REM

Changing World

I can still remember a moment from when I was a little boy. The world hadn't changed drastically yet, our van slowly making its way through a forest. My mom knew something was happening – coming for us. She was trying to escape, but little did she know, we could never outrun the changes the world would go through.

An old man with a child on his back passed by us, the youngster smacking his hands on the window to get my attention. We were close in age, but we were headed in opposite directions. I watched as they continued by foot, the van bouncing and rolling over rough terrain as my mom headed to a place she considered untouchable.

Since that trip to the mountains, I have seen many things disappear from this world. Not just cool temperatures and parts of nature, but family and friends as well. My mother wasn't the first person I lost, but the only one I had left to lose. She got really sick out of the blue, spending most of her days in bed. I still don't know what caused the fever, and I doubt I ever will despite all my searching.

Forced to fend for myself in my late teens, I used all the knowledge my mother had passed down to me before she left the earth. I buried her body in the deepest grave I could dig, then planted a garden and set up hunting traps as well.

My life on the mountain was a life of solitude. People weren't meant to run away and live by themselves, hidden from everyone else. I soon ventured out in search of companionship, eventually finding a man, who had a family and a house. He shared it with his wife and two young children, as well as some other housemates. Today is actually my first time seeing it and being introduced to everyone.

Following him down the mountain, I left my old home where my mom thought she could protect me. She planned to raise me all by herself in nature with no disruptions, but the world changed too much for her to foresee her untimely death. One day I would return to the mountain home, but today I was attempting a merger. Today was a test to see if I could live with others again.

The house was three stories high in the middle of what looked to be a jungle. Vegetation had reclaimed most of the area, the house being the only structure left as far as the eye could see. We walked inside to get out of the intense humidity, but the inside temperature wasn't much different.

Holes had been cut and hammered in various sections of walls and floors, while pipes had been installed, or cut to funnel excess heat out through the roof. Since it wasn't raining at that very moment, the possibility of leaks didn't concern me much.

After brief introductions to the men upstairs, which were done through a hole in the floor where pipes ran vertically, we headed to a room where his wife and children were stationed. One child sat on the couch, a permanent smile on his chubby face. He had no hair, which I found to be a bit odd, but I didn't say anything.

Sitting down on the floor I concluded, "So this is the family."

"Yup," the man replied.

"We're happy to have you," his wife added with a smile, cradling her other child in her arms as she breastfed.

"Thank you," I nodded, "I really do appreciate it."

"You're welcome any time," she offered, looking down at her child.

He smiled at me as I began to peer around the room. I wondered how long it would last: the change of scenery, the lack of a first name. The men upstairs greeted me with'Hello', but I didn't get their names either. Maybe that's how things were now: names no longer valued.

Looking at the bald boy on the couch again, I wondered if he was smiling because he was given a sedative. I was living peacefully on the side of a mountain with not a single care in the world, yet rarely smiled as he did. Maybe the key to being happy in this new world was to be surrounded by people who cared for you, as well as having a comfy couch to sit on as you tried to stay cool.