Fading Reality

Today is the day.

A day that I hate and yet, a day that I love.

I hate it for the loneliness it makes me feel, being alone to face everything this world offers.

But I also love it, as it keeps me real and alive.

Sane, in a way.

As it always is, it starts with me standing from my bed, stretching out myself as I do so. It’s harder to do, every time, and yet I keep doing it.

I need to.

When I start moving, my steps are erratic, wobbly but, just like a bicycle, my body slowly remember, and I become steady and sure as I dress myself and leave my room.

Stepping out in the streets, I walk slowly toward my usual destination, a bar not so far away from my room but, enough so to keep myself active. As I roam the streets, I whistle to myself a tune I heard somewhere, and as I approach the shop, whistling loudly, nobody is bothered by it.

I chuckle at the thought. Someone bothered by me.

How could they be?

I slowly sit myself on an empty seat, as I order a cup of coffee and a nutri-bar from the vending machine.

The coffee is hot, and it almost burns my throat, yet I sip on it with pleasure, feeling the taste of the strong coffee on my taste buds, the heat on my tongue and mouth. Between each sip, I take a bite out of the snack bar. It doesn’t have a taste, as it is purely nutritional and yet, it is so bland that I enjoy every mouthful of it.

When my breakfast is over, I leave moving slowly as my body seems to have already forgotten how to do so. But it doesn’t last long, soon enough I’m back on the street, walking on the perfectly curated roads, watching the long lines of cars and vehicles parked along both sides of it, each vehicle spotless clean as if new.

While I roam, my mind wanders.

Technology really is something else.

Everything in our world has been automated. There are bots cleaning our cars, bots cleaning our streets, bots maintaining our buildings. We had thought to have found the perfect way of life, and yet, life itself had become boring. There wasn’t anything we could do anymore.

With the droids taking care of everything, we had nothing anymore to pass our time.

“But…” some had said “there are still things you can do. You can always share your warmth with a partner, and spend long nights embraced together, sharing your love for each other’s.”

Heh. It didn’t last long. When Technology improved, so did the droids.

Humanity had always felt better in a group but, when you were left alone to whom could you turn seeking for companionship? To whom you could ask when you were shunned by those surrounding you?

So, answering the market request, appeared the Companion-Bots. Droids created to emulate human behavior, that you could program and modify to your needs.

Soon enough, even sharing bed with another human became boring to do, as it was a dirty and sweaty work, one that would leave you tired and, often, unsatisfied.

Or left your partner unsatisfied.

I come to a stop near a balcony, overlooking the city. Besides me a vending machine, form which I purchase a prepackaged meal. As the snack bar from this morning, it doesn’t taste of much, but it provides my body with the so needed nutritional value to keep me going.

While I stand here, admiring the metropolis extending all around me, as far as the eye can see, I turn my stare on the sky, wondering if I shall see the sun again. The weather has changed. There are only dark clouds, now, surrounding the planet. Although technology has improved, the same couldn’t be said for our planet. As we improved our bots, as we improved this perfect life of ours, the world suffered the aftereffects.

Yet, we weren’t worried.

How could we be, as the bots would take care of everything for us. They would find a solution for sure.

And they did.

Slowly, I leave the balcony as I trudge my way back, toward my apartment. I’m feeling tired, not used anymore to walk around this much, as I am not as young as I was when I started this routine.

Or so I try to console myself. To lie to myself.

I pass by the bar I was in this morning; the day is already over and, I’m jubilant for it to finish. And sad.
I feel the weight of each of my steps as my muscles strains to keep me going. While I keep on moving forward, toward my apartment, toward my bed.

While I push forward, sweating from every pore for the effort, breathless, my mind reminds me that I could call a droid to support me, to bring me home. But I refuse that thought.

On this day I will not use any shortcut.

This is The Day.

That one day in the year when I can be myself.

When I can live my life.

When I enter my apartment, and sit back on my bed, I can feel my body express satisfaction for having returned in my own natural habitat. As I lay down, I still think about how this Day has gone.

The one day, every year, when I disconnect myself from the online world where humanity has moved to, preferring to abandon reality in search of a new reality where their lives wouldn’t be as boring, as useless.

The machines keep us healthy but, I still need this day to remind myself of who I am.

Today was the ‘I am Alive’ Day.

Closing my eyes from the real world, I reopen them to find myself in the mystical world of Nessaria, where a bright day illuminates a sprawling fantasy city full of people.

Mankind.