My heart beat about a thousand times per second as I dialed up his number, which I knew from memory. My fingers kept shaking, but I'm not sure why exactly; a sense of massive anxiety had overwhelmed me at that moment. Somewhere, something was wrong in the universe, and I had sensed it subconsciously.
"Hey, skipper," he replied, sounding as if he had been awake for days. I had never heard him sound so tired in my life.
"Dad, why do you sound so tired?" I asked, concerned.
"Keep this a secret from mom, but I've been up for two days straight working on this one robot my boss and I came up with. Would you like to learn more about it?" he asked, sipping presumably coffee in the background.
"Sure, but you need to get some sleep, big fella; stay up another day, and you'll start to think that the government is after you," I replied, concerned. It wasn't like him to stay up as he constantly taught me how important proper sleep etiquette is. I never quite followed his advice on it, though...
What if his pill changed him? I didn't even read the side effects of it...
"We're onto something huge here; I'll gladly lose sleep for this. This robot doesn't have a name yet, but the way it works is it grabs pieces of plastic, glass, or anything else recyclable and turns them into decorations. My boss and I agreed that it could prevent littering since the sculptures would be kept and not thrown away. What do you think?" he asked excitedly.
It's actually quite clever.
"I really like it, actually. Dad, what if one day your boss royally screws you over with the robotics company an-"
"And SkyNet takes over the world? I highly doubt that would happen during my lifetime. Besides, Maynard isn't the type of guy to just do something like that," he replied, yawning, followed by sipping some more coffee.
Maynard, as in the predecessor of the Maynard, I know?!
"Dad, you gotta get out of the company! He's going to screw you over. I just know it," I practically pleaded with him.
"Woah woah, where did you get all your proof from?" he asked, confused.
The future itself.
"It's just, you know how bosses are with money, it often becomes more important than the people. Please, I know I sound crazy, but this is the best thing for you," I replied, hating myself instantly for telling him any of this; it's not like I could exactly prove any of this.
"It does sound quite crazy; actually, I think they should change your medication; you're behaving very strangely with your current one," he replied, sighing.
"But dad, it's not th-"
He hung up before I could reply. There's one problem with that.
My dad never hangs up first.
YOU ARE READING
The October Amaryllis
Science FictionClive Andrews is a typical 16-year-old boy who never had anything out of the ordinary happen until May 16th, 2020, when he was struck by several feet of ball lightning and nearly killed. After being discharged from the hospital, he realizes that he...
