alternative futures: baby's gotta breathe

20 Nov 2018

first sci-fi i've written in a while, but it's been on my mind a lot. this story is informed by the 2018 #campfire in california and a text conversation with my friend, ruth sappelt, who lives in san francisco with her partner and two young kids.

rush: phil, it’s so bad. i’m not even sure what to do. on top of the smoke they’re cutting our power.

lars: wait, what?

r: yea. not only can we not go outside for a week because the baby’s lungs can’t handle it, we also don’t have power. thankfully, the temperature indoors is fine but we can’t run our fridge and air filters at the same time. we’ll blow through our generator fuel in a day.

l: well, shit. so what’re you thinking? all i can think about is those tiny little lungs…

r: what’s happening with those condos? i heard the bill might pass soon.

l: oh! good eye. lemme go check…

[lars opens phone and checks twitter app]

l: it passed! you’re right. dang, the developers are nooooooot happy about it, though…

r: ha, i don’t give a shit. my baby deserves to breathe. what are the private security firms saying?

l: i can’t really tell yet… the bill applies only to luxury condos and they all hired their own security last year after boston hosted that giant big housing protest and the only buildings that are less than 30% filled are the condos because no one can afford them. i’m not sure if the firms will be on our side or theirs.

r: welp, there’s only one way to find out.

l: classic, rush. there is no try, eh?

r: baby’s gotta breathe, amiright?…

words / writing / post-processing
217w / 10min / 5min