FICTION
The Last Human in the Milky Way
Excerpt from Chapter 12
12
(…)
A man is sitting on a chair in front of his house. He talks to those who stop in passing. Everyone tells about the same thing. The politicians at the highest level, the government, the elected representatives have failed.
“What has happened in recent years is a gigantic betrayal of the people”, one of them had said.
“But now there will for sure be an end to it”, he added before he left.
When he thought of it, the memory clearly came back, and with them a bit of the eerie mood he remembered from that time.
Usually, he managed to keep them at a distance, the thoughts of what had happened several years earlier, before and during the great pandemic. In several countries there had been unrest, with wild demonstrations, and there was a tendency for serious uprisings. Groups of protesters, and sometimes larger crowds, took to the streets protesting against the restrictions imposed by the authorities in the more and less successful attempts to control the pandemic.
The many restrictions had placed uncomfortable restrictions on people’s opportunities to live a normal life as they were used to. More and more people felt unfree and, in some countries, a strong dissatisfaction developed towards those who ruled the countries.
Many were negative to almost everything that came from the government. One consequence of this was that one could observe increasing use of threats against politicians and their families, and this led many to resign from political and public office, some because they were tired and weary, others because of the threats that they perceived as very real.
In some countries, most people were able to see what was happening, and many engaged in counter-demonstrations and rallied around the democratic institutions. In other countries, developments were much more disturbing.
There was war out in the community. And there was war inside the houses, between those who were at home.
People who had chosen each other, had chosen to live together, and then everything goes wrong, everything becomes difficult.
He thought of her. Why she had been the way she was. Why did she act the way she did? And he himself — why did he act the way he did?
The last — he knew the answer to the question. He acted the way he did, intuitively, the way he felt was best for him.
He had loved her. And maybe he did. Yes, it was certain, he did. But then something came in the way.
Why did he love her? Was it because of what he got from her, what she gave him and he gave her? Was it his feelings, this good feeling of belonging together with her?
What had caused that change? What had happened when it changed? The change came when he slipped away from the positive, where he had a sense of owning something valuable and rare together with her. He suspected she had felt the same way. She had suddenly turned away from him. What was it about? It was an emotion; it was that he had no longer been the one he had been used to thinking he was.
(…)
The author is currently reviewing, rewriting, and editing the manuscript for the novel The Last Human in the Milky Way. Excerpts from selected chapters will be published as previews on Medium.
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