Kelly's Day

Kelly never knew how it happened, but it happened a lot. Every day she was behind and lost. 

6:30 AM - She wakes up, blinks, and now it is 8:00 AM. 

Her make up was on, black eye liner with beige eye shadow and perfectly matte foundation, like she did in high school, except now she was running late for work.

7:30 AM - She sat down for breakfast, except it was already 8:30 and she should be on the bus now.

9:22 AM - On the bus heading to her job at the store, but she arrived there only to remember that she worked in an office now. Back on the bus and on her way to the office except she didn’t have her computer with her.

10:48 AM - She went home to get her computer - a behemoth with a large monitor that she would pack into her bag, only to remember that she had a laptop at the office.

2:00 PM - Finally at the office and staring at her phone, she wondered what happened to her Palm Pilot.

5:00 PM - Back on the bus, she got off at the wrong stop and made her way to an apartment that she no longer lived in.

9:00 PM - Home at last, she ate dinner and went to bed.

6:30 AM - She woke up again.

9:00 AM - Blinked and realized that she should already be at work. This time, she remembered that she worked in an office, got off at the right bus stop but walked into the wrong office, the one she used to occupy.

10:00 AM - She had not showered, so she gathered her things to leave, but her boss came in and asked for the assignment that she hadn’t remembered to do, so she handed him a pile of blank sheets of paper and left to go home and shower.

11:18 AM - The bus pulled away just as she was walking up. Huh, that had never happened. Then she noticed a new schedule posted at the stop.

No more buses that day.

12:20 PM - She walked over to the park to take a long walk home. On the way, her boss met her and asked again for the assignment that was due. But she had just handed him something, hadn’t she?

She walked away from him without saying anything and turned to go home.

2:45 PM - She made it to her apartment, except this wasn’t the place where she woke up this morning. This was her old apartment.

She kept walking, past bodegas and restaurants that had popped up overnight.

9:00 PM - She made it to her real apartment, the locks were changed. Or maybe she didn’t live here either.

She lay down in the hallway and went to sleep.

6:30 AM - She woke up, still in the hallway, and went to work at the store.

9:30 AM - She did not recognize her co-workers, or any of the products. Had they changed inventory that fast?

11:30 AM - Her boss asked for an inventory report from a document that she had never seen.

5:30 PM - She was fired for not turning in the report that she could not understand.

6:30 PM - Back to her apartment, this time the building was gone.

She lay down in the street and slept.

6:30 AM - She woke up and the city around her was gone. There was a new city in its place.

8:30 AM - She tried to find her old apartment. She tried to find her current apartment too. The streets were all different.

9:58 AM - Music blasted from a café. It had a beat she couldn’t place. Instruments that she had never heard. A volume that hurt her ears. She winced and sped past.

12:45 PM - Walking past a store, she went in and asked about applying for a job. The staff behind the counter directed her to a computer screen to scan her face and begin an application.

The computer asked her a series of questions:

Where do you live?

How big is the largest city park?

How deep does the root system of a pine tree grow into the ground?

Where does cochineal come from?

What is the square root of 54?

What is your masters degree in?

Kelly didn’t know why she needed to know about pine trees, and she didn’t have a masters degree, but she answered everything to the best of her ability and the computer answered with a big angry red X.

Denied.

She tried to ask the staff if she could try again, but they were already shuffling her out of the store. One staff member looked at her like she had two heads when she asked if everyone there had their masters degrees.

“Ma’am. We all have doctorates.”

2:13 PM - Another store, another computer application denial. This time the questions asked her how much money she made, how much she had in savings and how much her rent was.

She answered each question, but could not answer the rent question without knowing where her old apartment was anymore.

Again, she was escorted out of the store by a staff that looked at her like she was covered in garbage.

4:52 PM - Kelly realized that she was hungry and hadn’t showered. A public restroom came equipped with showers. This was novel, she thought.

6:30 PM - She hadn’t eaten all day. But every place she passed required a face scan to enter and pay, and her face was not recognized anywhere.

8:45 PM - One café had no face scan requirement. She ordered, realized that she had no money and glanced around. Other diners finished their food and just…left? Without paying? She decided to give it a try and walked out when she was done.

8:46 PM - A piercing shriek went off in her ear. Inside of her ear to be exact just as she felt a pinch on her upper arm, where a robotic needle was going into her flesh.

An automated voice instructed her to submit and enter the vehicle so that she could be transported to the station. 

Time Unknown - She woke up in a room with everyone she had just seen in the café. This is how they got you, one person said. Make it seem like it’s fine to leave without a face scan and then bust you for leaving without a face scan.

Kelly sat up, blinked, and it was hours later. She did not recognize the room. She did not know this space. The people were unfamiliar. 

She ate her breakfast, put on her make up and prepared for her day.

FIN