Next Lifetime

He sat there at the counter of the diner. His khaki-colored fedora dripped water from its brim onto his matching trench coat. Soft jazz of a bygone era poured from the speakers dispersed throughout the eatery and filled the establishment. Rain dripped off the awnings that extended over the windows. Each drop was illuminated by the neon signs shining on the cityscape below them. The steam from the coffee in his cup rose up and fogged his glasses as he sipped it. He removed his glasses and pulled the handkerchief from his jacket pocket. He wiped the fog from his glasses and waited anxiously. The robotic waitress topped his coffee off and the cycle of his waiting continued. He glared at the robot who had robbed someone of a job opportunity. He hated those filthy machines, but he loved the coffee too damn much to protest.

The door opened and the bell hanging overhead jingled. He perked up with excitement. The woman who had entered was beautiful. She wore a large fur coat that covered everything and forced him to use his imagination. Her high heels made her calves pop and her hair fell on the sides of her face perfectly. She took her coat off before sitting at a booth near the entrance. His imagination did not have to run too wild anymore. She wore a blue pencil dress that fit her form perfectly. He still imagined what she might look like beneath that dress. As beautiful as she was, she wasn’t the one he was waiting for. For all he knew, that woman could’ve been one of those new bots whose programming was that of a sex worker; they looked more and more realistic each day. He turned back toward his coffee and sipped it, letting the feeling of the warm liquid comfort him from the breezy chill that followed the woman in.

The woman asked the robot for a slice of pie, a cup of coffee, and for the television to be turned on to the news. The holographic projector flickered on and then projected an image into thin air. The news report showed footage of New York under attack. Raging fires stood out against the night sky as plumes of black smoke rose up to the sky and darkened the glow of the moon. Foreign aircraft flew through the city dropping bombs on the streets and innocent people below. He watched on in disgust as the holographic closed caption flashed across the bottom of the screen. The reporter mentioned how the war that the United States had been a part of since 2098 was raging on and that there was no end in sight. He pulled a small journal and a pen out of his jacket pocket. He was a very old-fashioned man. While he sat and waited for his date to arrive, he wrote in his journal:

I know those piece of shit robots are behind all this death and chaos. I know they started this war, this takeover. If I’m not careful they’ll be the death of me one day.

A faint explosion sounded off somewhere. He hardly noticed it. Once he did notice it, he chided it as just a sound bite coming from the news report projected on the overhead hologram, which showed massive explosions in most major cities across the United States. A strange jolt of energy shot through him, causing him to suddenly and inexplicably drop his pen. As it lie there on the counter top, he attempted to pick it back up but couldn’t. It was as though his hand had become spectral and he could not touch the pen. 

He felt dazed. 

His ears were ringing, but he couldn’t figure out why.

He shut his eyes tightly and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Eventually, the ringing stopped and he no longer felt dazed. He focused on the cup of coffee, pen, and notebook on the counter before him. The coffee was still steaming, the pen was clicked open, and the notebook lied there motionless until a gust of wind blew some of the pages over. He looked in the direction from which the wind came, assuming he’d see his date enter the diner. Not only was he excited to see her, but he was anxious to tell her about his odd experience with the ringing and his spectral hand. To his surprise, however, the door was not open and his date was not standing there.

The door and the large glass windows of the diner were gone. Their beautiful architecture was now replaced by a pile of rubble and shards of glass. Beyond the mound of mess that now lied where the entrance to the diner used to was chaos. A bright orange light refracted off of the large clouds of smoke billowing up from the streets and buildings. He pulled himself up from his stool and made his way toward the street to get a better look at everything. On his way toward the exit, he noticed the woman’s fur coat lying on the floor and covered in debris. Not too far from that, he found her corpse lying on its back. The pretty blue color of her pencil dress was now darkened by the thick blood running from her wounds. A large piece of glass had flown directly into her head and killed her instantly. Using her fur coat, he covered her up.

He continued on to the exit in search of some explanation. Aircraft zipped through the sky firing munitions at buildings. The electricity on the block had gone out. Humans ran frantically through the streets. Some were being chased by their robotic counterparts who had suddenly become homicidal. A large zeppelin-like mothership ominously hovered over the city projecting the image of a robotic face. He could hear muffled audio emanating from the mothership but couldn’t make out any of the words. It didn’t matter if he could hear it or not. He knew exactly what was unfolding; the A.I. takeover had made its way to the west coast. 

The headlights of a car pulling up behind him caught his attention. He turned to see who it was. A yellow taxi pulled up to the diner and she stepped out of the back. Amidst all this despair, she brought him comfort. Her gray business suit looked so good on her and her eyes lit up in the orange glow of the fires surrounding the city. She was a sight for his sore eyes. With worriment on her face, she stared at the diner. He called out to her, but she did not hear him. He hadn’t realized just how far he’d wandered off from the diner. After hesitating for a moment, she entered the remnants of the diner and called out to him. He followed her in.

As he entered what remained of the diner, he stared at it with perplexity on his face. Earlier, the diner seemed only half destroyed. The front half had taken the brunt of the force, but the back half, the half where he was sitting was in tact…or so he thought.

The diner was shrouded in darkness and the rain was seeping through the ceiling. The woman was still lying on the ground, but somehow the fur coat he’d laid over her was buried beneath the rubble again. He was certain he had placed it over her face. Perhaps he was misremembering things. He scanned the rest of the diner and saw the robotic waitress. She was sprawled out in a tangled mess of wires and buttons on the tile floor. She was a casualty of this A.I. takeover.

He heard her shriek from further on in the diner. She sat on the stool near where he had been sitting just moments earlier, sobbing uncontrollably. He slowly ambled up behind her. Placing a hand on her back he leaned in closer to see what had her so upset. He saw the cup of coffee, pen, and notebook on the counter. The coffee was no longer steaming, but was instead spilled all over the counter top. The pen was crushed beneath ceiling tile and other debris. And the notebook lied there soaking wet from rain water, coffee, and blood. 

Then, he saw it.

The khaki-colored fedora continued to drip onto the matching trench coat. Instead of dripping water, however, it now dripped blood. He saw his own corpse hunched over the counter of the diner. His head had been crushed by a large piece of the ceiling that must’ve been blown off by the explosion. He was confused. How did he not realize he was dead?

He could very faintly hear her sobbing. She apologized to his corpse and expressed her guilt. If only she been able to leave work earlier, they could have possibly been somewhere else, somewhere safe. He was happy in a sense. It was a good thing she wasn’t there or else she’d be dead too. But what made him most happy is that she showed up. He was sure a woman this beautiful would stand him up. Sure, she was late, but he figured: better late than never.

A bright white light appeared and dampened everything else out. He was uncontrollably drawn to it. He kissed the back of her head and slowly walked toward the light. An overwhelming sense of comfort became him. He knew in his soul that they’d meet again, perhaps in the next lifetime. Until then, he’d be sitting at some ethereal diner, drinking a cup of steaming hot coffee, jotting down his thoughts, and waiting for her.