Microfiction #4: It’s Dan’s weekend with the kids
It’s Dan’s weekend with the kids, and he wants something different, so he digs up an old paper tourist map and picks a park he visited once as a child.
“It’s not pinned,” Joni whines. “It probably sucks.”
“Think adventurously,” Dan says.
Noah’s eyes widen. “There’s not even metadata.”
On the drive, their devices vibrate and chime, the soundtrack of the world. Connection, The Company proclaimed, is a fundamental human right. There’s nowhere on Earth its signal doesn’t reach.
When they arrive, the park is abandoned. The ruins are overgrown, mostly weeds.
“Told you,” says Joni.
But Dan is determined. He pushes brambles aside, and the kids reluctantly follow, each step a ping-ding-chime.
Eventually they see a concrete dome. It’s settled into the soil like a half-buried spaceship. Noah finds a door, and Dan shoves it open.
The three of them step inside. It’s cool and damp and black. Their devices go silent.
Minutes pass. Things unfold themselves in the darkness.
“Do you hear that?” Dan asks.
“Hear what?” Joni whispers, and takes Noah’s hand.
I’m Jenny. I research and write about people and technology.