Day Ten

Monday, January 29, 2018

Why do people say, “Excuse my French,” before they cuss? It doesn’t make any sense. I only thought of that because I almost wrote it, but why do I need to write that; no one is reading this but me, so I don’t need to ask anyone to excuse me.

Anyway…

It was so fucking cold today! Not because it was actually colder than normal, but I had to wear a dress to school because of my stupid stitches. I hate dresses, and today reminded me of why. The air just went right up my legs, and I spent the whole day being cold and uncomfortable. AND everyone saw my stitches because the dress wasn’t long enough to cover them up when I was sitting down.

Not that it mattered because Toby saw me leaving the junkyard with the blood all over me and told everyone about it, so I didn’t even get to make up an excuse for how I got the stitches. It was SO embarrassing. Or it would have been except that no one really seemed to care, and a lot of my friends had the same kinds of stories about having to go out and scavenge. But none of them got stitches from it.

I guess everyone’s desperate for news, and there aren’t a lot of good places to get it. No one really realized how dependent they’d become on the internet for information. I wanted to look up lockjaw just to make sure I couldn’t get it, but there’s no Wikipedia anymore. And we don’t have any encyclopedias or anything like that. I don’t think we even have a dictionary in the house. I had to wait till I got to school today, then I wasn’t ever able to get to the library. The library has become very popular.

But it’s not looking stuff up that has people upset; it’s not knowing what’s going on. Trump is going to be having a daily broadcast so that he can tell us what’s happening – the first one was today, and we HAVE to watch them – but I don’t believe anything he says. Anything. And I hate his stupid voice. And tiny t-rex hands. And flapping lizard throat.

TODAY, he told us that we are at war with China and that China has taken over the whole west coast in a secret attack. He said it was China that was responsible for that message on the Internet from the Statue of Liberty, but that doesn’t make any sense. Why would China say something like that? And he didn’t even talk about New York and those other states that aren’t on the west coast. Didn’t even mention them.

Maybe we’re supposed to think Canada captured them.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

Yeah, China didn’t say that, and that’s what he wants us to believe?

I want to know what’s happening, and I don’t know how to find out. No one knows how to find out, but everyone has opinions and wants to talk about them. My friends tell each other what their parents said, but most of them don’t seem to believe any of it, especially if it goes along with anything Trump has said. None of us believe Trump.

My dad does, though. He’s on a rampage about China and how we’re going to kick the asses of those Reds. He keeps saying we need to nuke them. That caused a fight, another fight, with my mom. My mom said that was terrible what he said, but he didn’t seem to care. They had a long fight with a lot of shouting which only ended when the door slammed. He hasn’t come back, yet, and I haven’t asked Mom if he’s going to. I don’t know if I care, right now.

Mom seems to not like Trump anymore. She hasn’t said that, but… Mom really hasn’t been saying much anymore. She’s quiet all the time, now, and I have to say stuff to her three or four times before she even realizes I’m talking to her. She doesn’t even listen to the news on the radio anymore.

I think I’m scared; I just don’t know what I’m scared of.




A Note from the author:
I hope you are enjoying this piece of FREE! serialized fiction. At least so far as it is fiction. For the moment. Who's to say what could be happening a year from now considering where we are at this moment in time.
Speaking of FREE!, because this is FREE!, it would be great, if you are enjoying this story, if you could support the author by purchasing one of his other stories. For a change of pace, try What Time Is the Tea Kettle?, which has been described as "deliciously absurd" and "quirky fun." Besides, it has cats. How can you go wrong with cats? Um... Forget I asked that.

It's always great to feel supported.

Thanks!