Special Delivery by Maddie Engelfried

Posted by Nicky Drayden on Oct 10, 2014 in Writer's Life

Bikes in Space
http://takingthelane.com/product/bikes-in-space/
(Disclaimer, I have a story that also appears in this issue. Any typos in the story sample are mine.)

 

In this little flash piece, we get a slice of life story of a girl with a bike route on the moon. “Newspaper delivery on the moon?”  I’m sure you’re asking yourself. But in the moon town of Summersville, Last Haven of Small Town America, people pay a hefty price to keep up appearances of a nostalgic time that none of them had actually lived through.

But delivering newspapers wasn’t a bad job. The ad on the telescreen had specified that a paperboy was wanted, but once the committee in charge of the town had seen how she could ride, they hired her immediately. They had given her the bike, to which she had made a few discreet modifications. They cautioned her about “maintaining authenticity,” but the adjustments were almost invisible to the untrained eye, and anyway no one was awake during her shifts.

This piece does its job at making the reader feel nostalgia for a simpler time. I remember my parents getting their news from the paper, instead of me getting it from a screen. I don’t have a robot to do my lawn…yet…but that day is already here. This story is a simple one, but it’s also a refreshing view of our future. Will there be towns like this on the moon? Will we ever revert to a simpler time, and give up the luxuries of technology,  just for the pleasure of it all?

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