Tough Times
Douglas Grubbs
In 2092, times were tough. Food was the third scarcest thing in the Former United States (FUS), jobs came in a close second, and by far, human hope was the most lacking, and needed, thing around. It seemed that everyone had just collectively decided to forget anything positive and focus on the most negative thing they could think of. For the most part, this was the lack of food and jobs.
Education and jobs were handed out by The Box, the source of all information in the FUS. The Box chose what schools you attended, or didn't, and as your choice of education was made for you, ultimately, the choice of where you worked was also made for you. Food was produced in large converted factories and shipped to each family in large quantities. To make matters worse The Box deducted the price from the total income of the household. This food consisted mainly of Grainient Consumer Product, it often carried with it a foul odor and a stale green color. The canned mush tasted of flour and a hint of pork, maybe, and usually had a bone or two in it. No one knew, or wanted to know, what it really was or what it was made of. But everyone put up with it, since no one had any choice in the matter.
One family in particular had a bear of a time just trying to get along in life. They lived in the middle of a suburb just South of New Moscow, the largest city in sector 23445-6Y. Bob Haines, worked in a food production factory, making sure the robots did their job (the stupid things were always slacking off). His wife, Sally, was forced to stay home. To be a "domestic engineer" as The Box had dictated. A homemaker, not by choice, but by the magical central computer�s in its infinite wisdom had made that choice for her and she wasn't happy with it. They had two children, John (15) and Mary (9), The Box had decided they were too young to work.
On this one particular night, the family had, as usual, all sat down at the table to eat their evenings fare of Grainiet Consumer Product, as many times as you ate the stuff you never could get used to the look and taste of it. It reminded everyone of this green ketchup the Heinz Company made just a few years before shutting down. Mary, the ever-talking bundle of energy, was doing her usual, annoying everyone to death with ramblings about her day at school. Well, annoying everyone except Bob, he talked just as much as she did. At one point in between breaths, while Bob was taking a bite, something very interesting happened. Something that truly showed what humans had degraded to. Bob began to choke on a bone from his food and everyone in the house shut up when he began to cough and sputter.
Mary, with in her usual I know everything attitude, said "Daddy, you shouldn't talk with your mouth full," but she was quickly quieted by her mother, whose nerves were frayed beyond repair after trying to replace the bag in her government issued vacuum all day long.
�Your father is choking, can�t you just be quiet for a minute.�
Bob keeled over in his chair and his face hit the table. The blood that rushed to his head turned him a bright pink, then a purple. When his head finally became a dark purple hue he ceased breathing. Moments later life left his 47 year old body.
The three left at the table all sat, waiting to see if there was any shot at his revival, but after a minute or two they decided that it was over and that Bob was dead. They just sat quietly and ate, occasionally they looked up, but when they saw one of the others looking up at them, they would quickly put their heads back down. Then, just a few bites before Sally finished her plate she chuckled. It was just a small one, but it got everyone started, and soon they were all hysterical.
Sure there was plenty to be sad about. Bob was dead. The portion of food on his plate was ruined, because he had fallen in it. And the next day John would have to pull out of school to take over his fathers job at the mill. But for some reason everyone finished their meal with a smile. One could only speculate as to why, but there was one reason that seemed to hold up. It may have been because they all knew that they were going to have fresh hamburger the next night. After all, it was 2092, and times were tough.