Slushy Sanctuary
a short story
DEC 02, 2024
‘Welcome to Slushy Sanctuary. Our slushies will will save your soul. How may I help you?’ A slow paced man said to a longing girlish customer.
‘Do you really have to say that every time?’ A pigtailed face asked at the counter of the Slushy Sanctuary beverage factory. Located in a strip mall right next to the Real Caffe and Tsunami’s, virtually the same restaurant, copy paste. But the beverage factory, this place was different. It was something. Out here in the middle of nowhere, a ghost town. It was something.
‘Sure do ma’am, now what do I get for ya?’ A sure young man asked, blue of hair, speckled face, strange luminescent green eyes, a tidied red uniform.
‘A red one.’
He already knew. She always got a red one, she loved the blood. Fuckin vampire. He thought. All the flavors were the same, just different colors, the psychological affect of color was proven over and over. Not that many people came to the Sanctuary anyway, even though it was still just as real as anything else. Those that did were all regulars, hooked on some strange notion of reality, thinking their souls will be saved. And maybe, maybe they will be.
The Slushy Sanctuary was owned by real humans. As was the Real Caffe and Tsunami’s. The rest of the city was owned by robots, an artificial intelligence that was much less powerful than anything else, yet it all still had power over humanity. Because they were all lost to the test of fate, time, whatever else. No one cared to do the dirty work anymore anyway. It was a relief for many. Some left to their poverty stricken minds, refusing to find a way out. Some left to create authentic sculptures of the new normal, reviving the mementos of the past, executing themselves to sedentary and monotonous lifestyles.
‘That’ll be $22.47, cash or card?’ The blue haired boy asked.
‘Neither, I’ll pay with my chip.’
‘Ah, gotcha,’ He thought she was a robot too, all of them were. Wound up with chips for brains and a mediocre headset for eyes. ‘See ya next time,’ He said, nonchalant.
‘Yeah, sure, have a good one.’
‘You too kid, stay safe out there.’ He said, speaking like he was a cop or her father or something. Genuinely he did care, but he felt so distanced from it all. A special kind of human it takes to not be infiltrated by the modern technology, the connivence of it all.
What a strange and stubborn man. The girl thought.
Out in Georgetown rural midwestern America, these businesses were the last of their kind. They all felt a certain kind of pride living the way they do. Distanced from the rest of society. Everyone else was so interconnected by their chips for brains or their screens, computer phones and shit. All so hyperaware of everything and everyone.
‘They just don’t get it.’ Said the blue haired boy.
‘No. No they don’t.’ Said Tsu. It was late at night, after everything closed. The two of them often shared a cigarette or a few with a bottle of rum Tsu would buy from the Real Caffe.
‘They don’t get how great it could be, without all this modernized technology. They don’t get it. We’re all telepathic. In our true minds, if we weren’t so blocked up I could speak to them, just with my mind!’
‘I wonder if you know how crazy you sound sometimes, kiddo.’ Tsu was edging his fifties. Nobody knew how old he really was though. Tsu didn’t even know himself. He felt eternal sometimes.
‘Nah. I do for sure. I just wish it was different is all. We all have our own special thing anyway, not everyone is like me, I know it. I can see it. Smell it, whatever. I don’t wanna be seen as some freak for not having a fuckin chip in my head that tells me shit and whispers sweet nothings.’
Tsu laughed at the remark, then he realized the blue haired boy was serious, ‘Sorry kiddo, you gotta get with the changing times. Even I have one.’
‘Yeah I know,’ He cleared his through, ‘Anyway, I gotta get back. Mamma’s making pot pie tonight, the good kind, not the cheap shit. She got paid today so I’m stoked. See ya tomorrow, stay safe out there.’ And he was off on his bike.
‘See ya kiddo,’ Tsu said. He worried for the boy, knowing damn well he’d end up like him one day, sulking about society and the fucked up shit, knowing all he could do was accept it. Fighting it was too difficult. Especially when it’s a single person doing all the work. Not too many people would band with him anymore. It was just a matter of time until the kid would get one anyway.
—
‘Hey Ma! I’m home!’ The kid said, opening the front door to a white farmhouse.
‘In the kitchen sweetie!’ Tara said, the blue haired boy’s mother.
‘Smells great in here!’ He said, reaching for a biscuit.
‘Ah!’ Tara slapped his hand, ‘Go wash up, you reek of cigarettes and rum! You best be careful riding home drunk as you are!’
‘Yes Mamma.’
The blue haired boy ran up the stairs feeling the weight of his drunkenness stumbling about. He felt ashamed when his mother ridiculed him even though she was barely human, just like the rest of them.
Feeling the weight of the shower grace his skin he wondered if they could still feel this sensation, drunkenness, shower thoughts, a clear mind, the dancing of droplets across layers of skin. Quickly he snapped out of his trance, shut off the water, dried himself with a damp towel and ran down the stairs as he dressed himself. Food. He thought.
Tara watched her son’s gluttony as he inhaled mounds of her chicken pot pie. Something once beautiful always seems to turn beast in front of temptation and desire. Especially when one is cowered by the demons of alcohol and isolation. How can he stand to be so miserable. Tara thought.
