SHORT STORIES – TOWARDS A BETTER FUTURE?
TOWARDS A BETTER FUTURE?
Automatic translation from the original story in Spanish. Not checked manually
He was in the year 2020, but John did not know… he must have been in his 30 years old… but he did not know either.
There were too many things that John did not know… but he did not care too much…
The sun shone in all its splendor; above the garden, from the window, John watched the shadow of the trees… which that day, it seemed like a macabre dance of beings from another planet…
He had been locked in that room for many years… he knew each and every corner… of the small chips on the wall, which reappeared shortly after each new painting…
He had learned to play with the lights and shadows, which were produced on the walls, when the sun shone through the window…
Only, from time to time he would abandon it, to go to the routine visit in the hospital… And always, accompanied by those monsters… his parents …
Suddenly, when he was most absorbed, he was enjoying the ghostly shadows of the trees…, a voice brought him back to reality…
John, my son, get dressed… we’re going to see Dr. Lawrence …
John answered angrily: “get out of here monster…”
She replied: “I told you to get dressed immediately… and by the way, call me mom…”
John, he knew he couldn’t win in any way, so he got dressed and immediately set out to follow his… ‘mom’…
When they arrived at the hospital, as always the same song of the two monsters… “Dr. Lawrence, let’s see how you find John today… “
The doctor said to John: “Sit down.” And he begged his parents to leave the office …
Dr. Lawrence asked John to tell him his story for the umpteenth time…
John, for the umpteenth time also, began his story: “my name is X-trop-10, I am the pilot of the intergalactic ship T-100-Q2, which is in recognition of the third planet of the solar system … this watery planet , which you call Earth … “
The doctor told John that this could not be true since, himself, he had assisted his mother the day he was born…
John, repeated the same as always: “when I arrived on Earth from the intergalactic ship, I did it with the matter disintegrator and I borrowed this body… and since then I have been so controlled, that I have not been able to leave it to return to the molecular transport … “
The doctor brought John’s parents back in and told them that it was the first time, that he had seen a schizophrenic outbreak, that it would last so many years… not to despair… to continue with the treatment…
Back home, John was taken back to his room… after a while, the key turned and the door opened… His father entered…
The image of the one who claimed to be his father produced in John the same disgust as always…
That strange being, he told him: “here is your dinner son… eat it all… and above all take the pills…”
Once the ‘father’ came out, the door was locked again, John’s salivary glands began to work…
Those pills, they delighted John… they tasted incredible…
As every night after taking the pills, John went to the window, which overlooked the garden of the house… with his eyes, he began to search… as always…
Suddenly… John’s face lit up… at the foot of the giant oak was that. That which he had sought for so long… he made a mental plan…
After fifteen days, that scene so usual for John was repeated… his ‘mother’ came into the room and said: “Get dressed, John… we are going to visit Dr. Lawrence…”
She was totally stunned, when John did not answer “get out… etc …”, but said: “right away mom…”
The lady, she did not fit herself with joy… was it a miracle or was the doctor right and finally the treatment began to take effect…?
The father, having heard the news, almost jumped for joy… tears of happiness appeared on his face… he opened the garage door…
The three of them approached the car, when suddenly… through John’s mouth, a kind of green tentacle began to appear… then another and another…
The parents were horrified at the dantesque scene, to the point of collapsing…
John’s body fell to the ground, lifeless, after that strange being finished coming out of it…
That kind of galactic octopus, he ran to the foot of the oak, picked up the small object that he saw days ago and pressed the button…
That thing vanished, to materialize again inside the intergalactic ship T-100-Q2 …
Inside the ship, his partner, Y-trop-12, was waiting for him with tentacles on her hips and said: “X-trop-10! Is that okay with you…? I’ve been waiting for you for a lot of Ganymede days…”
X-trop-10, stammering, said to him: “but Y-trop-12, I swear I was in Earth on mission…”
Y-trop-12, said: “on mission? Surely you were flirting with Y-trop-27…”
“That’s false,” said X-trop-10…
“You are a liar”, answered Y-trop-12…
And so… until Ganymede… X-trop-10, he began to think, that it would have been better to stay in John’s body…
On Earth, Frank and Maggie were tried and convicted, for the murder of their son John and locked up in a psychiatric hospital, for mental derangement…
They claimed to have seen aliens…
Do you know something?…
Do not trust even your children …
And if you are married, do not go alone even if it is to buy tobacco…
Towards a better future? – Short stories series – Included in “A lo Largo de la Larga Noche” Copyright © Montserrat Valls and Juan Genovés