[FICTION CONTEST] Christmas Day in 2050 - My Entry

Well it's going to be a busy day for me with all the cooking. I'll have plenty of help thankfully. The ladies who help out around the house don't trust me alone in the kitchen after I nearly burned the place down with a grease fire. They're right to think my mind isn't as sharp as it used to be but the supplements our new special friends gave me are helping to reverse my dementia. A few months ago I wasn't even aware of how much my neural pathways had degraded.

They have wanted to help out with their longevity tech for a long time but as they explained to me the first day I got to board their ship the problem isn't prolonging life as much as maintaining your mental health as the life experiences accumulate. The human brain is only capable of holding a limited amount of memories and so longevity ironically creates a whole new range of issues. A proper longevity solution must take that into account. They explained this was why many of the self proclaimed elites that led us to the great war were crazy as shit house rats. They had hoarded the tech to themselves but didn't know it was driving them to madness. Reminds me of how old Emperor Qin Shi Huang was given mercury poisoning by his healers under the guise of a longevity potion. I guess he's with our more recent despots in hell right about now arguing over "What Happened?"

The group from Epsilon Bootis promised they would be back for Christmas the last time they were here back in July. They are absolutely fascinated with the idea of the holiday and have asked me to explain more about our traditions to them when they return. They're a jolly lot really and I think they're going to love all the good food and of course the egg nog. We've already cut a bunch of bananas to give them as their Christmas present. It may not seem like much of a present but there's nothing they would rather have. I still chuckle when I recall the story they told me of how they gave humanity bananas thousands of years ago because they knew we would cultivate them. That was and still is how they do farming. Pretty clever really. They have always given us useful things in return and both sides are more than happy with the arrangement. I also came to realize how precious our planet is when they told me how rare it is to have an ecosystem where bananas can grow.

I cherish my friendship with them so much. Most of humanity still don't know the full story because they never did make a grand announcement of their arrival. Arrival isn't really the best way to put it since they have been coming and going for a very long time. It's more of a soft landing really as they have decided that the best way to re-establish the long lost ties with us is a slow gradual approach. It's a generational thing really. I'm one of the few old timers left that grew up under the old order. We were taught to be skeptical of anything outside of our control structures and to fear them as a hostile invasion. It wasn't until after the great collapse that the conditions emerged for them to feel welcome.

It was only 8 years ago that I had my first encounter. I still recall it now and how it was such an exciting time. I was having a coffee in the late afternoon with my wife on the veranda and we saw their light ship coming in low and slow from out over the Pacific. I had a pretty good idea of what I was looking at but I was afraid my wife would panic. I'm still proud of her for not being afraid. Instead of panic she was smiling ear to ear and so I raised my cup of coffee in the air and yelled (half joking) "Come on by for a cup! no need to rush off!" I had seen their ships before but never so close. It was like a bright white star that just floated in silence. So beautiful to me but I can understand how lots of folks would be terrified. Imagine my surprise when they descended a little further up the mountain. We sort of held our breath for a little while wondering what would happen next and here they came, walking down the foot path from the direction of the banana grove. Aside from being really tall and their perfect good looks you would have a hard time distinguishing them from human. And it turns out they are nearly identical to us in their values, dreams and hopes.

Since then I have built a nice landing pad for them and today we're decorating it with wreaths, lights and a nice row of stockings tacked to the wall near the kitchen. I want to give them that old Currier and Ives feeling that we call the Christmas spirit.

I would love it if more people knew about them but I understand it's a process that requires patience. They explained to me a while back how they look at it. They said it's like being at the zoo near the lion exhibit. The zoo keeper might have a rifle and tranquilizer darts but it could still be fatal to fall into the enclosure unprepared. It was this sort of scenario they wanted to avoid. Even though we were nowhere near them on a technical level we could still pose a threat and indeed we used to be quite savage in that regard. Only after the collapse of the old order has humanity become receptive to what they have to offer. It's not unlike a forest fire that destroys everything in it's wake but creates the environment for new growth to emerge. Kids today will accept them into their paradigm as readily as seeing a new species of bird for the first time.

I'm going to go pester the girls in the kitchen for a bit while I grab another beer. The smell of fresh bread and pumpkin pie wafting by is reminding me of those far distant days of my youth. What an amazing life I've had. I am so thankful to have such special friends and that I won't have to die with blinders on. A merry Christmas indeed.

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image provided by pixabay user: geralt