Old Alexandria

Jackson walks down the road on a chilly, damp February day. Patches of light stream down from the lamp posts above but he squints to read the sign ahead of him. Old Mill Street. The house he lives in, that he grew up in, is just ahead. In the eerie silence, everything feels distant including his own feet. One step. Then another. There is a random dried maple leaf in the road and he steps on it and listens. Nothing. No crunch. No sound. He continues to the house, and waits at the door for his black lab, Cheerio, to come bounding to greet him. Still nothing.

Lucy is emptying the dishwasher and putting the dishes away. He opens his mouth and then closes it without saying a word. There's no clink of dishes as Lucy puts them in the cabinet. He points to the cabinet and she raises her head to him. Her mouth opens but no sound comes out. She slams the dishwasher shut. Nothing.

Jackson pauses and touches his ears. He wiggles them and rolls his head from side to side but nothing. No sound. "I can't hear anything." He says. Lucy raises her head and opens her mouth again, then stops. She raises her head and looks first at the refrigerator and then out the window. She covers her ears with both hands and looks wide eyed at Jackson. 

He takes her hand and cradles it in his. Then he leads her outside. Silence. Eerie quiet. The lights flicker and her hand clenches around his. A horse runs past and they both shake their heads. Their neighbor walks out her house and looks at the two of them. She waves her hands in the air before her husband, a grouchy retired beer bellied former marine steps out, shotgun in hand. He raises it and Jackson pulls Lucy forward. They run, their silent footsteps radiating back through their bones. Mr. Washington is still standing on his porch pointing the gun, but he can't seem to step into the road. They are close enough to see him pounding the railing with his fists as his wife waves to them to keep running.

 They keep walking until they reach the end of the road. Hand in hand, they look backwards. Jackson closes his eyes and opens them again. It's light out. Daytime. Lucy turns to him. "What is going on?" She says. "What's happening?" She puts her hands up, first to her chin and then she pulls her ear lobes.

"Welcome," A man in a blue uniform says. "Can I help you folks?" 

"Where are we?" Jackson asks.

"Old Alexandria." The stranger says. "Welcome and should I say good morning? It's a beautiful one, isn't it?"

They look around. The streets are empty and the houses are the same but the paint is chipped and the porches have chunks of wood missing. Another man is riding a horse in the distance and there's a woman behind him. They trot up. It's dark and the people sitting on horses disappear. They reappear and the sun is blinding.

"Alexandria?" Jackson says.

"Old Alexandria." The woman says, with a half chuckle. "Most people have left, moved to New Alexandria, away from these relics where people can live together, work the land, be sustainable."

The man in the uniform laughs. "Not everyone wants to live together." He says.

"What year is this?" Lucy asks.

"2523." The woman speaks up. "February the fifth." She says. 

"No. No. That can't be." Lucy says. "That's exactly five hundred years - in the future?"

"Where are the cars? Where is everyone? Why the horses?" Jackson fires off.

"Welcome to your future." He says and wipes his hand on his uniform. "We get people who wander through every once in a while. We tried to build a portal to go back in time and warn people but it didn't work as expected. Hence the glitch." 

"Which you said you'd fix!" The woman chimes in.

"Wait. Just wait. What happened to 2023? Where is our house?"

"Don't worry. You'll be back there in about five to ten minutes." 

The lights flicker and it's night time. Day time. Night time. Day time. 

"You might want to take a step or two to the right." 

They move together. A young boy runs over and the woman leans down to whisper into his ear. He laughs but runs back inside the house down the street. 

"We made the portal to warn people. You don't have long. The world is changing and no one is telling you. It's almost over. No more electricity. No more cars. No more computers. Everything is gone." She points to her horse. "You survive. You start over."

The third person, the man who has been quiet this whole time, pulls the reigns of his horse and trots forward. "It's better this way." 

The lights flash. Dark. Light. Dark. Light. 

"You don't have much time." The woman says. 

"Don't give up though." The man says.

It's dark again. It's quiet but not silent. Mr. Washington is still on his porch but he holds his head in his hands. His wife sits in the car with the driver's door open, sobbing. Fireworks explode in the sky. Jackson and Lucy look toward each other. It's almost over. What's almost over? What happens? A snowflake falls on Lucy's nose and they giggle. He leans over and touches it with one finger. Then he brushes her hair out of her eyes. 

"We'll make it. For better or worse." He says.

"Always." Lucy says.

They hear explosions in the distance but they smile. The world will survive, even if they don't recognize it. The earth below them shakes. Gun shots. The wind picks up. Five hundred years in the future will be ok. 

"Cheerio," Lucy calls. It takes a few minutes but the black lab runs out and sniffs Lucy's hand. He pauses and sits next to Jackson. 

"The three of us." Jackson says as places one hand on Cheerio's head.