Lucas Almássy
Speculative Fiction
Ever since the new president took over there’s been a lot less waste. People were very into it all, mostly the men. After all, men every decade always liked themselves identical. Uniform. Black tie galas, the military. Even women liked them as such. And finally, we had a man in the oval office willing to stand up for the aesthetic beauty of uniformity. I mean, think of Paris, think of the incredible power of it. Every block is the same, finally you feel like you’re in a city with a real character to it.
Before, the western world was chaotic in the worst way. Before, the world was full of wasteful extravagance. I mean, people were willing to do anything it took to be completely different than everyone else, to the point it was perhaps a mental disability. I felt bad for all those “gays” as the machos say with such ease, all those people who felt like they needed to dress a certain way, fill their decaying apartment with signs of their personality.
That’s all it ever was to a lot of us, signs of personality. All those products you could buy. Before, you could look at a lamp online and take as many hours as you’d like to decide what color it should be. But then you’d think to yourself, well if I make that blue then it’s going to match my blue rug, and is that really the kind of guy I wanna be, a blue lamp, blue rug kinda guy? It was all a waste of time. So all I can say is thank God, we don’t have to make such childish decisions anymore. A lamp is now a lamp. Simple as that, there aren’t a million different types, colors, textures, vibes. Nope we can finally “move on from aesthetics,” as the president said so simply.
My mother wasn’t too keen on the new normal. Not at all. She loved weird things. She was weird, I’ll be honest. She loved to chat to any other oldie at the supermarket, I mean you can still do that, but she doesn’t anymore. Thankfully. It was honestly so embarrassing.
I don’t know why I am writing about my life like this to you other than for posterity. Perhaps there’s something useful in the notion of remembrance. Maybe I'm just seriously bored. But I’ll tell you what, I’m darn happy about this new United States we live in. So happy. Okay maybe happy isn’t the right world but comfortable. There’s less noise.
The president and all those politicians and entertainers and ecologists banded together to do something at some summit in New York City to say there are too many products, fashion is making so many variations of the same thing and people are competing for the best style for no reason. We are all in competition and it shouldn’t be so. I agreed of course. But there were always those softies. Those kids-at-heart, who didn’t think a consolidation of style was quite such a nice idea, they liked their “freedom of expression” they called it. But really all it was, was an excuse to be wasteful. Like if you really want to express yourself, you should use your words, your hands, your communicative faculties, God-given. Don’t depend on consumables to express yourself. Now that we have this simplified wardrobe, we are finally at a point where if you want to be different, you’ve got to BE different. By something you say or do. “Actions not image” the president said, that was the true American way. Kinda like a cowboy.
My mother’s got all these earrings that are practically worthless. I feel bad, she only wears them in the house. With the windows closed. It reminds her of those crazy days, when you could go to the mall and pursue thousands of different pieces of jewelry from hundreds of different companies. It always made me nervous.
It made me very sad. To see all of us spending crazy amounts of money just to look a certain way. But at the end of the day, it's your eyes, your face that says everything. And when my mom wears her earrings, some with turquoise, glossy stones, which always had this peculiar way of calming a room, or some that hung low and were always kinda distracting. And she smiled so much more when she wore them, that’s nice.
We’re no longer allowed to wear those things, especially in public. Which is honestly good, because it’s less of a burden on others. It was a fucking burden to have to greet people who are obviously wearing a new shirt, and I’m sure they were waiting for me to comment on it. Praying that they would be seen by their favorite person, wasting everyone else’s time.
But something really pissed me off today, as we were in class. Someone was doodling. I mean I’m not usually bothered by it. There’s always been artists seems to piss off those really into this new normal. But what’s life for, I always say, than to enjoy it. Some enjoy it by doing art. Such a weird thing to do honestly. Like just get money and travel to different places. Get money and go on dates. Our selves are the greatest work of art there is. No need to start over with a piece of paper and a pen, or a canvas and a paintbrush. But this girl was drawing in class, and it got me wishing I knew a little bit more about her. But she didn’t know I could see. I was sitting behind and to the right of her, and I don’t think she heard me come in. I like to be very quiet, it’s very respectful I think, but this time I was so invisible, I saw some things I maybe shouldn’t have.
She was drawing flowers and rays like the sun coming out of it. And the rays gravitated back to other objects. It was kind of cool honestly. Felt like she was drawing some mathematical, geometrical code. Some way of understanding magnetic forces.
I’m so anxious about talking to women like that. Like, in the before time I could say, I like your shirt, or do you have the time. But neither are applicable. I don’t expect you to understand but it makes me very anxious to strike up a conversation. She would think I’m a creep, which most would say I am.
I’d like to get to know a lot of people now. Now that we all look more or less the same, the government took all of our belongings and replaced them with the American standards. I still have this necklace, and I’d like to give it to someone. It’s totally a federal crime but fuck it. You know. It would be pretty romantic.
I walked from school today and saw another protest that ended quick. People took branches off the tree and held them over their head screaming, “We are human. We want freedom.” A classic line that makes no sense, so backwards… We ARE free, and more free than ever before. They just miss their orange tie or their favorite slippers. Like c’mon grow up. They even looked like children out on the campus plaza, just screaming and dancing and holding a crown of leaves and branches. Like antlers or something. Some cult shit that is just so embarrassing.
This necklace I have is honestly not the only thing I have from before this new normal. I have a tattoo.
Thankfully I made it to the good old United States a little unorthodox and didn’t get a body check and tattoo removal like everyone else. I made it by boat and thankfully came in with the secretary of state who said I was good to the TSA. They didn’t doubt her, and I was thankful. I mean she didn’t and still doesn’t know I have this bloody tattoo. My friend back home in Argentina gave it too me. It’s a circle inscribed with a square. I always like that da vinci drawing of the man with his arms up and one foot out. Anyway, I’m getting beside the point. I’m here in the United States because my dad is an astrophysicist and made it here in our little sea voyage. Pretty sick. But I can’t tell anyone.
Without all our things of the past. Consumption went to an all-time low, of course. China’s economy plummeted. Countless factories shut down for good, and most were reinstated to produce the state-sanctioned products.
I don’t have a good way to give this girl a gift. I gotta do what I’ve never been good at, but ought to improve upon: good old conversation. People don’t respond to be talked to unless you know their name and address them. So I went with a particularly rude method, I lightly kicked her table leg and said, “what are you drawing?”
“Nothing that concerns you,” she said. And oh man that killed me. I almost left it at that but continued “it looks nice, is it for magnetics?” And she looked at me smiled from one side of her face, closest to mine and said “sure, lets say that.” And with that I invited her to this party my mom was throwing but honestly probably shouldn’t have because parties nowadays are dangerous. People might see some stuff they shouldn’t. We all have things we aren’t allowed to show in public. So, when the inside of your home becomes public, so to speak, it becomes a problem.