Loose Ends
Too much texting can be bad for your health
February 23, 2037— Ty had a few things to wrap up before his final exit, so he woke early to get in a full day before he died.
After closing his accounts and selling the few things of value he had, he filled a trash bag with the contents of his fridge and deposited it into the dumpster behind his apartment building. He leaned against an alley wall and stared down at his comm device, rereading the message he sent to Al the day before: I thought about texting you today, to let you know where I am, so that you could finally make good on your threat.
Ty took a deep breath and decided that everything he did to prepare was good enough. Some loose ends would remain, but they would dissolve organically. Just like he was prepared to do.
“Today’s the day,” he said, and issued a final text to Al: Jen’s Diner, corner booth. Then he tossed his comm into the dumpster and headed north on Clark Street.
It was a wet and cold Chicago afternoon. Dirty gray slush seemed to ooze from building corners and gutters, mixed with discarded papers and food cartons. The trash robots couldn’t keep up. He wouldn’t miss the city.
Ty arrived at the diner twenty minutes later. Inside the air was warm and filtered. A few booths had customers, autonomous servers rolled around, and an instrumental version of a song he couldn’t place played in the background.
“Sit anywhere, hon,” the host greeted unenthusiastically, but Ty’s attention was on the large corner booth. He expected his nemesis to be there, waiting. Grinning. But instead, he found a teenage girl seated next to a sizeable android. Ty slowly approached, fists clenched at his sides, trying to process.
“Al?” he addressed them both.
The girl nodded, looking guilty, and jerked a thumb at her synthetic companion. The latter raised a plastic hand.
“That’s me,” it said.
“You’re not a ‘me’,” Ty said, ignoring the machine with irritation. He gave the girl a what the hell is this? shrug.
“Hey, um,” she said, looking at him briefly, then back down. “My robot might have gotten carried away. It was acting weird this morning, so I checked its logs. I found all the texts it's been sending to someone.” She looked up. “I’m guessing that’s you.”
“A machine?” he asked. His legs suddenly felt weak, so he slid into the booth. He grabbed a glass sugar dispenser from the center of the table and slowly turned it around in his clammy hands.
A few months ago, ‘Al’ had contacted him out of the blue. At first the messages were innocuous, and soon turned into a friendly exchange. Then things took a turn. The conversation inexplicably devolved into a flurry of obscenities in all caps. Death threats mixed with a twisted philosophy came next, with gruesome descriptions of how Ty would meet his maker. After a while there seemed to be no escape. Al, Fate, and Death were an amalgam that eclipsed everything else in Ty’s mind. Eventually he let go and accepted the fate he was being told. And he found peace. But now that simple, clarifying truth was unravelling before his eyes.
“I guess Al’s A.I. got carried away,” she explained nervously. “It has been acting weird since the last update. I should have kept a closer eye on it.” She turned to her companion, frowned, and lightly slapped its arm.
“Bad robot,” she said.
Suddenly Ty chucked the dispenser at the android’s head. Glass shattered in an explosion of sugar. He fast followed by lunging across the table to grab its metallic neck with both hands, squeezing and shaking.
“You ruined my life, you goddamn toaster!”
Suddenly there was a cold, lifeless hand gripping Ty’s throat. Then a crunch that he felt more than heard. Ty released his grip and stumbled back, unable to breathe. He clawed feebly at his ruined throat, falling to his knees. The world grew darker. He faintly sensed people shouting and screaming, plates and flatware clattering to the floor. It all faded away.
He smiled at his final thought: Fate always finds a way.
This was inspired by the Microcosm prompt The One About the Long Looming Threat Not Yet Delivered. Thanks for reading!
