Story a Day

Things moved fast from the twenty-first century on. Once they got over their religious prudery, people started making one innovation after another. It was cloning organs on demand one year, extending life to a hundred and thirty the next. It seemed like science fiction when they said on the news that one wealthy old man would live forever by uploading his consciousness onto a computer.

Once he did it, he said, “wow, guys, this is great. You should try it.”

Five years after that, uploading yourself was all the rage. The very rich were doing it before they even got old.

We had quite the nest egg then, what with Uncle Walter, rest his soul, making all that oil money. But even so, we could only afford to give one member of the family the gift.

Who would live forever: Hank, me, or one of the children?

I made a good case for Loretta, since she had the highest I.Q. But then I turned right around and made the case for me and Hank, since we had less time—the kids had years and years to make their own damn nest egg.

Finally, they came out with the budget plan, where up to four people can share a space. We asked them to cram us all in together.

It’s nice to have eternity and everything, but I have to say, it’s a little crowded. We’ve got only so much RAM for the four of us, and Junior always wants to play his video games. Plus, no one wants to listen to you when you’re not even human, so we’ve only got each other.

Maybe when we make our next big break, we can afford a bigger place.

images: Savannah Grandfather on flickr, estherase on flickr.