SHORT STORIES – APRIL 29, 2027
April 29, 2027
Automatic translation from the original story in Spanish. Not checked manually
Walter had arrived in Stockholm the day before in the late afternoon. He had booked a room in the first luxury hotel that he found on “booking.com”. Total would be one night and he wanted to allow her. He knew for sure that the money would not be necessary for him.
When he arrived at the reception, they treated him with the care one would expect in a good hotel. They accompanied him to the suite that, a few days ago, he had chosen on the platform. On the bed he found, along with a welcome card, a bottle of Brut Nature by Juvé Camps…
In the hotels that he had frequented until then, this type of entertainment was not found… although, the price of the room was not the same, far from it. One day was one day and more for what he had come to do.
It seemed curious to him that on a date that he had nothing special, there would be the movement that he found in the streets and in the hotel… No one seemed to be worried… People were smiling and happy.
He put the cava in the fridge and reserved it for what was to be his special celebration the next day.
He went to the hotel restaurant, wishing to afford a dinner that, in other circumstances, he would not have been able to. After dinner, he went out to smoke a Montecristo Leyenda and walk through the city of the 14 islands… He had not smoked for many years, but the next day was a special day and he wanted to celebrate it in style…
At 10:30 he went to bed. He planned to get up early to go to a Porsche dealership. There he would test the latest model in the electric range, which had a range of almost five hundred miles.
At 12:00 the next day, that wonderful Thursday, he had made his dream come true: to drive a Porsche… Until now, he had only been able to afford second-hand vehicles.
He went to the hotel and ordered a select lunch to be brought to his room… he calculated that the bill would surely exceed twenty thousand euros, but he did not care at all…
At the end of the sumptuous agape, he consulted his watch that read 14:15… there was very little time left… when twelve minutes passed he would uncork the cava, put a well filled glass and, possibly, he could drain it before 14:30…
Just at 2:30 p.m., when he had taken the last sip of his glass… Just as he had foreseen there was a brutal deflagration… He had been able to live the last hours of his life in style…
The asteroid Gog, as he calculated, had crashed right next to the PUB Department Store, destroying more than half of Europe… and devastating the entire planet, with the eruption of hundreds of volcanoes as a result of the massive impact. Walter had only had time to smile one last time, for a fleeting moment… he would not have to pay the bill…
April 29, 2027 – Short Stories Series – Copyright © Montserrat Valls and Juan Genovés