Shades of Utopia by Craig Priestley

Author:Craig Priestley [Priestley, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

17

David

David spoke into the microphone with no knowledge that it was doing any good whatsoever. Still, something about it felt right; like he had finally found his purpose after all of this time presenting slightly lowbrow television host shows.

When he received that first television spot, he thought of it as the big break. He would be set. All of those years ago that gave him purpose… but it didn’t take long for questions to rear their ugly heads.

All he did for years was interview other successful people about how talented they were, their amazing looks, or how much money they had.

None of it really mattered to him.

This did.

The search for meaning is something that had plagued him for years. He often worried about being forgotten; living, growing old, with nobody remembering that he even existed. It didn’t help that he never wanted a family. Even if he did, he struggled to find a lasting relationship. And now, as far as he knew, he was the last Stern left.

He realised that he’d been sitting here for seconds, saying nothing, getting lost in his thoughts.

Dead air.

It was one of the worst things in the industry.

However, there was no industry left.

“I’m sorry, I was somewhere else for a moment.” He re-focused. “Where was I? Ah yes, I was telling you about The Stern Selection, wasn’t I?” He shook his head. “None of that is important, really, is it? I’ll say it now as there’s no chance of being fired anymore… it was a job. If you’re out there, and you enjoyed it, that’s… that’s great. But it is my wildest hope that this show reaches more people than that show ever did. And, even if I reach a fraction of the people, perhaps this can help you more than that show ever did.”

Maria walked in, held her hand up to say sorry, and brought him a glass of water.

“I thought you could do with a drink?” she whispered.

David threw the headset off.

“What’s the point?” he asked. “There’s no-one there.”

Maria put the glass of water down in front of him and knelt down to his level.

She put her hand under his chin and raised his eyes from the floor to meet hers.

“You helped me,” she began. “You helped my son.”

David began to look away, but Maria kept hold of his chin.

“You’ve helped all of us, David… I can never thank you enough for what you’ve done.”

“Thank you…” David sighed

“And you can help those people too.”

“But what if no-one’s listening?”

“But what if they are?”

David took a deep breath.

“What if you’re the only thing in this world that is keeping them going. What if they heard your address and are on the way here right now?”

“But…”

“What if there’s someone out there, all alone? Everyone else has left them, but suddenly, they might… just might… have somewhere safe to go.”

David took a sip of his water and placed his headset back on.

“Thank you,” he mouthed.

Maria allowed her hand to gently run over his shoulders as she left.

“If

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