Laura, 2049

My eyes were held tightly shut by the incantations of sleep and sweet dreams, as they had been for the past 6 hours. I could feel my bed beginning its usual 7 AM vibrations in its attempt to awake me as I had requested it to the previous night. Disregarding the now violent tremors, I let my mind's theater carry on playing the clip of Daniel Fenton, in my opinion the hottest teen actor in American cinema's history. Even though I had known this bed for more than 3 years, I was always too drowsy and unprepared for the severe, unexpected actions it took to get me awake. As the images of Danny faded away, I came to my senses and after a series of recuperating blinks, opened my eyes. Before I could sit up straight and revive myself fully from the comforts of sleep, the mattress sprang up like an infuriated cobra's head and thrust me headfirst onto the thinly carpeted floor. Acute pain surged through my body as I stumbled onto my feet, caressing my aching head, as my bed alarm started amidst agitating beeps to repeat the time in its customary monotony. Cursing the bed, I shuffled towards it and in my eagerness to get it to shut up, punched the "Sleeper Awake" button.  1

Later, I hastily scrambled into the shower and pressed the "Quick Shower" tab and let the cool blast of water sooth me. I looked down at the three, half- empty bottles of hair- dying shampoo and conditioner, musing over which color to leave my hair today. It was a quite simple task, pick a color, apply and lather, and finally rinse with cold water. Katherine had once mentioned that John had told her I looked pretty in blonde, so in a sudden desire to impress others (yes, I am a bit of a show- off) I decided on blonde. 2

Once out of the washroom, I hurried into my room and entered the digital combination for my closet, and waited impatiently for it to open. The doors swung open, revealing all of my possessions, even junk from as far back as 6th grade, which lay inside. I rummaged around for my bag, and upon finding it, quickly darted downstairs and into the dining area. My father was fiddling lucklessly with the damaged breakfast maker, desperately trying to get a decent meal out of it, as my mother scanned through the news- gadget at the dining table. As she pushed down more buttons to see if anyone had responded to the notice she had put up offering her ancient 2 sense equipped television for sale, she nodded at me and gestured for me to take the McDonald's coupon chip lying on the kitchen counter for lunch. I loved all the different items at McDonald's, and it was a great hang- out spot… it was no small wonder the US government proclaimed it the national food's group. True, McDonald's was the major reason obesity had taken over more than 90% of the American population, but it was much demanded and undeniably popular that the lives of Americans would alter tremendously if it had been stopped. 3

I slipped the coupon chip into my bag and checked the contents of my bag. My Handy, my text- gadgets, my reader, my music, video, and movie chips, a crumpled 100 dollar bill, and the car- keys... everything and more required for a regular Saturday was present. I made my way to the kitchen, with only as much intention as to inspect the amount of progress my father was making tackling the cooker. He had given up now, and was trying in frustration to contact a mechanic through his Handy. Intent on not wasting any time, I decided to skip breakfast and meet up with Katherine as soon as time would allow me to. 4

With my backpack slung over one shoulder, I clambered into the car, inserted the keys, fastened my seat- belt, chose a speed of 70miles/hr, flipped through the different destinations until I found "Boston Mall," and switched the car onto START MODE. With hardly a sound escaping its motor, it started up and swiftly backed out of the garage. As it entered the main road, teeming with amphibuses and amphicars, an image of the 20th century 'bike' came to me. I smirked at the thought of my high- school parents riding such a pathetically feeble thing on a busy Boston highway… but the way they described it seemed like it was some rare luxury. They often talked about cars, trucks, and buses, although none of these could compare to their modern versions that could run in water, possessed automatic control, and even some that were capable to fly. I shook my head with pity at the poorly lead lives of my parents and the many other adults who were children in the end of the 20th century… what am I saying? They didn't even have a life to lead! As the car advanced, I hooked up my Handy to the car and inserted a video game chip into it. My dad seemed to talk of the olden days as if it were paradise, and he even claims gadgets called cell phones, Play stations, Game boys, X Boxes, computers, DVD players, and MP3 players existed. He states that they were very similar to the different programs incorporated within my Handy, and the main object used to store information was something called a CD (he says that's basically the same thing as a chip, only chips are much smaller and more dependable and durable) but I find enough reason to not believe a word he says. I sighed, and taking the Handy's cordless remote- control, I started the game.5

