DECEMBER NINETEENTH
ZACHARIAS MATTEO
PLANET EARTH
YEAR 2115
“Zacharias, you could at least try to look alive!”
Roger stared at his son, wearing a white shirt and gray trousers. He was upset.
“That’s not appropriate clothing for a party! Especially not my last christmas party.”
“I told you, I will come, but I won't dress up, and here I am, ready to party,” Zach too was getting annoyed by his father. He was 31, he could dress himself, he just didn’t want to.
The doors of the dinner hall opened, and of course, Annie was the one to step in. She instantly turned to Zach.
“Why aren’t you dressed?”
“Why aren’t you bothering someone else?”
She sighed, turned to Roger.
“Matteo, the guests will be here,” she looked at her wrists, the constantly changing numbers that lit under her skin. “About now. The Cushmans were not long from here last I checked, and I couldn’t see the Blairs location, so they must be in the poor zone.”
Roger smiled, and Annie responded with the same expression. She had grown to copy his forced smile.
“Thank you, Annie, dear.”
She bowed, and left the room.
“You should get dressed,” Roger told Zach before he too left the room, ready to greet his guests.
It didn’t take long for the room to fill.
The guests were mostly NASA workers, but also old friends of Rogers, and even the New Mayor, which seemed to be just like the old one.
Zach purposely kept himself in the background, where he could stand in a corner and drink the expensive wine from the 2010’s his father had bought.
A woman slipped in beside him, took a glass and eyed him.
“How the hell did you get in here?”
Hell. It was an old word, never used anymore.
“I could ask the same about you.” And he didn’t lie; he really wondered how his woman he never had seen before, wearing a short red dress (which broke the clothing rule for the party) had gotten in. “Are you a stripper or something?”
She sipped at her drink.
“That’s what I told the girl that greeted me.”
Annie.
“I suppose she didn’t know what a stripper is, did she?”
“She looked rather confused.” She laughed a little. “Now, you. What lies did you tell to get in here?”
It was his turn to smile, bitterly.
“That man we’re celebrating,” he said, before drinking the rest of his glass. “Is supposed to be my father.”
“Nooo,” she dragged the words out. “You’re joking.”
He shrugged.
“I wish I was.”
“Jesus,” she said - another old word - before pulling out a writing tablet from her purse. “What’s he like?”
“Terrible,” Zach said. “What are you doing?”
She tapped the tablet. “Just writing that down.”
He walked around her, looked over her shoulder. Concern stampled over his face.
“I’m a journalist, for the news,” she said. “Not The News, more an underground punk group of journalists that doesn’t approve of what the government is doing.”
She opened her mouth slightly.
“Shit. I probably shouldn't have told you that, since you’re part of the government-”
“No, no,” Zach crimed in. “I’m not part part of… of this, I hate my father, remember?”
“Well then…”
“What does punk mean?” he asked. “I haven’t heard that words before. You use a lot of words I haven’t heard before, actually.”
She giggled.
“Punks… It’s means, like, rebels. Someone that doesn’t like the government. We have this ideology- you know what people called it?”
He leaned in.
“What?”
“Fuck the government.” She laughed shortly again.
“Well that doesn’t make much sense, does it?”
“I suppose not, but it’s hilarious. Anyways I should probably get going if I want something to write about.”
She looked as she was about to walk away, but changed her mind.
“I never asked - what’s your name?”
“Zacharias,” he said. “Matteo.”
“Can I trust you, Zacharias Matteo?” she asked.
He didn't even hesitate. “Yes, I hate them. All of them.”
She smiled, took a piece of paper from her purse, and smiled even bigger at his reaction.
“I know,” she said. “But one shouldn’t trust the screens too much.” She took out another thing you barely saw anymore; a pencil, and scribbled something down. She handed the note to Zach, smiled again, and then left.
Zach was left with a paper with a mixture of numbers and letters, and a name.
Kiki Kovacs.
