Gladys Glover
Anxiety of Tomorrow
Anxiety of Tomorrow
Arrival:
It was an average day when the stranger arrived at the stronghold. The weather was slightly cloudy, a tad chilly, perhaps a tiny sprinkle of rain, which wasn’t too unusual around that time of year. Everyone was doing their usual business when the stranger appeared with their spitfire Charlie, who picked him up on the outskirts of town about a quarter mile south. The stranger was amusing to watch, he wore his emotions on his sleeve and was obviously not used to the way they ran things. Then again who could be? His eyes nearly popped out of his head when Charlie kicked out a wooden beam and a staircase appeared. His reluctance to go down made her smile, she simply shrugged and left him alone. He didn’t know why he felt safe enough to follow her, after all they had only met about ninety minutes ago. Somehow she was the best thing to happen to him in a long time.
Ezhno:
When he was about twenty-three Ezhno Phillips was visiting Los Angeles, California. Ezhno was investigating potential colleges, but coming up empty handed. It wasn’t that they were bad schools; they just weren’t up to his standards. Running his hand through his dark brown hair he sighed, time to go home. He didn’t hate home, his parents were just incredibly overbearing, and who could take a lot of that without being on the verge of insanity? The flight back to London was uneventful and he mostly slept, but little did he know that would be the last taste of any sort of normalcy in his life. Nobody was there to meet him when his flight landed, which was peculiar but not alarming enough to panic. Ezhno simply took a cab home, also uneventful. When he reached his modest, mustard colored house something seemed very off. No lights were on, no smoke coming out of the chimney (which was alarming due to the fact his mother had a fire going even in the midst of July) and not even a sound from the wild animals that normally stalked around the home.
Neither his mother nor father answered his calls, so he decided to visit his girlfriend Eleanor. They weren’t too serious, but she was a nice way to pass the time. He rang her up, no answer. The brown-haired lad was about to lose his mind. Just as he was about to file a missing persons report his phone went off, nearly making him leap out of his skin. The little blue screen blinked ‘Mom’.
“Hello?” he tried to answer casually.
His crazy mother’s voice sang from the other end, “Oh my darling Ezzy! Where are you?”
“At home, which is more than I can say for you.”
“I told you if we went to the doctor’s today we would miss him!” She scolded his father. Ezhno chuckled, his parents quarreled more often than not and how their marriage was still together was beyond him.
Not too concerned, he said “Mom is someone sick?”
“Not at all dearie! Your father and I just hopped on the chippy trip train! Took forever for them to put them in, and my neck still has a pinch in it-“
What his mother was referring to was the new government-issued microchips that people implanted in the nape of the neck, right on the cervical nerves of the spinal cord. It kept track of medical records, easy access for emergency rooms and such. Personally, Ezhno thought they were some nutty, American-made fad and would never catch on.
“You did what?!” He yelped.
“Oh calm down, dearie! Everybody’s doing it. And it’s so hard nowadays to get the simplest prescriptions without them. And with my asthma-“she started to ramble, but he wasn’t listening. She had always been irresponsible in the past but this was ridiculous. Who in their right mind let someone put a computer chip in them? He hung up, if she was angry he would just let her think the call dropped. He began unpacking his dirty laundry when he received a text from Eleanor:
Heard you stopped by. Didn’t know you were home!
He smirked his lop-sided smile, his clothes could wait. Response:
Just got in. Be there in 5 : -)
Eleanor was a pretty little third generation Arabian girl, all dark in features. She adored Ezhno in an almost unhealthy matter, whereas he found her to be slightly interesting and completely temporary. He jogged over to her house where she leapt into his arms a bit over-dramatically. She kissed him all over his face.
“Calm down beautiful! I was only gone a few days.” He laughed as he set her down.
She hugged him tightly, “I missed you so much! We need to catch up!”
The next three hours went by like this: She talked, he listened, she would show a form of affection, etc. It ended rather abruptly when Ezhno was giving Eleanor a backrub, listening to her talk.
“Ow! Oh don’t do it there, I’m still a little sore from the surgery.”
He stopped, “Surgery? What are you talking about?”
“Well it isn’t really a surgery,” she turned to face him, “But the word injection seems wrong, the chip isn’t a liquid you know-“
“Chip?! You too?” He turned her, looked at the little square outline in her neck and shuddered.
Eleanor touched his face, admiring his fair complexion, “Baby, it’s not a big deal. Everyone has them.”
Ezhno stood up. The thought of that thing being in her made him shiver. Why did nobody else find it completely repulsive? She grabbed his hand and looked at him with her giant dark eyes, pleading forgiveness for whatever fault she had done. Ezhno sighed.
“I’m not mad at you. I’m just stressed because of college, I promise.” They smiled at each other, one more whole-heartedly than the other.
The chips were slowly working their ways into Ezhno’s life, and little did he realize how they would end up affecting him.
