STORY A DAY IN MAY - DAY 3

 THE WALK

By J. Smith Kirkland

Part 1

His alarm went off. Time to walk. He made sure he had his keys, and his wallet, and his mask. Put on his shoes and stepped outside. Before starting, he set the app on his phone to record the path and the distance. He liked to try to take a path that created a line on the app's map that never intersected itself. Sorta like the light cycles in the Tron arcade game.

There were not a lot of other people on the roads and sidewalks where he walked. More than last year, but not so many that he couldn't easily avoid them if he saw someone approaching up ahead. So many of them still had not been vaccinated. Some out of fear, some out pure denial that there was anything to be vaccinated from. But he remained hopeful that soon his world would return to normal.

Part 2

My alarm just went off. Time to walk. Do the check list: keys, wallet, mask. I really need new shoes soon, but these will last a little longer. I have a new app on my ring communicator to record my distance and calories burned. “Maxwell, start workout.” And I am off.

There are not a lot of other people on the roads and sidewalks where I walk. A lot less than there were ten years ago. I am always hoping to pass someone who doesn't cross to the other side of the street before we meet. Almost everyone left has been vaccinated. The others all died out years ago. But people still avoid each other, some out of fear, some out of habit, some out of pure denial that there is no longer anything to be vaccinated from. But I remained hopeful that the world will return to normal soon.

THE PROMPT

This prompt comes from thinking about point of view and you could use it to write the whole story in two parts.

For the first part create a character who does something that you did during that week: e.g. go to the grocery store and you buy oranges. now. Now write about it in the third-person perspective and fictionalize it.

In the second part move your story 10 years into the future. Change perspective to make it a first person perspective. And it turns out that that non-momentous moment from your life (e.g. going to the super supermarket and buying oranges) ended up being extremely important to this character.

Don’t forget to include how the world has changed from 10 years ago to now and how the character’s world has changed, how they think of the world, and how they move through the world differently.