What was the first book you read? Where did you have your first kiss? What were you doing when your life took a turn?
Ebeneezer remembers regarding his untied shoelace as he stood on the Brooklyn Bridge. He was nervously waiting for Maude to say yes to his marriage proposal. He’d ship out the next day, after Roosevelt’s declaration of war.
Gertrude remembers wearing her pyjamas when she learned how to fish in the Eder River. Her home had just been washed away after the British blew up the Edersee Dam.
Sitting in Tokyo eating rice, and not wanting to waste any precious food, Futoshi remembers picking up a grain that he’d spilled on his shirt. That’s when he heard about Hiroshima.
Clint remembers facing a bank of TVs in a department store window. He wore a boot on his right foot and a sandal on his left. He was envious of the men walking on the moon, with their fancy space boots.
Anton remembers lingering for hours in Central Park instead of going to work. In a secluded spot in a city of millions he sheepishly picked his nose. His first suspicion of danger was when he saw the dust from his office building rising above the skyline.
Emily was standing inside the head of a giant, concrete sheep beside the highway. She was looking out at the sky through the eye-holes as she received a kiss from her boyfriend. She perceived a green flash, but she doesn’t remember.
Neither do any of the others.
There’s no one left to remember since the gamma ray blast from Betelgeuse boiled away all the life on earth. If there’s no one left to remember, did any of this really happen?
T.
Tandi Tales 