His frustration level rose as he learned there was no way his family could afford sending him to a college, the cost of tuition had risen too much. Not to mention he had already taken so much time off due to their financial situation there was no hopes of receiving a scholarship of sorts. Images of working as a waiter for the rest of his life lurked through his mind. Eleanor didn’t help his nerves whenever a bridal show would come on the television. He then had to face the thoughts of breaking their relationship off or supporting her and their five children on tips he earned in a diner. Ezhno was getting less and less sleep each night.
The next month and a half is going to be skipped, for it was not noteworthy. Other than a creepy feeling in the air, nothing happened. It was the middle of winter when things started to go downhill for society. As soon as everyone (Or mostly everyone) had tiny devices in their necks a new technology was developed. If someone attempted to break a law such as robbery or murder, they would get a painful electric shock sent down their spine. While not permanently paralyzing, it was not a joyful experience. Ezhno never went through with such a ridiculous surgery; he simply got rid of his health insurance and tried not to get sick. However the chips did not leave his life, far from it. On March 30th he received the shock of his life, pun not intended.
He went for a jog to kill time and sort out his thoughts, and then came home to screaming. When he burst through the door he found his father twitching and vibrating on the floor. His mother was hysterical and the whole situation was something out of a bad horror movie. Then his father stopped moving, all would have been silent if Mrs. Phillips wasn’t completely neurotic while sobbing simultaneously. Thinking on his feet the frightened boy checked his dad’s pulse. It was there, but beating rapidly. He turned to the crying woman.
“What happened?!”
She could barely form the words, “He was watching his favorite football team on the tellie and you know how involved your father gets in his games. Especially when it’s Arsenal versus Chelsea-”
“Mum!” he interrupted her rambling.
“-The referee made a terrible call and he started swearing and hollering like he always does. But then…” she couldn’t finish, she didn’t have to. Without missing a beat he ran to the phone and dialed 999. While talking to the emergency operator he could hear his damaged dad mumbling and grabbing at his neck.
“Ooh my neck, my neck.”
“Sir?” the operator couldn’t tell if he was still there. “Sir?”
He quickly turned away from the scarring sight, “Yes? I’m still here.”
Her calm voice, a woman’s voice, stated “There isn’t a problem with your father. He must have experienced the limit amount of negative emotion.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Well,” she replied smoothly, “The program in his chip keeps very close record of his unconscious and subconscious activity, measuring adrenaline levels, blood pressure, and etcetera. When they reach a certain point the chip sends a harmless shock to temporarily immobilize the person. It is the measure we are currently taking for crime prevention.”
He was angry to the near point of tears, “Harmless?! He is practically seizing on the floor, and my father is NOT a criminal!”
“Of course he isn’t sir; we still have a few bugs to work out.” She sounded bored. “ In the meantime put him somewhere comfortable and keep giving him water. He’ll be alright. You have a fine afternoon.”
The line went dead. Ezhno couldn’t believe his ears. How could this be normal? What he didn’t realize was this had been going on for some time, people everywhere where experiencing this abomination for weeks now. His family was mellow enough to have put it off for a bit. Actually, their delay in getting the chips kept him in the dark for a good amount of time. He managed to get his mom enough to her senses to drag Mr. Phillips onto the couch, which didn’t do much good until they put the cushions back on properly. His mother dumped water almost everywhere but down her husband’s throat. She didn’t notice her son drifting up to his room. The young man had barely had his life figured out, and it seemed to be falling apart. After playing some video games and ignoring the chaos that was going on beneath his feet he took a shower followed by a short, dreamless nap.
About a week later life was just on the edge of habitual, a very sharp and delicate edge. The program had taken full effect on every person owning the godforsaken technology. One could not walk down the street without seeing a man collapse after fighting with his significant other on the phone. A woman would get P.M.T. and proceeded to fluctuate while waiting for her bus. Soon enough the program would be altered so when people experienced too much joy they were shocked (In prevention of riots after sports games and such). But that hadn’t happened yet so society was still classified as, above all, ‘ordinary’.
One day Eleanor and Ezhno had special plans. Her parents were out to dinner, and both parties had the same thing on their mind. As her beau walked through the door she immediately slipped off his jacket and began to kiss him all over his neck and face. They had been through this activity together before, so that particular day Eleanor decided to make things a little more exciting. She pulled him onto the couch and straddled his waist with a very impish look in her eye. The brown haired boy was incredibly excited, waiting eagerly to see what was in store. His girl flipped her silky black hair around her head and said;
“You have been a very, very bad boy.” She ripped open her shirt exposing a daring push up bra and leaned closely so their anteriors were pressed firmly against each other. “So you have to be punished.”
Ezhno raised a brow, “How bad have I been?”
She giggled, “You have been so bad that I’m going to tie you up-“
“Yeah?”
“-and after I know you won’t be able to get away, I’m going to-“
Her sentence was interrupted by poorly timed jerking and twitching. The plans Eleanor had had for that particular night were just naughty enough to be considered a crime by her microchip. Knowing the drill at this point Ezhno placed her against the arm of the couch and got her a glass of tap water. When the shock wore off they sat next to each other stiffly and awkwardly as she nursed the glass.