucking deaf, I could’ve fucking died. He’s probably embellishing, that little shit. I swear to fucking god if I pick the shortest straw to patch the roof.

Fuck Time.

Guess who picked the shortest straw to patch the fucking roof.

Probably High Noon

Guess who found the charred remains of a Barbie on the roof?

Afternoonish

Stop screaming

We’re rationing food

Only until we get help

No, not sure. Xavier is working on radio

You’re not eating any of us

After Dinner

So Asscrack really wasn’t lying about being deaf. Don’t wanna write too much, he might see it when we use to communicate again. I’m glad I’m not in his shoes - kid’s only 14 and might be permanently deaf. He’s still screaming. Can’t imagine what it’s like to have the last sounds you hear of your family be arguing. He can’t either, but he hasn’t admitted to giving a shit.

Nighttime

Guess who said no to playing barbies and locked themself in their room for three hours instead? Or, it felt like three hours. I don’t fucking care.

Monday, November 27th, 2523

Late Morning

Woke up to screaming in the living room. Xavier and Asscrack got into a huge argument.

Xavier and George gave up on trying to get a determined signal, they just want the damn radio to make noise. None of us heard anything - most of us were still asleep - but Asscrack flipped the fuck out. He was screaming that the pitch hurt his ears, even though X+G heard nothing. Asscrack was throwing and breaking plates and threatened to blow his shit to Denver.

After Lunch

So Xavier agreed to have his shit blown to Denver. I don’t know what’s happening, but it’s involving some tape, fireworks, a tube, it’s going to make a beeping noise and we’re going to use paper to communicate.

After Dinner

Bethany has less energy than usual. She’d normally bang on the door obnoxiously to get me to come play but...she just knocks three times before giving up. The rationing is taking a toll on her.

Asscrack and Xavier are working on the rocket launching....thing downstairs. George is supervising. Rose is playing ‘translator’ between the men and Asscrack. She always had a special touch with him.

George explained that we need this rocket built ASAP as possible. Yeah George, good grammar there. We’ll have to ration our food into smaller chunks if we can’t get it working.

Late Night

I was about to fall asleep when Julia shouted through the house. X+C were still working and she started screaming about her meteorology encyclopedia. Apparently she bought that thing with her inheritance money - $14,000 for a massive textbook - but it has formulas for calculating wind speed and launch velocity. So now the three of them are on a mission.

Bethany asked to cuddle for warmth. I obliged. So long as no barbies were mentioned. She agreed.

Tuesday, November 28th, You Know the Year

Morning

They wanted to rip pages out of you!! I paid $8,000 of my $20,000 inheritance for you, I won’t give you up that easily!

Why can’t we use the textbook?? Or...find something in the basement?! I bet we have something down there that we can use instead of you, journal. For once I actually felt like a writer, and not an imposter like in all my writing classes.

Noon - the sun was high??

We could finally see somewhat of a sun today. Denver is still lost in a wintry mist but...we gotta launch. I...guess this is goodbye, journal. I have to rip pages out. We have to get help. Bethy has been shivering non-stop and I worry that if Charlie doesn’t get the medical attention he needs, he might never hear again. The older ones, including me, have been fine but...weary. We need food.

So, journal...it was fun while it lasted. Thanks for keeping me sane. And thank you for being our saving grace. For at least Beth and Char’s sake.

Your friend,

Frederick

future
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About the Creator

Erin Grey

A creator of many different types of media - including writing! Currently a graduate student in PA, I love to write mostly science fiction work (and fan fiction - but that's on a different site). Published author - ask for more info!

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