FUTUREWORLD 2357

Chapters 61 to 70

Chapter 61

Daphne

I'm glad I went back to my volunteer job at the library. A person needs to feel like they have some purpose in life - some worth. Even if it's just scanning old books into ebooks.

And I keep finding the most amazing information about days long gone.

For example, when people got sick, they took pills as well as topical "remedies". That must have been mighty confusing, especially for the elderly. So much potential for making mistakes, and they did. Not to mention overdoses. It doesn't sound like a safe system, putting everyone in charge of their own recoveries. There were some real big baddies killing people long ago. I guess they did what they could do, with what they had. But it sounds so archaic, in hindsight.

There seems to have been a point at which it started to turn around at the end of the twenty-first century. There used to be many prisons chock-full of felons, and more going in all the time. Ridiculous. But then it all changed. Felons went in, but they didn't come back out. When they died in there, their bodies automatically became study cadavers. Scientists could work with humans instead of using animals. There were lots to go around, and breakthroughs began to be common. Suddenly, they were finding cures. Cure people, instead of just treating the symptoms. Of course, that all took decades. For every destination, first there was a journey.

Chapter 62

Amy

There was a boy at school today (Bruce), who had a toothache. I knew there was such a thing, but I've never known anyone who had a toothache before. Everybody wanted to see inside his mouth to look at the affected tooth. It had a big black hole in it and Bruce said it was really painful. Mrs. C. Had to break up the huddle and send poor Bruce home. He hasn't been using his tooth cleaner at night, and he never has had one of the pocket brushes either. When the kids would compare their favorite flavours, Bruce never participated. Well, he sure is sorry now! Now he has to listen to Alpha when reminded to brush his teeth, or Alpha won't let him leave home until he does.

He came back to school after a few days. He'd had to employ his tooth cleaner several times a day in order to repair his bad tooth. And now he has a pocket toothbrush with the apple cinnamon flavour.

Chapter 63

Isaac

Now here's somethin' interestin'. I never knew people from long ago couldn't see very well in the dark. Guess we all just take that for granted these days. Never even thought about it before. 'Course it'll never be near as good as it is in animals since they had it all along. Human critters started having it when they finally got rid of them bright lights they used to light the streets. Boy howdy, the mistakes that were made! Well, I reckon they just didn't know how bad them lights was for us. Guess they had to have 'em or folks would be forever mowed down by bad drivers.

And that there was another bad thing. Kids not even grown up could drive cars! Pass a written exam and suddenly you know what you're doin'? Not that they were any worse than most folks when they got behind a wheel. The drugs and alcohol weren't helpin', neither. Good thing they got rid of all that stuff. People just couldn't handle gettin' high. Turned some people into idiots. Then they'd get into their cars an' go out an' kill somebody - ruining not just the lives they took, but whole families, too.