Picking up the phone I dial the URL of my favourite chat room. Listening to the connecting tones I close my eyes to spare myself the sickening disorientation of the refresh. The connection completes and is replaced by dial tone, I open my eyes, hang up and step out of the booth and into the hubbub of a crowded room. I move towards a group of young men sat in a circle of leather armchairs. Their conversation is about some video game I’ve never heard of, so I move on to a smaller group of Goths, but I don’t understand their language. The other groups don’t have much going for them either, so I stroll back to one of the long row of booths and shut the door behind me. Silence. I pick up the handset, press the receiver to my ear and wonder where to dial next.1
I feel lucky, or undecided, so I punch in Google. From my access profile, the search engine decides that I would like to go to a classical music concert. I hear the tones, close my eyes, and wait for the refresh, then open my eyes and hang up. I wait for the green light, as air rushes into the booth to equalise the pressure, then I open the booth door, and find myself in an exchange control. Damn it. Didn’t I specify that I wanted to stay in the UK? I hate having to go through immigration just to go to a URL which I’ll most probably decide I didn’t want to visit anyway. The black-uniformed officers of the Austrian immigration authority don’t even look up from the queue of patiently waiting immigrants queuing to access the immigration booths on the other side of the exchange. I guess they see this all the time. I step back into the booth. Luckily, an incomplete refresh won’t get charged to my Skype account, but I can’t afford to spend all of my credit on pointless URLs. I dial Google again and pick Top Refreshes.2
The usual collection of too skinny celebrities, entertainments, sports, news, hobbies and interests, virtual worlds. I select hobbies and interests. Video games, fishing, hiking, woodworking, chess… Hiking? I wonder what that is. I decide to check it out. No, I don’t need instructions or an introductory tutorial, let’s get on with it. I punch in the URL and refresh at the hiking booth. It smells odd, slightly damp, and looks dirty too. I open the door and am lashed by the air from a powerful, cold fan. No wait, it’s the wind…I’m outdoors. I’ve not been outdoors in years. There are several pairs of cumbersome and dirty looking shoes nearby. I wonder why I’d need them…3
I stroll outside the booth and can’t see anyone. There’s a street, covered in messy looking plants, shifting in the wind. Ahead and to the right there are some green hills stretching into the distance, and to the left side there are some buildings. I’m not exactly dressed to be outdoors, I wasn’t planning on going to a beach or visiting a volcano or going to a zoo or something. So, I stroll towards the buildings. I don’t think I’ve walked this far in one go for a long time, and I’m soon out of breath. Besides, all those plants on the ground make the floor very uneven and I keep stubbing my toes.4
I arrive at the first building, but it’s in a bad state of disrepair, and all boarded up. It looks like an old house, but I’m not really sure. The next building is much the same, and several after that. Then there’s one with the word’s “Ash Hill Corner Shop” flaking away from a board above the large front window. It looks empty. Then there’s another with “Travel Agency” painted on it. I’ve no idea what a Travel Agency is; it contains nothing but a few old bits of furniture and jumbled piles of old papers.5
I hear a door opening, back at the row of booths, a thin old man staggers out. He’s wearing outdoor protective clothing, but is shielding his eyes from the daylight. He rubs the netlag from his eyes. I guess he couldn’t sleep wherever he lives and travelled to somewhere dayside to enjoy his insomniac hobby. As I watch, he pulls on a pair of the over-sized shoes and straps them tightly in place. Then he heads for the hills. Seeing the way he’s dressed, I realize how cold I feel, like I’ve been standing too close to air conditioning for too long.6
I turn back to look at the street and notice further along something that I think my parents called a “car” or something. I think people used to travel in them before the Personal Telephone Refresh (PTR). I walk up to the car and peer inside. It has four seats, all very close together. It sure looks cramped. I wonder how long people used to spend together in them. Ten seconds, maybe twenty or thirty. Just to get somewhere! Maybe they even spent minutes in them. That would be so dull. I try to imagine sitting in the car. I think people must have been a lot skinnier back in those days.7
Then I notice the low, buzzing hum. It’s coming from the other side of the road. There are more abandoned buildings, and some strange structure with a wide open forecourt, under a tall, flat roof held up by some thin pillars. It has “Mason’s Garage” written across the edge of the roof. And just a little further along, is the cleanest, freshest building of all. It’s mostly white and has some clean, blue signs on it. I approach it, and see that it belongs to Earth Telecom Corporation – the organisation that took over the PTR licence after its inventors were sued into bankruptcy following the crime wave that followed its first release. The building emanates power and activity, despite its lack of windows or doors. I walk around the building until eventually I find a door. It opens readily enough, and I squeeze in through the narrow doorway, taking a moment to rest and get the warmth back into my arms and legs. I can hear people, machinery and music, and head towards the sounds of activity. After a couple more doors, and being told I was in a restricted area by a technician wearing a Yahoo! t-shirt from before the take over by Earth Telecom Corporation, I find myself in the familiar environment of a telephone exchange. I head straight for the booths, dial my home page and close my eyes.8
After taking an extra warm shower, I realise just how badly my feet hurt. I put my feet up and dial up a pizza delivery for tonight’s dinner. As it shimmers into view from the phone portal, I reflect on the day’s URLs. Rubbing the soles of my feet to take away the pain, I add an entry to my Google profile, “Reminder to self – study some history. And, no more hiking!”