The car abruptly came to a stop and the door automatically slid open. I had reached Boston Mall. I was disappointed in having to stop the game at such an intense point, but didn't want to keep Katherine waiting too long, so I withdrew the car- keys and detached my Handy and keenly stuffed them into the my backpack. As I stepped out of the car, the door slipped back into place and the lock clicked behind me. I glanced up at clear blue sky, where the frequent Saturday morning commercials played like skits being broadcasted from heaven. I approached the huge building that made up the entrance to the mall, and found Katherine leaning against a pillar, absorbed in her Handy. She glanced up from it, spotted me, and with a cheerful smile on her face, ran toward me. When I asked her if I had caused her any inconvenience keeping her for so long, she simple shrugged and dismissed the matter telling me that she had visited the library to check out a new chip containing some of the latest fashion trends suggested by Fiona Mason, the latest, most hip style guru of the decade. She popped the chip into her reader and showed me the many hundred tips, and impressed by the looks of it; I transferred all of it onto my Handy. Then we slowly proceeded towards the mall. 6

Despite the clear skies outside, the inside of the building was astir with rain drops drizzling from the ceiling. Katherine and I slipped on our jackets and burette, and switched them both to "Rain." This feature on most jackets permitted the material to absorb all of the water and leave us as dry as we would be in the middle of the Sahara. Most articles of clothing served as a heating/ cooling device for the wearer too… particularly useful aspects of clothing that didn't exist 50 years ago when clothing was worn to ensure privacy and display modesty. An enormous television screen hung suspended from the ceiling, and a crowd sat gathered underneath, watching the various news, movies, shows, and commercials that it played. I extracted my Handy once again, and enthusiastically took a video of the extravagant mall and shot Katherine goofing off, acting like a lunatic rejoicing in victory his escape from a mental hospital. I saved it on a spare chip and was about to drop my Handy back into the bag when it beeped, letting off its message alert. I opened up my inbox and found the new message to be an advertisement inviting me to an MC's store in the mall "Holly's MC's," where the MC's were worth half the regular price… an ordinary sale to promote the shop's name amidst public.7

Katherine dragged me around the mall (she seemed to know every nook and cranny of the place.) and lead me into "Holly's MC's." It was a rather small shop, with hardly a flea, let alone a customer there. The brunette at the counter, watching a cooking- show on a medium- sized modern television set, I took to be Holly. The message I had received on my Handy had reminded me that I did need to buy a pair of MC's… the nurse at school had said "Laura, your eyesight has reached the stage where it cannot do without the aid of the modified contacts." When I had told my parents about what the nurse had said, they launched into a whole story of some peculiar object called "glasses." They had the same purpose as MC's, but were much simpler in design and technology, and they had been around since the eighteenth century. My mother described that she had no choice but to wear them when her eyesight grew weaker, and she was often called a 'geek' at school, a term used back then to refer to nerds under the power of glasses. An earlier version of MC's also existed then, but her parents did not allow her to buy them since they believed she was too young and it would be too much to handle for her. It wasn't very simple like the modern MC; it had its limitations… it couldn't be used in dust and could easily get contaminated, it had to be stored and soaked in a special solution, and worst of all, it couldn't change color!8

I took out the chip on which the optician had provided my prescriptions and handed it to Holly, who barely took her eyes off the TV screen as she motioned me to Isle 3. Katherine, being the hyper teenaged girl she was, literally squealed when she saw the numerous makes of MC's abreast on the racks and panels attached to the wall. A tempting aroma hung around the room, probably the food that the cook on Holly's cooking show was making. I remembered that my mother had mentioned that when she was a young girl, the TV's were only two sensed, like the one she was trying to get rid of now. This meant that they could only be perceived by the senses of sight and sound, unlike now, when all the televisions could be enjoyed using the senses of sight, sound, and smell. I found a pair of MC's that Katherine and Holly suggested suited me, so trusting their words, I bought it. Holly packed it in a shopping bag that had a big band of letters spelling out "Holly's MC's" stretching across its top and it even changed colors when held up in the sun, just like the MC's did. 9

We roamed around the mall, spending as much of our money as we possibly could, wandering amidst the bustling throng of shoppers in all the various shops, from small ones like Holly's to big ones that made up a quarter of the whole mall, from empty one's like Holly's to so thickly congested ones that you could not fit inside the shop without having to rub against two people at once. It was a great experience and a truly relieving break from the living nightmares that dominated my school life, and I completely became oblivious to time until my mother's voice anxiously reached me over my Handy. She had used the homing device connected to her Handy to find the whereabouts of my location, and was now inquiring on when I would get home. My Handy identified the time as a startling 9:30PM, and sure enough, as I took a glimpse outside, the skies still displaying advertisements had darkened into night. I told her I would be home immediately, as I had an exasperating three homework assignments I had barely spared a glance to complete.10

I parted with Katherine, promising her I would give her a call on her Handy sometime tomorrow. Waving goodbye, I clambered into my car, inserted the keys, fastened my seat- belt, chose a speed of 70miles/hr, flipped through the different destinations until I found "Home," and switched the car onto START MODE. And as the car almost soundlessly began to back out of the parking lot, I silently thanked god for not placing me to lead a life in 1999.11