Chapter 1.3

 

energy sink

 

A modest townhouse on the outskirts of Lockheed Martin’s twenty-nine district. Montana region—North America.

Imogen slept all day again.

After being awake just an hour she’s struggling to maintain awareness. Slipping in and out while watching feed dramas, catching thirty seconds of plot for ten minutes of nap.

She started getting sick around the same time as her husband. Chronic fatigue hardly seems noteworthy now, after being around chronic pain.

Imogen knows there are worse things in life than being tired.

A strong coffee sits cold on the table, within arm’s reach but untouched.

On the feed, another love affair goes awry.

 

white glow

 

In the dairy isle of an all-night market, Imogen struggles to read the expiration date on a liter of milk, eyes blurring.

She approaches the bored kid behind bulletproof glass up front.

“Excuse me, can you tell me when this milk expires? I forgot my lenses.”

He takes it from her through the slot, glancing at its label before swiping the carton.

“You’ve got a week. Use-by is the seventeenth.”

“I’ll also take a pack of caffeine filters.”

“We’re out of caffeine, regular okay?”

“Ah, just give me some caf pills and a pack of that coffee-flavored Wrigley’s.”

 

spread thin

 

“What in the f**k?” Imogen demands of her feed station, tapping ‘Accept’ again.

‘Error in field *Numerical Data’, reads the display.

“You’ve got to be f*****g kidding me.” She sips at an espresso, still glaring at the floating window.

After scrolling up, re-checking the columns, she tries ‘Accept’ once more.

‘Error in field *Numerical Data’

“Log out,” she tells it, slowly getting to her feet. “Infotainment mode, local news.”

Imogen collapses onto the couch, watching the news a moment before drifting off.

Reviews

[Jon Gary Frost]

highly captivating style. Frenetic in a modern/slightly ADD/caffeine fueled way. I saw this under new writing, and will know go start this book from the beginning.