Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER
‘To whom it may concern’ was written on the folded piece of paper in the mailbox. The lined paper had been roughly torn from a notebook and folded twice. What added a level of menace, but also the compulsion to open the folded piece of paper was firstly, the use of thick red pen strokes and the capitals, but more importantly, the rarity of a written note in these days of electronic communication. It must be from a stranger, he thought, and most likely a local stranger at that.
His heart skipped a tiny beat at that point, as the thought of an opportunity to connect with a stranger, or in fact any totally new living person, was not something that ever seemed to happen to him, or anyone he presumed, anymore. He had been mainly housebound these past few years. He could survive on the produce from his own garden and the air-borne drops from the suppliers, when he needed anything different. There seemed no point in heading outside to be ignored or even worse, stared at.
His wife had died 9 years ago now and all of his life-long friends were long gone. Unfortunately, it was one of many disadvantages of the life-extending cryogenic drugs. He still remembered when he was a boy and the excitement and hope that everyone had felt when this scientific breakthrough became mainstream and rolled out to the masses. Now everyone could join the rich and famous in their extended time on this planet and for his first hundred and twenty years of life, he was content. The drugs did work for most people, to some extent, but the differences in successful outcomes had the potential to put you out of kilter with not only your own generation, but the succeeding generation too. It had become so hard to lose everyone he had been close to, including his children and grandchildren, one by one. He was bitterly lonely.
Another disadvantage was the cultural change to society induced by this science. He had lost three grandchildren to the now viral fascination of extreme sports and pastimes. The young lived to push the boundaries of existence. The ability to extend life and delay ageing in most respects, appeared to have had the unintended effect of shortening average life expectancy, as ironically the value of a long life was now diminished.
He tentatively unfolded the note.