DECEMBER EIGHT
RUBEN KING
PLANET EARTH
YEAR 2075
Ruben King wasn’t one of the 100 Richest.
Therefore, he wouldn’t go to Mars.
The King Family had been the 101 richest for a very long time, but it was set and done now; when all the other 100 were on their way to Mars, the Kings would become the richest of them all. Though, they would live on the Earth, so maybe it wasn’t all that good after all.
Ruben was sitting at his kitchen table.
The 40-year-old man was weighted, by guilt mostly. He had done many, many things wrong, he didn’t even want to think about it all. But the biggest thing he regretted was the fact that he was not able to get his children off this planet.
“Ruben.” His wife, Bruna, was standing before him. “It’s late.”
He looked at his wrist. It was lit up by numbers, stuck under his skin. It was expensive to get, but he had never regretted it. Wrist-clocks were about to get more popular now, he had heard, cheaper.
“Ruben,” Bruna repeated.
“You’re right.”
He got up, went over to a kitchen drawer. Got out a jar of pills, shook two into his hands. He gave one to Bruna, kept the other to himself. He couldn’t remember a time when they couldn’t take a pill, immediately fall asleep. then wake up six hours later, well rested.
“Are the kids asleep?” he asked her.
Brina nodded. “You should be too.”
FIve minutes later, Ruben King fell asleep. He was filled with guilt.