‘Because I damn well want to be,’ The boy said, mouth full of food, dropping his fork and knife as he heard the thought, ‘You know we’re connected Mamma, whether you got that chip in your brain or not, I still fuckin hear you, and I ain’t no miserable fuck! You’ll see! They’ll all see!’
—
‘Welcome to Slushy Sanctuary. Our slushies will will save your soul. How may I help you?’ The blue haired boy said to the girlish customer, knowing she’d choose red.
‘I know I want red, but I’ll take a blue slushy too, I got a friend I’m going to visit, hopefully it won’t melt, it’s awfully warm outside today, a slushy would do him some good, you see he just broke his arm doing something he shouldn’t have and I, well I like him and I want him to be better, and all that so,’
‘That’ll be $44.94, cash or card?’
‘Well then, fine. Fuck you too.’ The girl paid for her drinks and stormed off.
Honestly, the boy thought the only reason she bought this shit was because she was into him or something. Now he didn’t give a damn about trying to make small talk and make nice.
—
Later that evening he confined in his troubles to Tsu, ‘I just don’t get it! I mean, why the hell would she put that slushy shit in her body! It’s made of fucking cow liver and pig eyes and guts from only God knows what! The shit they used to make hot dogs with, you know, that’s what’s in the syrup, well that and chemical dyes and an unholy amount of sugar! I ain’t supposed to be blabbering about this to you Tsu, but God! I just can’t stand it anymore, I don’t know what to do!’
‘Well son, I already knew what was in yo shit. And frankly, I don’t care for it either, but that does’t mean you have to blame the poor girl for being addicted to something your troubled ancestors made. The least you could do is shut it down, but you wanna be authentic right?’ Tsu scoffed at him for being foolish, he was still just a child, he didn’t know nothing about the evil in the world.
‘I’m moving outta my mom’s house. I got enough money to buy my own and I ain’t got no reason to stay there no more.’
‘Shit! Where’d you get money from son?’ Tsu said. He was curious, thinking he might have killed his Mamma for that kind of money.
‘I’ve been saving, you don’t know how old I am either Tsu, and besides, daddy left us an inheritance and I’ve been keeping my eye on it ever since, Mamma don’t pay no attention to it, so I’m gonna get my chip and run. Probably to New York or something, buy something fancy and shit. That’ll be worth it, that’ll make it all worth it.’ The boy said.
‘You’re serious, aren’t you.’
‘Serious as shit.’
‘I thought you’d never get a chip,’ Tsu said, feeling kind of guilty, like he had failed his son or something.
‘Yeah well, gotta change with the times right!’ The boy said, slapping Tsu’s shoulder, ‘Besides, I’m not afraid of it anymore, and either way, I can’t buy a house without one, at least I’ll finally get a name and my age.’
‘You got an idea of what they’ll tell you?’
‘Nah, I guess I got at least ten more years to live yeah? At least ten good ones, I don’t care much about being old, I’ll probably just kill myself before I get there, don’t want them to turn me into a recycled junkie. I wanna be free, in the dirt, like a real human, you know?’
‘you wouldn’t be too real if you had one though kiddo, it does something to your blood, makes it all synthesized.’
‘Yeah well, at least I won’t be a freak.’
—
‘I made the appointment, Mamma. They’re gonna chip me tomorrow.’
‘That’s wonderful sweetie, how do you feel about it?’ Tara asked, feeling anxious for her virgin son.
‘I feel okay, I’m just excited for what comes afterwards.’
‘Oh yeah? What’s that?’ Tara asked.
‘Well for starters I’m gonna quit my job at the beverage factory. Gotta say my farewells to Tsu, I know I’ll miss him, and you of course. Then I’m off to my adventure.’
‘That sounds great kiddo. Now eat up before you can’t no more.’
—
At the office, a doctor and a few ladies surrounded the blue haired boy as they drugged him and put him under anesthesia. They waited until he was out and then wheeled him into operations for implantation. A rod through one ear, the middle section of the brain and touching the other side. A complete surgery. The boy wouldn’t wake for three days, an entire bodily upload.
—
‘Good morning Peter, how are you today?’ A kind nurse asked.
‘I- I am well, I suppose. What happened to me? I feel different?’
‘Well that’s because you are, take a look,’ she showed him a mirror.
Peter looked entirely different except for the color of his blue hair. He was terrified of himself.
‘You have about seven hundred and ninety-two days left to live. Are you ready?’
And with that, the boy who was now named Peter, jumped from his hospital bed, shoving the nurse out of the way and ran down the hall. Looking for any sign of exit, the boy sought to jump, from any window, any floor. He hated himself, he wanted to take it all back. He wasn’t ready.
Finally, he found his breath of fresh air, at the top of the stairs, the rooftop of the hospital.
Tsu was waiting for him there, ‘What are you waiting for. Jump.’
And so he did.
—
A headliner for Daily News read: Peter Lancaster found dead at the New York City Hospital for injured experiments for the New Wave Brain Society. Patient committed suicide after waking from an induced coma. Psychotic break.
