Current Event Flash Fiction--"The Distance"

It's showing me six minutes on the clock. Six minutes until it will all be over. We're all in the train station, waiting for the last train to leave. Some have been ready for a month, some had no idea that there was a need for preparation. I don't think it matters either way. I grew up on the other side of the country, in a place where time was measured in particles and not minutes. The Board watched us, nearly always. As I grew older, I started to realize that my life was not my own. My mother had put a collar around my neck when I was very young. It was a long, white collar, with a silver pendant in the center. I loved the pendant. It was so pretty. When I turned twelve, I earned my jacket. It had ten pockets, one for each finger, and ten on the back. I never knew how it worked. But my Board took care of me. I had never been hungry. I had never been thirsty. I had never been cold or tired or afraid. But I couldn't imagine my life without the collar. I didn't know what this place was when I first arrived. The signs were different. The people were different. I was alone, and the Board had stopped talking to me. I didn't know what the headset was when the man put it around my eyes. I had never heard of a "computer" before. I had never heard of anything like this, before. But none of that matters. Not now. Six minutes. I was on the street for a long time. The man had disappeared, and I was walking, and walking, and walking some more. My jacket was empty. I was hungry. I was thirsty. I was cold. But I didn't know how to feel. I didn't know how to have a life. I didn't know how to be alive. I found a woman who took me in. I was so hungry. She fed me, and I was so sorry for being so hungry. She smiled at me. She was so kind. She was my mother, my sister, my daughter, my friend. She was a girl with long, curly brown hair that wrecked my heart. I stayed with her for a while. She showed me how to walk. She showed me how to think. She showed me how to love. I was a long way from home. I was a long way from my Board. I didn't know how much longer it had to go. It had long since stopped talking. I was alone. I asked her if she knew what was happening. She looked at me. I think I scared her. I asked her if she knew what had happened. She looked away. I don't know how I knew where to go tonight. I just knew. I knew that I wasn't the only one. I knew that there had to be a train. I'm standing at the platform. There are about a hundred people nearby.

Current Event Flash Fiction--"The Distance"

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