Happy Beings
“Humans, attention left,” drones the android.
I’m excited. My son? No.
“Attributed to an ancientnamed Adam Peterson, only this porch remains from Before Town.”
Projections appear: Adam smiling on the porch, then setting up a tent on green grass with a boy the same age as mine. Happy beings.
We’re not.
“The porch survived due to the wood’s extreme levels of chromated arsenicals, fumigates that accelerated The Collapse.”
Venturers prepare to exit the transport for a closer look. They, my sad child, climb into bubble shields.
I stay behind to ask advice from long-dead Adam, great-great-grandfather to single father.
Story by Karen Walker
Image by Adam Strong
Backwards Trajectory 