DECEMBER SIXTH
ANNIE O’CONNOR
PLANET EARTH
YEAR 2100
Annie's mother didn’t sit at the kitchen table as Annie got home.
She was excited to a point Annie had never seen her before. Didn’t even look tired.
The day after the meeting, Annies mum woke her up. She rarely did.
“We’re going to see grandma,” she told her.
Annie sat up.
“No, mum, you’re…” she couldn’t make herself say the word ‘sick’.
“I know, love, but I’m okay. And I haven’t met my mother in a very long time.”
Annie disagreed, but wouldn't argue with her, especially now that she was actually feeling rather well. She got up and into the kitchen, where her mother had made them breakfast, for the first time in almost a year.
She sat down, began eating, didn’t know what to say, so she just blunted out; “Is it really true, that they ate animals?”
“Yes, I wouldn’t lie.”
Annie still couldn’t imagine food that didn’t come from a lab, food that had run, or been in soil.
“I think grandma will be very happy,” Annie’s mum said. “She have missed christmas very much, even more than me.”
Annie just nodded, it still made her uncomfortable to hear about the past, even though the past was now somehow being molded together with the present.
They went to the elderly home by bus, even though it was expensive. Annie could easily have walked there, but she didn’t want to test her mother's luck.
Her grandma was up. Annie could tell from all the water spilled all over that she had tried to water her flowers.
She looked at them for a moment, clearly trying to connect the dots before she said, slowly, hesitant; “Amy… ?”
Annies mum smiled, a genuine smile, and walked up to her mum. “Yes, mum, it’s me.”
“It’s been so long… last time I saw you, you were just a little girl…”
This wasn’t true, but neither Annie or her mother told her that. She began talking about christmas, Annie's grandmother hardly listening.
Annie slipped out of the room.
She walked around in the halls, thought about her promise, her quest. It took her a little while, but after a bit, she found the nurse she was looking for.
“You were right,” Annie said. She didn’t want to say anything out loud - you never knew who listened - so for clarification, she added; “The elders need something to celebrate.”
“The anniversary of christmas?” the nurse asked.
“Both.”
The nurse smiled, a smile that told annie that she knew for sure what she meant.
“Well then, I’m glad you took my advice. Just be careful.”
Annie just nodded before she walked back to her mum and grandma.