A contest entry
- The Pot Of Stew: A Mixture of Here and There by Miss Hanako Cullen.
294 points, ended February 22, 2008, 37 entries
• next story in this contest, remove from contest - Calling all Scifi people out there! by RxxSpiritWolfxxJ.
100 points, ended March 10, 2008, 10 entries
• next story in this contest, remove from contest - Originals.....:) by Reaver.
250 points, ended May 24, 2008, 10 entries
• next story in this contest, remove from contest - Quick Quickies: Science Fiction by tallblondie.
210 points, ended July 13, 2008, 14 entries
Honorable mention
• next story in this contest, remove from contest - Throw Your Weight Around by MessOfADreamer.
225 points, ended August 25, 2008, 7 entries
• next story in this contest, remove from contest
Comments
1 - 17 of 17
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Oh, cool! Very Matrix. I like the detail of pressure equalization. That was really cool. Refresh, indeed.
I didn't realize the dude was fat till he tried to get through the "narrow" door to the building.
Why are there outer doors anyway? Building code habit?
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I really like this =D it looks like a really good starting idea for a full story, and I'd love to read it if you ever decided to turn it into one =D having said that, it's kinda nice just as a little, unique piece in itself.
Your description was great, and I liked your character's curiosity, it really pulls the reader in with him. It's also nice to see that there was at least one guy still up for some exercise XD
Very cool =D
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Clever
A nice clever approach to story telling. Apparently teleporting has no weight limitations, which is a good thing for most americans. Good job.
beginning: 3, language: 2, plot: 2, ending: 4, dialog: 3, characters: 2.
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This has absolutely nothing to do with the prompt. There also wasn't much of a plot, but it's an interestong concept.
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I think it does relate to the prompt
It may not be directly about being fat, but you did state:
How extensively you deal with the character's size and how, or if, it effects their daily life is entirely up to you.
So I thought it would be ok. This is about a world in which everyone is fat, so hardly anyone thinks about it, apart from in the brief parts of this story where the protagonist realizes that people weren't always that size.
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In this era of insanely high gas prices it's nice to think that there might be a new method of transportation just waiting to be discovered. This was a very interesting story however you tended to swich tenses throughout. It's a problem that I see in a lot of authors who do first person stories.
Para6 should be "as I watched he pulled" Etc.
Pick one tense or the other, if you mix them the story sounds funny. Oh, and bummer! I have to DQ you because you didn't satisfy my contest condilditons in the authors notes. sorry. -
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Tense shifts?
The whole story is written in present tense, paragraph 6 is consistent with all the rest. Or am I missing something?
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oh, how futuristic. Intriguing, and at the same time scary that we could have that teleportation from the internet. Great job at captivating the audience.
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Wow. Very nice. I really like how you make me feel like an idiot just for getting a little excercise each day (jk)
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Lol - yeah, why don't you just use the phone like everyone else, weirdo.
Thanks for commenting.
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Well Done!!
This was definitely original. Though...the thought of it was kind of overwhelming. Good flow and impeccable descriptions! I loved it...from top to bottom!
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This was a good story, mate, caught my attention. Does sound Matrix-like, but it has the message that people use computers so much, they don;t go anywhere really anymore.
Good luck in my contest. -
This was a nice glimpse of the future! Though rather scary, you definitely brought some much needed thoughts to my attention. In fact it does scare me that eventually people will cease to step foot outside.
Will this truly happen? I'll read the next chapter when it hits the hotspot.
Good Job!
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this is the second story where you use the idea of travelling through the internet, yet this time you made how they travelled different, i like it.keep it up.
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This is a really neat premise - reminds me somehow of the Matrix. I think a world with this kind of technology would make an excellent setting for a story. Are you planning on using the idea further? I don't know if you can make the PTR itself the subject of the story...then again...lol. Anyways, very creative idea. I hope you do wonderful things with it. Thanks for entertaining me!
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Very innovative.
Gives us a glimpse into the world of the future.
People meet physically using instantaneous portal to portal travel from home to anywhere in the world, replacing travel as we know it. No more waiting to get there nor is personal physical energy required. People have become so inactive that they have become obese and out of shape.
As a result, all the means of physical travel, shops and places where services are rendered are abandoned. It is unnecessary to go outside. Day and night do not matter.
A very interesting start to a story, without limits, about the future. When do we see the next chapter?
beginning: 4, language: 4, plot: 4, ending: 4, dialog: 4, characters: 4.
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Thanks
I wasn't intending to write any more, this is complete in itself. Feel free to take the idea further if you like.
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