The year 3021
I still remember it as though it happened yesterday. It was the second week after Christmas, the day I lost my newlywed wife, Jane. She liked adventures, I didn’t mind them and so our honeymoon destination was set and we were to visit the East Antarctic plateau, the coldest place on earth. It was a very bizarre place to visit for our honeymoon, but she was usually very bizarre. Maybe that was one of the things that I loved about her. It was a pretty dangerous trip but we’d survived numerous near-death experiences over our time together in the past. And so it happened, On the 7th of January, the year 2035, our ship crashed to an iceberg before it could make it to the shore and we all lost our lives. At least that’s what I’d thought until I woke up one day to find myself in a hospital bed.
Immediately after I woke up, A small flying object, the size of a tennis ball appeared in front of me and it started scanning my body, at least that was what it appeared like. I remember being very scared at that time. But shortly afterward, it projected something directly into my eyes and I started having all these visions and a voice that was explaining my current situation. They found my body deep inside an iceberg and with repeated efforts had finally been able to revive me in the year 3021. The whereabouts of other crewmates were unknown. I spent another month in the hospital where they made me watch all these lessons on how I could live normally in their era. There was no single speck of dust or any hint of any pollutants in the whole hospital and later on when I got outside, there was no pollution, anywhere. There were no screens, anywhere. Everything was projected, right into our retina. The nurse visited me, a couple of hours after I woke up, and I still retain my loyalness to Jane when I say this but, She was the prettiest girl I had ever seen. Some more people visited me in the coming days and they all were also the most beautiful human beings I had ever seen, aesthetically. All of them had perfect bodies and all of them looked like they’d spend 4 hours in the gym daily. Later on, the videos explained to me that, humans had completely gotten rid of unwanted genes by the year 2780. Everyone that was born after that point had perfect vision, perfect muscles, perfect face, perfect brain and none of them ever got sick. Later on, they let me look at myself in the mirror and I was completely staggered at how perfect my body and face looked. They had rebuilt my body. They also mentioned that now, my memory had been upgraded to 10 times its original capability. I didn’t pay attention to them because I was so relieved to finally have gotten rid of Anemia and Migraine that held me back in the past.
The day I woke up, they brought me Paella for dinner, which I loved, which they had figured out while taking care of my brain and it was also the best Paella I had ever had. The first sleep I had in 3021 was very magical, the bed was extremely comfortable and the temperature seemed to change according to my body conditions. I quickly got used to the sleep though after a couple of weeks. The remaining month I had at the hospital kept dazzling me with the progress humans had achieved in nearly every field. Some centuries back, they’d figured out the cause and solution of human self-destructive tendencies and toxic behaviors and so world peace was achieved 300 years ago and it stayed that way. I mean, all these things were great, it’s fine. But the thing that amazed me the most was; They still used the “Distracted Boyfriend” meme. God these people were retro. And they still loved and watched F.R.I.E.N.D.S. God that show never gets old. The first six months or so, they made me take a tour of the world and get used to things. I was treated like a celebrity. They still had no flying cars, but everything else flew. And they had teleporters so, flying vehicles were old fashioned. And in case anyone was wondering, Apple products are still overpriced, DC Cinematic Universe still gets low scores on rotten tomatoes, Flat Earthers still exist. Surprisingly, Mark Zuckerberg was actually a lizard, they were an alien species trying to infiltrate and rule the earth. It didn’t work out for them though. Some of my favorite things of the year 3021 include the, “Eternally poppable bubble wraps”, “Dettol that kills 100% of the germs”, “VR: Experience F.R.I.E.N.D.S. in actual reality”. For the people living in 3021, everything was normal. Everything was the way it was supposed to be. But for me, everything made me go, “Woah.”
So, 5 years have passed since I woke into the future and right now I am working as a Historian in the future. Everything is perfect but I feel empty inside. Jane isn’t here. They suggested I should undergo a memory erasure procedure where all my memories of Jane will be removed to help me start a new life from scratch. Of course, I declined. Earth was now one of the 16 planets that humans had moved into. Earth acted as the historical museum for everyone so the appearance of Earth hadn’t changed much. It was like, Parks all over the planet and everything was perfectly clean. I’d visit the place where Jane and I spent our last moments in Antarctica once every month. “ You know Jane, life in this era is much more easier and whole lot of fun. You would love the Chilli momos they have in this era, it is a lot tastier than the one we used to have at Patan. We don’t need to argue on who will do the dishes anymore, they have robots that do everything. Though, I would do the dishes every day if I got the chance to live with you again.” , I’d say to her grave assuming that she was somewhere, listening.
One day, I was teaching the kids, how we had to wait for almost 15 minutes at the restaurant to get food, that we had to pick manually instead of getting it instantly based on how we were currently feeling. They had a terrified look on their faces. After the class, I received a call from the hospital, they had been working on something. When I reached the hospital and that designated room, I couldn’t even begin to describe the joy I got seeing the body lying in the bed. It was Jane. They had found her body a month earlier at the bed of the ocean. Tears began flowing from my eyes and they continued, “We can recover her to her original form before the incident that you spoke of. However, because of the condition of her body, how it matured in the ice, she cannot be transformed to have the perfect body or face. Neither will she be able to live as long as we all do.” , Like this would bother me even a bit. I replied, “ Just make me live as long as Jane lives.”
Today on 23rd of Dec, 3026, Jane woke up and she was as terrified as I was when I woke up. The hospital room just looks very scary to newcomers. She remembered everything like I prayed, even though the doctors were confident that she would retain her memories. I explained everything to her in place of that weird floating camera thing that had welcomed me. I made her look herself in the mirror, and then I looked myself in the mirror and then I exclaimed sarcastically, “ So Honey, tell me, How does it feel to be the uglier one in the relationship?”.
