ZARY FEKETE

Alice was sobbing. Janet was gone. Alice took the injection.

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The 6PM police satellite umbrella had just orbited above the house. When Alice stepped outside she was 5 ft 4 inches tall. By the time she reached the end of the driveway, she couldn’t see over the rows of corn. 

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After taking the injection she had left the syringe on the kitchen counter. The label was printed on Mars where the preferred language was Mandarin: “Done 15 minutes.  Arrange safe place.” She turned into the open field. It took her a full minute to reach the middle.

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She stopped and stood still. The brown field grew around her, like she was draining through a sink. Quick images from the past weeks flashed.

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Janet’s mother walking in on them. Janet’s suicide. The mini vodka bottles. Driving fast. The kid’s head hitting the window. A slurry of blood. The judge, “Juvenile strayance…5 years.” The strange wording of the web ad for Q-rious, the syringe drug, “Problems shrink as you do.”

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By the time she steadied her thoughts it would have taken her 30 minutes to run back to the road. The web ad was still swimming before her eyes, “Be whenever…wherever!” She was slightly floating now as gravity released her reduced mass. All around colors rushed toward the sky as she was compressed. Tears streamed down her face. 

The last ad sentence read, “Skip the next few years…the future will be brighter!”