Author's note

Hey there. I got a bit tired of some main stream fiction, so I had the luminous idea to start writing my own with my meager skills. The story below is what my twisted mind came up with. I was aiming for some solarpunk, also described a the love child of blade runner and flower power. I also sort of borrowed a few concepts from Whateley Academy. That's why I have to give this little warning, things can get weird. Mostly family friendly, but still a little bit weird.

"Excuse me, sir. Do you have Faith?"

"Of course we have Faith ma’am. Do you want Baptist, Methodist?"

"Catholic, please."

"Alright. Let me ring your purchases up for you. That'll be 5 Holy Fathers and 2 Hail Mary please. Just tap your phone on the pay plate."

“So much?”

“Catholic Faith is not doing well in the market ma’am.”

“You have to suffer for your Faith, right?”

I watched the older lady put her phone on the plate and confirm the payment on her phone using one vertical followed by one horizontal swipe. The resemblance of the confirm movement that also scans your fingerprint was no coincidence. All the Christian Crypto Coins used it. After a few seconds a heavenly chime sounded and the payment was completed.

Our little second hand robotic greeter turned toward the lady and said "Thank you for your p-p-purchase, madam. Please come back soon."

And there goes my last costumer for the day. I flipped the sign to closed before somebody else came in. I didn't get overtime when the shop was empty and it wasn't a good neighborhood. Miami really went down when the sea went up, if you catch my meaning.

After a bit of tidying up and letting the floor cleaning robots work I could go home. I only had to reset the bots two time today. I waited five more minutes just fiddling with some stuff on the shelving so the security system would register it as more working and the boss didn't have an excuse to dock my pay.

With that little bit of acting done, I closed the shop and got my bike. All the locks were the good ol' mechanical kind. You'd think that in the year 2047 we'd have good working locks but the last electronic locks installed got hacked and the store was robbed three times on the first night they were installed. The last pack of thieves took the shelving because all the rest was already gone.

Half an hour of biking later, puffing and wheezing, and I was home. I'd rather use a robocab. This humidity and my health was not a great combination and meds were more important than robocabs. That ‘patented formula’ on the box of the meds actually means ‘extortion rates’. I really needed a chance to earn some cold hard cash to pay for a treatment that actually heals me instead of dealing with the symptoms.

"Hey Mom, I'm home," I called out. Yes, I'm 25 years and graduated a long time ago. I still live with my parents in an apartment. It was a slightly above average apartment and we worked hard to keep pay the rent.

"Hi Andy. Home already? No overtime today?"

My mom was a woman from the millennial generation. She didn't have a lot of luck in her life and it was showing unfortunately. You could still see the beauty hidden behind the layers of fast food quickly eaten between jobs. Her brown eyes had acquired a permanent sad look and her hair was grey now. I wished I could do more for her.

”Not today Mom. I squeezed every minute that I could but no customers means no overtime paid."

"Andy, I'm sorry to bring it up, but we need some more money."

"But our basic income is scheduled to increase in three weeks."

"That’s not enough. Our landlord is increasing rent in one week."

“Seriously?”

“I’m sorry.”

"It’s okay mom, I understand. I'll look around for more work."

At that moment Daenerys, my sister, walked in. Yes, that's her real name. You can guess what show my mom was binge watching when she was born. We just call her Dani. She just graduated and was now looking for a job. And a boyfriend. She wasn't having much luck with both at the moment.

"I received spam mail! It's the Nigerian Prince scam again. Somebody is pranking me! If I can find the person responsible for this!"

With that, she threw the letter away where it floated to the floor and left the room, her brown hair flowing behind her. If I had to be objective she was cute with her hazel eyes, but not on the heartbreaker level. She hated that she wasn’t pretty enough and had no chance of marrying into the higher classes of the US society.

I certainly didn't stand a chance of wooing a rich little socialite or corporate daughter. Not with me looking like a small thin white boy with black hair and a scruffy beard. Certainly not in Miami, the city where the captains left and the rats remained to man the sinking ship. Stupid global warming that officially still doesn’t exist.

Perhaps that letter could get me some money if I could scam the scammer. It was desperate attempts, but I quickly took the letter to my room for studying. If there was a chance I could earn some money from it in some way I was going to take it.

The envelope was made out of weird paper. It felt just different from the regular stuff. It was also without stamp. Somebody delivered this personally. That's a bit strange as most stuff is digital anyway.

As I opened the letter I saw it was made of the same paper as the envelope. The text on it was seemingly handwritten.

"Dear Daenerys,

My beloved Sister, I hope this message gets to you in peace. I found you and your dream at perfect-body.com.

My name is Jayamma Ọyáwálé, born in Borno state in Nigeria. I am crying while writing this message in a church hostel. I lost my beloved wife to a terrible disease that is terrorising Borno state. My daughters was kidnap along with 270 girls been kidnapped in school chibok village in Nigeria by terrorist.

While the entire world is searching for them I have seen upon my body the first sign of terrible disease and I am staying in church hostel, we are staying 30 in a single room and i am afraid my living condition will make my remaining days shorter.

I am asking in help from you in order from me to carry my legacy to fulfilment. Included in letter you find seed and small nugget of gold. Carry this seed to the place it is told so my legacy is alive after I am no more. For this, accept the nugget as sign of my appreciation.

When you do this for me, I shall in turn work magic and pray for you, so you shall receive body you are dreaming about.

Hope to here from you,

Jayamma Ọyáwálé

Please contact me at [email protected]"

That's a strange twist on the normal scam. Apparently my sister was lured in with some promise of the perfect body. She does have some insecurities of course but still.

There should be something included. I shook the envelope while holding it upside down and out fell a little scrap of paper with a seed from some plant taped on. It also had GPS coordinates written in it. The other side had a few little balls from a ball bearing taped on. The bearings were yellow in color. Holy heavy metal Batman!

It this is real, it might help our finances so we wouldn't lose the apartment. I checked the GPS coordinates on my smartphone. It was not far from here, only five miles. I quickly hid the letter and scraps of paper in my jacket and went back out.

"Mom, I'm going to go to the shop for a beer. I'll be back in an hour," I announced from the apartment door.

"Okay, bring some chocolate for me. I need it."

Dang, now I had to buy her chocolate. I hoped this thing earns me some money.