Horizons: A collection of science fiction short stories by Nolan Edrik

Author:Nolan Edrik [Edrik, Nolan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-08-05T23:00:00+00:00

Where We Left Off

Nora returned from her shift volunteering at the career center to find Austin sprawled face-up in their backyard, the pointed crown of their Ganesh statue driven deep into the nape of his neck. His eyes and mouth had frozen open in shock. His skin was marbled and blue.

Nora dropped her purse and sprinted into the house to grab the bot pack from the medicine cabinet. She raced back to the garden and knelt beside him, not caring about the black soil staining her dress pants. After dislodging the statue from his brainstem, she opened the pack, hit the activation button, and dumped the glistening metallic dust into the wound, all while trying not to notice the pleading stare in his clouded eyes.

She cradled his head in her lap and rocked herself. Judging by the ladder splitting the juniper bushes and the watering can floating in the koi pond, she guessed he’d been climbing to their roof garden to water the zinnias.

After five minutes with no improvement, she called an ambulance.

She could already hear the voices at his first-life memorial.

He was so young, just 106.

They’d only been married for forty years. And they didn’t even have their kid yet.

Thank goodness they could afford backups. Bet he’ll want to buy some InCase stock after this mess.

No one would know about the excruciating choice he’d stuck her with.

*

She simmered throughout the memorial service, straining to conceal her burden. The guests acted cheerful, telling stories about Austin, sharing his worst jokes, comparing which of his books they’d liked the best. They munched cucumber sandwiches and cheese wedges and slurped down glasses of wine. The event resembled a workplace goodbye party, like Austin was going on sabbatical and would return in three years.

That’s how Austin had wanted the celebration to unfold. But Nora omitted the finale he’d planned.

*

After the party, still in her dress, feet aching from three hours in heels, Nora tossed herself onto their bed. On Austin’s nightstand rested the new spy thriller he’d recently started, his own book on the Amundsen mine disaster in Antarctica, and the Naturalist Manifesto, dog-eared on every other page. Atop it all, his watch ticked slowly and ceaselessly. She took a deep breath, inhaling the remnants of sweat and aftershave on his pillow.

She swatted the books to the floor and screamed until she ran out of air.

*

The next morning she retrieved Austin’s letter from their file cabinet, poured a mug of tea, and sat at the dining room table. The document had all the required biometric proofs of identity, signature, written testimony, and video recording. She raised the sheet in front of her face and tapped the video. Austin’s image sprang to life, reading from a written statement while seated in his favorite recliner.

“I, Austin Brown, being of sound mind and body, hereby forswear any heroic measures to save my life should my body or brain become incapacitated. Should my natural life come to an end, I forbid the activation of my digitized consciousness and its subsequent implantation in a bioframe.

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