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INTRODUCTION

  Technology had reached its peak at the
beginning
of the 2
7
th
century.  Humans had become like robots.  Cell phones and computers had become a thing of the past.

     Humans had wanted higher and
higher technology
and had
wanted it to be smaller and smaller.  After everything became thumbnail size, it was harder to remember where they put them and they lost more and more of their toys.

     In the 27
th
century a company was
founded by a fifteen year old genius whose designation was P24Q.  He named the company BioGen.

     By this time all disease had been wiped out due to the health and exercise craze that had reached almost obsessive proportions in the 25
th
and 26
th
centuries.  Because of this, doctors had very little to do.

     When P24Q came up with his ideas he
decided he
could make himself rich with the help of the medical profession
.  After using some of the lower animals to experiment on
,
devices were implanted directly into the human brain.

     Little had been know
n
about the brain before the 24
th
century but now that it was fully understood they were able to move ahead with P24Q’s invention.  They were able to implant technology directly into the parts of the brain to use it to the full advantage.

     Most people thought this new idea was the best technology ever.
Operations like the pacemaker were
a thing of the past by then
and there was no more cancer.  They had developed the technology to program robots tiny enough to be put into a hypodermic needle
.  They
would essentially go in and search out and eat all the cancer cells and return to the needle site and exit where they would be destroyed.

     Most medical technology
had developed faster than communication technology until P24Q came up with his invention.

     By the
beginning
2
7
th
centur
y the most important things for
humans were to be healthy and to be able to communicate and learn.  P24Q’s timing couldn’t have been better.

    
Getting your head shaved and your brain implanted with all this tiny equipment was the thing to do.  As this caught on, more and more people were getting their h
ead
shaved and the implants done.  Because technology was still advancing so fast, they kept their head shaved.

     As more advances took place there came a time when these implants were done on newborns.  By the end of the 2
7
th
century all you had to do was think of a friend or family member and they were there in your head talking to you.  Mothers could communicate with their ba
bies from miles away, singing
to them or offering comforting words.

     The system was perfect,
or so it seemed at the time
.

CHAPTER ONE
, 19
73

     The simple appendectomy ended up with complications.  I remember being in recovery and a nurse waking me up.  I didn’t want to wake up, I wanted to sleep.  Then my chest hurt really bad and I heard her say, “We need a crash cart over here!”

     I must have blacked out because the next thing I remember was what felt like someone jumping up and down on my che
st.  Someone said, in a panicky
voice, “We’re losing her, we’re losing her!”

     All of a sudden nothing hurt anymore and I saw the very brightest light I’ve ever seen in my life.  It was whiter than white and brighter than bright, but didn’t hurt my eyes.

     I went back and f
or
th between the wonderful light to
someone jumping on my chest and yelling about losing me for what seemed like ho
urs.  I wanted to tell them to
leave me alone but I had something down my throat and coul
dn’t talk
.

     Suddenly it sounded like a very strong wind gust at the same time as the white light
appeared
and I could hear a man’s voice in the distance saying, “Chart the time of death at 2:26 p.m.”

     I was in complete darkness for I don’t know how long after that until I heard the voice of a small child.

     “Pretty lady, pr
etty Lady?  Wake up pretty lady.”

     When I opened my eyes I saw a bald-headed child stooping over me.  She was wearing a long white cotton gown that went to her ankles.  I wondered how I had
ended up in
the children’s wing of the hospital.

     I noticed scars all over her h
ead
.  “She must have had some k
ind of brain cancer,” I thought, and my heart went out to her
.

     “What is your designation?” She asked.

     She was adorable with eyes the color of an aquamarine sea.  “I don’t know what you mean,” I said in confusion.

     She laughed, “They must call you something.”  She reached over and felt my hair like she hadn’t seen hair before.  “Why do you have hair?  It’s very beautiful but so impractical.”

     “Where am I?”  I knew now I was no longer in the hospital.  I sat up and looked around.  I was in some sort of garden and I was lying on thick grass.

     “What is this place?” I asked her.

     “Why, it’s section P
.  Did you think it was section
Q?”

     “What are you talking about?  Am I still in St. Augustine?”

     She stood there frowning like I was speaking a different language.  “Come on,” she said and I realized she was trying to limit her words to just a few in case I didn’t understand her.

     She took me by the hand and I noticed she wasn’t wearing any shoes.
  I also noticed
I was completely naked
and remembered a male voice telling someone to chart the time of death.  Now I thought I understood.  I must be dead and this was some sort of afterlife.

     The little girl didn’t seem to notice I was naked and I was surprised I wasn’t embarrassed about it at all.  I was usually so modest.

     I looked down at the little girl, “How old are you?  I have a daughter about your age.  She’s five years old.  Her name is June.  What is your name?”

    
She again looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language, “Come on,” she said again.

     We walked up a slight rise and there was a field of flowers in every color.  The grass was so green.  Then I noticed something I hadn’t noticed before.  Everythin
g grew
more lush
than I had ever seen and I knew I was in a place I had never been before.

     “Is this earth?” I asked.

    
Again she looked confused, “
Come on.”

     We finally came to the most unusual building I have ever seen.  There were no sharp edges or corners.  It look
ed almost soft like it was buily
out of silly putty and it was the same pinkish color.  I walked up and felt it and it was hard but so smooth I could have felt it all day long.

     “Why are you rubbing the dwelling?”

     She looked at me with a questioning look
but I was too absorbed in examining it to
answer.  There were no seams.  The windows were every color in the rainbow and that’s what they looked like.  Like they we
re reflected and refracted light
picking up all the surrounding colors of all the flowers and green grasses and trees.

     The windows looked more like clear plastic than real glass and I thought they, like the rest of the house, were made of a material I had never seen before.

     I didn’t see a door but before I could ask she said, “Enter,” and part of the wall disappeared.
What was inside took my breath away.

     The furniture was a bright array of colors.  There were no sharp corners or edges her
e
either.  In fact everything looked like different sized balls.  The floor felt wonderful and I stood rubbing my feet on the floor.  It looked like the same mat
erial as the windows and felt very
smooth to my feet.

     Again I saw no doors and the wall had reappeared when we entered.  I assumed this was the only room but then a wall on the opposite side from where we had entered disappeared and a bald-headed woman appeared.  She was tall and thin with eyes the same color as the little girl and I concluded she was the little girl’s mother.

     “No, you have to talk verbally.  She has no implants,” the
little
girl said to the woman.

     “What is your designation?” The woman yelled like I was hard of hearing.

     “I don’t know what that means,” I yelled back.

     “Why is she yelling?” she asked her daughter.

     “Probably because you were,” the
little
girl said in a normal voice.

     I laughed and they joined in.  Pointing to herself the woman said, “P42R,” and pointing to the child, “P63G.”

     I pointed to myself and said, “Ashley.”

     The woman looked at her daughter, “That doesn’t tell us anything.  That sounds more like what you would call a pet.”

     When the woman told me to have a seat, I felt grateful that it sounded like my language but
I didn’t see any place to sit.  Was I suppo
sed to sit on one of the balls
?

     The
n
P42R saw me looking around
and led me to one of the balls
and told me to sit.  As soon as I sat down the material shaped itself to fit to my body and it was the most comfortable seat I’ve ever had.

CHAPTER TWO

    
I must have dozed off but the smell of food woke me up.  If I had thought about it I would have expected some kind of futuristic food with no taste but they brought me a bowl of plain old vegetable soup and a piece of ordinary bread, the kind that’s crusty on the outside and soft on the inside.

     I thanked her and started eating.  It was the best food I had ever had.  The food was what I was used to but the spoon and the bowl were m
ade out of the same silly putty-
like material as just about everything else.

     As I ate the soup, the bowl got smaller and when I was finished it became a sphere.
  They smiled at me and ha
nded me a glass of liquid.  I
t wasn’t really made of glas
s but of the same material
the windows were made of.

     I realized I was thirsty and I drank it down.  It tasted like some kind of fruit juice.  P42R and P63G were using their hands and I realized they were communicating but not verbally.  They both looked worried.